How to recreate all your takeaway at home

‘Queen of Fakeaway’ food blogger reveals how to recreate all your fast food favourites at home from McMuffins to KFC chicken – and they contain HALF the calories

Latoyah Egerton, 31, from Exeter, started recreating recipes at home 5 years ago
She now makes homemade KFC, Nandos, Five Guys as well as curry and Chinese
Home cook claims her recipes are much lower in calories and will save money
Shares recipes for her fakeaways on her blog Sugar Pink Food

A blogger who claims she is the ‘Queen of fakeaway cuisine’ has become a social media sensation during lockdown after recreating fast-food favourites, with half the calories.

Latoyah Egerton, 31, from Exeter, started creating her easy to follow recipes for delicious alternatives to everything from McDonald’s McMuffins to KFC chicken and Nando’s spicy rice five years ago on her blog Sugar Pink Food.

And now she can happily whisk up everything from her own version of a Five Guys cheeseburger to a spicy Indian curry, for half the price of the real thing.

‘Fakeaways are basically homemade takeaways,’ Latoyah, who is in a long-term relationship with her boyfriend James, 31, said.

‘And if you cook them right, they can taste equally as delicious. But, with half the calories and costing half the price, they’re a win-win.

Here, FEMAIL shares her top recipes to make takeaway at home…

LATOYAH’S FIVE GUYS RECIPE

CALORIES IN LATOYAH’S VERSION: 588

CALORIES IN REAL THING: 920

For the burger

450g extra lean (less than 5% fat) beef mince
1 small onion finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tsp fat free natural yogurt
Salt & pepper to taste

Toppings

4 Bacon Medallions, cubed
4 American Cheese Slices
Handful of mushrooms, finely chopped
Handful of onions, finely chopped
Iceburge lettuce, cut into small strips
1 Beef tomato, slices
White burger buns
1 pickled gherkin, sliced
ketchup
mustard
mayo

Latoyah Egerton, 31, from Exeter, started creating her easy to follow recipes for delicious alternatives five years ago. Pictured is her take on the Five Guys burger

Method

LATOYAH’S KFC FEAST RECIPE

CALORIES IN LATOYAH’S VERSION: 461

CALORIES IN REAL THING: 760

You will need

2 large chicken breasts (or cuts of chicken of your choice)
4 slices of 400g wholemeal bread
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 eggs

Latoya’s take on KFC – including baked beans, gravy and coleslaw – was popular with her followers

For Latoyah presentation is nearly as important as flavour. Pictured is her take on KFC

Method

CALORIES IN LATOYAH’S VERSION: 241

CALORIES IN REAL THING: 557

For the marinade

2 shallots, finely diced
3 garlic cloves
1/4 red bell pepper, insides removed
juice of 1 lemon
Salt and black pepper
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs lemon zest
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp sweetener
3 sprays of low calorie spray

She can happily whisk up everything from her own version of a Nando’s platter (pictured)

Also

4 chicken breasts, all skin removed
1 Yellow pepper, finely diced
1 onion finely diced

Method

LATOYAH’S DOUBLE SAUSAGE & EGG MCMUFFIN

CALORIES IN LATOYAH’S VERISON: 261

CALORIES IN REAL THING: 565

You will need

6 Iceland SW Syn Free Sausages (or other low syn sausage of your choice)
2 English Muffins
80g Extra Light Cheese, sliced, 40g per person
2 eggs
Low calorie spray

While she enjoyed cooking, Latoyah was also partial to the occasional takeaway, though, and did not always maintain the healthiest eating habits. But now she makes her own, pictured is her take on a McDonald’s breakfast

Method

LATOYAH’S PRAWN MASALA CURRY RECIPE

CALORIES IN LATOYA’S VERSION: 181

CALORIES IN AVERAGE PRAWN MASALA (TAKEAWAY): 294

You will need

150g raw king prawns
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 clove garlic
2.5cm piece root ginger, grated1st dried coriander
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 dried chilli, or a pinch of flakes (adjust the spice to taste)
3 tbsp curry powder1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp turmeric
Fresh coriander to serve
Cooked rice to serve

In just under two years, Latoyah shed five stone – shrinking to a size 14 – and credits her healthy fakeaway recipes for her success. Pictured is her take of a prawn curry

Method

LATOYAH’S CHINESE FAKEAWAY PLATTER RECIPE

CALORIES IN LATOYAH’S VERSION: 237

CALORIES IN REAL THING: APPROX 951

You will need:

500g diced chicken breasts
200g long-grain rice (uncooked weight), cooked and left to go cold
200g peas
handful of mushrooms finely sliced
1/2 onion finely diced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
A pinch of salt
Low calorie cooking spray
1 egg

Latoyah started experimenting in the kitchen when she left home, aged 18. Pictured is her take on a Chinese takeaway

Method

Chow Mein Noodles Recipe

4 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
200g dried medium or thin egg noodles
Low calorie cooking spray
Mixed stir fry veg

Method

Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Makes 4 portions

You will need:

Low calorie cooking spray
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper cut into strips
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
¼ tsp Chinese 5 spice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 level teaspoon cornflour
4 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tbsp light soy sauce
150ml chicken stock
Few chunks of tinned pineapple

Method

Chinese Curry Sauce Recipe

4 servings

You will need:

2 tbsp Spicentice Chinese Chicken Curry Mix
Order your Spicentice kit using code SPF20 to get 20% off!
If you don’t have the kit, mix up a teaspoon of each of the following: Coriander, Cumin, Onion, Sea Salt, Chilli, Garlic, Ginger, Paprika, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Star Anise.
100ml Chicken Stock
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 teaspoon sweetener

Method

Chicken Balls

You will need

2 large chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
4 slices of 400g wholemeal bread
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
small pinch Chinese five spice

Method

HOW LATOYAH BECAME A SOCIAL MEDIA SENSATION WITH HER LOW-CALORIE, SLIMMING FRIENDLY MEALS

Latoya started making takeaways when she began a weight loss diet which saw her shrink from a size 22 to a 14 in two years

‘My favourite takeaway was a Chinese. I’d have the works – but I must have been eating more than 1,500 calories worth of food.

‘Now I can make my own version containing 500 calories but tasting just as good.’

Sharing the recipes, devised from scratch, on social media, she now has almost 100,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, combined.

Also keeping a blog, Sugar Pink Food, Latoyah encourages people to be creative in the kitchen – especially while the country remains in lockdown, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She explained: ‘Lockdown is the perfect time to get the creative juices flowing. Most people have more free time to give a new recipe a go.

‘Plus, if you do get it wrong, most of the big chains – like Nando’s and McDonald’s – are still shut, so you can’t just give up and order a takeaway, you have to master your skills.’

But Latoyah is not content for her food to merely taste like the real thing – she recreates the whole takeaway experience.

‘I used to love ordering a takeaway on a Friday night, so I still make my fakeaways as a Friday night treat,’ she said.

‘To make it feel authentic, though, I have a selection of plastic boxes and takeaway bags that I like to package the food in first, so it feels really real.

Latoya loves home cooking and also make healthy dishes like jerk chicken (pictured)

‘They also come in handy, because if I make an extra-large portion, I can keep the fakeaway in the tubs and have some as a Saturday night treat, too.’

Latoyah started experimenting in the kitchen when she left home, aged 18, adding: ‘Moving out meant I suddenly had to start cooking for myself.

‘At first, I wasn’t overly adventurous. I’d cook your classic, easy to make dishes like pasta, but after a while I became a little more experimental with my food.

‘The first kind of “out there” thing I tried was a vodka pasta sauce. I cut up loads of tomatoes, boiled them and then mixed in some vodka.

‘It actually tasted really nice, as the vodka wasn’t too overpowering, but it gave the sauce a good kick.’

While she enjoyed cooking, Latoyah was also partial to the occasional takeaway, though, and did not always maintain the healthiest eating habits.

She said: ‘Living in Exeter meant I had all these different takeaway options on my doorstep. Chinese and Indian were my favourite – so I’d often treat myself.

Latoya also makes Mexican dishes like fajitas at home – using lower calorie ingridients

‘I was also quite a bad stress eater. I loved white bread and toast was my guilty pleasure.’

But five years ago, unhappy with her size 22 figure, Latoyah resolved to ditch the takeaways, instead, recreating her favourite dishes using healthier and less calorific ingredients.

‘I wasn’t happy with myself and I knew the takeaways weren’t helping,’ she said.

‘I’d always enjoyed watching celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, who made healthy food look so tasty.

‘So, I thought, ‘Why not recreate my favourite takeaways, but healthy versions?’ And that’s exactly what I did.’

In just under two years, Latoyah shed five stone – shrinking to a size 14 – and credits her healthy fakeaway recipes for her success.

Hailing Chinese as her favourite fast food, it was the first takeaway she tried to copy.

‘When I used to order Chinese I’d go all out – getting egg fried rice, chicken balls, chicken chow mein and sweet and sour sauce,’ she said.

‘When I tried to recreate it, I started with the chicken balls – trying to get the same flavour, without having to deep fry them.

‘I rolled skinless chicken breast in breadcrumbs, added a Chinese spice and then baked them.

‘They were amazing and, honestly, I couldn’t taste the difference.’

Spurred on by her success, after that Latoyah attempted to create a different fakeaway recipe most weeks.

Latoya uses low calorie sprays and lots of spices to make flavoursome meals like this chicken, pictured

‘One of my favourite takeaways to make is a McDonald’s sausage and egg McMuffin,’ she said. ‘It’s really easy. All you need to do, is use lower fat sausage meat and a wholemeal bun.

‘I also like making my version of an Indian takeaway – but it can take a lot of prep time – especially for a chicken tikka masala.

‘I usually marinate skinless chicken breast in yogurt for about 12 hours, then I make the sauce with lots of herbs and spices, but I swap full-fat cream for fat free yogurt.

‘The sauce is still thick, and it tastes delicious.’

Meanwhile, Latoyah enjoys the challenge that comes with cooking her own Nando’s.

‘I cook Nando’s- style chicken using a slow cooker, adding lots of spices and chillies blended in,’ she said.

‘There are also so many side dishes with Nando’s, which can be a challenge – but I’ve taught myself how to make the same style of spicy rice, halloumi and coleslaw.’

Latoyah also believes she has perfected her version of a KFC Double Downer Burger – made from two chicken breasts, with a large dollop of cheese and bacon in the middle.

‘It’s simple really,’ she said. ‘All I do is bread the chicken breast with my KFC seasoning and then use lower fat bacon and cheese.

‘I’d go as far as to say it’s actually tastier than the real thing, because it’s not quite so greasy.’

And for Latoyah presentation is nearly as important as flavour.

She said: ‘I love a Five Guys burger. One of the best things about them is the way they are delivered, wrapped up in foil,’ she said. ‘So, whenever I make one, I wrap it in foil myself and leave it to sit for a little

bit so it cools down, in the same way it would if it was delivered – then I eat it. It’s always delicious.’

Latoyah’s creations are so realistic that she even managed to dupe a group of her friends into believing that the Indian meal she served up had come from the local takeaway.

‘A few of my friends came round for dinner once and I had a curry ready to go, already served up in takeaway boxes,’ she explained. ‘I brought it in, and my friends were saying, ‘When did the curry arrive?’

They had no idea it wasn’t a takeaway.

‘About half an hour after they started tucking in, I told them I’d cooked it and they couldn’t believe it.

‘Their only complaint was that I hadn’t made any garlic naan to go with it – but besides that they were pretty impressed.’

Now, every time Latoyah makes a fakeaway, she shares the results on her blog and her social media pages – encouraging people to ditch takeaways in favour of home-cooked versions.

‘At first my blog was just a way for me to record all the recipes I’d tried,’ she said. ‘But, after a while, I saw other people had started following my recipes.

‘So, I decided I’d post everything I made to try and encourage people to be more adventurous with their cooking.

‘I’m not a professional chef, but I want to help others – and it’s important to debunk the myth that in order to eat healthily you need to have only boring salads.

‘That’s simply not the case. You can still eat delicious food that tastes exactly like a takeaway, but just doesn’t have the same amount of calories.’

Now Latoyah has high hopes for the future, when she aspires to share her fakeaway recipes with an even bigger audience.

‘I want to continue to share my fakeaway recipes online but, one day, I would love to have my own cookery show on TV,’ she said.

‘It’s important to me that I show people how making your own fakeaways can actually be better than the real thing.

‘You can cook them to taste exactly right for you, which you would never get with a real takeaway.

‘Plus, it’s so rewarding to cook something tasty yourself from scratch – and that’s without considering the money and calories you will save.’

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