Summer Pomegranate and Pea Quinoa Salad with Marinated Lamb

 

This recipe has been adapted from Meghan Telpner's Qristmas Quinoa recipe.

Ingredients  

Serves 2 people 

Lamb & Marinade - Made by my fiance

400g of lamb fillet (200g per person)

Handful of Parsley and Mint.

Couple of sprigs of Rosemary

2 Garlic Cloves

2-3tbsp of Olive Oil

1 tsp of Chilli Flakes

Salt 

Quinoa Salad

1 cup Quinoa (soaked for 15mins and rinsed)

1 Pomegranate

1 cup of fresh or frozen Peas

Salt to taste 

Tomato & Cumber Salad

1 Tomato & 1 Cucumber diced 

Dressing
Another handful of Parsley and Mint
1 Garlic Clove
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Half a lemon juiced
1 tsp Pomegranate Molasses

Method
About 1-2 hours before you prepare the salad place all the herbs, garlic, olive oil, salt and chilli into a blender and combine well to make the marinade. Place the meat in a zip-lock plastic bag or container and add the marinade and massage into the meat. Put this in the fridge until about 20 mins prior to cooking so that the meat can be closer to room temperature before cooking.

For the Quinoa salad, cook the grains by covering with 2 cups of water and bring to the boil then reduce down to a medium heat and cook for 20-30mins until the grains are soft and the water is absorbed. Leave this to cool before adding pomegranate seeds and lightly cooked peas.

While cooking the quinoa you can cook the lamb. Heat up a fry pan or skillet and place the meat in the pan (it should have a good sizzle when you do this otherwise its probably not hot enough), leave for about 4-5mins before turning over and giving it a further 4-5mins. The lamb should be nice a springy to the touch when you remove from the pan. Leave to rest for about 5 mins and then finely slice.

For the Dressing place everything in a blender or hand mixer and combine well. Use 1/3 of this to dress the Quinoa Salad and another 1/3 to dress the tomato and cucumbers in a separate bowl.

I served it up by placing a nice sparkly pile of Quinoa Salad on the bottom followed by slices of lamb and sprinkled the tomato and cumber over the top. You can used the last of the dressing to drizzle over the top if you wish. Deeeeeelicious!

Easy Peasy Thai Summer Salad

Wow, I can't believe it has been a whole month since my last post... this last part of the year has flown by so quickly. I sort of fell off the wagon a little bit in the last month. Giving way to the Christmas parties and all the booze and food that follows.

I've started to see a new Naturopath and I'm slowly getting back on track with my healthy eating and living goals. I will go into more detail with this in a post tomorrow. But for today I just wanted to share a delicious new recipe that I hope will help me get back on the healthy train!

For Christmas my fiance, Simon, bought me a beautiful book, Stephane Reynaud's "365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat." And this recipe has been taken from this book with a couple of twists of my own.

Easy Thai Salad

Ingredients
200g Breast fillet (I bought some pre-marinated Thai Chicken from Harris Farm)
2 Carrots
2 Scallions
1/2 Bunch of Coriander
100g Shelled Cooked Prawns
1/2 Packet of Rice Vermicelli Noodles
1/3 Cup Activate Nuts in Tamari and Chili (I will post a recipe for this soon).


Dressing:
2 Garlic cloves
1 Red Chili
1 tbsp Agave Nectar
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
3 tbsp Olive or Grapeseed Oil
1 tbsp Lemon Juice

Method
Heat up a non-stick frypan and sear the chicken, then wrap in foil and put in the oven (pre-heated to 180℃). Remove from the oven in about 20 minutes and chop up into pieces to serve.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the carrot into ribbons and place these in a bowl. Finely chop the scallions and coriander (you could also add cucumber, celery, etc to bulk up the veggie content here), place these into the bowl with the carrots.

Cook the Vermicelli according to the packet. Usually you just need to place the noodles into some cold or warm water for 2-4 minutes.

Put the agave, fish sauce, oil, lemon juice, garlic and chili in a bottle or container and give it a good shake to combine.

Serve up all together. Chop up the nuts and sprinkle over the top for some extra crunch! I had a couple of cherry tomatoes just picked from our plant in the backyard, so I added them in as well.

Its so beautiful, fresh and flavourful! A great Summer dish.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Salmon, Pea Puree and Brocolli with Arame Salad

Thought I'd just share this delicious meal recipe with you. Had made up a rather large batch of pea puree during Meghan's Low Glycemic Challenge week (I feel like I mention her in every blog I do, but she's really a huge source of inspiration at the moment), which I had frozen.

And I also just bought 'Ripe from Around Here' by Jae Steele which had tonnes of fantastic vegan recipes, not that I am vegan, but I find it is a fantastic way to bump up my consumption of veggies.

So this recipe is a bit of a concoction of a few things but it was so damn tasty! (If I do say so myself!)

Sesame, Broccoli and Arame Salad
Ingredients
1 head of Broccoli
1/4 cup of Arame (a seaweed and rich source of iron, calcium, zinc and iodine)
2 tbsp of Tamari
2 tbsp of Sesame Oil (this might be a little rich - I think I might drop it back to 1 tbsp next time)
1/4 tsp of Dulse Flakes
1 clove of Garlic
Pepper

Method:

• Put the arame in a bowl and cover with room temperature water until the seaweed is rehydrated.
• Steam the broccoli for 2-4minutes in a steamer.
• Strain the arame - save the water and either use it for stock or put it in the garden!
• Mix together the tamari, sesame oil, dulse flakes and garlic.
• I made this a cold salad but you could just as well have it hot - simply toss the broccoli and arame in the dressing and sprinkle sesame seeds to serve.
• NB. This recipe makes enough for four people - I had the left overs today for lunch with some brown rice.

Salmon and Pea Puree: 
Ingredients
2 x 200g salmon fillets
1 x Leek
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Bag of Frozen Peas
1 bunch of fresh mint
Salt and Pepper to taste 

Method

• Sautee the leek in the olive oil in a pan until they soften
• Add the bag of frozen peas and cover with boiling water
• Let this simmer away until the peas are nice and easily mushed
• Depending on your blender you might need to let this cool
• Put the peas, leeks and mint into a blender and whir away until silky smooth
• Add Salt and Pepper to taste
• With the Salmon I drizzle some olive oil on the skin and rub this in, then sprinkle with a little salt and pepper
• Get a fry pan nice and hot (no need to add any more oil)
• Place the salmon skin side down and let it sizzle away for a good 3-5 minutes (depending on the thickness of your salmon.
• Here you can either turn the heat down and turn the salmon over until it cooks most of the way through, or transfer it to a low oven to cook gently - I find using the oven insures a more even heat and helps avoid a really raw middle.

Put everything on a plate and enjoy!!

Breakfast Recipes Catch-up: Nut & Seed Cereal and a Chocolatey Shake to kick off a Friday

Phew! Busy end to the week, here are the last two gluten-free breakfasts from Thursday and Friday!

Breakfast : Day 04
Almond, Hazelnut and Seeds Cereal
This is a recipe that I learned during Meghan Telpner's Low GI Challenge and it is fast becoming one of my favourites! It is fantastically filling and keeps my whole day rolling smoothly!

Ingredients (1 Serve)

2 tbsp raw almonds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp hazlenuts (or other nuts if you prefer
1/2 cup chopped seasonal fruit
1/2 cup yoghurt or almond milk

Method
Soak the nuts and seeds over night.
Strain them in the morning, mix with yoghurt (or milk) and fruit.

I also sprinkle a tablespoon of flaxseed over the top (might be a bit excessive...)

Breakfast : Day 05
Bananaberry Smoothie with Maca and Cacao.
I have been intrigued by cacao for a little while now and I just ordered some from Power Super Foods and the also sent a bunch of samples which I am excited to play with! One of the samples was for a Maca Smoothie Blend which also has a little raw cacao powder mixed in - PERFECT for this week's breakfast challenge!

Maca is a root vegetable found in South America, it is rich in amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and other trace elements. From the little bit of research I have done so far, it is great for improving energy and vitality but you only need small amounts and not too regularly as with any stimulant it can be detrimental.

Cacao is the raw sister of the more traditional cocoa. Here's what Power Super Foods has said about it:

Most cocoa powder is processed via the "Dutch method" meaning heat extracted (up to 150°C!), sometimes with solvents, thus destroying most of the nutrients and antioxidants and potentially contaminating the end product. Cacao Power products have an antioxidant (ORAC) score of 95,500. To put that into perspective, that's 14 times more antioxidant flavonoids than red wine, 21 times more than green tea, and 7 times more than even dark chocolate ! 

So cacao makes a wonderful alternative to chocolate, I am going to try out some recipes hopefully this week. Will talk more about the wonderful cacao then!

Anyway here is the recipe:

Ingredients (Serves 2):
1 Banana (I broke it up into little bits and put it in the freezer the night before. YUM!)
1/2-1 cup of mixed frozen berries
1 cup of milk (normal, almond, soy, etc)
1/4 cup of crushed walnuts
1 sachet of Maca Smoothie Blend

Method:Pop everything into the blender and buzzzzzzzz away!
You get this wonderful purple, chocolatey smoothie!

Enjoy!

Weekly Wrap-up

So last week was incredibly successful! After 6.5 days (yup, I caved on Saturday because we had 3 events to attend... blah blah blah... anyway excuses aside) I felt fantastic and really proud of myself because I can't remember the last time I had 2-3 days alcohol free, let alone 6!

By the end of the week I had noticed the following things:

• Better sleep and waking up hungry which doesn't normally happen to me, so I'm assuming that was my metabolism picking up or just my body more effectively digesting my evening meal!
• My eyes were whiter - weird I know, but after about 3 days my eyes were definitely whiter and brighter.
• Much more stable mood - less swinging between extremely happy and then incredibly moody.
• More confidence, funnily enough, I was really worried about becoming anti-social whilst avoiding drinking but it was the total opposite! I felt more confident, probably because my self-esteem/self-worth was boosted by not drinking and accomplishing my goals?
• More motivation - every night I would be cooking dinner, making posts, doing homework and not feeling lethargic and moping on the couch.
• I lost a 1kg and 1% of body fat - in ONE WEEK! 

So what I have learnt from this that avoiding alcohol during the week is incredibly beneficial for my body, mind and soul! Now I make this pact with myself to not drink from Sunday or Monday through to Thursday and to also be more mindful when I do drink to do so in moderation.

On Saturday when I did have a couple of drinks, I probably had a couple more than I should have (but not anywhere near as much as I previously would have) and very quickly realised this and curbed my drinking over the night.

All in all a pretty successful experiment and it has definitely opened my eyes to what I had been ignoring for a long time.

Effects of Alcohol on the Body

This information is what I have gathered from various government and health websites - I'm not a professional and I am doing this exploration for my own education in the hopes to gain better control over my own drinking habits. If you have any concerns about your own health due to alcohol consumption you should consult your doctor.

I think one of the keys to bringing my alcohol consumption under control is to understand what alcohol is and how it is processed in my body and also what the long-term effects could be when I am drinking beyond the recommended 1-2 standard drinks (100ml for a glass of wine is 1 standard drink).

From what I have read, unlike carbohydrates, proteins and fats, alcohol cannot be stored in the body therefore in the body needs to metabolise this before anything else, interrupting other processes that may be also occurring in the digestive system.

Nutritional deficiencies can go hand in hand with mass alcohol consumption due to damage in the liver and because, as mentioned above, it takes precedence over other digestive processes. Even moderate alcohol consumption can effect Vitamin B12 which is needed to help make DNA and to maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells. Am I'm guessing this is could also cause depression and anxiety during and after drinking?

Folate, Vitamin A and Calcium are also heavily effected by excessive drinking.

Alcohol has also been linked with a range of diseases such as:

• Cardiovascular system – raised blood pressure and triglycerides (especially after binge drinking), damage to the heart muscle and stroke.
• Nervous system – brain damage, tremors, dementia and nerve damage. Alcohol is a depressant drug and affects your coordination, self-control, judgement and reaction times. 
• Mental health - there is growing evidence that alcohol increases the risk of prevalent mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.
• Gastrointestinal system – stomach inflammation (gastritis) and bleeding.
• Liver – cancer, hepatitis (inflammation), fatty changes, cirrhosis and liver failure.
• Endocrine system – problems controlling blood sugar, loss of libido and reduced fertility.
• Nutrition – malnutrition (alcohol displaces nutrients from your body) and obesity.
• Breast cancer and other gynaecological problems – women who drink alcohol are at a higher risk than non-drinking women.

Pretty scary, as I can see a number of these things that could already be effecting me at the rate at which I consume alcohol. Blood sugar, over-weight, depression and there is an existing strong history of breast cancer in my family too.

Its not all doom and gloom here, there are plenty of studies saying that low levels of alcohol consumption have some health benefits in certain age groups. The NHMRC Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol have said that controlled drinking reduces the risk of some cardio/cerebrovascular disorders (particularly in middle aged men) and ischaemic stroke (in women after menopause).

But please note: These potential benefits from alcohol can also definitely be gained by other means, such as regular exercise and a wholefoods diet!

The questions that I have to ask myself very honestly are:

Can I control my alcohol intake?
Can I stick to 2 x 100mL glasses per day?

At the moment, the answer from my heart is a very open and honest:

No.

It has now been 2 days without alcohol - it hasn't been too bad, although it definitely has been in the past. I have been meaning to do this for a long time, have had a few failed attempts and have come to realise in the last few weeks that I was no longer drinking for enjoyment or taste - but simply just for the effects of the alcohol.

I want to be able to enjoy alcohol as a little indulgence, not rely on it to get through my working week.

I feel quite empowered today and proud of myself for not being tempted by the Monday I-Need-A-Glass-Of-Wine Blues. Tomorrow will be interesting because it is Melbourne cup which is always accompanied by mass-drinking, but strangely enough I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything nor do I feel remotely like drinking! :)

I have been drinking a lot of mineral water with mint to compensate! And that's probably not create either because of the sodium, so tomorrow I will do a bit of research into some alternative, relaxing, nutritious evening drinks.

Thanks to anyone out there reading this, you're helping me do this.
If you have any comments or experiences that you would like to share please feel free!



References that I looked at:

• medicinenet.com - Alcohol & Nutrition
• Australian Drug Information Network
• NHMRC - Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol
• Better Health Channel

Sunny Spring Afternoon

What a beautiful Sunday in Sydney. The sun has been shining, I had breakfast in the backyard and meditated, we had friends pop around for a surprise visit and they brought some beautiful nougat, I re-painted some chairs and now here I am with soft music and the sound of birds chirping flowing through the open window.  I could not be happier at the moment, I feel completely at ease.

This could not be a better start for 2 new things this week: my Nutritional Medicine course begins and so does my 'weekly challenges'. AND I leave for Bali on Thursday!!

So, this week's challenge is to:

Do something active everyday.

I plan to go the gym tomorrow morning for cardio and weights, reformer pilates on Tuesday and Wednesday I will finally get to go back to the Yoga teacher who was such a fantastic inspiration for me in overcoming my fear of handstands a few weeks ago!

Then in Bali I want to make sure I do at least one of, any of the following things, everyday for the remainder of the week:

• Walking (on the beach preferably),
• Yoga (also, on the beach preferably),
• Using the gym,
• Snorkeling (which I have always been a bit scared of doing...)
• Swimming, or
• Hiking.

(A little bit of a side note here: I also really, really, REALLY want to do some sort of a cooking class, I would love to surprise my family by finding somewhere that I can take them for a bit of an un-touristy evening and wonderful cultural experience in Nusa Dua).

This week I will track how I am feeling and then, next Sunday, I will post my updated measurements and an overall review on how felt, etc.

I'm so excited. I feel these goals are totally achievable, because it is just one week and if they work their way into my every day life then that's great, but I'm not putting the usual extreme pressure on myself to achieve the unachievable.

 I already think I know what next week's challenge will be:

Meditate every day for 1 hour.

Where else would be better to do this than on holidays in Bali, huh?

Successful Goal Setting One Week at a Time.

Okay, so I've been a little quiet the last couple of weeks. I really thought that with the changing of daylight savings it would be the perfect timing to kick start a whole bunch of exercise and "healthy-living" realated goals.

But in the week that followed my diet was okay, but it was nearing the end of the pay cycle so we were a bit impoverished which meant digging up as much from the pantry as possible. (It did prove to make some creative meal planning) but also meant I couldn't get fresh and quality product that had been a part of those goals.

I also was severely hit by the fact that it was no longer light at 5.45am and being tucked up in a warm bed next to my warm fiance was just too good to pass up!

One day I missed the gym, and then one night we ordered a pizza and then I missed another day of the gym... I became more and more annoyed at myself... and then I came across Michaela Ballmann and her podcasts 'Nutritionally Speaking'. In one of the podcasts she was talking about New Year's Resolutions and how if goals are too uncontrollable and too vast then of course you can't achieve them and of course you're going to feel down on yourself. It's a downward spiral.

So from this new knowledge, I have decided to do a bit of an experiment and set a weekly goal for myself. My long term goal is still make an entire lifestyle change so I can be happier and healthier. But instead of trying to do everything at once, like I always do, "This week I will not drink alcohol, and drink juice every morning and exercise 6 days a week!!" I will do things more gradually.

No wonder it never seems to work, even if I could change every bad habit that I have all at once I would probably be a complete wreck and would definitely not enjoy it at all.

So instead, I will set myself one weekly task. Which I will endeavor to make my priority, just for those 7 days with no 'forever's and it will be interesting to see if, after those 7 days, I can start to incorporate one new thing at a time into my daily routine. Baby steps!

Where to start? Well, next week I'm off to Bali. So I think the easiest goal to set is to:

Do something active everyday.

I don't leave until Thursday so I can get my usual gym routines in early in the week. But then I want to seek out a daily activity in Bali (so I don't turn into a complete sloth on my holiday!).

I'll track the progress and how I am feeling.

I can't wait to think of fun things to challenge myself with every week!