Farmers Market Figs

Never underestimate the value of simple cooking with good quality ingredients. Just by adding a few high quality, fresh ingredients you can instantly jazz up your meal and increase its vitality! 

Try using fresh herbs instead of dried, use good quality oils in cooking and in dressings and never underestimate the bold flavour of farmers market fruit and veggies! 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not create a quick and simple meal that is full of vitality and life! 

Here I have taken a plain and simple cardboard box granola and added some life to it by using fresh figs straight from the market.

Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference......

Go on, add some vitality to your meals!!!

Banana Cake Ice Cream Sandwich

Carbs are my weakness, the thought of biting into a moist cake or a chewy cookie will get me every time. So I have come up with a cool way to reduce portion sizes on those treats we all love.

Check out my Banana Cake Ice- Cream Sandwich.

I took a regular wholegrain banana nut muffin from the supermarket, (yes, sure it was loaded with preservatives and many chemical ingredients but hey, sometimes a girl just wants a muffin!) cut it in half and hollowed out the insides. I love the muffin top (hahaha no pun intended!) so I left that in tack.

The idea is to scoop out as much of the middle as you can. But it doesn't end there, to replace the insides of the hollow muffin, add one scoop of ice cream!!

I used green tea ice cream but you can choose whatever flavour you desire!

Look, its not healthy but it sure is good! And you are significantly reducing your portion size but not taking away any of the yumminess!

Enjoy!

Lost at Sea in a Lentil Salad

Sadly, we are coming to the end of summer.
The days of eating salads and refreshing meals will slowly fade away and be replaced with hearty stews and steaming hot soups.....BUT, until then we can all rejoice in this Lentil Salad.

I love this lentil salad because its hearty enough to be a meal but is still light and refreshing for the summer.

As always, its quick and easy too!

To get started you will need;

1 red onion finely diced
1 pack of trader joe's steamed french style lentils (of course you can use fresh lentils or canned)
6-7 cups of baby spinach
1 block of reduced fat fetta, cubed
1 bunch of italian parsley, chopped
olive oil
balsamic vinegar.

1.) Combine the onion and parsley in a large bowl and coat lightly with olive oil. Toss and set aside.
2.) Meanwhile to prepare the lentils heat a fry pan with a little spray oil and gently warm the lentils.
3.) Add the lentils to the onion mix and throw in the spinach and fetta cubes. The warm lentils will help lightly wilt the spinach and make the fetta creamy - yum!
4.) Drizzle with a really good quality balsamic vinegar and more olive oil.
5.) Serve!

(Makes 7 serves)

YUM!

Enjoy!

Enriching Desserts & Cinnamon

I love eating dessert, I mean lets face it, who doesn't??? I don't think we should ever feel guilty around food,  I am a firm believer that when you are in alignment with your body and its needs there is no need for fad diets or negative feelings around food. Easier said than done, but I think working towards this should be the goal.

In the mean time, why not add some nutrition to your desserts?! It can be as simple as adding some ground linseeds to your ice cream or using more nutritious ingredients such as organic eggs, using raw sugar or natural sweeteners like stevia or agave, and using rice bran oil instead of vegetable oil. Simple huh?!

Need more convincing?? Check out this dessert----

Looks good huh??!!

Well the focus of this dessert is cinnamon. Cinnamon has been in the media recently as some smarty pants discovered it was excellent at controlling insulin levels- like this is new news??!?!?!

Eastern Medicine has been using Cinnamon for centuries to help regulate blood sugar levels, ease an upset stomach and improve circulation. Now that these benefits are being rediscovered cinnamon is available in tablet form in a therapeutic dose.

Living in the western world we can probably all use a little help with our insulin levels so why not try to get more cinnamon into our diets?!

Try my yummy, quick and easy CINNAMON recipe-

You will need:

Cinnamon (of course)
Organic Greek yoghurt (made from grass fed cows)
Kashi Cereal bar (you can choose any granola/ muesli bar that is under 5g of sugar and is high protein)

Crush up the bar into sizeable chunks and layer in a parfait glass with generous sprinkles of cinnamon and dollops of yoghurt. Enjoy!!!!