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.

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Happy International Hummus Day!

Yes, apparently that’s an actual thing. Who comes up with this stuff? It’s awesome!

As a lover of hummus, I figured it would be rude not to get involved in the celebrations… so I whipped up a little batch of my Nigella-inspired nutty hummus! Usually when you’re making hummus, you add tahini (or sesame butter) to it – but in this recipe, instead of seed butter, we’re going with my kitchen staple nut butter! And when hummus and nuts collide, it’s a damn fine thing I tell ya!

I used 100% chunky peanut butter in this recipe, but it would work with almond butter too. Whatever you do though, try to make sure that you’re using 100% nut butter – it does limit your choice to just a few brands on the supermarket shelves, but you skip a whole heap of sugar, salt and added oil nasties that you don’t need.

Here’s how I made it:

Ingredients (makes three portions)

Nutty hummus for International Hummus Day

• 1 tin (400g) chickpeas
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp crunchy (or smooth if you prefer) peanut butter
• 1 tbsp cashew nuts
• Lemon juice (I used a whole lemon, but use as much as you need)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1-3 tsp garlic powder (more if you prefer it garlicky)
• Chilli flakes if you like it hot
• salt
• small amount of water if needed (or you could use Greek yoghurt to thin it out)

Chuck all the ingredients into the food processor and blitz it up. Add water, a tablespoon at a time, if it’s too thick and stodgy for you, or add in some Greek yoghurt for a creamier version. You could also add more lemon juice or soy sauce to loosen it.

To serve, drizzle with either a little more olive oil or sesame oil, or hoisin sauce, or sprinkle paprika over. Eat with a big salad for lunch, spread on a wholemeal pita bread with cucumber slices, dip carrots and other crudites in for kicks, or just eat with a spoon!

And have a happy hummus day! I wonder what other yummy food days they’ll dream up next…. International Day of Cheese? Mmmmmmm……

Glorious green smoothie bowl – your 5 a day in one

So, as promised, here is the first Monday in May recipe to help you get your 5 a day. And this one is a corker. It’s creamy, it’s tasty and so freaking good for you it deserves a halo.

I love smoothies – whether they’re in a glass if they’re liquid enough to drink, or in a bowl or jar to eat with a spoon. They’re super easy to make, and unlike juicing, you do get the whole goodness of the fruit/veg because you’re not discarding the goodness containing pulp. But it’s also very easy to turn smoothies into sugar bombs that will blow your healthy eating out of the water and bring on cravings and love handles. So how do you avoid that?

Well, first off, don’t too many sugar-laden fruits – we’re hearing a lot of scaremongering about fruits being full of sugar and how we need to avoid them. I am NOT going to start off down the ‘don’t eat fruit’ trail, because I think it’s a load of tosh. Tosh, I tell ya! I think it’s FAR better to eat an apple or banana than a Mars Bar. So if you’re craving something something sweet, fruit is definitely going to be a waaaaaaay better option than chocolate that will stick to your innards and fatten you up. But I will give a little warning that with smoothies, something different happens – firstly, you’re squishing the fruit up, so you tend to eat more of it than you necessarily would if you were picking it out the fruit bowl. And secondly, the process of squishing changes the sugar structure of the fruit, so it’s not held intrinsically in the cells but becomes an extrinsic sugar… which basically means that it acts more like refined sugar that you’d find in the sugar bowl. So when you’re blitzing up fruit, you want to make sure that you’re choosing the slightly lower sugar fruits like berries and be careful that you don’t overload.

The other thing that you should do with smoothies, especially if you’re using slightly higher sugar fruits, is to combine them with some form of protein. Protein helps to slow down the digestion of the sugars which, as well as keeping you fuller for longer, will also keep the blood sugar spike under control. I use protein in all manner of forms – whey protein powder, Greek yoghurt, nut butter, chia seeds… they will all help slow down digestion, but also taste awesome too! Cinnamon is also good at controlling blood sugar spikes, so is another good addition to your blender.

Glorious green smoothie bowl

So let’s look at what goes into my glorious green smoothie – and how to get your 5 a day in one hit…

Ingredients: 

Ingredients for the 5 a day smoothie bowl

• 1 cereal bowl of kale leaves, chopped, thick veins removed (use spinach if kale is too scary for you)
• 5cm chunk of cucumber (you will hardly taste this)
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 small banana
• 80g (about half a cup) of frozen mixed berries
• 1 scoop vanilla why protein powder
• 1 tbsp milled flaxseed (for added protein and fibre)
• 1/2 tsp spirulina (for added vitamins, minerals and protein) – optional
• 1 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you’d prefer)

Simply chuck all the ingredients into the blender and blitz for a minute or so until it’s properly smooth and silky. The avocado and banana will make this super creamy, while the berries and protein powder add a sweetness to make it taste gorgeous. Add more milk or water to yours if you’d prefer to drink it, but I ate this one out of a bowl, topped with fresh strawbs and pumpkin seeds. YUM. And a great way to kick off the day with a bowlful of goodness! Halo is firmly intact. 🙂

Bowlful of goodness

Let me know if you try this! What other breakfasts do you have that pave your way for a good 5 a day?

Happiness is egg-shaped – an ode to the humble egg

I love an egg. Small but perfectly formed, super tasty, relatively cheap and so damn nutritious. The ultimate fast food, packed full of vitamins and only around 70 calories each. What’s not to love?

On the Spring Clean programme, we’ve been working our way through eggs in all manner of shapes and forms – egg muffins, omelettes, luxury scramble with salmon, or tangy and creamy scramble with feta, bakin’ with them, and generally hankering after them. Seriously yummy, easy to make and designed to keep you fuller for longer. So what makes this little oval pocket such a powerhouse?

1. It’s a protein pocket – most eggs contain 6g of protein, and it’s the complete type of protein that has all the essential amino acids that our bodies need to maintain and repair tissues and support brain function. They also have around 20% of our daily protein intake in just a single egg. Awesome. Protein is so important – not just for the muscle and tissue repair and support, but also because it keeps us fuller for longer… combine them with carbs to help slow down their digestion and you’ll have a meal that will keep hunger at bay!
2. All ‘dem good fats – pretty much all eggs have omega 3 in them… that’s the stuff that so many of us don’t get enough of that is so good for us… But the level of omega 3 depends on the level of omega 3 in the foods that the chooks eat. You might have seen eggs being marketed as ‘Omega 3 eggs’ – that’s usually because of the added oils to a hen’s diet. That’s not always entirely natural – it’s rare that hens would actually eat algae or krill oils if they were left to their own devices – but hens that are free to run around in pastures green will eat plenty of omega 3 from clover and other legumes which will be passed on to us. So we’re getting plenty of the good fats from these beauts – a blessing for vegetarians in particular, as most other forms of omega 3 are fish-based.
3. Remember the whole hoo-ha about eggs and cholesterol? Certainly gave our little oval beauties a bad rap for a while, huh? Well, let’s do a quick recap on the facts. Yes, eggs have cholesterol, but our bodies can’t actually survive without cholesterol – it’s a structural molecule that our cells couldn’t survive without and we couldn’t produce several essential hormones without it! But, there are two different types of cholesterol – one of which can be a harmful if we have too much of it. Previously it was thought that eggs raised cholesterol levels and contributed to the risk of heart disease from high cholesterol – but more recent research has shown that while eggs do tend to raise cholesterol levels, they actually increase the levels of the good type of cholesterol which clears up the bad fat in our blood stream (a little like a hoover) and helps maintain those cells. A little caveat though, if you do suffer from high cholesterol make sure that you check with your doctor whether it’s okay for you to eat eggs as it’s sometimes not recommended if levels are already fairly high.
4. Eggs provide a stack of vitamins and minerals – selenium (to help keep our immune system healthy as well as maintain the health of our thyroid) and Vit D which so many of us are deficient in, especially as we come out of a dreary winter (our main provider of Vit D is the sun) amongst a whole heap of other fabulous vitamins and minerals to keep us in tip top shape.

The thing that I possibly love most about eggs is that they’re a shining example of Mother Nature doing her ‘thang’… For example, Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. That means that unless we consume it with a bit of fat, our bodies will struggle to absorb the goodness. So Mamma Nature very cleverly designed these little beauties to have their own inbuilt fat supply – the yolk! That’s why it’s so important to eat the yolks and not just the whites.

Eggs is easy…

I use eggs in a multitude of ways – in our 2 person house, it’s not uncommon for us to run out of a box of 12 eggs in a week. They’re cheap, nutritious and EASY. Check out some of the pics from the Spring Clean programme to see how folks have been using them below. Egg muffins were a favourite (although definitely use silicon muffin cases for an easy release!) but there’s something luxuriously simple about smoked salmon and scrambled egg for a brunch-time treat.

What are your favourite eggy recipes?

The Spring Clean tribe have been enjoying the benefits of more energy, healthier looking skin and weight loss too – and we’re only in Week 3! If you’d like to sign up for the May intake of the programme or to find out more, click HERE.

* Image of eggs in a basket from Huffington Post.

Why you (and your inner diva) NEED to eat breakfast

My mum used to find it highly amusing that, as a toddler or grumpy teen, I always had the same morning ritual. Haul my ass out of bed (usually under great duress) and head straight for the breakfast table in a zombie-like coma. Must. Eat. Food. And slowly, but surely, with each mouthful of whatever it was, the human(ish) Bella would emerge and I’d leave the table a brighter and sunnier person (or so I’d like to believe!).

Turns out, I was setting myself up for an awesome habit that does me a power of good now that I’m a proper grown up (again, so I’d like to believe!). While I know that there are several of you out there who will argue that you can operate fine without breakfast, science backs up the fact that to get your body working properly throughout the day (not just at the beginning of it) then you need to start it right. And that means you need to break the fast and EAT! Preferably something healthy and filled with the good stuff. Don’t believe me? Here are 4 reasons why you need to find a way of starting the day right:

1. Manage your blood sugar levels. While you’re sleeping, your body is working away digesting all the food that you’ve eaten the night before. So when you wake up, there’s very little trace left of the nutrients in your blood stream and just the *ahem* remains waiting to be pooped out. And your blood sugar levels will be low enough to make you comparable with a grouchy grizzly. By gently raising your blood sugar levels first thing, you’re helping to manage your hunger levels throughout the day – leave it too late and chances are you’ll be reaching for a high calorie, high sugar ass-kicker snack mid morning because I’M-STARVING-AND-IF-I-DON’T-EAT-I-WILL-DIE (yep, low blood sugar may result in you turning into a melodramatic diva.) So give your metabolism a wake up call, get some stability in your blood sugar levels, and start the day as you mean to go on. And leave the diva at the door.

2. Wake up your brain. After a night’s sleep your brain cells will be running on empty – they need energy from the food you eat (that’s the glucose from complex carbohydrates) to refuel. Without that refueling, your brain will struggle to operate on all cylinders, which means that processing information or managing complex challenges (so things like forming and retrieving memories) are all a little bit too tricky. But by giving your brain the boost that it needs through food, it’s all set to be bright and alert and all those other things that you’d probably find life easier with!

3. Get your vitamin fix. Grabbing some fruit, yoghurt, and wholegrains for breakfast is a sure fire way to make sure that you’re getting a swift vitamin shot. It’ll pump you full of vitamin B for maximum energy and keep your immune system healthy with vitamins A, C and zinc. And that diva that you left at the door? She’ll be replaced by the happier version thanks to a lift in your seratonin levels. Happy shiny people!

4. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I’ve waffled on about the importance of drinking enough water before and breakfast is a great place to start. I like to down a glass of the good stuff first thing to help make sure that my body has the fluid it needs. And don’t forget that pile of digested poop waiting for you to wake up… water will help with that too! But you can eat your water too – fruit is packed full of it! Don’t get too attached to strong caffienated drinks though – that diva might make a re-appearance.

UGH FINE… But I don’t have TIME.
Just because you need to kick start your system doesn’t mean you need to labour over a mammoth feast, or get up a gazzilion hours earlier to create some exquisitely complex sensation for your taste buds. When it comes to my top 3 breakfasts, taste and simplicity are key. I tend to eat mine either at my desk or before I leave the house. Either way, I don’t have a lot of time to hang about faffing over the preparation. Sometimes, that means getting things prepped the night before. Trust me, that little bit of effort can make morning life a whole load more peaceful!

Fruity yoghurt-to-go: This is a night-before-er. Half-fill a Tuppaware with frozen berries (I prefer the mixed ones). Chuck 20-40g of oats on top, spoon in some Greek yoghurt and sprinkle with a tablespoon of milled seeds/nuts. Takes you 3 mins to make. Then all you need to do in the morning is remember to take it with you! And there you have a vitamin-packed breakfast, super tasty, with all the nutrients.

Smashed eggs on toast: Sounds like a palava, really isn’t. Stick your toast (wholegrain, or sprouted if you can!) on while you’re heating a pan with a tsp of coconut oil. When the pan is hot, crack in 2 eggs and smash them up (it’s a less-hassle scrambled egg!) and season. Plop them (as elegantly as you can for first thing in the morning!) onto your toast. To get the full nutritional brownie points from this, whack in a handful of spinach at the same time as the egg and smash it all up together. Or just serve with some avocado or tomatoes. That’ll do too.

Chia and cinnamon oat pot: Might be flashing a few ‘health freak’ warning bells to some of you, but you can get chia seeds from pretty much anywhere these days! They’re packed full of omega 3 and are hailed as a superfood of the moment. I like to chuck a tablespoon into my trusty Tuppaware pot along with a tbsp of desicated coconut, milled flax seed, 40g oats and a tsp of cinnamon. Cover the mix with milk of your choice (I like this one with almond milk) and mix it up, ready to soak in the fridge overnight. Chia seeds start to soak up the liquid and make it go gooey… which is perfect for you to take out in the morning, top with greek yoghurt, blueberries and a drizzle of honey if it’s not sweet enough for you.

I have loads more breakfast ideas – from smoothies and pancakes to sweet bakes and savoury delights! Why not share some of yours below? Are you a breakfast lover?

Meat-free made easy: 3 tasty tips for veggie newbies

It’s the end of my meat free month. And if truth be told, I’m a little mournful. But then again, I am SO EXCITED about my simple salmon supper tonight (yep, not the massive steak that I thought I’d be devouring at one minute after midnight on 1 May)! I did genuinely love it. I had to deal with massive energy slumps and the occasional pang for something slightly meaty… but the experience was definitely more positive than I expected. I haven’t lost any weight (that’ll be the cheese then), but I haven’t gained any either. I don’t feel noticeably healthier, but I do love the new tastes and luscious goodness in the dishes I’ve been trying. And I’m also super conscious of restaurant choices when I now meet up with my veggie friends – man alive, sometimes the choices for veggies can be DIRE. Sort it out restaurateurs!

As a vegetable-lover, it wasn’t a hardship to eat more of the green and fresh stuff. But (wo)man can’t live by veg alone (well… you can… but… you know…!) So there were a couple of additional special ingredients which, although I’ve eaten regularly before, were my go-to favourites.

All hail halloumi

Halloumi became my carnivorous craving-stopper.

• On the BBQ, try skewers with halloumi and a range of veg (peppers, courgettes, mushrooms, tomatoes) marinaded in either a fresh n’ zesty lemon (zest and juice for maximum zing!), lime and mint; or for a bit of a kick in chilli, garlic and ginger with lemon juice.
• For a comfort food cuddle on a plate, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of halloumi and pesto with pasta. I like to dry fry the halloumi with extra garlic (I’m a delight to sit next to the following day!) and chuck in some green stuff – whatever you’ve got going to be honest – peas, mange tout, courgette, baby brussel sprouts, green beans…. Add a couple of teaspoons of pesto (make sure it’s proper vegetarian if you’re being ultra-veggie) and add your wholewheat/gluten free pasta… Nyom.
• And another quick n’ easy delight was grilled halloumi with a cheeky little salsa of chopped cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, spring onions and avocado with a bit of parsley, chilli, olive oil and lemon juice – I often ate this on it’s own, but it worked great with a  wholewheat wrap, pitta bread or mexican style rice.

Praise be for chickpeas!

• A stolen recipe from a friend of mine – chickpea curry, straight up and simples. Just fry up your onion and garlic, add your chickpeas, curry powder and tin of tomatoes and simmer right down… I added aubergine and red peppers to flesh it out a bit, but you could add anything that tickles your fancy!
• Chickpea salads were an awesome filling lunchtime extravaganza. With some fresh chopped tomatoes, cucumber, onions, sweetcorn, radish, leaves and a bit of a sesame oil/tahini/lemon juice dressing… you were in for a treat. Add loads of fresh herbs (I love that my herb garden seems to have survived the drowning of the winter months!) and maybe a handful of feta for a creamy boost, and all for less than £2 for a massive lunch… A prime example of why packed lunches kick ass.
• Warming Moroccan spices, mixed with onions, garlic, chickpeas and aubergine, served with a bit of couscous or quinoa, felt almost holiday-esque!

Ave avocado

Avo has always been a firm favourite of mine. Growing up in Zim they were the size of small rugby balls… none of this palm-sized malarky that we get in the UK. And the abundance of them in the tree outside my childhood home means that I am so happy with finding a gazillion things to do with avo’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner… but sometimes the simple things are the best!

• My absolute favourite breakfast (instead of the fry up that the man in my life prefers!) has long been to have avocado mashed on toasted rye bread with scrambled egg, bacon and grilled tomatoes on top. And all I had to do to vegetise (if that’s not a word, it should be!) it, was to avoid the bacon! Easy! And AMAZEBALLS.
• To me, avocado isn’t just a fruit, it’s something that can immediately take something a wee bit bland and amplify all it’s tastiness in one massive hit! So you have a mixed bean salad. Meh. Add avocado to it and suddenly you’re transported down the taste super highway! Okay, maybe not that extreme, but you get what I’m saying. And the good thing is, it’s packed full of the natural, good monounsaturated fats that are good for us… unlike cheese.
• The simplest dinner of all… and the one that kicked ass for me time and time again: the humble avocado on toast. Rye bread (I like the ultra nutty rye, but even regular wholemeal works a treat), with nothing but half a ripe mashed avo, with black pepper, a touch of salt and (if you’re feeling well posh) a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

Thanks for the recipe ideas and inspiration during the month of April. I’m not going to lie, I won’t be giving up meat entirely. But I’m already quite happily settling in to my ‘more-veggie-days’ existence. Tomorrow night, the meat-eater-man is having steak, and I’ve actually opted for a bean stew. Wonders will never cease! … 🙂