Hey congratulations on surviving the Christmas frenzy with only a few leftovers still lazily lying around in the fridge. At this time of year, over-indulgences are common, especially with so many opportunities for holiday celebrations and end of year gatherings taking place.

To help combat indulgent festivities over the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing some healthy recipes from my new cookbook Eat Yourself Beautiful which you can order here.

Enter this from-scratch raspberry studded pumpkin pie, one of my favourite make-an- impression desserts to contribute to a party, or even enjoyed as a family heirloom recipe.

Pumpkin pies aren’t just for Halloween and can be enjoyed cold in summer with a side of delicious banana ice cream or warmed for the cooler months ahead.

The crunchy base is nutritionally wholesome and dense using a combination of seeds and nuts and has been sweetened with rice malt syrup, which is a good substitute if you’re trying to cut back on refined sugars.

Now that you have a bit of time on your hands why not dig out your pie pans and attempt this easy-to-make delectable comforting dish bursting with pumpkin, warming spices and hints of vanilla.

In-season raspberries add a sublime luxuriousness with every mouthful. (more…)

Tis the festive season. So let the hunger games begin.

The decorations have been hanging around the supermarket for months, weekly gift guides have been falling out of newspapers across the country and now Christmas is so close we can almost touch it. It’s a time when dessert making is at its peak and there's no better time to get re-acquainted with trifles.

Loved by many, trifles are a somewhat retro Christmas dessert where indulging in seconds or thirds is not uncommon. Laying out the fruit sponge, scattering with delicious fruit and adding thick layers upon layers of custard, cream, jelly and whatever else you have on hand is all part of the process. Maybe Christmas trifles are still a tradition at your house and even now you love to pile your plate high with this popular and colourful dessert?

With these memories in mind, I’ve combined some of my favourite nutritious ingredients to recreate the classic trifle recipe. The recipe is from my new cookbook Eat Yourself Beautiful, which will be hitting the shelves in January, a good time to start the year off with healthy intentions!  

In this layered quinoa trifle there are layers upon layers of health-promoting ingredients.  I’ve substituted sponge for quinoa, giving the dish a distinctive creamy nuttiness. I’ve added a couple of dollops of full-fat Greek style natural yoghurt added in place of cream but if you don’t consume dairy why not try this cashew nut cream instead.  Just sprinkle through some coconut flakes for crunch and texture and your trifle is ready for tasting.

I think you’re going to enjoy my layered quinoa trifle recipe with a twist!  You may like to serve it in a glass jar with a ribbon tied around the edge.

Layered Quinoa Trifle Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 100 g (31/2 oz/1/2 cup) quinoa
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of Celtic sea salt
• 60 ml (2 fl oz/1/4 cup) unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract
• 6 drops stevia liquid, or 1 tablespoon rice malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon slivered almonds
• 2 bananas, sliced
• 130 g (43/4 oz/1/2 cup) full-fat Greek- style yoghurt
• 4 tablespoons coconut flakes 110 g (33/4 oz/1/2 cup) mixed berries
• 1 teaspoon almond butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds, for sprinkling

Method

• Place the quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve. Rinse with cold running water for 2–3 minutes, moving the seeds around with your hand to ensure that the seeds are well rinsed and any residue is removed.
• Bring 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) water to the boil in a large saucepan.
• Add the quinoa, return to the boil, cover and reduce the heat to low for 12–15 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed.
• Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
• Place the quinoa in a bowl and stir through the cinnamon and salt.
• In a saucepan over medium–low heat, warm the almond milk for 3–4 minutes.
• Stir in the vanilla and stevia or rice malt syrup.
• Add a couple of spoons of quinoa to four glass jars, or glasses.
• Mix through the almond milk and follow with layers of slivered almonds, banana slices, yoghurt, coconut flakes and berries. Repeat until the jars are full, with berries as the top layer.
• Top with the melted almond butter and chia seeds.

For more Christmas inspiration, I’ve compiled a list of some favourite recipes over the past year that are all gluten-free and packed with nutrients. So treat you and your guests to this delicious spread.

The Starters

Bite-sized appetizers are perfect to serve as guests arrive. Try this smoked salmon and pistachio terrine, which can easily be assembled in the morning, left to set in the fridge, and taken out when needed.

This pea and lamb soup works well as an entrée too, with the beautiful flavour of the peas and parsley garnish keeping it light and summery.

Fancy a salad option? This kale, strawberry, and avocado salad is an exciting combination, as is this warm beetroot, carrot and pear salad, both full of warm Christmas colours.

The Main

For an alternative to turkey or ham, buy an organic chicken and make this delicious paprika, garlic and rosemary chicken, bursting with flavour and warmth.

Serve the chicken with sage mashed cauliflower as a light alternative to potatoes, as well as a hazelnut-encrusted pumpkin, and a nutrient-packed side of green beans and spinach. Here are the recipes.

Dessert

Looking for a sweet treat that is healthy too? My luscious sugar-free chocolate is sweetened with natural stevia.

You can also find more recipe ideas on my Christmas post last year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Cooking!

Lee xo

You can buy my recipe books here.

Have you ever noticed how what you eat affects how you feel?  Research suggests that good food can really put you in a buoyant mood. According to a study in the UK, The Food and Mood Project, 80 percent of people who were surveyed reported a significant improvement in their mood and found that when they were drinking more water and eating more ‘supporter foods’ such as vegetables, fruits, oily fish, nuts and seeds, brown whole grains, fibre, protein and organic foods they experienced less depression and anxiety.  

The researchers also discovered that excess stressor foods such as refined sugar, caffeine and alcohol improved mood at first but then left people feeling stressed because they weren’t providing adequate nutrition and their bodies were left depleted.

The science behind foods effect on mood comes down to chemical and physiological changes in our brain structure which can lead to altered behavior. The survey indicated that supporter foods have been proven to alter your metabolism and brain chemistry, ultimately affecting your energy level and mood.  (more…)

A few years ago I was at a major turning point in my life and hungry for change.  I was lying in a hospital bed staring at the ceiling one night and I asked myself a simple question which at the time had no idea would have such a profound effect on my future. 

The question that was swirling around in my head seemed to make perfect sense to me but others around me weren’t so convinced by what I was contemplating; I’d always been quite interested in nutrition but this time I wanted to know even more about the food I was eating and whether certain kinds of foods could not only provide me with nourishment but actually become my medicine to eventually restore and heal my body. 

After being diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, when I was faced with the prospect of a dull and overcast life on steroids, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, this teeny idea that had begun  blossoming in my mind like a flower in springtime, was slowly becoming a much bigger part of how I wanted my future to look.   I envisaged a future which would allow me to live freely and naturally and one that would see me healing my body with certain foods, and wean myself off the cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs I was having difficulty swallowing daily.

At the time there wasn’t a whole lot of information that I could find on the subject and I was starting to discover that there was a great deal of conflicting advice, especially on the internet.  Fortunately for me, it just so happened that a friend of mine named Cleo sent me a link to the Food Matters DVD which really opened my eyes to the concept of using food as medicine. As I watched the eye opening DVD, there was a moment that became a huge turning point for me.  Something in the DVD really resonated with me and it made me cry.  It was scary to think that I wanted to go against convention and try a different healing path.  I remember feeling really concerned about being criticised and made to look reckless and irresponsible because my choices were unconventional. But something inside me was convincing me that this was the right path for me even though most of the people around me disagreed.

It was from that point onwards that I was truly convinced I was going to try and discover as much information as I could and become my own “Food Is Medicine” experiment to see whether I really could heal myself without the use of prescribed drugs.

Over the next few years my health improved dramatically with food and nutrition being one of the major components of my recovery.  I also found that healing my gut, lowering inflammation in my body, taking up gentle exercise and doing a daily meditation played an important role in my overall health too.

When Food Matters asked me to be a part of their affiliate program I was really excited because James Colquhoun actually wrote the forward in my first recipe book Supercharged Food, and I was such a big fan of he and Laurentine because of the profound effect they had on opening my eyes to a new way of life. 

Hungry for Change is the next book and DVD from the makers of Food Matters and it unravels the clever marketing ploys that the diet, weight-loss and food industries use to keep us coming back for more.  It shows us how we are made to think we are eating ‘healthy’ and ‘nutritious’ food when really what we are being offered is disguised food with minimal to no nutritional value at all. Nutrients from real food – vegetables, fruits and good fats are what enable us to heal from the inside out. These nutrients can’t be obtained from processed foods on a supermarket shelf but from real food grown with no chemicals and pesticides, in our own gardens, absorbing the shine of the sun, raindrops and the minerals from clean soil.

If you’re interested in finding more out about Hungry for Change which will really have you questioning the nutritional values of every packet you pick up off a supermarket shelf, every advertisement you see on TV or in a magazine then you can watch the Hungry for Change DVD here or read the Hungry for Change recipe book here.

Nourish your body with real food and your body will nourish you.

Thank you for reading my story, you can read my books by visiting my bookshelf here.

Happy cooking,

Lee xo

Photography by Kristy Plumridge

I love these muffins because not only do they taste delicious, they use the natural sweetness of carrots paired with the incredible antioxidant properties of lemon zest.  It's my second diabetic friendly recipe as part of the eftpos Giveback Campaign for Diabetes Australia.  If you have a favourite healthy recipe you'd like to share, you can submit yours here.

I’ve been using spinach in my dessert recipes a lot lately, remember THAT spinach ice cream?

Using spinach in dessert recipes offers up a healthy dose of iron just when you need it.  I’ve found that one of the best ways to keep on top of my auto immune disease is to make sure my iron levels are topped up and to follow an anti-inflammatory diet.

At the Inflammation Research Foundation, in Massachusetts, USA, Dr. Barry Sears is continuing his ongoing research into treating diabetes and believes that obesity and type 2 diabetes are strongly associated with increased inflammation. As the inflammation in adipose tissue increases, this becomes a strong driving force for the development of increased systemic inflammation that results in metabolic syndrome, eventually followed by the development of overt type 2. He believes that potential reversal of both conditions can be achieved by reducing the levels of inflammation through the use of an anti-inflammatory diet. You can watch him chatting about the realities of obesity and diabetes here.  (more…)

A nourishing salad fit for a busy family is what I am going to share with you today.

Beetroots, carrots and fresh herbs appear to be the biggest culprits for left over fridge remnant veggies – anecdotal evidence I have managed to cultivate among many people I chat to about healthy eating and food waste. 

While the best part of my job is helping people take control of their kitchen choices, I’m not a big fan of wasting food and will do anything to save a veggie from the trash can.

And so this recipe, a delicious Carrot, Beetroot and Pear Salad is the perfect example of roasting on the edge vegetables and still getting a great result.

A sweet, satisfying medley of cooked veggies, roasted in the oven with an array of medicinal spices and offset with the crispness of a beautiful pear. Again, any chopped root veggie could be used here – my preference is for beetroot and carrot for their natural sweetness.

Apart from their innate sweetness, I love carrot and beetroot for their grounding properties. I believe in ayurvedic philosophy and their eating principles definitely ring true for me, especially when it comes to food and mood. (more…)