"Get used to eating your meals cold" they all said when I was pregnant. But after Antonio was born I wondered, what meals? Who has time to make food for themselves? I was doing well to grab an apple most days. But of course we must eat properly, because mum's health is baby's health, and mum's food becomes baby's food. Not only that, but a well nourished mamma makes more milk, copes better with the inevitable sleep deprivation, feels less overwhelmed and more in control of herself. This was not me in the early baby days! So I have spent much time devising a system to ensure I have quick, easy health food on hand. In the process I've learned that being healthy has much in common with being a mum. Both require prioritisation, mindfulness, fore planning, flexibility and a lot of self love.
My answer to the issue has been to prepare large batches of snacks in advance, snacks which are very nutrient dense; high in fats, protein, vitamins and minerals. Here are my favourite superfood snacks.
Dip - not the supermarket sludge, but home-whizzed super dip! You can use avocado or home made cream cheese extracted from yoghurt. To this I add a huge handfull of fresh herbs, anything you like, they're all packed with their own respective goodies, half a clove of garlic, pine nuts and some sprouts. You can add any other flavours you like after that. I like a bit of home made roasted capsicum and some olive oil. You could put in some olives, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, roasted pumpkin...go crazy! And don't forget a good pinch of ground sea or rock salt.
Veggie sticks - with which to eat your dip. Chop them the night before and stick them in an airtight in the fridge. You can also use them for a quick half an avo.
Bliss balls - these sweet treat superfoods really fill you up! You can pack them full of awesomeness. Coconut oil, nut butters, activated nuts, tahini, raw honey, spices like cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, raw carob or cacao, orange zest, ginger root... Just blitz it all up in the processor. Dates make a great base but you can use any preservative free dried fruit. Mmmm....
Smoothies - they take a few seconds to whizz up and you can use them to really improve your health. You can use nut milks, raw milk, bananas, apricots, egg yolks, coconut oil, flax oil, fresh or frozen berries, yoghurt or kefir. You can also do green smoothies, with a fruit base and some green veg, for the most awesome energy kick you'll ever get in a glass.
Banana - for times that you're out of the house and need to pick up a power snack, have bananas. Yes, plural. You won't get the richness of good fats, but 'nanas are power packs of energy and electrolytes, while being low in fructose. And very filling! Also, bub can share it with you, and it's amazing how sweet their disposition becomes when they've had a healthy snack!
Chicken soup - this isn't a trick I do myself, but a girlfriend swears by a thermos flask full of chicken broth! She sips it whenever she feels her blood sugars slipping. See the post 'eating warm' for the recipe.
For me, the lack of time to do anything for myself puts a downer on my mummyhood. I found that keeping my tummy full of healthy food makes all the difference. So if you are feeling deprived as a Mamma, I highly recommend you try these ideas. A quick and easy superfood snack can transform your life! They'll keep you full and happy, and it's so very true that a contented Mamma means a contented baby. And its so empowering to know you can turn your own mood around so easily!
Happy power snacking!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
The predigestive power of raw honey
Good health is all about good digestion. In India there's a saying, "with strong digestion, one can withstand poison. With poor digestion, even nectar is poison". This is so very true and wise, and something every naturopath must remember when we treat. To heal the body, restore digestion.
There are loads of ways to improve your digestive strength, there's lemon juice, cider vinegar, probiotics, bitter herbs, raw foods, lacto-fermentation... The list goes on! But while reading my copy of 'Nourishing Traditions' today, I found a great little nugget of info I want to share. Raw honey. A favourite sweetener of mine for baking. But what I hadn't realised is that it's so high in amylase, the digestive enzyme for carbohydrate, that it will begin the digestive process in just 15 minutes of contact!! So this means if you spread raw honey on bread and leave it on the bench while you shower, the honey will begin to break down the carbohydrate in the grains, doing some of the digestive work for you.
You can also use raw honey when you pre-soak your organic rolled oats for breakfast. You can use it in biscuits or cake batter, and let it stand before baking. Whenever or however you use it, remember the 15 minute rule.
For those who haven't used raw honey before, don't go looking for it in the supermarket, it's in the health shop. Unfortunately the stuff in the supermarket is processed, not raw. Processing the honey at high temperature kills the enzymes and also the vitamins present in the raw honey. This renders the processed product plain old sugar. No natural buffers. To quote Marco Pierre White on masterchef this week, "The more you do to food, the more you take away from it".
There are loads of ways to improve your digestive strength, there's lemon juice, cider vinegar, probiotics, bitter herbs, raw foods, lacto-fermentation... The list goes on! But while reading my copy of 'Nourishing Traditions' today, I found a great little nugget of info I want to share. Raw honey. A favourite sweetener of mine for baking. But what I hadn't realised is that it's so high in amylase, the digestive enzyme for carbohydrate, that it will begin the digestive process in just 15 minutes of contact!! So this means if you spread raw honey on bread and leave it on the bench while you shower, the honey will begin to break down the carbohydrate in the grains, doing some of the digestive work for you.
You can also use raw honey when you pre-soak your organic rolled oats for breakfast. You can use it in biscuits or cake batter, and let it stand before baking. Whenever or however you use it, remember the 15 minute rule.
For those who haven't used raw honey before, don't go looking for it in the supermarket, it's in the health shop. Unfortunately the stuff in the supermarket is processed, not raw. Processing the honey at high temperature kills the enzymes and also the vitamins present in the raw honey. This renders the processed product plain old sugar. No natural buffers. To quote Marco Pierre White on masterchef this week, "The more you do to food, the more you take away from it".
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Banana and honey moaves (muffin-loaves)
You know a cake recipe is a winner when Antonio is happy to eat it for breaky and I am happy to feed it to him! This recipe is a modified version of one I found on taste.com. I increased the honey, eliminated the granulated sugar, played around with the flours and baked it in mini loaf tins. I did this yesterday afternoon. They're all gone!
Ingredients
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 cup organic spelt flour
1 cup hazelnut meal
1 cup gluten free self raising flour
1/2 cup runny yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp clove powder
A note on the flours; you'll notice this isn't gluten free but it can easily be made gluten free. Just use another cup of self raising (I always use white wings). I think I can make it gaps friendly too. My plan is to use more hazelnut meal and a little coconut flour. And of course use more yoghurt instead of milk.
Method
Pre heat oven to 180
Melt butter and honey in a small saucepan on a low heat.
In a processor, blitz bananas, eggs, yoghurt and milk.
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, hazelnut meal, spices, bicarbonate and baking powder.
Combine wet and dry ingredients, spoon into little loaf tins or muffin tray and bake for about 25 mins
I'm yet to experiment with it, but a great icing for these would be made of cream cheese blended with honey, then some whipped cream folded through.
There's something wonderfully satisfying about baking something that tastes this good and yet contains no refined sugar. I love baking and I have a rampant sweet tooth! So to be able to continue to pursue my hobby and satisfy my sweet cravings without compromising my health is such a relief! I'm also really concious that kids birthday party fare is traditionally sugar laden. Now I'm sure I'll be able to bake great tasting food for Antonio's parties that I'm happy for him to eat. And that's a relief too!
Friday, June 8, 2012
which oil should I use? The healthy use of fats in food preparation
I love watching cooking shows on TV. I'm a fiend for food porn! I love watching the culinary artistry, being inspired by the food. I find it relaxing, and satisfying, in a bizzare way!
But there's one thing that annoys me, and it's not George's many and varied cliches on Masterchef! When a TV chef offers advice on cooking fats, my blood boils.
Some chefs happen also to be knowledgable in nutrition, like Dominique Rizzo, and I think she's fabulous. She offers great advice when she cooks on TV. During a recent Masterclass, however, in a segment on which oils to cook with, some advice was given which I strongly disagreed with, and which I'd like to take the time to correct.
The presenters essentially offered a few types of oils to use. They offered "good" olive oil, "ordinary" olive oil, grapeseed oil and sesame oil. There are so many more options than this!!
Olive oil:
To my mind there is only one kind, the "good" stuff. Extra virgin, cold pressed and organic. But I wouldn't put it in a hot pan, it would quickly become a bad fat and damaging to health. I drizzle it on a plate after serving food, or use it in salads.
Grapeseed:
The brand shown on the show was in a clear glass bottle. Any oil in clear glass or clear plastic is HYDROGENATED. This is an industrially processed oil, one step before margerine, which has been superheated and mixed with petrochemicals to give shelf life. All the beneficial properties that oil had have been destroyed and replaced by health wrecking properties. Pretend these don't exist.
Sesame oil:
This is a great oil for flash frying or stir frying, as are peanut, virgin coconut and virgin palm oils.
The fats I use most in the kitchen are butter, ghee and coconut oil. These are high in saturated fats and therefore have the advantage of being stable to temperature. This means that when you stick them in a hot pan they don't become poison. Bonus! I use ghee for Indian style cooking (obviously), coconut for Thai and Malay style food, and butter for European food. When I'm making Italian food I just drizzle olive oil over the plate after I've served it, as Matt Moran described, to give the flavor and the full benefits of the oil. Easy.
Using fats correctly, and libberally, is integral to good health. A high fat diet is a good diet, another fact TV chefs seem ignorant to. Fats are a food group essential to vitality. If we minimise fats such as nuts, avocado, egg yolks, fish, meats, butter and oils, we will have imbalanced hormones, blood sugar imbalance leading to weight gain, poor concentration, skin problems and even cholesterol problems.
I'm often asked about the cholesterol paradox. It's simple; it's just biochemically impossible for a high fat diet to cause high cholesterol. I'm not talking about damaged fats, by all means avoid those! The overwhelming evidence today shows that a diet high in refined foods is the culprit for all chronic illness, including cholesterol.
So if this information is news to you, restock your pantry with the good oils, ignore the bad and live healthily ever after! And never take nutrition advice from people without formal training!
But there's one thing that annoys me, and it's not George's many and varied cliches on Masterchef! When a TV chef offers advice on cooking fats, my blood boils.
Some chefs happen also to be knowledgable in nutrition, like Dominique Rizzo, and I think she's fabulous. She offers great advice when she cooks on TV. During a recent Masterclass, however, in a segment on which oils to cook with, some advice was given which I strongly disagreed with, and which I'd like to take the time to correct.
The presenters essentially offered a few types of oils to use. They offered "good" olive oil, "ordinary" olive oil, grapeseed oil and sesame oil. There are so many more options than this!!
Olive oil:
To my mind there is only one kind, the "good" stuff. Extra virgin, cold pressed and organic. But I wouldn't put it in a hot pan, it would quickly become a bad fat and damaging to health. I drizzle it on a plate after serving food, or use it in salads.
Grapeseed:
The brand shown on the show was in a clear glass bottle. Any oil in clear glass or clear plastic is HYDROGENATED. This is an industrially processed oil, one step before margerine, which has been superheated and mixed with petrochemicals to give shelf life. All the beneficial properties that oil had have been destroyed and replaced by health wrecking properties. Pretend these don't exist.
Sesame oil:
This is a great oil for flash frying or stir frying, as are peanut, virgin coconut and virgin palm oils.
The fats I use most in the kitchen are butter, ghee and coconut oil. These are high in saturated fats and therefore have the advantage of being stable to temperature. This means that when you stick them in a hot pan they don't become poison. Bonus! I use ghee for Indian style cooking (obviously), coconut for Thai and Malay style food, and butter for European food. When I'm making Italian food I just drizzle olive oil over the plate after I've served it, as Matt Moran described, to give the flavor and the full benefits of the oil. Easy.
Using fats correctly, and libberally, is integral to good health. A high fat diet is a good diet, another fact TV chefs seem ignorant to. Fats are a food group essential to vitality. If we minimise fats such as nuts, avocado, egg yolks, fish, meats, butter and oils, we will have imbalanced hormones, blood sugar imbalance leading to weight gain, poor concentration, skin problems and even cholesterol problems.
I'm often asked about the cholesterol paradox. It's simple; it's just biochemically impossible for a high fat diet to cause high cholesterol. I'm not talking about damaged fats, by all means avoid those! The overwhelming evidence today shows that a diet high in refined foods is the culprit for all chronic illness, including cholesterol.
So if this information is news to you, restock your pantry with the good oils, ignore the bad and live healthily ever after! And never take nutrition advice from people without formal training!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Crunchy Nuts! How to make your own yummy nut milk and activated nut meal
I've been experimenting of late with nut milk. You may have seen nut milk in the supermarket, it comes in a tetra pack (ikch) and hangs out with the other milk substitues. But did you know you can make your own? Making your own comes with all the usual advantages of home made over prepackaged. The tetra pack is the obvious difference, this is something to avoid at all costs. Environmental plastics are bad enough without unwittingly imbibing them too. Home made nut milk is really high in vitamins, and also contains no hydrogenated (or any other) oils which might be added to a packaged version to give shelf life. In short, it's a whole food.
I was surprised by how quick it was to make too. The only special equipment required is a piece of muslin, so I cut up one I'd used to swaddle Antonio when he was a newborn. (I promise it was washed in the interim.) All I do is put about a cup of almonds or hazelnuts into a stainless steel milkshake cup and cover them with water. I do this in the evening, leave them overnight, then drain them, add more water, blitz with a stick blender and strain through the muslin. Done! I have used this milk in Antonio's smoothies, which he loves, but the mornings are chilly as winter approaches, so smoothies containing frozen blueberries aren't quite so appropriate for him. I will use the nut milk to make porridge for him, but the last couple of mornings I've added 2 egg yolks and half a banana to a cup of nut milk, whizzed it with the stick blender and cooked this over low heat, stirring with a whisk. Then I added a teaspoon of raw honey and about a tablespoon of flaked quinoa. This makes a delicious kind of custard porridge, which Bubby gobbles!
My personal favourite use for nut milk is hazelnut hot chocolate! When added to a cup of cocoa, hazelnut milk makes you wonder why you'd bother with disgustingly sweet, artificially flavoured syrup. Chocolate and hazelnuts really are a match made in heaven!
The secret of great nut milk is not to use too much water. The less water you use, the creamier the milk will be. You only need enough to be able to easily blend it. I find this is about 1:1.5, but I don't really measure. The wog in me likes to measure by eye!
The leftover nut meal is wonderfully nutritious too, high in bioavailable protein, vitamins, minerals...mmmm. What you do with this gorgeous stuff is spread it out on a biscuit tray and pop it into the oven at 50 degrees, leaving the door slightly open. When the meal is dry, let it cool and store it in an airtight container. I stick mine in the fridge, to err on the side of caution, but I've read there's no need to refrigerate. I use it in baking, just like pre-milled almond or hazelnut meal, only it's much more nutritious, and the protien is more easily absorbed. I'm currently working on a recipe for home made crunchy 'activated' nut cereal! And also activated nut protein bars, both of which I'll post as soon as I'm happy with them.
If you have any more great nut milk or nut meal recipes or ideas, please share them!
I was surprised by how quick it was to make too. The only special equipment required is a piece of muslin, so I cut up one I'd used to swaddle Antonio when he was a newborn. (I promise it was washed in the interim.) All I do is put about a cup of almonds or hazelnuts into a stainless steel milkshake cup and cover them with water. I do this in the evening, leave them overnight, then drain them, add more water, blitz with a stick blender and strain through the muslin. Done! I have used this milk in Antonio's smoothies, which he loves, but the mornings are chilly as winter approaches, so smoothies containing frozen blueberries aren't quite so appropriate for him. I will use the nut milk to make porridge for him, but the last couple of mornings I've added 2 egg yolks and half a banana to a cup of nut milk, whizzed it with the stick blender and cooked this over low heat, stirring with a whisk. Then I added a teaspoon of raw honey and about a tablespoon of flaked quinoa. This makes a delicious kind of custard porridge, which Bubby gobbles!
My personal favourite use for nut milk is hazelnut hot chocolate! When added to a cup of cocoa, hazelnut milk makes you wonder why you'd bother with disgustingly sweet, artificially flavoured syrup. Chocolate and hazelnuts really are a match made in heaven!
The secret of great nut milk is not to use too much water. The less water you use, the creamier the milk will be. You only need enough to be able to easily blend it. I find this is about 1:1.5, but I don't really measure. The wog in me likes to measure by eye!
The leftover nut meal is wonderfully nutritious too, high in bioavailable protein, vitamins, minerals...mmmm. What you do with this gorgeous stuff is spread it out on a biscuit tray and pop it into the oven at 50 degrees, leaving the door slightly open. When the meal is dry, let it cool and store it in an airtight container. I stick mine in the fridge, to err on the side of caution, but I've read there's no need to refrigerate. I use it in baking, just like pre-milled almond or hazelnut meal, only it's much more nutritious, and the protien is more easily absorbed. I'm currently working on a recipe for home made crunchy 'activated' nut cereal! And also activated nut protein bars, both of which I'll post as soon as I'm happy with them.
If you have any more great nut milk or nut meal recipes or ideas, please share them!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Approaching Two Months and Sugar Free Icecream Recipe
I don't think I can think of a single person in my aquaintance who really, genuinely dislikes ice cream! Of course, since most ice cream contains things like sugar and processed milk, the stuff no longer enters this house. And yet I miss it, especially in Summer, and I'd like to be able to allow my kid(s) to partake someday.
This is a recipe for icecream that I won't mind offering my children in years to come, though very occasionally.
200ml raw milk
200ml organic cream
125g 100% organic maple syrup
yolks of 4 organic eggs
I used a stick blender to combine the yolks and maple syrup, then added this mixture to the milk and cream and blended some more, then poured it into the icecream maker to finish up.
The result was very light and fluffy. This time I added half a cup of sultanas I'd soaked in rum overnight, and a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon. My Man said he'd have preferred it without the sultanas, so I guess that was a miss!! However the container was empty within two days, so it can't have been all bad!
Next time I'll try using honey instead of maple syrup, and add more spices to get a sort of middle eastern flavour. Yum! Really looking forward to it! But I'll have to wait a while because maple syrup and honey aren't every day foods.
Meanwhile, it's almost two months since I quit sugar and I'm still losing weight, very slowly, and still feeling great. Increasingly I make it through the day to dinner time in one piece, and I'm even getting organised about things like our dinner, while previously it was all I could do to keep Antonio adequately fed! All up I'm really happy with how I feel. I don't crave sugar. I miss certain foods like cake and ice cream but I don't find them hard to turn down. In fact I even managed to avoid my favourite dessert of all time at a recent family birthday party; St Honore cake from Corica...oh my god that's good stuff. But I was unmovable. So proud!
In her fabulous ebook 'I Quit Sugar', Sarah Wilson describes how some folk meet the concept of quitting sugar with scorn or aggression. This hasn't happened for me as yet, everyone has been really supportive. I'm most grateful for this, because it's difficult enough at first without having to defend oneself.
It actually feels like this time I might just succeed in ridding my life of refined sugar for good.
This is a recipe for icecream that I won't mind offering my children in years to come, though very occasionally.
200ml raw milk
200ml organic cream
125g 100% organic maple syrup
yolks of 4 organic eggs
I used a stick blender to combine the yolks and maple syrup, then added this mixture to the milk and cream and blended some more, then poured it into the icecream maker to finish up.
The result was very light and fluffy. This time I added half a cup of sultanas I'd soaked in rum overnight, and a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon. My Man said he'd have preferred it without the sultanas, so I guess that was a miss!! However the container was empty within two days, so it can't have been all bad!
Next time I'll try using honey instead of maple syrup, and add more spices to get a sort of middle eastern flavour. Yum! Really looking forward to it! But I'll have to wait a while because maple syrup and honey aren't every day foods.
Meanwhile, it's almost two months since I quit sugar and I'm still losing weight, very slowly, and still feeling great. Increasingly I make it through the day to dinner time in one piece, and I'm even getting organised about things like our dinner, while previously it was all I could do to keep Antonio adequately fed! All up I'm really happy with how I feel. I don't crave sugar. I miss certain foods like cake and ice cream but I don't find them hard to turn down. In fact I even managed to avoid my favourite dessert of all time at a recent family birthday party; St Honore cake from Corica...oh my god that's good stuff. But I was unmovable. So proud!
In her fabulous ebook 'I Quit Sugar', Sarah Wilson describes how some folk meet the concept of quitting sugar with scorn or aggression. This hasn't happened for me as yet, everyone has been really supportive. I'm most grateful for this, because it's difficult enough at first without having to defend oneself.
It actually feels like this time I might just succeed in ridding my life of refined sugar for good.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Coconut oil - the beauty elixir!
While things are still going swimmingly on the sugarfree front, I'm going to undertake a couple of other committments. I'd really like to cut bread, pasta and pastry out too (though not as ruthlessly as I did with refined sugar, one has to be polite at others' houses, it's much easier to refuse dessert than mains!), and I'd also like to gradually increase my coconut oil intake.
According to the research I've found, particularly here at the coconut research centre, coconut oil is a veritable miracle worker. It's so antiviral that its capable of reducing the viral load to negligable levels in people suffering from the most debilitating viruses. It is also antibacterial and anti-fungal, and so a fantastic treatment for systemic candida. In case those credentials haven't impressed you, coconut oil is a FAT EATING OIL!!! That's right folks, you can consume this oil and it will munch away at your stored body fat! And just to be a total show off, it's anti-inflammatory too, therefore great for arthritis and autoimmune disorders. WOW.
The approximate dose required for inflammation and candidiasis, is 3 tablespoons a day. It's advisable to slowly advance to that amount if you'd like to try it, it is after all an oil and many of us who have particularly 'toxed up' livers may feel a little ill otherwise. I'd reccommend starting with a teaspoon and working up.
For particularly virulent viruses up to 6 tablespoons can be taken daily. If you like you can have your viral load tested before you start taking coconut oil, then again after, say, 3 months on the full dose. It would be interesting to make the comparison.
So far I'm up to one tablespoon a day. I notice I eat less of other foods for a few hours after I take it. My body feels nourished enough and doesn't ask for more, which could be a great weight management tool.
The other thing I noticed immediatelly is that it's really hard to swallow pure oil!!! So I've been experimenting with finding other ways to take it. This morining I put it in my smoothie which seemed to work well. Another option is to incorporate it into warm foods like coconut oil based curries, over some warm rice or, my personal preference, warm coconut and chai spiced rice pudding made with xylitol! I'll post the recipe as soon as I've got it down pat.
Coconut oil can be found at health shops, make sure you always buy cold pressed. If you have a great coconut oil story or recipe, please share it in comments!
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