Home-Made baked beans

Beanz Meanz Health… Beans are no longer consigned for those on a budget or a dorm room favourite for many hard working uni students. Easy to whip up in the morning as part of a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, nitrate-free bacon and Stuffed Tomatoes or as a snack on top of freshly baked Spinach Bread or slices of Gluten Free Nut Loaf the bean is back with all its robustness.

Did you know that home-cooked baked beans are surprisingly packed with nutrients? They’re an excellent source of fibre, helping you to maintain a healthy digestive system and contain high amounts of soluble fibre, which slows digestion and binds toxins, drawing them out of the body. Not only are they high in fibre, they boast a slew of vitamins (B vitamins in particular) and are loaded with folate and iron, an excellent choice for people with low iron and expectant mothers.

If you’re planning on purchasing the store bought variety, freshness is something that is lacking in the tin cans standing to attention on supermarket shelves.  You’ll find high levels of sodium and sugar and lost are the nutrients and vitamins you would ordinarily obtain from using dry beans. The good news is, with minimal effort, you can gain back the bean and incorporate it into your hearty breakfast just by following these few simple steps.

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(Makes 2 cups)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup almonds
• ¼ cup walnuts
• ¼ cup cashews
• ¼ cup pepitas
• ¼ cup coconut flakes
• Pinch nutmeg 1.5 gms
• Pinch cinnamon 1.5 gms
• 2 TBS cacao nibs
• 3 TBS goji berries or dried white mulberries (optional)
• ¼ cup caramelized ACV (recipe *)
• 1 tsp alcohol free vanilla essence

Method:

• Set oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius
• Place almonds, walnuts, cashews, pepitas in a mixing bowl (nuts can be pre-soaked)
• Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir
• Add vanilla essence and caramelized ACV and stir to mix
• Place in a baking dish
• Bake in middle shelf of oven for 20 minutes
• Stir after 10 mins, add coconut flakes and correct flavours
• You may need to bake for another 5 mins for further caramelisation
• Remove and let cool then add mulberries/goji berries and cacao nibs
• Place in sealed container ready for your next adventure

Caramelized ACV (recipe *)

• 1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp powdered stevia or 20 drops liquid stevia (plus extra depending upon sweetness required)

Happy Snacking!

When fruit cravings happen, berries and bananas are a good choice as they are rich in vitamins.  Banana's wonderfully sweet, creamy flesh, and the fact that they’re perfectly packaged by nature in their own yellow jacket leaves me simply smitten. Whether baking, mashing, blending them into a scrumptious smoothie or a remarkable raw dessert, or simply enjoying them straight from the skin; bananas are a brilliant sweet treat to work with in the kitchen, and they’ll reward you by working wonders on your health, and renovating your body into a sanctuary of wellness.

Bananas are one of the highest sources of vitamin B6 you can eat, and provide impressive amounts of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and manganese. Vitamin B6 is a vital nutrient that helps with the production of several neurotransmitters; chemicals that carry signals from one nerve cell to another. B6 is therefore needed for normal brain development and function, and helps to make the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine, which influence mood; and melatonin, which helps to keep your body clock in top order.     (more…)

I have been enjoying the luxury of delicious pre-organised meals this past week! The team at Dietlicious have kept my hunger at bay whilst detoxing my insides as I made my way through their 5-day dietician designed Cleansing Diet Program. I’ll give you a little snapshot of the scrummy meals I was indulging in whilst on the program! On day one I began with a cleansing lemon in water, followed by a Watermelon, mint and acai smoothie. My chicken tagine with quinoa for lunch was proceeded by a nutritious nut and seed mix and I was give a box of lovely fresh seasonal fruit to choose from for an afternoon snack with ginger tea. My dinner for day 1 was a Thai red tofu curry with stir fry vegetables, followed by a piece of fruit as a healthy alternative to a fat-laden dessert.

The Cleanse Program is preservative, additive, dairy, wheat and red meat free and the meals come pre-packaged for convenience. Although you all know I absolutely love to cook, it was a really welcome change to have a quick and easy nutritious meal ready to go. The Cleanse program is only one of the various meal plans on offer and you can personalize the plans so that they are targeted specifically to your needs.  

Dietlicious was launched by Janel Horton and her company Gourmet Dinner Service in 2011 and continues to be one of the leading Meal Delivery services in Australia.

I would really recommend Dietlicious for anyone time-poor and looking for a healthy alternative to those salt and preservative-laden meals found in the frozen meal section of the supermarket. 

Mixed Leaf Seeded Salad with Cashew Nut Mayo

Move over apples, I think the age old saying needs to be re-written to “a SALAD a day keeps the doctor away”.  I know that whenever I’m feeling a little under the weather, if my body feels a tad on the acidic side, or if I can sense a bug coming on; a beautiful, colourful, crunchy salad is the perfect pick-me-up.

If you don’t include at least one raw salad into your day, now’s the time to start. Millions of people, especially in the western world, eat diets that are dominated by packaged, lifeless, additive, and sugar filled foods. When illness arrives (which will inevitably happen with this kind of lifestyle), the answer is generally some form of pharmaceutical medicine. But eating a diet that is plentiful in raw veggies in a range of colours is probably one of the cheapest forms of medicine; both preventative, and in many cases curative, that you could ever access; minus the side effects!

The wonderful thing about salads, is that they’re quick, easy, and have the potential to be one of the most delicious meals you’ve ever devoured. Don’t for a second think that salads have to be a drab, flavour-less experience; you can mix and match, or add and subtract a multitude of components to get the exact blend of flavours for your own personal taste. You can also add nuts and seeds to give it some protein and bulk your spectacular salad up into a satisfying lunch or dinner. Also, concocting your own delicious dressings, whether creamy, zingy or sweet, is so much more satisfying than any of those watery supermarket creations that are designed to survive longer than the average human! (more…)

The perfect winter salad

This recipe is legen...wait for it...dary.  I absolutely adore pumpkins, and they’re really going off at this time of year. Whenever I’m blessed enough to have one of these golden girls at home, the first thing that comes to mind is pumpkin soup. But there are so many other possibilities with this versatile wonder vegetable, and limiting it to a standard soup, or even a jack o’ lantern isn’t giving this vegetable the recognition it deserves.

Pumpkins are one of my favourite veggies, because they’re so sumptuously sweet and oh-so comforting. In the cooler months that’s all you really want right? Something that’s going to fire off your senses, but also give you that big hearty cuddle that wholesome cooked veggies can bring. A raw salad is often the last thing you want to dig into in the middle of an icy, wearisome day. It can sometimes feel like a punishment having to dig your teeth into such a crunchy, cold concoction. When the warm weather hits, sure; bring on the raw, juicy, cold veggies. Pile them on high. But when the cooler months arrive, you need something a little bit more welcoming; and a bit of gorgeous, glowing, roasted pumpkin can really make the difference. (more…)