Sweet Tooth

Hello world! Oh how I have missed you! As per my last post we have moved recently and are (still!?!?!!) without internet :( the date has now been set though...the engineer is coming on the 18th April which still feels like a millennia away! So I have hot footed it down to my local internet cafe to continue writing my blog posts.

My local internet cafe is a lovely little place call Muxima; a chilled out hidden nook in Bow, London that provides a sanctuary to the mind as well as nourishment in the form of their homemade food and of course internet! They are not just a cafe, but offer film nights, music evenings, knitting circles and on sat and sunday you can get some hand reflexology! I love it...check out their facebook page below if it catches your interest too;

https://en-gb.facebook.com/MuximaMuxima

One thing I love about cafe's is the sweet stuff you can nibble on. But as much as my taste-buds may thank me for 5 minutes of deliciousness my body would not be amused. Which in turn means I need to work a hell of a lot harder in the gym to make up for it! Remember exercise counts for 30% of your physique, the other 70% is diet and so many people (including admittedly myself on occasion) ruin so much hard work by not being strict about the fuel you are putting into your body.

Now don't think that means you can never have sugar again and anything sweet is off limits. No need to torture yourself; life should be enjoyable after all! But you need to learn which sweet things to eat and which foods are just not worth it.

Fruit is one of the best examples; it's delicious and has the right kinds of sugar. As well as being incredibly good for you! If you incorporate berries into your diet they are great antioxidants and a source of essential vitamins. I love blueberries and raspberries and have them with pretty much everything from my cereal to salads to dessert. Other versatile fruits I love to use in lots of dishes are pomegranates and mango; they are great as a mid afternoon snack but also add a fantastic sweetness to other dishes. These fruits work for you; fighting disease, full of fibre and a great source of energy whilst you are on the go.

If you are a chocolate lover (like moi) don't think this has to be off the menu either; limit yourself to small portions and stick to dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains anti oxidants and can help prevent heart disease and lower blood pressure. Just remember that it does still have a calorie count so emphasis on small quantities!

I don't usually eat dessert but was cooking dinner for my partner recently and decide to try out the below to make a healthy, tasty dessert that would be good for us too!

Frozen Fruit Salad & Chocolate Treat

Ingredients:
Half a bar of dark chocolate
Handful of peanuts and almonds
Greek yogurt
Strawberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Kiwi
Satsuma/mandarin
Honey

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl above a saucepan
2. Finely chop the nuts and add to the chocolate; mix
3. Pour a thin layer of the chocolate into a cupcake case and put into the fridge to cool
(the ones I created that are pictured were quite thick and I made three of them; I would recommend making them thinner  as the thick chocolate can be a little overwhelming!)

4. Chop the strawberries, grapes and kiwi and add all the fruit (quantities as per your own desire) to the greek yogurt and mix
5. Add a tablespoon of honey or to taste and mix thoroughly
6. Pour the mixture into freezable containers and smooth out the the top.
7. Put in the freezer for 20mins or so (until desserts are hard on the outside but not frozen through)
8. Turn containers upside down on a plate and serve with chocolate treats from the fridge

Enjoy!

Breakfast Muffins

How has everyone's weekend been?

I love Sunday's, I always like to wake up early to make the most of the day. I also enjoy treating myself to a delicious blueberry muffin! Now your regular blueberry muffins are not the healthiest of breakfasts, so I have adopted a high protein, eggless version.

This is a paleo inspired recipe. The paleo or paleolithic diet is often referred to as the 'caveman diet' as it is based on the plants, seeds, nuts and of course meat that was available in the paleoloithic times - a period of 2.5million years which ended circa 10,000 years ago. So it is basically un-processed food, based on what was available to humans before the development of agriculture.

I don't follow the diet specifically as I don't eat meat but I do love the fact that it offers some really high protein recipes. For example my breakfast muffins contain almond flour and almond butter in replacement of regular flour and butter. You can use eggs if you wish but as my partner doesn't eat them I use the below recipe which uses mashed banana instead. If using eggs still add some banana though as they are a great source of energy!

Ingredients
- 1cup almond flour
- 1tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 2-3 ripe bananas (dependent on size)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
- 1tbsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup of blueberries
- Oats

Method
1. Add all dry ingredients with the exception of the oats and blueberriesto a bowl and mix
2. In a food processor or using a fork, puree/ mash the bananas
3. Mix all liquid ingredients together in a seperate container (including almond butter)
4. Add liguid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix
5. Once a batter is formed add the blueberries (as many or as little as you like, I love them so have quite a few!)
6. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and sprinkle oats on top
7. Bake in the oven at 180-200degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden with a soft, dry centre
8. ENJOY!
I also love to adapt this recipe to make apple and cinamon muffins and double choc chip muffins! I'll post those recipes the next time I make them :)