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April 2014

Apr 22
Love1

Protein Ice Cream

By Nutrition

We are lucky fuckers this week here in Australia because this Friday is Anzac Day. That means another long weekend!! YAY.. Seeing as easter weekend was a bit of a blow out, food and money wise… This weekend will defiantly be a chilled one!

One of my clients came in today, first day back after the long weekend. She managed to not eat a single piece of chocolate this weekend! Not just chocolate, she didn’t cheat once.. Respect for that. Although she seemed annoyed at why her family and friends were so confused when she didn’t eat roast dinner, or indulge in the chocolate on offer. A lot of people struggle to keep old friends when moving to a fit healthy lifestyle and find they annoy their family.. This should totally not be the case. Firstly I will come back to my last post on getting the balance. If your healthy and on track 90% of the time you will see results. This is why you must plan cheats for times which are convenient. It would have been the perfect time for my client to have a cheat with her family and friends this weekend but she had it mid week instead!!  PLAN PLAN PLAN… Secondly, your going to piss people off if your out for lunch or dinner and you don’t eat anything. Don’t do it. You will not enjoy your self and you will kill the atmosphere for everyone else. Not only that you will get tones of comments like ‘are you starving your self‘ or ‘are you sure you don’t have an eating disorder‘.. Nothing more annoying than that!! Lastly, don’t talk about it, live it. No one wants to sit and listen to miss fitness in the corner who talks non stop about how long she worked out this morning and how she hasn’t eaten chocolate for 5 weeks in a row. THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING. Your friends and family will see how awesome you look so don’t lecture them about it! Give it time and people will be bugging you constantly to find out your ‘secret’ 🙂

So protein ice cream is something I eat daily. It is made with casein protein which is a slow release protein. It is digested and absorbed over a longer period of time. This leads to a constant supply of amino acids to the blood stream for up to 7 hours. Studies show this continual supply of amino acids may significantly slow down the break down of muscle while your asleep and fasting! This makes it the perfect bed time snack. The beauty of it is you can make it fit your macros. If your fat is low you can add a spoon of peanut butter. If your carbs are low, add some puffed brown rice for some crunch. If your proteins low add half a low fat, low carb protein bar. And if you don’t have many macros left, it’s delicious on its own!! 🙂

Ingredients:

Makes 1

Ice cream base:

  • 1 scoop of casein protein (I use 100% casein, Optimum nutrition in vanilla)
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  • 200ml unsweetened almond milk
  • 100ml water

Flavorings (optional):

  • 1tsp raw cacao powder
  • flavored stevia (caramel is great)
  • 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp PB2

Directions:

Blend all the ‘base’ ingredients in a blender along with any additional flavorings wanted (I sometimes add all of them for a reeces peanut butter cup flavor). Place mixture in a bowl/tub and freeze for around 3 hours. Remove from the freezer and place back into the blender. Blend until smooth and ice crystals gone. At this point, if you want a thicker ice cream you can add a pinch more xanthan gum (a little goes a long way). If the ice cream is too thick and will not blend, add a splash of water. Put the ice cream back into a bowl and add any toppings..

Enjoy 🙂

 

Apr 21
Love0

Low Fat Hummus Recipe

By News

Firstly.. HAPPY EASTER! So everyone has hopefully had a fun filled,chocolate fueled weekend. I have a mega food baby and cannot wait to get my diet back on track! It’s all about balance in life. You must give your self time to cheat on your diet and have a blow out every now and again. I would literally drive my self mad if I couldn’t have chocolate. I personally allow my self one cheat meal a week which allows me to indulge in the foods I am craving while keeping on track. Cheats must be planned, not spontaneous. This way you can plan a cheat for when you deserve it and maybe on a convenient day. For me this is Saturday night as we always go out for meals. This will also prevent you from feeling guilty if you know you are having a treat because you really deserve it. The guilt will come when you have a random binge, mid week when you know you shouldn’t. This causes stress which is scientifically proven to make your body hold onto body fat…. DON’T STRESS!!!

So my tips for cheat meals are….

  1. Plan a time and day convenient for you to have a cheat meal
  2. Decide what you want to eat or where you want to go for a meal depending on what your craving. This will stop you eating everything you come across
  3. Don’t feel guilty! If it was planned and you ate what you craved then got back on track after the cheat then you cannot feel guilty. Remember stress causes you to hold fat!
  4. Don’t try and make your cheat healthy. If your craving something which is healthy.. Happy days 🙂 Go for it. But if you want cheese, go ahead and have cheese because that craving will not disappear until you satisfy it!
  5. Don’t go wild.. Its not a game of eat as much as you physically can. You will probably throw up!

So after we have all eaten too much chocolate you will be pleased to go wild with this savory recipe..WOOO SAVORY. This is my first savory post on the blog so I hope you like it! Most shop brought hummus is full of oil which makes it very high in fat and calories. It is also super expensive so why not make your own?

Ingredients:

  • 240g chickpeas
  • 50g peanut butter
  • 100g 0% fat greek yoghurt
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.. Easy. Store in the fridge.

Notes:

There are many great variations to this recipe. Try using different nut butters for different flavors. Add roasted aubergine or red pepper?

Apr 08
Love0

Healthy Protein Brownies

By Nutrition

There is nothing more awkward than going to see a comedian who isn’t actually funny! Most of the time they probably are quite funny but I just don’t understand the jokes. I went to see Franky Boyle once who was great. Well… What I could understand of it! His accent is so strong I spent most of the time trying lip read the jokes. By the time I had figured it out, the joke was finished and I was the only one laughing! CRINGE… So the comedy festival is on in Melbourne right now.. It is mad coming from Cornwall where there is very little going on for most of the year to this!! Melbourne is constantly buzzing with festivals, shows and events which is a real treat for us country bumpkins. After the epic fail watching Franky Boyle, I insisted that we go and watch a comedian from the UK with no accent so I can keep up with the jokes. We managed to get tickets to Doc Brown. If you haven’t seen him before it is essential you either watch him on YouTube or get to one of his shows. Frickin hilarious!!! The evening was topped off by going to a stunning bar on south bank with some friends.. so spoiled!

I also managed to go to a fitness expo this weekend. 3 girls. On a re-feed day. With heaps of freebies. Imagine the situation!! A lot of protein bar samples were consumed lets just say that. This was such an eye opener to some of the shit which is on sale advertised as ‘protein bar‘. Just because it says protein bar on the label this does not mean healthy.. Watch out for this. Most of the time your eating the equivalent to a protein pumped mars bar which is not cool for the waist line! Loaded with sugar and saturated fat! Saying that there are some great bars out there such as Quest Bars which have no sugar, low fat and are made with good quality ingredients! The best way is always to make your own though, as you can customize recipes to fit your nutritional needs 🙂

One of the bars I tried was a protein brownie. The brand I cannot remember but it contained the ingredients of a brownie with added whey protein. How BULLSHIT is that. It annoys me what people are being tricked into eating this crap. Brownies are famous for being ridiculously high in calories. My daily allowance of fat and sugar would easily be covered in a big slab of brownie. This sucks… I love brownies. I have not yet eaten a good, yummy healthy brownie.. I have been trying to create a healthy brownie which doesn’t taste like ass for months now and I think I have finally nailed it. My boyfriend actually questioned how healthy it was while eating them because they taste so good! YAY result!

Make sure you get baking these in time for easter to distract you from all the heaps of chocolate… Treat your family and friends to a healthy brownie for a good easter present. They will thank you after when they have not gained half a stone from the easter binge!

Healthy Protein Brownie

Makes 8

Ingredients:

  • 100g oats
  • 70g chocolate whey powder (I use Optimum Nutrition)
  • 25g raw cacao
  • 3 whole eggs
  • 1 egg white
  • 10 drops of liquid stevia (I used caramel)
  • 100g wholewheat flour
  • 200ml water
  • Pinch of salt
  • 100g dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 180c. Combine protein powder with water, eggs, salt and stevia and whisk until smooth consistency is reached. Combine cacao, flour and oats in a separate bowl and slowly mix into the protein/egg mix. Fold in the chocolate chips then place mix into a greased baking tray. Bake in the oven for roughly 12 minutes. You want the top to be firm but still a little bit gooey inside. Allow to cool and cut into squares.

Note:

The brownies taste best warm when the chocolate chips are melted. You can always reheat them in the microwave for 40 seconds on a high heat!

 

 

 

Apr 05
Love0

Frozen Peanut Butter Protein Slice

By Nutrition

I am ill.. I never get ill, ever! I am awful at being ill because I hate doing nothing. My appetite has also gone which is totally weird from usually being hungry 24/7. The only cravings I am having is for sweet stuff so I made these high protein goodies.. I am TOO excited to share this recipe with you as it turned out like 100 times better than I ever expected. The truth is they were meant to be fridge bars but I messed up.. After playing around with different flavors, I managed to throw something together and left it in the fridge for a few hours. As I went to slice the bars I found they were a gooey mess.. Brilliant. This was a job for the freezer. Thank god after some time in the freezer, they transformed into chewy,melt in your mouth bars of goodness. They are incredible. I use to be obsessed with those ice cream cookie sandwiches.. I think I can almost say they are better than ice cream cookie sandwiches (and thats saying something).. The only bummer is that I can’t take them to work because they will go back to the previous gooey fridge mess! Dammmnnnn… Each bar is super high in protein (17g if using Optimum Nutrition whey) with no sugar or saturated fat. Perfect for a post workout snack.

Protein Bottom Layer

Makes 8 Ingredients:

  • 100g oats
  • 1tsp xanthan gum
  • 100g peanut butter
  • 10-15 drops of liquid stevia to taste (I use English Toffee flavor)
  • 200ml almond milk
  • 4 scoops of protein powder (I use Optimum Nutrition Vanilla Whey)

Directions: Put peanut butter in a the microwave for around 45 seconds or until runny. While waiting for the peanut butter, blend together the protein powder, almond milk, stevia and xanthan gum. Add the peanut butter and oats to this mix and stir until a thick paste is achieved with no clumps of oats. Line a tray (about 7×7 inches) with tin foil or grease proof paper. This makes it far easier to get them out!! Place the mixture into the tray and spread out evenly. Now for the chocolate topping…..

Chocolate Topping

Ingredients:

  • 100g dark chocolate
  • 2 tbsp almond milk

Directions: Break up dark chocolate into a bowl and add almond milk. Microwave for 20 second intervals for around 60 seconds,siring in between. When all the chocolate has melted and a smooth consistency is reached, pour over the protein oat base. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before placing in the freezer. For best results leave for 24 hours before slicing. When slicing, remove from the tray and use a very sharp knife to cut slices. Store in the freezer and allow to thaw for 3-4 minutes before eating (else you might break your teeth) Note: Serve with a coconut milk coffee.. You will not be disappointed!!!

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