Cauliflower Rice

You may have heard of cauliflower rice and perhaps had the thought, "what the..???"

I'm here to tell you it is delicious AND on the whole, better for you than regular rice, especially for keeping blood sugar balanced.

Rice is a starchy carbohydrate, and like bread, pasta & potatoes, has received a bit of a bad rap in the past few years.

Let me explain a little about that.

Starchy carbs are ones that your body converts to glucose very easily give you a blood sugar spike, causing your pancreas releases insulin to bring down blood glucose.

This drop in blood sugar from high to normal can leave you feeling sluggish and sometimes hungry again - what most people describe as 'low blood sugar'. 
It's not low, it's the dramatic drop that causes this feeling

Insulin is a fat storage hormone, so any extra energy will be easily stored as fat.
Eating to keep blood sugar more stable is becoming more important as more of our population is affected by metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes.

This recipe is an easy substitution for rice and is delicious with stir-fry.

1/2 head of cauliflower, grated or processed

1/2 red capsicum, diced

1 small broccoli head, sectioned & steamed

1 handful of green beans, steamed

1 cup frozen peas

1 tbspn olive oil

Pre-heat a large pan, medium heat with olive oil and add the cauliflower.

Stir for a couple of minutes and add the other vegetables.

Cook until vegetables have softened and serve as you would rice.

Simply Eat

I enjoy cooking.

I also enjoy eating, so I'm always on the look out for tasty, healthy recipes that are pretty easy to make.

My favourite are meals that can be batch-cooked & freeze well or which take less than 20 minutes to get on the table.

My exception to quick meals is Monday Roast, where I have a slow roast cooking most of the day while I Get Stuff Done.

Pop the veggies in an hour before it's ready & it feels like I've gone to trouble; the bonus is I have leftover meat for lunches the rest of the week!

I'm not really one for sticking precisely to recipes either. 

I make do and adapt to what I have or taste preferences and I encourage you to creative in the kitchen too.

Here's some easy-peasy recipes you may also enjoy...

Flu-Fighting Chicken soup - adaptations include beef instead of chicken, sriracha sauce instead of chillies because that what I had in the pantry.

Winter Soups - from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Healthy Burgers - get the kids involved with this one - so tasty!

Best Breakfast - get 3 veggies in your brekkie omelette and feel great.

Spinach & Ricotta Pie - I made my own pastry for this one & it's also vegan

Chicken Stir Fry - so easy & fun to see how many veggies you can get into it!

Potato Salad - did you know that cooked & cooled potatoes have a much more beneficial effect on both blood glucose and gut bacteria? Plus this is delish 

Sensational Salads - these take 10 minutes each & are a great addition to any meal.


Bon appetite! 

Chicken & Spuds a’la Hobbs

My beautiful friend Shellee Hobbs gave me this recipe, it’s easy and delicious.
It doesn’t take too much effort & is such a hearty winter warmer or dinner party hit that feels like you went to So Much Trouble!

Ingredients:

6-8 chicken thighs, skin on
3 red capsicums
5 red onions
2 heads of garlic, separated & skin on
Dried & fresh thyme

Method:

Marinate chicken in a few teaspoons of dried thyme, olive oil, salt flakes & pepper
(I use a large ziplock bag to smoosh all the ingredients together to coat the chicken)

Part boil the spuds till they start to split.
Chop up capsicums & onions into wedges.

Drain spuds & once cool enough to squish with your hands, throw in a bit of butter & salt.

Place spuds in a roasting pan, chuck in capsicum, onion & garlic.
Drizzle with oil and place chicken & fresh thyme on top.

Bake at 200 degrees for an hour, drizzling pan juices over the top halfway through.
Serve with steamed greens & enjoy!

Winter Soup Recipes

Soup is the perfect winter meal.
These delicious soups from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program are easy to make and a hit with kids and adults alike.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

25g butter
I leek, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 bay leaf
1/2 cauliflower, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled & chopped
750ml vegetable stock
500ml milk
150ml cream
4 - 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed from stalks
salt & pepper

Method:

Melt butter in a saucpan over low heat.
Add the leek, garlic, thyme & bay leaf and cook 5 - 8 minutes until leek has softened.
Add the cauliflower, potato, stock & milk and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat until cauliflower and potato are soft.
Remove from heat and blend until smooth.
Add cream, slat and pepper to taste.


Pumpkin and Apple Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 butternut pumpkin, chopped into small cubes
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
1 green apple, peeled and sliced
1 litre vegetable stock  
1 tablespoon butter

Method:

In a deep pot, fry onion in butter until golden.
Add pumpkin, apple and vegetable stock - boil until soft.
Blend and serve.


Enjoy!

 

Tasty Tomatoes & Gorgeous Garlic

These two recipes can be cooked together in the same oven, slowly roasting over an hour, leaving you free to do something fun and have roasted tomatoes & sweet garlic that store in the fridge for a week.




Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Pre heat your oven to about 120C and put some baking paper on a tray for the tomatoes.

Ingredients:
1kg of tomatoes (I use the cheapest I can find, as the end result is still delicious)

4 - 5 cloves of fresh garlic, finely chopped

fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon of olive oil

a pinch of salt


Method:

Slice tomatoes in half, remove the flesh and place on the baking tray, skin down

In each tomato half, sprinkle some garlic, and a basil leaf

Drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle salt over the entire tray


Slow Roasted Garlic

Ingredients:

2 - 3 garlic bulbs (yes, the entire bulb)
Olive oil

Method:

Place each garlic bulb into a square of cooking foil & drizzle with olive oil

Seal the foil into a ball and place into oven pre-heated as for tomatoes.

Remove both tomatoes and garlic from the oven after an hour, leave to cool and chop tomatoes and store in an air-tight container.

Squeeze garlic out of cloves into an air-tight container and they will both keep well for a week, saving time while adding flavour to your dishes all week long.

Sensational Salads

This gorgeous spring weather has inspired me to get out and about with my family, riding bikes, swimming and running around in our local park.

Top Tip: if you have kids and want a cardio boost, start a game of chasey, you'll have fun & get a quick burst of exercise as well.

I'm also looking forward to summer for the great range of fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season, most of which can be included in a salad.

Salad does not have to be boring, tasteless or as a side to your main meal; a salad can be a meal in itself, especially if losing body fat and keeping blood glucose levels stable are among your health goals.

You can include as many vegetables as you like and be sure to top with a handful of lean protein as well like beans, lean meat, canned tuna or salmon, or tofu to ensure nutritional balance in your meal.

Start with salad leaves or spinach as a base, chop up some crunchy veggies like cucumber, capsicum, celery, snow peas, green beans or spring onions and sprinkle them generously over the leaves.

Tomatoes of all shapes & sizes add juicy flavor, especially if you use this recipe.

Grated carrot is gives a lovely sweet flavour and added to shredded cabbage, with some natural yoghurt mixed through, makes a wonderful coleslaw. Supermarkets usually have a pre-made coleslaw bag and pre-washed leaves in the salad section, saving you time.

Lightly cook some veggies like carrots, green beans to soften them slightly and keep them in the fridge to use later, but a good general principle is to go for as much color as you can for maximum taste and nutritional value.

Spring and Summer are the perfect seasons to lighten your load at dinner time and get adventurous with your salad selections.

Nourish Yourself

What is your criteria for deciding what you will eat?

Is it convenience? cost? taste? health? energy requirements? or do you just reach for the first thing you can find?

Choosing foods that are nourishing, rather than merely filling, are just as easy, inexpensive and quick as a "fast-food" option, giving myriad macro nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fats) and micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals), for your body to rebuild and repair itself.

As mentioned previously on this blog, fresh food is best for your body and your mind.

Eating an orange, banana or other fruit, rather than reaching for a processed, sugary snack, gives you a great tasting snack and important vitamins and fibre, as well as water, protein, carbohydrate, sugar, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, folate, vitamin A, vitamin C and B group vitamins.

How do you feel when you eat?

Emotional eating is “the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions”. (1)
Studies have indicated that anxiety leads to decreased food consumption in people with normal weight and increased food consumption in the obese.

Many laboratory studies showed that overweight individuals are more emotionally reactive and are more likely to overeat when distressed than people of normal weight.

Also, it was consistently found that obese individuals experience negative emotions more frequently and more intensively than do normal weight persons. (2)

One study compared the emotional reactivity and emotional eating of normal and overweight female college students. The study confirmed the tendency of obese individuals to overeat, but these findings applied only to snacks, not to meals. That means that obese individuals did not tend to eat more while having meals – rather, the amount of snacks they ate between meals was greater.

One possible explanation is that obese individuals often eat their meals with others and do not eat more than average due to the reduction of distress because of the presence of other people. Another possible explanation would be that obese individuals do not eat more than the others while having meals due to social desirability. Conversely, snacks are usually eaten alone. (2)

Eat when you are calm, think about how this food will nourish you and really let yourself enjoy the experience of eating healthy food.

1 Eldredge, K. L., & Agras, W. S. (1994). Weight and Shape Overconcern and Emotional Eating in Binge Eating Disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19 (1), 73-82.
2 Lowe, M. R., & Fisher, E. B. Jr. (1983). Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Eating, and Obesity: A Naturalistic Study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 6 (2), 135-149.