Thursday 26th August

Check out my article today in the Cork Independent and find out why taking the cereal straight out of the packet might not be the best idea.

http://www.corkindependent.com/lifestyle/lifestyle/not-straight-out-of-a-packet/

As a summer alternative to healthy eating, find my home made muesli recipe below.

Homemade Muesli

200g rolled oats
3 tablespoons of wheat germ
¼ cup of raw sunflower seeds
¼ cup of almonds
¼ cup of raw cashews
½ cup of raisins
¼ linseeds
½ cup of desiccated coconut

Place the sunflower seeds, cashews, almonds and linseeds in a dry pan on the cooker or place under the grill for 5 minutes to toast. Add the coconut and wheat germ and toast for one minute more. Allow to cool. Mix well with the oats and the raisins. Keep in a sealed container.

Wednesday 25th August

Check out my blog today on http://blog.localmarkets.ie/ for some healthy tips and hints with this great looking cabbage!

Romanesco Cabbage

The type of cabbage shown here is a Romanesco cabbage. I actually thought it was a type cauliflower so treated it like one when I cooked it. Cabbage is part of the cruciferous (or Brassica) family. In terms of health benefits, this family is currently topping the charts!  Not only is it packed full of Vitamin K and Vitamin C but also contains powerful anti-oxidants called I3C and sulphorane which have been closely linked to aiding the liver carry out its detox functions. There has been a particular link to it reducing the risk of hormonal cancers in women.

When it comes to preparing cabbage, one little trick to bring out its health benefits is to chop or slice into thin strips and leave it for 5 minutes to actiavte its health promoting properties.

When cooking cabbage, I usually slice it thin and cook in less than 5 minutes, ensuring it doesn’t get overcooked. If it is lovely young fresh cabbage, you can eat it raw in a salad, otherwise you can saute in a little water or add at the end of cooking a soup or stew. The curry flavours here work really well.

Hot and Spicy Cabbage with Lentils

Serves 2

2 small heads of Romanesco Cabbage
1 tin of puy lentils
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
A dash of chilli powder
2 cloves of carlic – crushed
1 inch piece of ginger – grated
50 mls of water
3 tbsp natural or Greek yogurt
Sea salt

Firstly, remove the outleaves from the cabbage. Cut the heads off the stalk or simply tear off like I did.
Place a little water in a large pan and put on a medium to high heat heat.
Wash and drain the lentils well.
Sprinkle in the cumin, mustard seeds and garam massala and stir well, cooking for a few minutes.
Next add the crushed garlic, the ginger and the chilli. Stir again, then adding the cabbage.
Cook for a few minutes and then add the water and salt to the pan. Cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the lentils and stir through well until warm.
Remove from the heat and stir through the yogurt.

Serve with brown or white rice.

Wheat free, gluten free, sugar free

If you are looking for a menu to be designed to suit your health or nutrition needs, contact lucy@foodforliving.ie

Tuesday 24th August

Just a bit of news from Food for Living:

Firstly, Food for Living has been selected out of hundreds of applicants to be placed on the Enterprise Board’s Greenshoots programme starting in September. for the next 9 months I’ll be provided with a range of training and support to develop up a range of healthy eating product range, focusing on the much needed area of kids meals and snacks… watch this space!

Secondly, I will now be writing each week for a new Cork company called www.localmarkets.ie. These guys have come up with the ingenious idea of placing many of the great foods you find at the weekly Cork markets and placed them for sale on line. it was such a great idea that I have agreed to write a healthy eating slot on their blog each week so show people how to prepare and cook all of these great ingredients. If you miss me on their blog, I’ll keep you updated on my own.

Now back to some healthy eating…..

I just found a bit of yogurt in the fridge was was slightly past its best! Rather than throw it out, I thought I’d make some bread with it… I love the idea of yogurt bread as I find many people can digest yogurt a little easily than milk – you’ll often find this with fermented products. I also, in my usual fashion, have added some seeds and oats to this to make it even more fiber filled, keeping hunger away for hours…..

Yogurt Brown Bread

2oog wholegrain flour (I used Spelt)
50g white flour (I used Spelt)
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp linseeds
2 tbsp pinhead oatmeal(optional)
200ml of live yogurt
1 teaspoon sea salt
A little water, if necessary

Preheat oven to 200 oc (FAN)

Sieve the flours and bicarb of soda into a mixing bowl and add the salt.
Sprinkle in the sesame and linseeds (you can toast them first in a dry pan for 5 mins if you want) and add the oatmeal.
Mix well with a hand whisk. Form a hole in the centre.
Pour in the yogurt and with one hand, stir in a full circle, starting in the centre and working out, until all flour is incorporated. The dough should be soft but not too wet and sticky. If it is too dry, ad a little of the water at a time till all of the mixture sticks.

Turn out on to well flour surface.

Roll gently in flour for a moment and then flip over and place on floured baking tray. Flatten lightly, to 2 inches.
Make a deep cross in centre and bake in 200 oc oven for 15 mins and then turn down to 180 oc for another 15 mins.

It will sound hallow when tapped.

Cool on wire rack.

Sugar free

If you are interested in receiving a one on one nutrition consultation, contact me on lucy@foodforliving.ie

Friday August 20th

I think I’m getting a little obsessed with muffins at the moment and must start trying other desserts. However, they are great as you can just throw anything in there to create as much goodness as you like. Here I’ve thrown in some ground Linssed (Irish Health Oils have now started doing ground Linseed and they are delicious), as well as pumpkin, sesame and whole linseeds for their extra fibre and essential fatty acids (some Omega 3s and a little more Omega 6s) and their protein. I’ve added very little sugar and simply used the sweetness of the ripe bananas and a little maple syrup.

As I get more familiar with using certain ingredients, I’ll always try to buy firstly from Cork and then from Ireland. Here I’m using Irish Health Oils ground Linseed and O’Connaill’s gorgeous dark chocolate.

Give them a try!

Pumpkin, Banana and Chocolate Muffins

Dry ingredients

1/2 a heaped cup of wholegrain flour (I used spelt)
1/2 a cup of white flour (I used spelt)
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp linseeds
2 heaped teaspoons of Irish Health Oils ground linseed
1/2 tsp of baking powder
4 squares of O’Connaills 70% chocolate
a pinch of salt

Wet ingredients

3 very ripe quite black bananas
1 egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup (I used apple concentrate in this as an experiment and it turned out lovely)

Pre heat over to 180oc fan
Lightly oil a muffin tray (I use a 6 muffin tray)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl well with a hand whisk or a wooden spoon.
Mash the bananas very well. Whisk the egg and add the bananas and the maple syrup.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients well.
Scoop out with a tablespoon and place into the muffin tray.
Place in oven for 10 mins and then turn oven down to 160 oC and cook for another 10 mins.

Delicious!

If you are interested in having a healthy eating menu designed specifically for you contact me on lucy@foodforliving.ie