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Jul 15
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

By Nutrition

So I took the morning off work today as i’m feeling sore as anything. I have been having Bowen Therapy which is amazing but makes you achy and tired the next day. Bowen is a non-manipulative, non-invasive, holistic massage treatment and soft tissue remedial therapy to facilitate healing of the whole body. Its almost like trigger point therapy. The muscle fascia is rolled over the muscle in certain areas to trigger the bodies natural healing process. This means any injuries or bad alignment kind of fix them selves…. What am I saying!!!  I have no idea about the science behind it but let me tell you its bloody fantastic! Why?! Well my mum had awful back problems for months due to a long term coccyx injury from when she was pregnant with me (sorry mum). She has seen osteopaths, physiotherapists, chiropractors, and all sorts of therapists for years and no one has been able to fix it. She then got recommended Bowen therapy when she was at absolute rock bottom… (she could barely walk at this stage). Anyway… This Bowen therapist has totally realigned her whole body and she is able to run again, go to the gym and go rowing again with absolutely no pain! WOO 🙂 I always get minor lower back pain and a sore knee which I generally ignore, so I thought I would make an appointment to see if this could be fixed. Turns out my right leg was shorter than my left due to my pelvis being out of line. My hamstrings were literally frozen trying to compensate for this which was arching my lower back causing pain. My right shoulder was also totally out of line which pulled my upper back muscles and caused my right pec to be inflamed! Shit.. And I was ignoring this for so long! Two sessions in and my legs are the same length 🙂 My shoulder is back inline and my lower back pain has gone!!! What I want to get onto is that just because your fit and healthy it doesn’t mean everything is always working how it should be. Having minor imbalances in the body can cause major injuries later on in life. It can effect form for exercises in the gym and cause other inuries where muscles try to compensate for imbalances. For example.. A bad squat form may be due to a pelvic tilt and tight hamstrings which can cause the glutes to not activate and make major muscle imbalances. This will also cause pain in the knees and can lead to extreme pain later on in life.. LOOK AFTER YOUR BODY!! I totally recommend this type of therapy to anyone who does weights training. It is so important to take care of your body. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be in a wheel chair at the age of 40 with fucked knees and a bad back! We all bust our asses off in the gym to be ‘healthy’ and ‘fit’ while we ignore minor niggles and pain. You only get one body.. Don’t ruin it. Don’t buy that new dress.. get some bowen therapy. Invest in your health, it will last much longer than clothes or handbags 🙂

Speaking of being healthy and fit.. I have an ammmmmazing new recipe for you beauties. We DO NOT want to fill our bodies with crap which is why I try to healthify  high calorie, high sugar, high saturated fat goodies… because no body has time for that shit!!

So for those of you who read my posts. I am OBSESSED with peanut butter.. and chocolate. As a matter of fact, its in most of my recipes! Another thing I LOVVVE is cheese cake mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…. So here we have peanut butter, chocolate cheese cake! Its gluten free and by omitting the cheese cake topping, it will no longer be cheese cake 🙁 but it will be dairy free. WOOO

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

makes 10

  • 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 50g gluten free oats
  • 100g mashed sweet potato
  • 40g raw cacao powder
  • 100g peanut butter
  • 50g honey
  • 50g raw sugar
  • 10 drops of caramel stevia
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 50ml almond milk

Topping: (optional)

  • 150g cottage cheese
  • 50g raw sugar
  • 50g peanut butter
  • 1 scoop vanilla whey

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place all cake ingredients into a blender and mix until a smooth consistency is reached. Pour the mix into a baking tray and make the topping. For the topping add all ingredients to a bowl and mix/blend together until smooth consistency is reached. Blob the mix over the cake mix and carefully swirl into the cake mix so it is partially combined. Put in the oven and bake for 50 minutes (its a long time, but its worth it) They should be a little gooey when you remove. Allow the cheesecake to cool and cut into slices.

Note:

To add some texture to this recipe, try mixing walnuts through the cake mixture after blending 🙂

May 16
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Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Beetroot Protein Blondies

By Nutrition

Finally some great weather in Melbourne again this week! Hitting about 20 degrees every day 🙂 YAY.. Good week for nice weather as I have been flyering the streets all week for a promo we have on at work. Their are so many ups and downs being a promo girl. One minute everyone who walks passed smiles and accepts a flyer. The next minute a grumpy old man tells you to fuck off and you loose the will to live. I was just delirious most of the time as I was doing this on top of my usual personal training split shift (6am-10am then 4pm to 8pm). I have to say i’m glad promo week is over. Yesterday everyone could clearly tell I was over it and I was giving off the ‘wrong vibe’…. This resulted in a total of 4 fuck offs. I genuinely wanted to cry.. On the plus side, I have so many new clients from promo week so I can’t complain 🙂 🙂

Today I woke up with glands in my neck the size of golf balls. So I finished work, came home and passed out on the sofa for about 3 hours! On top of this I ate sooooooo much… I feel I need extra energy to fight off getting ill… (well thats my excuse). I’m also taking a few days off training which is super hard for me. I get stuck in my head that my muscles are going to fall off if I take like 3 rest days when I know this is clearly what I need. Its important to give the body rest. Listen to your body. If you feel like crap, don’t train. Often after taking 3-4 days rest you will actually come back stronger as well which is always amazing 🙂

So seeing as my sweet potato, protein, brownies were such a hit with all you fitness fanatics… I decided to make something similar. Clearly due to my stupidly long working hours this week, my head wasn’t screwed on properly and I thought… FUCK IT. Beetroot!!!! BEETROOT.. Bet your all thinking ‘eww gross‘. But for real. These are so yummy. The only reason I used beetroot was because I wanted to make them pink. Yes I could blab on about the health benefits of beetroot. But all I thought was YAY PINK! I also took on the challenge from one of my clients who wanted something gluten and dairy free to bake… Soooooo.. These are GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE!!!! Not only that. They are free from refined sugar. WOOO 🙂

Beetroot Protein Blondies

Ingredients:

Makes 12

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 100g gluten free oats
  • 100ml unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 scoop of gluten free, dairy free protein powder (I used brown rice(vanilla))
  • 100g almond butter
  • 300g sweet potato (peeled)
  • 10 drops of vanilla stevia
  • 100g roasted beetroot
  • 30g gluten free, dairy free dark chocolate
  • 50g gluten free, dairy free granola (I used my homemade granola)

Dircetions:

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Take the sweet potato and boil/steam/microwave until soft. While the sweet potato cooks, combine all other ingredients except the chocolate and granola. Once the sweet potato is soft, add to the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth consistency is reached. Pour the mixture into a cake tin and top with chopped dark chocolate and granola. Place into the oven for 20-25 minutes. You want them to still be slightly gooey when you take them out. Once cooked, remove from tin and allow to cool. They taste best when warm and can be re heated in the microwave 🙂

May 02
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Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Sweet Potato Protein Brownies

By Nutrition

Hellllll.. I’m going to get straight too it and say these are the best thing I have ever created in the kitchen! I mean Jesus Christ. These are fucking fantastic. I cannot wait to share the recipe with you!! Look at the name.. I couldn’t even work out what to call these things because no words can describe their greatness..

Okay sorry.. Blowing my own trumpet slightly here

Melbourne’s weather has been absolutely shocking this week. Why did no one warn me how bipolar the weather is here! Literally I walk to work in a fricking thunder storm. Two hours later I leave work to a stint of gorgeous sun. By the time I have walked home its blowing a hooly again and pissing it down with rain. Not Cool!

On the plus side, my ‘bulk’ is going absolutely fabulously. I have gained 1cm around my hips… 1 CENTER METER. Sounds like a pathetic gain but this is such an achievement for me as my glutes refuse to grow.. EVER. Only down side is my obliques have ballooned from the amount of heavy squats and dead lifts I’m doing, so I no longer have a waist. Just can’t win. Body sculpting is the most frustrating thing sometimes!!

The great thing about these brownies are that they provide you with protein, carbs and healthy fats making them the perfect post workout snack!

Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Sweet Potato Protein Brownies

Ingredients:

Makes 9

  • 350g peeled sweet potato
  • 1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 100g natural peanut butter (or other nut butter)
  • 100g honey
  • 50g low fat greek yogurt
  • 20g wholemeal flour (use coconut flour for gluten free)
  • 50g oats
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein (I used Optimum Nutrition)
  • 75g dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Chop up sweet potato and steam, boil or microwave untill soft. When cooked, add to mixing bowl along with all other ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, then blend/whisk ingredients together. If the mix is too thick add a splash of almond milk. Pour the mixture into a greased or lined baking tin. Add the chocolate chips and slowly stir in. Because the mixture is warm from the sweet potato, the chocolate will begin to melt slightly giving that ripple look through the brownies. If you want your chocolate chips to stay whole then wait for the mixture to cool before adding the chocolate chips. Place baking tin into the oven for 20 minutes. They should be slightly gooey when you take them out the oven. Cut into 8 slices and leave to cool (if you can control your self)

Notes:

Try adding chopped nuts to the mixture along with the chocolate chips to give them more texture 🙂

 

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!

 

 

 

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