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Category: Eat

Menstrual Health · July 15, 2022

Cherry Cloud Pancakes with Cherry Compote

Try this lovely breakfast recipe that I made for @lovefreshcherries. #sponsored

This is perfect for a lazy weekend morning, with make ahead cherry compote that will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge. These cloud pancakes are a great way to start your day because they’re full of the high quality protein and healthy fats that help balance your blood sugar levels and keep you feeling fuller for longer.

These delicious pancakes and compote contain a whopping 700g of fresh cherries, which means they’re packed with nutrients like vitamin C, potassium and magnesium that help reduce premenstrual symptoms like pain, anxiety, bloating and swelling. 

For more on how cherries can help with menstrual health, check out Love Fresh Cherries’ #NoPeriodPants campaign video.

Makes 15 pancakes 

Ingredients 

Pancakes 

190mL whole organic milk 

5 free-range eggs, separated into yolks and whites

200g pitted and halved fresh cherries 

170g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g butter

Compote

500g pitted and halved fresh cherries 

3 tbsp runny honey 

275mL room temperature water 

How to make it 

Pancakes 

  1. Whisk the milk and egg yolks together in a small bowl. 
  2. In a separate bowl, sift in the flour and baking powder. 
  3. Add the liquids into the dry ingredients and gentle stir together. 
  4. In a separate bowl, use an electric whisker to whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks. This introduces lots of air which helps make the pancakes as fluffy and cloud like as possible. 
  5. Working one spoon at a time, fold the egg whites into the rest of the mixture. Avoid over mixing or the batter will lose the air that makes the pancakes fluffy 
  6.  Put your non-stick pan on the stove and turn to high. When the pan is hot, add a quarter of the butter. Turn the stove down to medium when the butter melts and before it starts to brown. 
  7. Using a scoop (I like to use an ice cream scoop!), add the pancake batter to the pan in your desired size. Drop 3 – 4 cherries into each pancake. 
  8. Cover the pan while the pancakes are cooking and cook for 1 minute (or until bubbles form on the top) and then flip and cook for another minute. 
  9. Repeat until you’ve used all the batter. 
  10. Serve while hot with the cherry compote. 

Compote 

  1. Put all ingredients into a medium sized pot and stir. 
  2. Turn the stove to high heat and bring the mixture to boil. 
  3. Turn to medium – low heat to simmer and let the mixture reduce. 
  4. Stir occasionally so the mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. 
  5. The mixture will gradually thicken as the water reduces off. Let reduce for 50 – 60 minutes or until it is the desired consistency.

Give these a try and let me know what you think!

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Eat · October 11, 2021

Good Gut Mango Gummies

Here’s a fun way to support your gut and hormone health!

I love making these and giving them to my son as an after school snack.

Gelatine is a great way to support the health of the lining of the gut, which can be irritated from stress, excess pharmaceutical usage and food intolerances. Gelatine is also a great source of protein, which help support skin and hair health, as well as the production of peptide hormones like FSH, LH, TSH and prolactin.

What you need:

1 tablespoon gelatine powder (I like Planet Paleo’s version!)

400mL mango juice (I use the M&S Crushed Mango and Orange Juice)

A silicone ice cube tray

A small pot

A funnel

How to make it:

  1. Pour the juice into the pot and heat on medium temperature until it is gently boiling. Turn the heat down to low-medium.
  2. Add half of the gelatine powder and stir in until it completely integrated with no lumps.
  3. Add the rest of the gelatine powder and stir until it is totally stirred in.
  4. Take the mixture off the heat and use a small funnel to pour an even amount into each part of the silicone ice cube tray.
  5. Put into the coldest part of your fridge and let the dummies set for 3-4 hours.
  6. Enjoy!

Le’Nise Brothers is a yoga teacher and registered nutritionist, mBANT, mCHNC, specialising in women’s health, hormones and the menstrual cycle. She is also the host of the Period Story Podcast, which aims to break taboos around menstrual health and hormones. 

Le’Nise has helped hundreds of women improve their menstrual and hormone health through her private practice and group programmes, talks and workshops for the likes of Stylist, Channel 4, Ebay and TikTok and her Instagram page. Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating. They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause. 

Her first book You Can Have A Better Period will be released in spring 2022. 

Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle! If you’re looking for support with your hormone and menstrual health, click this link to book a 30 minute health review to talk about working together.

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PMS · December 1, 2019

Foods To Reduce Pre-Menstrual Bloating

Tender boobs, swollen fingers and face, a bloated tummy: these are all symptoms of pre-menstrual bloating.

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Can you relate to any of these?

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Pre-menstrual bloating can be caused by a number of things:

  • Already low progesterone dropping even further in the run up to the next period
  • Eating too many salty foods
  • Not drinking enough water
  • Not eating enough fibrous foods
  • Chronic constipation (we should be ideally pooping everyday!)

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Adding in different fruits, vegetables and nuts & seeds can help reduce all the types of pre-menstrual bloating to a more manageable level.

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Increase Water Intake

🚰 Drinking more water can help (add a squeeze of lemon or lime to boost its effectiveness), as can eating fruits & veg with a high water content, like cucumbers, celery and cantaloupe.

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Increase Daily Fibre Intake

🥬 Increasing your daily fibre intake can do wonders.

The current UK recommendation is about 30g of fibre a day for adults. Fibrous vegetables and fruit such as leafy greens, beetroot, pears and artichokes are a lovely way to get more fibre in.

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Increase Potassium Intake

🌰 Potassium is a mineral that when depleted, is associated with sodium retention and bloating.

An easy way to add more potassium is to eat more bananas!

These powerhouses have around 422mg of potassium in a medium sized banana, which is about 12% of the UK daily recommended intake!

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How do you deal with bloating before your period? Tell me in the comments below 👇🏽

Le’Nise Brothers is a registered nutritionist, mBANT, women’s health, hormone and menstrual cycle coach, founder of Eat Love Move and host of the Period Story Podcast.
 

Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating. 

They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause.  

Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle! 

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PMS · November 29, 2019

Foods To Support Pre-Menstrual Mood Swings

How many of these things have happened recently? Started crying at something really sentimental on TV? Gotten really irrationally irritated about something then felt fine a few minutes later? Felt fine one minute, then really angry / sad / annoyed / upset the next? 🤪

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Pre-menstrual mood swings can be a sign for many of us that our periods are on their way. Or perhaps the moodiness of the previous few days makes more sense when your period arrives. Can anyone relate to that? 😳

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Food can help stabilise mood and adding the foods I’ve listed below consistently can help shift pre-menstrual mood swings.

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Support Serotonin Production

🍳 Adding foods that are high in the amino acid tryptophan can help the body make more serotonin, our happy hormone. Eggs, oily fish such as wild salmon, nuts & seeds are all high in tryptophan. Eating these foods often and alongside carbohydrates such as rice, fruits & veg and oats can help make the conversion from tryptophan to serotonin more effective.

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Support Gut Health

🥕Research shows that 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut, so supporting a healthy gut is another great way to support moods. Increasing fermented foods such as kombucha, kimchi, miso and kefir can help, as can adding soluble fibres such as bananas, garlic, onions, Jerusalem artichoke and chicory root.

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Support Blood Sugar Balance

🍽 Managing your blood sugar levels by eating meals with lots of vegetables, high quality protein, good quality fats and lots of fibre can help keep mood stable.

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How do you deal with mood swings before your period? Tell me in the comments below!

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Le’Nise Brothers is a registered nutritionist, mBANT, women’s health, hormone and menstrual cycle coach, founder of Eat Love Move and host of the Period Story Podcast.
 

Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating. 

They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause.  

Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle! 

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Eat · August 5, 2019

How To Eat Healthy On Holiday

Photo by Mohau Mannathoko

I get a lot of questions from my clients about how to stay healthy and maintain their routines while they’re on holiday, so this was something I was thinking about for myself and my family while I was away, so here are some tips I’ve put together for you. 

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1. Plan, plan, plan. 

Don’t hate me for saying this, but failing to plan is planning to fail. If you want to have a little more control over what you eat while you’re away and while you’re travelling, a little pre-travel research (Google is your best friend here!) will go a long way.  

Plan what you’re going to eat on your travel day. Can you eat breakfast and lunch before you travel to the airport? If you’re not a fan of eating at the airport, prepare some food and bring it with you in portable food storage boxes too much on at the airport. 

Do a little internet research on Tripadvisor and Yelp to discover the closest supermarkets and restaurants to where you’re staying so you have lots of options when you get there.  If you have dietary restrictions, email the restaurants in advance to ask if they can accommodate for your needs. 

When you arrive, plan a stop at the local supermarket to pick up fruit, veg and easy food to snack on, so you always have options available. 

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2. Bring some of your favourite portable food with you.

If you have a favourite food and it’s portable, bring it with you! On my most recent holiday, I packed my matcha powder, a few containers of Oatly (my favourite oat milk!), a bag of pumpkin and flaxseed and my family’s favourite snacks. This means if you’re ever stuck, especially on the first day when you’re still getting your bearings, you have a few bits to keep you going. 

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3. Pack your NutriBullet / hand blender. 

Yes, really! I’ve done this on holidays when I’ve been staying with my family in a villa / AirBnB and I’ve never regretted it. In fact, I decided against bringing it on my most recent holiday and let me tell you, by the end of the trip, I really missed my morning smoothie. 

If you’re comfortable eating the local fruit and veg, a smoothie is a great healthy breakfast that lets you get your greens in too. If you have kids, get them involved in some smoothie making fun! 

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4. Let go a little. 

Holidays are a time for a break from the everyday grind. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a few more drinks than usual or if a daily cup of gelato starts to feel like an essential. You don’t need to let all of your healthy habits go while you’re on holiday, but in the long term, a few treats won’t hurt. 

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5. Explore the local cuisine. 

Make a point to eat the local cuisine and have fun trying new foods. While I was away in the Bahamas, I made a point to get into all the amazing fresh seafood and lots of conch salads, which felt like a huge treat. 

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6. When eating out, prioritise eating vegetables as much as possible. 

When you do eat out,  especially at lunch and dinner, explore the local cuisine and put an emphasis on eating vegetables. Are there any locally prepared vegetables you could try? Could you order lots of the vegetable sides or a big salad to share along with your main course? Doing this will help you come back from your trip without a desperate desire to eat something green. 

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7. Make breakfast or lunch the biggest meal of the day. 

Choose a meal where you know you’ll be able to get in lots of healthy options and make that your biggest of the day. If you’re on holiday in a hotter climate, the heat can restrict your appetite, so there’s the temptation to graze. Having a larger meal first thing sets you up well for the day, especially if something unexpected crops up, i.e. a long beach trip that saps your appetite and energy! 

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8. Bring snacks in your bag when you’re out for the day.

On holidays our days can be a bit more free-formed and we might not eat our meals at our usual times. Packing healthy snacks in your bag can stop you from getting hangry when lunch or dinner gets delayed. 

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9. Have fun!

Whether you go away often or you have one big trip every few years, while you’re away, allow yourself to let go a little and have a little fun. Try new food, have a few treats and let yourself relax. 

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Are you ready to make a positive change to your health? Do you want to talk more about ways to improve your hormone and menstrual health? Get in touch for a free 30 minute hormone & menstrual health review.

Le’Nise Brothers is a nutritional therapist, women’s health coach and founder of Eat Love Move.

Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating.

They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause. 

Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle!


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Eat · January 29, 2018

Sweet Potato Pancakes

sweet potato pancakes

It’s nearly Pancake Day and I’ve been avidly testing out my pancake recipes. Actually, who am I kidding? I love pancakes and we eat them nearly every weekend!

 

While plain pancakes are great, I love adding different ingredients to them to give them a healthy twist.

 

Sweet potatoes are wonderful to add to pancakes. They add a lovely moistness and a depth of flavour, especially with the cinnamon.

 

sweet potato pancakes with coffee

Makes 15-20 pancakes

What you need:

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

15g melted butter

200g steamed sweet potato

2 eggs, separated

200ml almond milk

1/2 tsp olive oil

 

How to make it: 

  1. Peel and roughly chop the sweet potato. Steam until they are soft and tender. Put them into a bowl, mash and set aside to cool.
  2. Melt the butter under low heat, ensuing it doesn’t begin to brown. Set aside when melted.
  3. Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Mix until the flour, baking soda and cinnamon are fully combined.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the mashed sweet potato, egg yolks, almond milk and melted butter.
  5. Whisk the egg whites until they form foamy peaks. This helps make the pancakes light and fluffy. Set aside.
  6. Form a well in the middle of the dry mixture and slowly add the wet mixture, gradually mixing them all together until they form a smooth, thick batter.
  7. Slowly fold in the egg whites to add more air to the batter. Leave to stand for a few minutes.
  8. Put your cast-iron pan on your stove on medium heat.
  9. Turn your oven on to 170C.
  10. Take your olive oil and brush it on to the surface of the pan so it’s lightly coated.
  11. Take an ice cream scoop and add heaped portions of the batter to the pan. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to make 3 or 4 pancakes at a time, taking care to keep them evenly spaced.
  12. Let them cook for 2 minutes or until they start bubbling on the surface. Flip them over and cook for 1-2 more minutes.  Repeat until all of the batter has been cooked.
  13. While you’re cooking the pancakes, put the already cooked pancakes on to a plate and slide them into the oven to keep warm, covering them with tin foil so they don’t overcook.
  14. Serve with a dollop of maple butter or maple syrup. You can also add some chopped banana or fresh blueberries.
  15. Enjoy!
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Eat · January 12, 2018

Chewy Gluten Free Oatmeal ‘Chocolate Chip’ Cookies

chewy gluten free oatmeal cinnamon cookies

When I was growing up, I loved making chocolate chip cookies. I have a great memory of biting into a warm, chewy, gooey cookie – yum!

 

In the last year, my son has become more and more interested in helping me in the kitchen. Anything from peeling potatoes to cutting the end off green beans to stirring the cooking pot, he’s into it. Since he started school in September, we have a good 3-4 hours of free time after I pick him up and I like to do little activities with him during this time.

 

We do a lot of cooking together but not as much baking. I wanted to create that special feeling of biting into a warm cookie for him, so we started experimenting with cookie recipes at the end of last year.

 

We finally got the recipe right this week, so I’m so pleased to share my gluten-free ‘chocolate chip’ cookies with you.

 

chewy gluten free oatmeal cinnamon cookies with almond butter

Makes 10-12 cookies, depending on how big you like them!

What you need: 

– 80g organic oats (I like using Flahavan’s Jumbo Oats)

– 130g almond flour (make your own by grinding up some almonds!)

– 4 tbsp coconut sugar (I prefer this sugar because it has a lower glycemic load, so it won’t spike your blood sugar as much and it also adds a lovely caramelisation to the cookies when they are baking)

– 1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon

– 2 tbsp cacao nibs

– 1/2 tsp baking soda

– 2 large eggs

– 2 tsp vanilla extract

– 25g melted butter

 

How to make them: 

  1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat. Set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, almond flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, cacao nibs and baking soda. Ensure there are no clumps left in the almond flour.
  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, keeping an eye on it so that it doesn’t start to brown.
  4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixture and stir.
  5. Slowly pour in the butter and mix until all the ingredients are fully combined and you are left with a sticky, gooey dough.
  6. Using a big tablespoon, scoop out the dough and drop it on to the parchment paper / non-stick baking mat. If you want evenly sized cookies, gently flatten them with the back of the spoon. Make sure to leave 2-3 cms between each cookie because they will spread when they bake.
  7. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until the edges begin to turn golden brown. They will be slightly soft when they are baked – that’s a good thing!
  8. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  9. To make them extra decadent, drizzle some almond butter on top. Yum!
  10. Enjoy!
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Eat · November 24, 2017

What are the benefits of coffee?

coffee break

Like many people in the UK, coffee is my go to morning drink. I love the smell, the taste and the ritual of making a lovely cup of joe. There’s also the sheer weekend pleasure of having the time to sip on a hot cup of black coffee while reading the newspaper.

 

It pains me to say this because I love it so much, but coffee is a much-maligned drink, with the downside more frequently talked about than the many positives. A recent review of studies in the BMJ showed that moderate coffee drinking is okay and has some benefits, but like all good things, you need to know when to stop.

 

So what are the benefits? 

1. A cup of coffee is so much more than just hot black water. A cup of coffee contains riboflavin (vitamin B2), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), manganese, potassium, magnesium and niacin (vitamin B3). Coffee is also packed with antioxidants.

 

2. Coffee can improve brain function. Caffeine blocks one type of neurotransmitter that can hold you back and increases noradrenaline and dopamine, leading to enhanced firing of neurons.

 

3. Coffee could lower your risk of developing type II diabetes. A number of observational studies show that coffee drinkers have as much as a 62% lower risk of developing this disease; one of the biggest health problems of our time, which is characterised by raised blood sugar and the inability to secrete insulin to lower blood sugar levels. A daily cup can typically lower your risk by 7%.

 

4. Coffee can help you burn fat. Caffeine is found in almost every fat loss supplement because it’s one of a very small number of substances proven to help with fat burning. Research shows that it can boost your metabolic rate by up to 11%, and raise the amount of fat you burn by between 10% in overweight people and 29% in lean people. The downside is that the effects are likely to diminish with time in regular coffee drinkers.

 

5. The caffeine in coffee can boost your physical performance. Caffeine stimulates production of adrenaline. This is one of the stress hormones, but primes you for physical activity. A cup of coffee can improve physical performance by up to 12%. Caffeine also stimulates the nervous system, telling it to break down the fat stored in fat cells and making the energy more available to be used as fuel. A cup of black coffee before a workout could improve your performance in the gym!

 

What’s the best way to enjoy coffee?

No coffee after 2pm. It is, after all, a stimulant and, if you drink it too late in the day, it can interfere with the quality of your sleep, or your ability to get to sleep in the first place.

 

Ditch the sugar. A sure fire way to undo all the good a cup of coffee can do is to add a few spoons of the white stuff. The downside to sugar is now pretty well documented. In a nutshell, it increases inflammation in the body, and can lead to obesity and diabetes.

 

Go organic. Coffee is routinely heavily sprayed with pesticides, so go for organic whenever you can.

 

How much can I drink?

The amount of caffeine in a single cup of coffee varies enormously. A small home brewed cup is likely to contain around 50mg per cup (unless you have an amazing coffee machine), while a large one from a coffee shop might have over 400mg. You’d expect the average cup to have around 100mg.

 

A number of studies suggest up to 400mg a day (that’s about 4 cups) is safe for most people but many people are able to enjoy more without any ill effects. Do bear in mind that tea, chocolate and some soft drinks and prescription drugs also contain caffeine, so you need to view your coffee intake in light of other things you are eating and drinking.

 

If you know you need a diet and lifestyle upgrade, but are not sure exactly what that would look like for you, get in touch. Looking forward to talking to you and helping you take the first step towards a new you!

 

Contact Me

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Eat · November 15, 2017

Autumn Pumpkin Waffles

autumn pumpkin waffles

I’m still on a pumpkin kick, adding it into as many dishes as possible to fully capture that lovely autumn feeling. They’re such an amazing vegetable, full of energy producing B vitamins, immune boosting zinc and fibre for your digestive system. And the seeds are such powerhouses – don’t throw them away! Wash them, and then toast them with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and your favourite herbs for a lovely snack.

 

We recently bought a waffle maker, partly to add a bit of diversity to breakfast, partly because I had such happy nostalgia about having big waffle breakfasts when I was growing up. And what better recipe to add pumpkin to than waffles?

 

If you get your timings right, you end up with waffles that are crisp on the outside, moist and fluffy on the inside.

autumn pumpkin waffles

 

What you need:

180g chestnut flour (you can also use wholemeal flour instead!)

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 large free-range eggs

275ml almond milk (or organic whole milk, if dairy works for you)

4 tbsp fresh pureéd pumpkin

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

20g melted butter

 

How to make it:

  1. Sift the chestnut flour, baking soda and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl and stir until the ingredients are combined.
  2. Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks and whites, setting the yolks aside.
  3. Whisk the egg whites until they are frothy. This is key for really fluffy waffles!
  4. Slowly fold the milk into the dry mixture, then add the egg yolks and pumpkin.
  5. Add the butter and stir.
  6. Slowly fold the egg whites in the mixture until the egg whites can no longer be seen. Do not over fold!
  7. Leave the batter to stand for at least 10 minutes so the milk and baking soda have enough time to interact.
  8. Warm up your waffle maker.
  9. Once the waffle maker is warm, I like to brush a little oil across the plates to stop the waffles from sticking and to help the waffles get crisper.
  10. Use a spoon to to drop the batter in, making sure to cover each plate. Take care not to overfill or the batter will leak out the front and side. (Trust me on this –  I learned this the hard way!)
  11. Let the waffles cook for at least two minutes or until they are the consistency you like. I like a softer waffle, but M likes crispier waffles so I leave his on for a bit longer.
  12. Once you’ve made your waffles, top with the toppings of your choice. I like adding toppings like chopped fresh fruit, fruit compote, grated coconut and crushed nuts.
  13. Enjoy!
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Eat · November 4, 2017

Cinnamon Pumpkin Pancakes

pumpkin cinnamon pancakes and coffee

I love making pancakes on the weekend. Something about the ritual of measuring out the ingredients and gently stirring, folding and mixing them all together is so calming to me.

 

My son loves his weekend pancakes and I now have the challenge of creating new recipes to keep things fresh and exciting and educating his palate with new flavours.

 

It’s fall and the shops are replete with pumpkins, which made me feel a bit homesick. Actually, I’m pretty sure the homesickness started around Canadian Thanksgiving when M made a butternut squash and pumpkin pie to celebrate. Nevertheless, I put together this pumpkin pancake recipe to celebrate this amazing ingredient.

 

pumpkin cinnamon pancakes

What you need:

180g chestnut flour (you can also use wholemeal flour instead!)

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 large free-range eggs

250ml almond milk (or organic whole milk, if dairy works for you)

3 tbsp fresh pureéd pumpkin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

10-15g melted butter

 

How to make it:

  1. Sift the chestnut flour, baking soda and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl and stir until the ingredients are combined.
  2. Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks and whites, setting the yolks aside.
  3. Whisk the egg whites until they are frothy. This is key for really fluffy pancakes!
  4. Slowly fold the milk into the dry mixture, then add the egg yolks and pumpkin.
  5. Add the butter and stir.
  6. Slowly fold the egg whites in the mixture until the egg whites can no longer be seen. Do not over fold!
  7. Leave the batter to stand for at least 10 minutes so the milk and baking soda have enough time to interact.
  8. After 7 minutes, warm up your cast-iron pan on medium heat. After a few minutes, add a tablespoon of your oil of choice and make sure the bottom of the pan is completely covered.
  9. Turn the stove down to medium-low heat. Cast-iron pans conduct heat really well, so a little heat goes a long way.
  10. Use an ice cream scoop to drop the batter in. I like to make pancakes on the smaller side so they are easier to flip.
  11. Once bubbles start to form on the edges of the pancakes (normally after a minute or so), flip them over. Chestnut flour tends to cook a bit faster than wheat flour so you’ll need to keep a close eye so they don’t burn. I learned this the hard way!
  12. Once you’ve made all your pancakes, top with the toppings of your choice. I like toppings such as fresh fruit, compote, dried coconut, chopped nuts and cacao nibs.
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Eat · September 9, 2017

Green Salads For Beginners

big ass salad

When people ask me for shortcuts for getting healthier and feeling better, I tell them two things. Firstly, that there are no shortcuts and health should be lifelong pursuit. Then, once I’ve stepped off my high horse 😎, I tell them to eat more vegetables.

 

I’ve talked before about the importance of eating at least 7-10 portions of fruit and mostly vegetables per day, and one of the easiest ways of upping your daily veg count is by adding in a big salad for lunch or dinner. You could even go off-piste and have a salad for breakfast!

 

I like to follow the protein-fat-carbohydrate formula to build my salads. Why protein, fat and carbohydrate? Proteins and fats take longer to digest, so you’re fuller for longer. The carbohydrates, in the form of vegetables, are the source of important micronutrients and fibre.

 

A satiating salad at lunch should ideally see you all the way through to dinner, with no need for snacks (unless you’ve done a really intense workout!)

 

Building blocks
The building blocks of a good, nourishing salad are generally 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 20% fat. Here are some good examples of ingredients for each of the macronutrient building blocks – use organic ingredients where you can!

 

Protein: Shredded chicken, pork or beef, legumes, pulses, crumbled feta, sliced mozzarella, sliced hard boiled eggs, slices of smoked salmon or anchovies

 

Fats: Sliced avocado, nuts, such as walnuts, crushed pistachios, almonds or cashews, pumpkin, sunflower or sesame seeds, olive oil

 

Carbohydrates:

  • Grated cabbage, carrots, beetroot or kohlrabi
  • Sliced radish, cucumber, red pepper, tomato, olive or red onions
  • Steamed green beans,  broccoli, asparagus or cauliflower
  • Roasted and cubed potato, sweet potato or squash
  • And of course, loads of greens. I’m a fan of spinach, cos, bibb or romaine lettuce, and have also been known to drop in a little radicchio or escarole, depending on what’s in season. The one lettuce I never recommend is iceberg. It generally lacks flavour and doesn’t really add much to a salad.
  • If grains suit you, you can add a cup of cooked quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice or couscous.
  • Fermented veg like kimchi, sauerkraut or pickles

 

The rest

  • Dressings: I tend to prefer a simple squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of extra virgin olive oil and a dash of salt & pepper. If you have the time, you could premake a lemon vinagrette and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. You can start by whisking together 3 tablespoons of EVOO and one tablespoon of lemon juice and then tweaking from there. Or substitute red wine or balsamic vinegar if you don’t fancy lemon juice.

 

  • Extras (if you want to add some more oomph to your salad): Chopped herbs like basil, dill, coriander, rosemary and chives are nice to sprinkle over, as are sliced bell peppers or chilli flakes.

 

The sky’s the limit when it comes to a big ass salad. Just open your fridge door, use the protein, fat, carbohydrate formula and see how you get on!

 

Here’s one for you to try:

Lemony Squash Salad (serves 1 – 2) 

Ingredients:

5 cups mixed greens

1 large diced tomato

4 sliced radishes (I used a mandoline to slice mine)

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1/4 cup roasted squash

1/2 cup shredded roast chicken (use the leftovers from your Sunday roast!)

3-4 tablespoons lemon vinaigrette

 

Method:

Toss together in a bowl and enjoy!

 

What are your favourite salads?

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Ask A Nutritionist · August 11, 2017

How many portions of fruit and vegetables do you eat each day?

vegetable smorgasbord

 

This isn’t a trick question! The NHS recommend at least 5 portions of fruit and veg per day and a recent study by Imperial College London went all the way up to 10 portions per day.

 

Does that sound like a lot?

 

Let’s put in in the context of what a portion of fruit and veg actually is. 10 portions is 800g of fruit and veg. What does that add up to across the day?

 

Here is how these ten portions of veg could factor into one day’s meals.

 

Breakfast: this could be incorporated into a big smoothie or onto a big bowl of porridge. Or you could mix things up by having a vegetable omelette or frittata instead!  

1 banana

1 handful of berries, like blueberries, raspberries or blackberries

 

Snack

1 large nectarine

 

Lunch: this could be a big salad with some grilled chicken or fish 

1 medium tomato

1/2 head of broccoli

1 carrot, grated

2 big handfuls of mixed leaves, such as spinach, watercress or kale

 

Snack

1 medium apple

 

Dinner: this could be a part of a typical meat and two veg meal

1/2 head of cauliflower

1 sweet potato

 

Is this achievable for you? If it seems intimidating, build up to it, adding another portion each week until you’ve hit the 10 a day target. And if you can’t eat 10 a day every day, don’t worry about it. Even four or five days a week is better than nothing at all!

 

Try to eat organic if possible. But if you can’t, wash your fruit and veg throughly before eating or cooking with them. I like this fruit and veg wash.

 

There are no shortcuts in health, but adding in fruit and veg to your daily diet has loads of benefits, including increasing the antioxidants in your body to fight free radical damage, help to balance hormones, reducing constipation (the fibre!), supporting your immune system and feeding the good bacteria in your gut.

 

Have you tried eating 10 portions of fruit and veg a day? How did you find it?

 

Get in touch for to book a free, no commitment 20 minute health coaching call to find out more about how you can improve your health & wellbeing and reduce your stress.

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Anxiety · July 9, 2017

Food and anxiety.

boats in minorca

It’s has only been in the last six months that I’ve properly considered the role that food has played in exacerbating my anxiety.

When I eat badly – too much sugary food, too much bread and pasta – I can feel my anxiety building – that tight, clenched feeling in my belly that causes me to grind my teeth, ball my fists and look for the nearest exit.

Have you made the connection between what you eat and your anxiety? There is growing evidence to support the connection between nutrition and mental health – the connection between dietary quality and mental health.

It seems like a no-brainer: the way you eat affects the way you feel. But like me, it can take a while to make this connection, and once you do, eating well almost feels like a revolutionary act, the act of giving a shit about what you eat and drink and how they make you feel.

We eat three times a day, maybe more. Food is powerful stuff. It’s medicine, it’s nourishment, it’s therapy, it’s the way we fuel ourselves to do what we need to do. When you fill your body full of good stuff, you give it the nutrients – the vitamins, the minerals – it needs to keep you going, but also to keep you feeling good.

A diet lacking in important nutrients like magnesium, iron, zinc, vitamin D, omega-3s and vitamin B6 can have a knock on effect on mood. It means you won’t be able to produce enough of the feel good hormones like serotonin and melatonin and if you are an anxious person, this can make your symptoms worse.

What do you eat? Have you considered the effects of what you eat and drink and how it effects your emotional and mental wellbeing?

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Anxiety · June 24, 2017

Alcohol and anxiety.

mother and childIt goes without saying, but of course I’ll say it anyway: Everyone’s anxiety manifests in different ways and you might be that unicorn that reads this and says, eh, this isn’t relevant to me. Great! I applaud you!

 

For everyone else: let’s have a good chat about alcohol and anxiety.

 

Are you like me and had to learn the hard way about the effects of alcohol on your anxiety? Or are you still in the mindset of “oh, it’s just a few drinks. I’ll be fine”. Then you wake up the next day with the fear, which you call a ‘hangover’. And the ‘fear’ lasts a few more days than you thought it would. Or you drink a couple days in a row because you feel fine after the first night, but then feel dreadful after the second. Whatever your relationship is with alcohol, there’s a strong connection between what alcohol does to your body and anxiety.

 

The way we tend to (binge) drink in the UK exacerbates anxiety as a growing public health issue. Did you know that in the UK, 1 in 6 adults have experienced some sort of neurotic health problem in the past week? And many people turn to drink to help them deal with their anxiety, which creates a vicious cycle of worsening anxiety, which for some people, requires more alcohol to cope with.

 

Let’s get technical for a second: alcohol depletes the body of vitamin B6, a micronutrient that is very important for the production of serotonin, the happy hormone that helps regulate our moods and keeps us on an even keel.

 

Weekend binge drinking, the glass or two of wine every night, the 3 or 4 beers after the footy, all deplete vitamin B6. This depletion has an impact on serotonin production. And here’s the thing: when you produce less serotonin, your body downregulates its production, because it thinks you don’t need as much. Which creates a  vicious cycle, which gets worse the more you drink.

 

So what can you do?

 

Let me go ahead and state the obvious: if your anxiety is crippling, just don’t drink. I’ve been trying this recently, it has helped a lot. If that’s not an option, drink less and don’t binge drink.

 

Eat vitamin B6 foods. B6 is a water soluble vitamin, which means it gets flushed quickly from the body, so you need to continually top up your reserves.  Having these foods on a regular basis is a great way to top up your vitamin B6 levels: organic, grass fed red meat, spinach, sweet potato, free-range organic chicken, bananas, avocados, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.

 

Eat tryptophan foods. Almonds, free-range, organic poultry, wild salmon, organic, free-range dairy, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds all contain high levels of tryptophan. Notice the crossover between these foods and vitamin B6 foods?

 

Find alcohol alternatives so you can still be apart of the round. Seedlip is a great brand that recently launched in the UK.

 

Explain to your friends why you’re not drinking and ask for their support on nights out. And real talk: If they don’t get it, are they really a friend?

 

How has alcohol affected your anxiety?

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