Today is Pancake Day. It’s a day which always makes me wonder why we don’t eat pancakes more often. They are so simple and versatile. Here’s an idea for something a little different. I have chosen this Japanese street food dish to share with you as traditional food from this part of the world is generally fresh and healthy; and something I always give focus to in my Longevity Nutrition workshops.
Read moreLovely Body Positive
Keeping inspired whilst recovering from an Eating Disorder is crucial. That little voice over your shoulder that whispers 'you can do it' needs to be constantly nourished with a drip feed of 'lovely body positive' commentary. This phrase I'm using - Lovely Body Positive - is all the more powerful as it comes from one of the Recover Clinic (ED clinic in Brighton) clients who provided me with a list of positive online role-models.
Read moreLight and Lovely Sunday Mushrooms with Mozzarella
I recently came across a recipe for Mushroom and Mozzarella burgers which involves oven baking a large field mushroom adding a slice of mozzarella and popping into a bun with home-made tomato salsa. And yes, as much as I love the idea of the slippery mozzarella sitting so snuggly alongside an equally slippery mushroom I felt it was a shame to put this in a bun as you may well lose the beauty of all the textures amidst a lot of grainy density.
So here is my version, which would indeed work well alongside a hunk of sourdough bread, however I feel the mushroom need to take centre stage
Read moreResolutions or not?
Bit bored of hearing about whether or not New Year resolutions are any good. A Daily Mail headline includes ‘Experts say keep them realistic and expect small changes’. Hardly hopeful, are there really experts on New Year’s Resolutions?
Read moreLet it go, let it go, let it go!
She grimaced at the sound of Grandad arriving armed with presents, a large wedge of Stilton and a bottle of Baileys. It was the moment she'd been dreading since waking up that morning.
It was Christmas day; a day which should be joyful and merry. Actually she felt entirely hateful and ... merry maybe, but only in that the morning had started with a large sherry. Having struggled through two hours of unwrapping presents, she felt herself even more wrapped up in layers of guilt and confusion. Lunch lay ahead with all its indulgent chaos.
While the nation relaxed, ate and shared laughter, she felt so alone. No-one understood.
Read moreHappy Little Eaters part 1
I'd like to share my thoughts on encouraging those dear but pesky little neophobic children that are present in most kitchens around the country to be happy little eaters.
I don't have all the answers of course but having worked in the world of nutrition, hosting 'Taste Explorer' and 'Fussy Eating' courses and working on child weight schemes for a while now and having two of these small types myself I do have a few ideas of what might work!
Neophobia is the fear of the new. Those who study evolution have traced back and linked this fear of new food in toddlers down to the necessity of selecting non-poisonous berries and plants all those centuries ago.
Doesn't help hey when your child is hurling broccoli trees at you in unbridled disgust! What does help is remaining composed and having thought through your own strategies to deal with such behaviour.
Go Go Go with the Avocado
How do we give ourselves permission to eat after years of restriction?
This is a post not only for those recovering from an eating disorder, but anyone who has over the years banned a certain food from their lives and turned it into a guilty pleasure. This may be due to media brain-washing, family role-modelling, a desperate desire to avoid weight gain or an embedded obsession. The fact is, we should be able to eat a little bit of what we fancy without beating ourselves up about it. Not always as easy as it sounds. So this post considers how we may go about making peace with these foods
Read moreMaking Peace with Food
In my work both at The Recover Clinic in Brighton (a private clinic which offers clients with eating disorders a holistic approach to recovery) and with private weight loss clients, I often focus on working towards establishing intuition around food. This may have been lost over time, repressed by negative thoughts or overcome by constant and confusing media messages.
Read moreLongevity Muffins
According to the Blue Zones researches, only 20% of your potential to live a long life is down to your genes and the other 80% is to do with your environment. For those not familiar with Blue Zones research, this is research conducted on the areas of the world with the greatest longevity – called The Blue Zones. These hot spots include Okinawa (the Japanese Hawaii), Sardinia (Italy); Nicoya (Costa Rica); Icaria (Greece); and among the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California. The studies offer an explanation, based on empirical data and first hand observations, as to why these populations live healthier and longer.
Read moreHome-grown hummus
It’s a rainy day so a good time to create dishes without feeling like you are missing out (FOMO gets everywhere).
Last month I was gifted a large amount of home-grown vegetables. Included in the midst was a bag of cannellini beans. I love the process of shelling peas and beans, especially out in the garden under a big summer sky. It reminds me of childhood so I like to re-enact this with my own kids, feels like history repeating itself in the best way; quality time spent together in a simple act of growing stuff.
Read moreComfort Food on a Cloudy Day
It’s not the end of summer but ‘tis feeling a little autumnal. Having had a welcome supply of freshly grown vegetables from visiting relatives I feel the urge to cook something warming but not too wintry. Onion soup – whether it’s French or from where-ever doesn’t really matter – loads of flavour, lots of anti-oxidants, high in vitamin C and fibre. A welcome change from salad and a great way to use up the meat broth cooked up from the last BBQ.
Read moreKeep Cool with Melon Ice
It's hot, hot, hot. Tempting to head for the ice-cream van but there are plenty of cooling options that may well hit the spot.
My current favourite is melon ice. Whizz up half a honeydew melon, a handful of seedless green grapes, juice from half a lime and add enough crushed ice and water to make a juicy consistency.
Not only delicious but you could be cutting around 25 g of sugar by avoiding that Vanilla cone.
French Style Cooking
Tricky times - it’s hard to know what to do in the face of such utterly shocking news. Be calm, resolute, eat, live.
A dish in support of French culture, a recipe received today from my French host and superb chef, Sylvianne, after a trip to Avignon last month.
Read moreMother and Child
“She squinted upwards to make out the image of the stained glass above. Mary, clothed in swaths of brilliant blue raised her hands, nervously it seemed, as her child was passed to her. The large upstretched hands fascinated Sylvie. They were clumsy and inexperienced, placed awkwardly in a gesture of hesitancy.
Joseph stood in the background his presence seeming merely incidental. His face held an anguished expression. Parenthood: this was clearly a colossal undertaking”.
This is a quotation from the first chapter of Balloon Girl (available as an e-book on Amazon http://amzn.to/29rZNV6)
Read moreSlow Down you Move too Fast
A 10 ten road trip through France last month proved pretty spectacular in many ways. Driving 1500 miles in an MX5 with your dad, may for some be a test of resilience and patience. But no, what I experienced was warmth, laughter, a passion for the wide empty road and complete tolerance of my loud singing to Fleetwood Mac and Simon & Garfunkel.
Read moreBalloon Girl by Belle Amatt
Spot the difference between these images. The image below fits our expectations as ‘heroine of our novel’. She floats so effortlessly with her fragile frame, her tiny arm gripping so tightly to the balloons. There is something so delicate and vulnerable about the Balloon Girl in this print.
But she is not our heroine, for Sylvie is an over-weight child who is intrigued and tormented by the print which hangs on the wall in her room. She wishes that she could float away so boundless and free.
Read moreSunny Sweetcorn Summer Yum
Pre-schoolers and young schoolers can be tricky to feed at times; maintaining that five a day may require a certain level of creativity.
Whilst reading the brilliant Blue Zones newsletter I came across some research which backs up my theory that it’s all about how you sell the concept of vegetable eating which gets the veggies where they need to be.
Read moreBeetiful Dip recipe and Health Benefits
Using beetroot in cooking adds a fabulous anti-oxidant hit as well as being visually stimulating. There are lots of reported benefits especially in the area of heart health. Reportedly, it is the high nitrate levels which offer such cardiovascular support and may offer a low cost and effective way to reduce high blood pressure.
As I’m currently researching a lecture on ageing, I am also interested in dementia and how this condition may be benefitted by the use of super-foods.
Read moreCheesy Doritos dipped in Soup - not always seeing eye to eye on kid's nutrition
Last week, when one of my kid’s was looking peaky, I put together a wholesome tomato soup. Using plentiful onions and garlic, peppers of all colours, the sneaky courgette which she hates and a wealth of juicy tomatoes the end result was brimming over with anti-oxidants. The red split lentils were cooked well for the best level of camouflage and herbs were snipped into fragments.
To make it further appealing, I cut up fat wedges of her favourite bread and produced some garlicky croutons to go with. But not too many as, of course, the bread is the first thing to go at the detriment of soup eating.
So we were enjoying our soup, engaged in some hearty family conversation, when the croutons run out. A grown up member of the family reached into the pantry to grab half a bag of cheesy Doritos which had been stealthily stashed behind the bread-bin. The contraband is then passed around the table for dipping purposes.
Read moreCacao with a hint of Chilli Granola - How to...
I loved the whole process of making this and the flexibility to adapt to your own taste entirely. Kam Alive cacao powder which we discovered when perusing a market in St. Albans gives a delightful little kick and may be the factor which gets the kids involved in the creative process. I added a hint of chilli after watching that 2000 classic film 'Chocolat' at the weekend in which the combination of cacao and chilli have wondrous effects on a sleepy French town!
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