Carrot & courgette bars of loveliness

Carrot cake is one of my weaknesses… nice cup of rooibos and a freshly baked carrot cake. I’m not talking about the coffee shop versions that are a little too ‘mainstream’ for me (makes me sound like a right twazzock, doesn’t it?!). One of my old work friends used to bring in a gorgeous carrot cake that her mum made… oh my heavenly taste buds. What a freaking delight and joy. There’s something about the freshness of the carrot, the blend of gorgeous spices and the little pockets of sweetness that make it a melt-in-your-mouth orgasm. Yum. I was never too crazy about the icing though (any icing actually)… it was a little too sweet for me and felt like it would plaster itself directly on my waist or hips. Hips smeared in icing might be your kind of thing, you kinky minx, but it ain’t mine.

So with my mind occasionally frolicking off in a carrot cake day dream, it was bound to make it’s way into my recipe collection at some point. I’ve been looking for a lower carb snack bar that I can share with my clients (and for me too, obviously!) in my 4 week fat blitzing programmes. And so when I stumbled across a courgette muffin recipe that I could adapt and change to make a healthy version of carrot cake, I jumped at it! (And if I had a bowl big enough, me and my hips would be swimming in it too…. mmmmm…)

Carrot & courgette bars of loveliness

Now I’m not a baker. It just doesn’t come naturally to me. So one of my absolute rules about things that I try to bake is that they have to be EASY. And these beauties are…. They’re quick, easy and relatively cheap. Not unlike some of the girls I went to school with! 😉 (I’m kidding ladies, you’re all well classy chicks and I love you enormously).

So here’s the recipe! It’s dairy free, grain free and refined sugar free… but tastes yummy. And it’s good for you (although not if you eat the entire batch in one sitting. Don’t do that.) I’d love to see some pics if you make them – just tag @NutriBelleUK in them on Facebook or Insta!

Carrot & courgette bars
Makes 6-8 bars

Mix all the ingredients together

1 cup grated carrot (roughly 1 medium carrot)
1 cup grated courgette (roughly ¾ medium courgette)
2 eggs whisked
1 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of nutmeg
Bit of allspice
1 tbsp honey
1 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 cup sultanas and dates
2 tbsp seeds

• Pre-heat oven to 180C
• In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients (except the seeds) together well.
• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Tip out the carrot mix and pat down to fill in all the corners. You want it to be around 1.5cm thick. Sprinkle over the seeds across the top.
• Bake for up to 25min, or until the mix is set and is golden.
• Leave to cool, then cut into bars or squares. I got 6-8 good sized bars from this.

If you’d like to talk to about how I might be able to help you lose weight, gain energy and generally just feel a whole heap better, brighter and more balanced, why not book in for a free 30 min chat? Just click HERE to access my online schedule and book your slot. I work with people near and far to help them get in control of the way they eat and build healthy new habits.

And you can sign up to my newsletter for regular healthy eating hints, tips and recipes HERE.

#MAY5ADAY – think you’re up to the fruit & veg challenge?

I’m passionate about a lot of things when it comes to healthy lifestyles – the benefits of drinking water, the importance of eating clean and real food, going back to basics and avoiding packaged junk, the effect that strength and flexibility can have on your overall mental and physical state… those are just a few. But perhaps one of my biggest passions is helping people to reach (and hopefully exceed) their recommended 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. The benefits of eating more of the plant-stuff are REAL, I promise you – just ask the peeps on my Spring Clean programme!

The UK’s recommendation is that you eat 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of vegetables a day – that ratio is because fruit is higher in sugar than vegetables, and veggies tend to have a broader range of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals which can help protect us from diseases. In Australia, the recommendation is 2 portions of fruit and 5 of veg a day. And despite originally starting with the World Health Organisation’s recommendations of 5 a day, countries like Denmark (6 a day), France (10 a day) and Japan (a whopping 13 a day – 4 from fruit and 13 from veg) have upped their recommendations over the last few years. So our piddly 5 a day seems like child’s play in comparison! Surely we’re cool enough to play with the grown ups?

The scary thing is, so many people aren’t even reaching our small recommendation. I think that’s probably for a number of reasons:

Are you getting your 5 a day?

• I think there’s a lot of confusion about what a ‘portion’ actually is. “Hurrah!”, you think, “I’ve scoffed a satsuma – that’s one of my portions!”… Erm, no. Sorry. That’s half a portion. Check out the box opposite for what a portion looks like
• “Jacket potato in my gob, that’s a portion of veg!” – nope, I’m afraid not! While potatoes are definitely vegetables, they don’t actually count towards your 5 a day because they’re a starchy carbohydrate. So unless you’re loading your spud with salad or beans, you need to rethink that one!
• Squishing the juice of out fruit only counts as one portion, no matter how much not-from-concentrate, no-added-sugar goodness you think you’re drinking! See, when you squelch out the juices, you leave behind the pulp that contains all the nutrients and leave yourself with the liquid sugar. And, even more of a shame, this ‘one portion of juice’ rule doesn’t apply to wine. Oh how we wish it did.
• Sadly, I think some people find fruit and veg boring, or they have a phobia about the textures, tastes and other things. Okay, so school dinner cabbage (which I strangely loved as a kid and used to swap my ice cream for people’s cabbage), might be to blame for that – but there’s such a HUGE variety of different fruit and veg out there, and a gazillion ways to cook them and incorporate them into our diets – you’ll surely be able to find a way that you like to eat things. It’s sometimes just a matter of trying something new.

Tag your fruit & veg pics!

So I want to set a little challenge for you all in May – #MAY5ADAY – and a bit of a challenge for me too!

Every Monday in May I will share a recipe that helps you up your intake of fruit and veg. Your part of the bargain is to make a conscious effort to reach your target – and get involved by tagging me in your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use the #MAY5ADAY.

Of course, the easiest way for you to kick this challenge into touch would be to sign up for my May Spring Clean intake. You’ll be given meal plans and recipes that will help keep you on the 5 a day path – and you’ll get a whole heap of other benefits from the healthy food too. You can find out more HERE.

What say you? You in?

Socially motivating: getting fitter through Twitter (and other channels!)

For the past week I have been following and getting involved in a little motivating moment of mindfulness via the wonders of social media. And it really got me thinking about the power of social networks in keeping people focused and on track when trying to lead healthy lifestyles.

Hannah Mills, or @wedgesandweights as I know her on Twitter, started a week long #WWPhotoFood challenge on Instagram. The idea was that for one week, you posted pictures of what you ate on a daily basis. So you took a photo of EVERY little morsel that passed your lips. Now to a nosey foodie like myself, this was heaven. I LOVE seeing what other people actually eat. And, to really get in the spirit of things, I thought it was only fair that I shared my food diaries too. Now, I confess, I didn’t do the full week. I came to the challenge late, and had a weekend celebrating my OH’s birthday, so got swept away in the weekend (and was purposefully leaving the phone in the hotel room so we HAD TO TALK TO EACH OTHER… Scary stuff, I know!) But despite that, I found that it still had a great effect. It really made me contemplate every mouthful. Did I really want to take a photo of that… (insert random snacky item here)? And I had already submitted my photos for the day, so I didn’t really need that handful of raisins or that mini chocolate bar, did I? And, jeez, I really do mindlessly pick at bits while I’m prepping dinner or my lunch for the next day… tut, tut Bella! Being consciously more mindful was an eye opener!

Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure that some of my real life friends on Instagram started groaning out loud every time they saw ANOTHER post about the food I put in my mouth, this little experiment really made me think.

I’ve just finished the first module of my nutritional adviser course on the psychology behind motivation and weight loss. So I had a particular interest on the benefit of social media in helping maintain and sustain a healthy lifestyle. People who are trying to make the change to a healthier lifestyle will pass through different psychological stages of change. And even the healthiest of healthy souls will be at risk of relapsing back to the early stages or even failure at some point of their lives. This is where having a toolkit or coping strategy to rely on can make the difference between ‘Bye bye healthy ways’ and ‘whoops, I’ve slipped up, back on it now girl…’ And this is where I think social media, and little challenges like #WWphotofood, online ‘twitter teams’ like #FitTeam14 or #FitFam, or ‘fitspo’ (fit inspiration) accounts on Instagram or Facebook can really help. If you surround yourself with healthy and positive inspiration, it’s more likely to rub off on you, right?

Of course, just following these accounts isn’t enough… At some stage you need to actually get off your ass and do something about it. But for some reason that feels easier when you know that there is an army of other people also spending Sunday cooking up healthy delights in the the kitchen. Or that there are other people dragging their heels about heading out into the rain for a run. More often than not, these people will take time out to cheer you on, give you a virtual pat on the back and (and I’ve actually had this) a ‘COMEONGIRLGETOFFYOURASSANDDOTHIS!!!’ (It worked).

Now obviously if you’re getting this kind of support from your real life friends too, then you’re onto a winner. I have a supportive man in my life (supportive in nature, but draws the line at swapping his real chocolate mousse for one made with avocado instead…), I come from a fit and healthy family and have recently met a great group of people through my bootcamp training sessions. But given that we spend SO much time buried in social media, it’s nice to know I have my social kick up the butt and inspiration when I need it too!

Do you use social media to give you a boost when you’re flagging? As inspiration on what to cook for a healthy dinner? Or as your very own Mr Motivator to get you off the couch? I’d love to hear what your coping strategy is and how you find inspiration to get you through the moments that matter…