New Website

Hi all,

I just wanted to give a quick update to let you know that I have a new website that was launched yesterday, finally!! All my new recipes, nutritious tips have been transferred to my new website.

Come have a look, subscribe to my recipes and soon I will be doing  a monthly newsletter so keep a look out.

http://www.annasnutrition.com

Thank you for following my journey so far,

Anna

 

Cinnamon Apples and Greek Yoghurt

Who needs a yummy healthy dessert or snack recipe? Love these combinations of flavours together, so delicious and prepared in 15 minutes

Serves: 1

Dietary Preferences: Vegetarian

Ingredients:

• 2 apples
• 3/4 cup of Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of coconut sugar
• Sprinkle of cacao for the top

Directions:

Peel the skin from the apples and cut the apple in pieces.

In a pot add the apples, cinnamon and coconut sugar and let stew for 10/15 minutes on medium heat. I really love the smell of the apple and cinnamon together.

Once the apples are stewed pop into a bowl with some Greek yoghurt and sprinkle a little raw cacao on top.

Super easy sweet treat to enjoy to help curb those cravings!

 

 

 

Fad Diets: The Healthy Truth

Fad Diets

When you think of a fad diet what do you think of?

Let me explain to you exactly what a fad diet is and how these can be detrimental to our health and attitude towards food. A fad diet is a diet that usually promises weight loss normally in a short space of time, eliminates certain food groups and are quite dramatic in terms of calorie cutting. Basically they normally sound too good to be true.

A few tips on how to spot a fad diet;

• Will promise results in short period of time
• Will exclude certain food groups ie. No carb diets, no fat diets etc.
• Will have super rigorous meal planning
• Will not be supported by any qualified Nutritionist or Dietician
• Will not have any quality scientific trials to back up their diet, only personal testimonials which really means nothing
• Normally will recommend a combination of foods/supplements that will magically work to burn off fat

The fad diets are everywhere these days, as a registered Nutritionist it’s quite frankly scary the amount of people being sucked into this nonsense nutrition that is not backed up with relevant scientific research.

In  the short term I have to admit that indeed people will lose weight on a fad diet, due to calorie restriction and dramatic change of eating pattern. The problem is this weight loss is only short lived, after completing a fad diet the person normally turns back to their previous eating habits in turn gaining weight again and normally more than previously.

Why are people gaining weight after completing a fad diet? The issue here is they are not changing people’s attitude towards food for the better, they are not teaching people how to incorporate a healthy balanced diet into their daily life, they are promoting excluding vital food groups from the diet and allowing people to develop an even more negative relationship with food. Not changing anything about their eating habits before meaning they go back to where they started.

The deprivation and restriction that you experience while on a fad diet can lead to binge eating at a certain point, Why is this? You are depriving your body, the strictness can only last so long then you cave in and can’t stop. All you can think of is; when I am finished this diet I am going straight to buy a pizza, fries and large coke. Completely defeating the purpose but this is because you are depriving yourself.

This diagram below illustrates the cycle of the fad diet:

Ways fad diets can be detrimental to your health;

• They do not encourage eating healthy foods
• They exclude certain food groups that the body requires for energy and nutrients
• Can cause nutrient deficiencies
• Can cause depression
• Can cause eating disorders
• Cause weakness and fatigue

My job as a Nutritionist is to help people form a healthy relationship with food, incorporate a diet into their lives that is nutritious and balanced. To not be afraid of food, creating this relationship with food by generally eating a nourishing diet you will lose weight and you will keep it off as you have a new way of eating that is 100% sustainable.

While eating a nutritious, balanced diet will incorporate eating a piece of cake every now and again as that is what balance is all about. But it’s HOW to balance is how the experts can HELP.

LETS BANISH THE FADS!!

 

Pictures taken from:

http://golivzo.com/2015/01/24/say-no-to-fad-diets-finding-a-nutrition-plan-that-works-for-you/

www.poconohealthsystem.org

Banana and Lime Yoghurt Drink

Thick and creamy texture is perfect for a summers day!

Serves: 1

Dietary Preferences: Vegetarian and Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1 lime
• 1 cup of Greek yoghurt
• 2 medjool dates
• 1/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 1 teaspoon of crushed almonds for the top

Directions:

Easy peasy; pop all ingredients apart from the crushed almonds into a blender and whizz. I like my yoghurt drink thick, so if you like yours a less thick reduce the amount of yoghurt and add more almond milk.

Sprinkle a little crushed almonds on top and sit back, relax and enjoy in the sunshine!!

 

 

 

Chicken Noodle Stir-Fry with a Peanut Sauce

An easy, affordable meal to prepare in less than 20 minutes.

Serves: 2

Dietary Preferences: Not Vegan, Vegetarian or Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• Go for around 70g of uncooked noodles for 2 people (any noodles of your choice, soba, egg, rice)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 large onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup of sugar snap peas
• 1 pepper
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

For the peanut sauce:

• 2 tablespoon of pure peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• 1 tablespoon of low salt soy sauce
• 5 tablespoons of hot water

Directions:

Slice chicken, garlic and vegetables. In a frying pan add some olive oil, then add garlic and onions. Fry for a couple of minutes then add the chicken.

In a pot with water, let the noodles cook until boiling and for a further 5/6 minutes after boiling. Keep on a low heat until the remaining food is ready. Use any noodles you like, I normally use soba nunoodles today I just used egg noodles.

In the frying pan, combine the remaining vegetables to the chicken, garlic and onions. Allow to cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or so, stirring every now and again.

Add the turmeric and cayenne pepper to the frying pan. Again keep stirring.

Now make the peanut sauce. In a bowl, add the peanut butter, tahini and soy sauce. Add the hot water and mix altogether.

Once the vegetables and chicken are cooked, pour over the sauce and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Drain the noodles, add the chicken and vegetables and enjoy immediately. I love the nutty flavour of this sauce, makes it super yummy!!

 

 

My top tips for healthy eating on a budget!

I often hear a lot of people saying they can’t afford to eat healthy food because it’s too expensive. While that can be the case if you want to spurge out on goji berries, eat the latest “superfood trendy foods” or eat steak every night for dinner. If you choose wisely, plan your shopping trips you can definitely find ways to decrease your shopping cost.

Here are a few tricks and tips that can help you make better choices and in the end save some pennies on your weekly grocery shop.

• Buy local fresh produce, keeping an eye out for the local produce in the supermarket is a great way to save some money. Local fruit and vegetables tend to be much cheaper than choosing the exotic fruits that have been imported from a tropical country. It only makes sense that they will be more expensive as they have come from a far. If you have a local market around you then this is the perfect place to buy your fresh local produce, I definitely recommend this with helping to shop on a budget.
• Eat in season; google what fruit and vegetables are in season and keep a copy on your fridge. This reminds you of what to buy in which season. Food that is in season will be cheaper than those not in season as again they will have probably been imported from another country.
• Look out for the offers in the supermarket, buy one get one free etc. Every week supermarkets are competing with each other to have the better deals, check out your supermarkets website before you do your shopping to find out what deals they have available and plan your meals around this.
• Meal planning; I don’t know how many times I say this is such an important factor for sustaining a healthy balanced diet but also helps for saving cost on your weekly shop. At the weekend write down a meal plan of what you want to eat throughout the following week, from this write your shopping list and do your shopping with this list. Helps you not buy any unnecessary food and helps you arrange what to eat for that week. Organising is key for eating a diet full of nutritious food and this is an excellent way of ensuring this.
• Keep your leftovers; if you make too much for dinner eat that the next day for lunch, means you also have a healthy and yummy lunch for the following day.
• Go veggie a couple of nights per week; for some people this might be difficult but if you can it’s a great idea especially as meat can be quite expensive. Choose two nights a week to prepare a vegetarian meal, will help to cut the cost of your weekly shopping.
• Buy frozen fruit and vegetables; believe it or not if frozen fruit and vegetables are frozen immediately after being picked they are actually more nutrient dense that the fresh you buy in the supermarket. This is because by the time the fruit/vegetables reach the supermarket they have lost some of their nutrient content. Having a good selection of frozen vegetables in your freezer is so handy for meals like curries and stir fries and of course the frozen fruit is so great to have for smoothies or add into to your oats for breakfast.
• Buy ingredients instead of buying products; what I mean by this is buying a whole cauliflower which you can use for two nights instead of buying one portion which nearly costs the same as buying a whole. One night you can have roasted cauliflower, cauliflower curry or make cauliflower rice. The options are endless so you wont get bored eating the same vegetable two/three nights a week.

Picture taken from: http://www.charterfitness.com/fitness-blog/simplify-healthy-eating-on-a-budget/

 

Courgette Lasagne

This is a different take on your regular lasagne. The courgette in this lasagne takes place of the pasta and instead of using beef mince I used vegetarian Quorn mince which is lower in saturated fat and higher in protein. This dish is a healthier spin on your regular lasagne, it’s amazing what you can do by substituting some ingredients for more healthier options and still have a super yummy taste. Italian food being one of my most favourite cuisines I do realise that nothing can compare to real Italian lasagne. However if you are looking for something similar in taste but with less fat and more nutritious because of the added veggies and Quorn mince, then this is the dish for you to try.

 Serves: 4

Dietary Preferences: Vegetarian and Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 courgettes
• 1 packets of Quorn mince
• 2 garlic
• 2 onions
• 1 green pepper
• 2 cups of mushrooms
• 8 cups of spinach
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 cup of tomato passata
• Just less than 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese
• 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
• Sprinkle of herbamare (optional)
• Black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions:

Start by slicing the courgettes in half, then slicing them long ways so they are in strips. Line a baking tray with tinfoil and place the courgettes on the tray. You want to roast the courgettes in the oven for around 20 minutes at 200 degrees. The idea here is to get rid of any water from the courgette so it doesn’t make the lasagne watery.

Now add the spinach to frying pan and cook until wilted, it’s the same idea here with the spinach as the courgette you want to remove most of the water content. Set the spinach to the side when wilted.

Slice the onions, garlic, pepper and mushrooms. Feel free to add any other vegetables you like, be adventerous.

In an frying pan add the olive oil, onions, garlic, pepper, mushrooms and vegetarian mince. Fry for around 10 minutes on a medium heat.

Then add some black pepper, chilli powder, cayenne pepper and herbamare, mix altogether. You can now combine the spinach to the frying pan.

Mix in the tin of chopped tomatoes, passata, cottage cheese and 2 tablespoons of parmesan. Let simmer for 10 minutes.

Now to prepare the lasagne. You want the vegetables in tomato sauce to be thick so if there is excess water you can drain it off before you make the lasagne.

Using an oven dish add some of the tomatoes sauce mixture and cover the bottom.

 

Now layer the courgette on top of the sauce just as you would with pasta sheets. Then repeat the same steps until you are almost at the top of the oven dish. The top layer should be courgettes, add them on top and sprinkle on the remaining parmesan cheese. This will go nice and crispy after baking it in the oven.

Place the lasagne into the oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees, once ready take out and serve immediately. Enjoy with a simply garden salad.

 

 

Nutella Chocolate Pudding

Nutella chocolate pudding, the name says it all really. A smooth chocolately, creamy and nutty flavoured pudding, that is a perfect dessert for a Saturday night. Avocado, the main ingredient of this pudding makes it nutritionally powerful, not to mention the rich content of fiber and folate from the hazelnuts. This is one healthy little pudding, you have to try it!!Follow the simple instructions below to make this scrumptiously delicious pudding.

Ingredients:

• 2 avocados
• 4 medjool dates
• 1/2 cup of hazelnuts
• 1 tablespoon of raw cacao
• 4 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• Drop of vanilla extract

Directions:

Simply add the hazelnuts to a food processor and blend until they are very fine, set a tablespoon of the hazelnut mixture to the side for the top of the puddings.

Add the all of the other ingredients to the food processor and blend until you have a rich, creamy texture.

Taste test to ensure it’s to your liking, to make it more sweeter you can add a little more honey.

Spoon into ramekins and place into the fridge for 1 hour then serve chilled.

Nutella pudding has never been so good…

 

 

 

 

Spicy Chickpea and Tomato Salad

Serves: 4 people as a side dish

Dietary Preferences: Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of spicy chickpeas (find the recipe under snacks)
• 2 cups of tomatoes
• 3 spring onions
• Bunch of fresh parsley
• Bunch of fresh coriander
• 2 tablespoon of lemon juice

Directions:

Begin by preparing the spicy chickpeas, the recipe and directions for these can be found under my snack section.

Slice tomatoes into cubes, add to a salad bowl. Slice the spring onions, parsley and coriander then add to the tomatoes.

Once the chickpeas are chilled, combine them with the other ingredients in the salad bowl. Mix in two tablespoon of lemon juice and stir altogether.

Then serve this as part of a main meal or even as super tasty lunch. This salad is fresh although the spiciness from the chickpeas gives it that extra kick!

 

Cajun Sweet Potato Fries

Serves: 3

Dietary Preferences: Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of paprika powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• Black pepper

Directions:

Begin by scrubbing the skin clean of the sweet potatoes. Keeping the skin on then slice them long ways and thin. The thinner the potatoes are cut, the better the crispiness!

Pre-heat the oven at 220 degrees. In a bowl add olive oil, cayenne pepper, paprika powder, chilli powder, onion powder, garlic powder and season with black pepper. Mix together.

Once the sweet potatoes are sliced add to the bowl and mix around. Ensure all the potatoes are coated with the spices.

Line a baking tray with tinfoil and now transfer the fries over.

Pop into the oven for around 35-40 minutes, stopping around half way to turn them over.

They should be crispy when ready, serve immediately for the best taste. Also delicious dipped in BBQ sauce, find the recipe under my cauliflower bites!!