Spinach and chickpea curry

This recipe is delicious and is quick to make and can be adapted for fasting depending on whether you add coconut milk.

SERVES 2-3

INGREDIENTS

1 tin of chopped tomatoes – 22 calories

1 can of chickpeas – 151 calories

1/2 can of coconut milk (leave out if you are fasting) – 310 calories

2 tsp of mild curry powder – 12 calories

1 onion – 40 calories

100g of spinach 30 calories

METHOD

Fry the onion in some olive or coconut oil until tender and add the curry powder.

Then add the tomatoes and reduce down for about five minutes.  You may need to add some more water.

If you are using coconut milk add half a tin and reduce down for a further five minutes before adding the spinach.

If you are on a fast day leave out the coconut milk and add the spinach after reducing down the tomatoes. You may need to adjust how long you reduce down the tomatoes depending on how moist you like your food if you are leaving out the coconut milk.

If you prefer more of a kick you can add some chilli flakes before serving.

I have this with quiona which is a nice alternative to rice.

 

 

All Hail the Kale

I love kale, but I love kale chips even more.  Kale is very good for you.  It is a good source of iron, calcium, vitamins A, K and C and is an anti-inflammatory food, so is a great food for those on a plant based diet. I used to work near InSpiral in Camden so had kale chips on tap.  I recently invested in a dehydrator after hankering after one for many years.  My first recipe had to be kale chips, and I have to say these ‘cheese’ and onion kale chips are delicious.  In fact I could eat these all day every day and as such the dehydrator has been running almost on a daily basis.

4 tbls of tahini

Juice of half a lemon

Filtered water

1/4 tsp of salt

4 tbls of nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp of onion powder

1 bag or large bunch of kale.  I use curly kale.

I have found obtaining bunches of kale quite difficult as all the shops and supermarkets near me seem to sell in it bags already chopped up.  If you can get the kale in bunches that is the best option.  The second best option from my experience is the Waitrose curly kale in bags.  The Waitrose kale isn’t chopped up too finely and you don’t get too much of the woody stem.  So for either option remove the stem from the middle of the kale or any of the stem that still remains on the bagged kale.

Wash and dry the kale.  It is important that the kale is as dry as possible so that the dressing will stick. Do not skip on this step.

In a large bowl mix the lemon juice with the tahini.  The mixture will become quite thick so you need to add some water to thin out the mixture until it resembles the texture of salad cream or slightly thinner.

Add the nutritional yeast, salt and onion powder.  If this is too thick that add some more water. You can adjust these ingredients to your liking, but I found too much onion powder makes the mixture taste bitter.

Add the kale to the bowl and give it a good mix.  Use your hands to mix as you get more of an even coating.

Then dehydrate at 115 degrees on the screen for eight hours. Make sure they are laid out so they are not layered on top of each other and have plenty of room to dry out.

If you want to do these in the oven then make sure as above you lay them out so that they are not layered on top of each other so that they dry out. If not you will end up with soggy kale chips. Place on parchment paper and cook for about 11 minutes at 300 degrees.  Check after about eight minutes to make sure they are not burning.

You can use the cashew cream dressing from the 4th March to dress the kale before baking or dehydrating.  The smoked paprika gives it a nice flavour.

Enjoy. Try not to eat them all at once.

This is a good healthy snack when you are not on a fast day.  As you will see from my initial attempts on the 5:2 path, I ruined all the good work by eating badly on my non fast days.  It is important to have balance, so on your non fast days, try to gravitate towards healthy options rather than something that just will undo everything you are aiming for by fasting.

Roasted Vegetables with Cashew Cream Dressing

Food always tastes so much better with a good dressing.  I love the dressing they use on the salads at InSpiral Lounge (still trying to work out the recipe). When you are following a sugar free path you need to increase the amount of fat in your diet, I do that by using dressings made with nuts.  Here is a savoury cashew nut dressing that goes well with salads.  You can adjust the amounts to suit your preference.

1 cup of cashew nuts soaked for about four hours.

Filtered water

1/4 tsp of salt.

2 tbls of nutritional yeast (I use the marigold brand)

1 tsp smoked paprika

Rinse the soaked cashew nuts and place in a blender.  Add filtered water so that it covers the nuts with about an inch of water on top of the nuts.  Blend together.  You may want to add more water depending on how thick you want the consistency to be.

Once you are happy with the consistency add the rest of the ingredients and blend again.

This will last a couple of days in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also use as a dressing for kale chips.

Chia Seed Pudding

Okay, why would anyone want to eat something that looks like frog spawn.  Well, chia seeds are good for you and done right can taste good too.  For those of us on the sugar free/low fructose path breakfast can be a challenge.  Chia seed pudding fills the gap nicely.  Chia seeds are a good source of omega 3 and calcium and are also good for the heart and can boost the immune system.  More on the benefits of chia seeds can be found here:

http://www.healwithfood.org/studies/chia-seeds-good-for-you.php

There are many different recipes for chia seed pudding but the following is one that I enjoy.

4 tbls of chia seeds – 68 calories per tablespoon = 272

1.5 cups of almond milk. Make sure this is unsweetened = 60 calories

1 tbs of cinnamon.  Cinnamon has been shown to regulate blood sugar = 6 calories

A handful of berries – 100g of raspberries = 30 calories

If you want something sweeter than the above add 1tbs of rice syrup or to required taste.  I find that with the cinnamon and berries this does not need to be sweetened.

1 jam jar.

Put the chia seeds in the jam jar and add the almond milk.  Put the lid on the jam jar and shake really well.  I find the Beatles Twist and Shout is a good record to shake to.  Shake the jar for a minute or two and if there are seeds stuck to the bottom of the jar then stir and shake again.  You will know when you have shaken enough as the chia seeds will be suspended evenly in the liquid.  Then refrigerate for a couple of hours or over night.  Then add some berries and enjoy.

Roasted pumpkin, kale and lentil salad with tahini dressing

I have had a pumpkin hanging around my kitchen since Halloween.  I bought it from the Slindon pumpkin festival and was looking for something to do with it.

http://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/events/slindon-pumpkin-festival-p652031

I decided to put a few of my favourite ingredients together to create this pumpkin, kale and lentil salad.  There is enough here to feed three to four people.

1 cup of puy lentils

bunch of kale

Handful of cherry tomatoes e.g 6-8

One medium red onion

4 garlic cloves

Dressing – 3 tbls of tahini plus garlic and lemon

Cut the pumpkin in to quarters and roast for about 40 minutes on a high heat until the skin starts to blacken. For more information on roasting a pumpkin see here:

http://www.elanaspantry.com/how-to-roast-a-pumpkin-in-10-steps/

In the meantime cook the lentils.  They will take about 20 minutes to cook.  Leave to cool.

After about 20 minutes of roasting the pumpkin, put the onion, tomatoes and garlic in to roast.  I use coconut oil to roast them in.

In the meantime prepare the tahini dressing. I added two garlic cloves and the juice from half a lemon.  This salad tastes just as nice with plain tahini, but if like  garlic then this is a nice extra.

Steam the kale, this should take about six minutes.

Remove the pumpkin from the oven and cut into pieces. The skin should fall away.  Then add all the ingredients together and mix in the tahini dressing.

I also added a few chilli flakes for an extra kick, but this is not necessary.

For those on a 5:2 day this can be adapted to remove some of the calories

50g of lentils = 158 calories

100g of red onion = 38 calories

100g of tomato = 20 calories

100g of kale = 33 calories

100g of pumpkin = 40 calories

Add a small drizzle of olive oil and some chilli flakes and you can have a meal in the region of 300 calories.

Enjoy

I’ll have a pea please Bob!

So one of the challenges of taking the sugar free path is breakfast.  Why not eat fruit I hear you say, well fruit contains fructose which is also sugar.  So while not completely abstaining from fruit, I need to be careful about how much I consume in order not to blow my daily allowance of 25g of fructose.  A medium apple contains on average 13g of sugar so that would be half my daily allowance.  I would rather have a cup (110g) of raspberries, which contain 2.8g of fructose.

One of the breakfasts I do have is a pea protein smoothie, while not being the most delicious thing you have ever tasted, in fact lets say it is an acquired taste, it will keep you full for a long time.  I have had this in the morning and not even thought about eating until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so if you are on a 5:2 day, it will use a lot of your calories, but will keep you going. So if you want to give it a try here goes:

Half a cup of frozen berries – approx 30 calories

1.5 cups of almond milk. If using shop bought make sure it is sugar free.  This recipe tastes nicer with home made almond milk – approx 72 calories

40g serving of pea protein – 150 calories

1 teaspoon of sugar free nut butter – approx 50 calories.

Blend and enjoy (well try to)

You’re the one for me fatty!

Yes I am absolutely coco loco for everything coconut.  I use coconut oil for cooking, in recipes instead of butter and as a moisturiser for my hands and face. It is also good for removing make up too and is a vegan alternative to using chemical laden products.

There are now a raft of coconut products including the amazing Co Yo coconut yoghurts and ice cream.  The yoghurts contain Xylitol instead of sugar. The vanilla flavour is especially good. So if you are craving sugar eating something with fat will help curb those cravings and these yoghurts while not cheap certainly hit the spot.

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

When I developed an overactive thyroid I was not allowed to exercise.  Very strange for someone who loves to exercise.  Yes I am one of those strange people that does not mind getting on a gym kit and moving. I have now been given the all clear to exercise so in order to ease myself back into fitness I have been rebounding. “Rebounding, what is that?” I hear you say, well it is jumping around on a mini trampoline.  I love to put on my favourite tracks and jump around.  It is FUN and very beneficial.  NASA has described rebounding as “the most efficient and effective exercise yet devised by man”.  Find out more about the benefits here:

http://www.juicemaster.com/rebounding-Guide-JuiceMaster

If you are planning on investing on a rebounder make sure you invest in a good model otherwise you will be doing more harm than good.  I have a Bellicon rebounder that has bungee ropes rather than springs making it quiet to use with a great bounce.

It has been a while

So I have not blogged for some time.  But now I am back.  Looking back at my previous posts I can see there are far too many images of cake and wow how my diet has evolved since  I last posted.  My blog moving forward will be a mixture of 5:2 vegan recipes and sugar free options.  Since I last posted I have had problems with my thyroid, which was tough going.  My energy levels crashed and I had to deal with symptoms such as anxiety, palpitations, the shakes, shaky voice, lack of strength.  All very strange for someone that is so used to being very fit and healthy.  My thyroid was over active so I lost weight.  At first, rather than overhaul my diet and eat healthy food, I used the thyroid as an excuse to eat more cake.  Then I took myself in hand and at first cut out sugar and gluten.  After seeing a specialist I have had to reduce my fructose intake, eat more fat and cut out grains.  So now lentils and quiona (quiona is a seed) are my best friend.  It seems that the zeitgeist has joined me on my journey and there has been no ending TV programmes and newspaper articles about the evils of sugar and then I came across “I Quit Sugar” by Sarah Wilson who has the same issues as me.  My thyroid is over active, hers was to begin with, but then became under active.

http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/

Sarah’s blog is very inspirational and visually inspiring.

So how do I feel.  Well since cutting out sugar I have more energy, I feel fuller so am not eating as much.  I will put this down to eating more fat. I am not craving sweet food, and feel perfectly satisfied when I eat.  As for my weight, I have lost weight and this isn’t just due to the thyroid as my levels are now in the normal range. My once tight jeans are hanging off me, even when wearing a belt.  I still believe in fasting as I do believe there are so many benefits to giving the body a rest.  Giving the body time to work on repair rather than using energy to digest.  I was not able to fast while my thyroid was over active as the body is in overdrive.  So if you are thinking about removing sugar from your diet and want something satisfying and filling try the following:

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

One large avocado or two smaller avocados

1/4 cup of raw cacao powder (available in good health food shops)

1tbls rice syrup

Blend together and enjoy.  You can experiment with this by adding some coconut cream about 1/4 cup and chia seeds if you want a boost of omega 3.

100g of avocado has 193 calories.  1 tablespoon of rice syrup contains 55 calories.  1/4 cup of cacao 240 calories.  So not one for a fast day unless you are only going to consume this. The thing I did wrong when doing the 5:2 previously was to eat loads of junk on non fast days instead of eating sensibly.  If you want to succeed you can’t use your non fast days as an excuse to eat junk.

Rice syrup is a good substitute for sugar as it is slow releasing.  Make sure the ingredients are rice and water and nothing else has been added. Clearspring is a good brand.

If you do decide to cut down or remove sugar from your diet, be prepared to feel rough for a while.  I felt like I had jet lag for a few days before getting an energy rush and then an enormous sense of well being.

Week 12

Wow, hard to believe that I am twelve weeks in with this diet.  I weight has remained pretty stable, moving between 8 stone 9lbs and 9 stone.  Now the sunshine has arrived, I feel more inclined to eat more healthily on non fast days, but that isn’t to say cake hasn’t been part of the equation this week.  On my first fast day I had miso soup for lunch and then for dinner I had broccoli, asparagus and boiled potatoes.  On my second fast day I had miso soup for lunch and in the evening after getting home late from work I only had a soya yogurt.  I ended the week weighing 8 stone 9lbs.

Rather than a picture of broccoli, I thought I would share a picture of cake.  This was made on a very hot day so the icing was melting. The sponge and frosting recipe came from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.