Christmas is coming.......

In my food-styling work, Christmas starts around May-June, and continues up until December (for those weeklies or dailies that run last-minute food stories), so by the time Christmas really is here I've had enough!
And whilst everyone else is planning all the naughty food and drink they are about to indulge in, I'm normally trying to get myself fit for another cycling trip somewhere warm - this year is no exception.
But before I whizz off I've been working on the second of two books due out early next year.  The first - The Paleo Diet Made Easy is out on 6th January, with a follow-up full-colour Paleo book due in May, just in time for the spring detox season!
So, needless to say, I've been experimenting with some new recipes, and loving eating such a great, clean diet (and have kept trimmer and fitter than I've ever been before) - good to know that it works!
The great thing about eating the Paleo way (think caveman - no processed food, only foods you can hunt, fish or gather), is that it is so simple, and once you get rid of all the other stuff you really don't crave it.  Tonight I craved a plate of steamed broccoli, carrots and sprouts, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and pepper - how mad is that?  It was delicious.
Obviously I've been doing my usual experimenting with new ingredients too, and recently had to put together some recipes for The Chia Co, using their chia seeds and oil - great sources of omega-3 fats and fibre.
Always one for a great pudding, I came up with one of the simplest yet - assorted berries and chia seeds make a perfect mousse (chia seeds tend to thicken liquids into a gel-like substance) - just place them all in a blender and blend until smooth then chill until ready to serve.  If you really want a little extra sweetness you can add a tsp or two of honey, but after a few weeks of eating Paleo you probably won't even want that.
So this is probably my last blog post of the year - I'm heading off to cycle around the hills and tea plantations of Sri Lanka over Christmas and January.  I  hope to return with lots more recipe ideas for you to try in 2014!

Happy Christmas and Happy Healthy Eating.

Joy x

Winter Comfort

So this week we have been told, we will be seeing the real start of winter - not a very cheering prospect.  But it happens every year, so we should be used to it.  And as the great Ranulph Fiennes once said "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing"....so get your thick vests out!
Much the same also applies to food.  We were having a discussion this week about how, in the winter, you really fancy comforting foods.  One person described it as 'stodgy' food - think of those great steamed puddings, or meat pies - that is certainly comforting.
But equally comforting, and possibly more nutritious, are great colourful stews and curries.  Just because it's winter doesn't mean we have to leave the bright colours of summer behind.  Going back to the clothing theme, it's interesting how all the clothes available to buy in the winter are devoid of colour - why?  When surely we want to brighten the dreary days?
So forget the beige and brown puddings and pies and pile on the colourful veg!
Adding spices to your food also adds heat, so you are warming yourself from the inside, as well as getting other great benefits from these foods, for example - ginger (anti-inflammatory), garlic (anti-oxidant), turmeric (anti-inflammatory), black pepper (rich in minerals) - the list is endless.
So even though this recipe uses a ready-made sauce for convenience, I still add lots of other spices to improve it.  Or you could make your own sauce completely from scratch.


Vegetable Thai Curry

Serves 2-3

2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
3cm piece root ginger, peeled and diced
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp red Thai curry paste
1 x 400 ml can coconut milk
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
5 stems of tenderstem broccoli, halved
small handful green beans, halved
6 cherry tomatoes, halved 
3 tbsp almond flakes, toasted

Heat the coconut oil in a wok or large frying and and cook the seeds for 2-3 minutes, until the mustard seeds start to 'pop'.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute.
Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes before stirring in the curry paste and cooking for a further minute.
Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
Add the vegetables, then simmer for 8-12 minutes, until the sweet potato is tender.
Serve with cooked quinoa or rice and sprinkle with the toasted flaked almonds.

Enough cake already?!

To satisfy the request for more cake, my healthy blog is turning into a cake blog, so this has to be the last, for a while at least!  
This recipe idea came purely from having some great products delivered to my kitchen - firstly a box arrived from Naturya, with their great superfood ingredients, and then more personally, my lovely friend Gail (founder of Kandula Tea) arrived fresh off the plane from Sri Lanka, with her latest blend of delicious teas.
Obviously the first thing we did was to have a cup of tea and catch up with all the gossip, but then I felt the need to use the tea for something more.......so cake it was!  
If you are a lover of mint tea I have tasted none better than Kandula - it tastes really fresh and tangy - as if there were fresh mint leaves dropped into the cup, with no tannin aftertaste that you find with a lot of other teas.
In December I will be visiting Sri Lanka, so will hopefully find out more about not only the tea, but also the wonderful food - lots of great vegetarian dishes and delicious fresh fish - watch this space!

Kandula Maca Tea Bread

Makes 1 loaf

200 g mixed dried fruit
250 ml Kandula Moroccan Mint tea (made with one bag)
125 g wholemeal self-raising flour
100 g self-raising flour
1 tbsp Naturya Maca powder
100 g golden caster sugar
25 g pecans, roughly chopped
50 g Coconoil, melted
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Grease and base line a 2 lb loaf tin.
Place the dried fruit into a bowl and pour over the hot tea.  Leave to stand for at least 4 hours.
Place the flours, maca powder, sugar and pecans into a large bowl.
Beat together the Coconoil and egg.
Add the dried fruit, tea and egg and Coconoil mixture to the dry ingredients and gently mix together - do not overmix.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack (if you can wait that long - I couldn't!)

Happy cake-eating!

J xx

First there were apples, then there were delicious muffins!

Quick training session on the river this morning (gorgeous water, just not much of it!), then boat de-rigging and loading before heading home for healthy fruit smoothie breakfast.
A few of us are off to race at Teddington Small Boats Head on Saturday - the last time I did it the conditions were appalling and not many people stayed above the water!  So I realised we would need sustenance to keep us going through the day (there are two divisions to race, one at 10.30am and the other at 1.30pm), especially if it's going to be rough.
The great thing about making muffins is that pretty much anything tastes good in one (that should get a few comments rolling in!), and they are extremely simple to make.  Basically I look through the food I have at home and start baking.  So this recipe gives you lots of options - start experimenting yourself - that's how all recipes are born!







Spiced Apple and Sultana Muffins (dairy-free)

Makes 12

240 g wholemeal plain flour (could use white, or gluten free?)
80 g rolled oats (could use oatgerm?)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 g dark brown sugar (could use caster, or demerara?)
2 apples, grated (use peel but not core)
1/2 tsp mixed spice (choose your favourite spice)
120 g Coconoil (could use butter if OK with dairy)
1 egg
100 ml non-dairy milk (could use milk or yoghurt if OK with dairy)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
Place the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarb, sugar, grated apple and mixed spice into a large bowl and mix well.
Beat together the Coconoil, egg and milk.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and roughly mix - do not overmix!
Bake for 22-25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.

Enjoy xx

Never enough cake!

Lots of great comments about the recipes and blog, but one comment that stuck out was that there was not enough cake!!  Anybody who knows me well will know that cake features quite highly in my life.  Eating healthily is one thing, cake is quite another and certainly cannot be missed out!  And luckily my rule of 80% healthy and 20% naughty allows for this.
So here follows a healthy naughty cake recipe - it's rich in antioxidants (dark chocolate, cranberries and raspberries), is gluten and dairy free (gluten free flour and coconut oil instead of butter), and is to die for!

Raspberry and Cranberry Chocolate Brownies

Makes 12-16

225 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)

250 g caster sugar

4 eggs

225 g coconut oil, melted

75 g cocoa powder

75 g gluten-free plain flour

150 g fresh raspberries

50 g dried cranberries

·      Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Lightly grease a 20 cm square tin.

·      Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water.

·      Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar and eggs in a large bowl, until the sugar has dissolved.

·      Whisk in the melted coconut oil then sift in the cocoa powder and flour and fold them into the mixture.

·      Finally, fold in the melted chocolate, raspberries and cranberries then pour into the prepared tin.

·      Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle of the mixture comes out with only a little of the mixture attached.

·      Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares to serve.

You can find more of my antioxidant-rich recipes in Total Sports Nutrition next month.

Autumn Colours

No doubt you will have heard of the expression 'eating a rainbow', but how much of this advice do you really follow?
There is a good reason why you should, especially at this time of year.  If people around you are starting to get the sniffles and coughs, then you need to be doubly sure your immune system is in the peak of condition, and that comes from supporting it with great foods that are rich in antioxidants, which are easy to spot as they are the colourful ones!
Firstly you need to know that your body is going to absorb these wonderful nutrients, so if you have any bloating, flatulence or stomach pain issue, you may need to see a health professional to ensure your digestive system is working at the optimum level.
Ensuring you are including colourful foods into your diet is easy - just look at your plate before each meal!  If it's all brown and beige you're doing it wrong!  And that may be because you are buying readymade foods.  For example, the pot of houmous shown here is homemade, but not only do I include all the normal ingredients - chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, I also add Brazil nuts and parsley - added essential fats, fibre, selenium, vitamin C, vitamin E, plus much more.  There is no comparison on nutrition or price to the shop-bought product.  And served with roasted sweet potatoes and carrots that have been tossed in olive oil, cumin seeds and pumpkin seeds, you have yourself a colourful, nutritious snack.
For those that have a sweet tooth and need a bit of a treat, even this can be healthy and takes little effort -

Mango and Apricot Crumble

Serves 4

175 g dried apricots, roughly chopped
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 large mango, peeled, stoned and chopped
100 g raspberries
50 g ground almonds
15 g coconut oil, melted

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas mark 6.
Place the chopped apricots into a bowl and add the orange zest and juice.  Cover and leave to stand for 1 hour.
Place the mango in an ovenproof dish then add the raspberries and finally spoon over the soaked apricots and all the juice.
Sprinkle over the ground almonds followed by the coconut oil and bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden on top.

Cruciferous and Goitrogenic

This is one of my favourite times of the year, when my Father's allotment is overflowing with great vegetables that he needs to give away, as he can't possibly eat them all.  So that's where I come in - he gets more visits from me this time of year!
And as I am constantly telling clients to each more vegetables, especially the cruciferous variety to help with detoxifying, I like to come up with new ways of cooking them.
Cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower, and all are rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and disease-fighting phytochemicals.  There is even research that links cruciferous vegetables to a lower risk of cancer, as well as a reduction in oxidative stress.
But as with everything in life, there is a catch.  If you have any thyroid issues, some of these vegetables may not be doing you as much good as you thought, unless cooked in the right way.
Certain foods contain goitrogens, which are compounds that make it more difficult for the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones.  For people with a healthy thyroid this is not an issue as the thyroid gland compensates and just makes more, but in those people whose thyroid function is compromised the thyroid gland may grow more cells and eventually a swelling in the neck, known as a goiter, may occur.  Cruciferous vegetables along with soy, strawberries, peanuts and peaches are known to have this effect.
But all is not lost - these wonderful foods do not need to be avoided totally, just cooked in a gently way to change their phytochemical structure and eliminate the goitrogenic effect.
This cabbage recipe is similar to one I have done before on the blog, but to me it is one of the tastiest ways to eat cabbage - coconut oil, spices and the addition of beans for protein - a perfect vegetarian light lunch.

Heat coconut oil with cumin seeds and mustard seeds until they begin to 'pop'.
Add sliced onion and cook for 3-4 minutes before stirring in 1/2 tsp turmeric and cooking for another minute.
Stir in shredded cabbage, drained canned beans and a sprinkling of desiccated coconut and toss well to coat with the spices.
Pour in 2-3 tbsp water and cover to steam the cabbage gently for 5-6 minutes.
Season to taste and serve.

How many carbs do we really need?

Yes, we all need carbs, but what most people forget is that most foods we consume are carbs - so you don't really need to think about whether you are getting enough, or carbo-loading before training or a sports event.  The truth is, most of us are actually eating far too many carbs.
And what are they anyway?  Well, in the body they are basically sugar (called glucose), and used for energy.  But if you don't need all that energy and you are not burning off all those glucose molecules what happens to them?  Well unfortunately they turn to fat!
So should we eat low fat foods to help combat this?  No we shouldn't.  And why not?  Because if they are low in fat they are normally high in sugar (their great taste has to come from something!), and that sugar, if not burned off, will turn to.......fat!
For how long have we all been focusing on the wrong thing.
It is now widely recognised that sugar is the culprit, not fat - we need good fats to help feed our brain and to keep our cell membranes supple, to allow nutrients in and waste out.
But what we do need to think about is where our carbs come from - it's not all just about bread and pasta (especially as a growing number of people are becoming intolerant to wheat products).  There are so many great natural complex carbs, that will help to sustain long-term energy and also provide other nutrients like fibre and minerals.
Brown rice is a great example - it may take longer to cook and longer to chew, but that is the reason it will sustain you for longer too!  Plus it is rich in manganese, selenium, magnesium, tryptophan, B vitamins and fibre - what's not to like.
And if you have a sweet tooth, adding cinnamon to this lovely pudding may also help with your sugar cravings!

Dairy-free Brown Rice Pudding - cook brown rice according to the pack instructions.  Towards to the end of cooking stir in dairy-free milk, cashew nuts, ground cinnamon and a few raisins, then cook for a little while longer.  Serve with a drizzle of blackstrap molasses - delicious!

Tweeting my lunch!

I am not one to 'tweet' about what I had for lunch, infact if anybody I follow does do that I tend to unfollow them!
But today was different as, just as I was thinking about what healthy lunch to prepare there was a knock on the door and there was a delivery man delivering me a great box of tenderstem broccoli!  Now I know most girls would probably prefer a bouquet of flowers, but I was perfectly happy with this great veg parcel!
That's the delight of doing the work I do, you never know quite what you are going to be offered next - although sometime deliveries are better than others!  I have a kitchen full of gadgets that I hardly ever use, but PR companies like me to try them out.  I have lots of random un-matching crockery (which I do quite like), and cupboards full of unusual ingredients (see previous blog entry!).
But back to lunch.  What to do with the gorgeous green stuff?
Well, in the pack alongside the tenderstem were a few other random ingredients, so like a top  Ready Steady Cook chef I was off in a flash, and this is what I produced within 10 minutes - Quinoa with tenderstem broccoli, chives and parsley, topped with pan-fried halloumi and hazelnuts with a lemon dressing - delicious - thank you Tenderstem!

The Benefits of Coconut Oil

After the last post I was asked where I find so many 'weird' ingredients?!  To me they are not weird, just unusual and sometimes the research is new so supermarkets haven't quite cottoned on to them yet.
Coconut oil is certainly not weird, it is delicious!  And has been used for cooking in countries like Sri Lanka for a very long time.
More recently it has been heralded as an answer to Alzheimer's disease, with its' ability to boost the brains energy supply through Ketones - high level fuel that is produced by converting medium chain triglycerides (MCT), which are abundant in coconut oil.  Coconut oil has the largest concentration of MCT, apart from human breast milk, and these go directly to the liver and are transformed into energy and not fat.  
MCT's promote what is called 'thermogenisis', which increases the body's metabolism, producing energy, so not only is it recommended for Alzheimer's, it is also very useful for athletes or weight loss.
Lauric acid is the name of the fat found in coconut milk, it is a saturated fat that is known to enhance the immune system through it's antiviral and antibacterial effects.
So how can you use it?
There are so many uses of this gorgeous oil, it's hard to know where to start!  You can add it to pretty much anything - it makes smoothies really creamy, and I use it in baking instead of butter.  Another friend spreads it on his toast in the morning!  And because it has a high smoke point, it is very stable, and slow to oxidise - perfect for cooking food at high temperatures, stir-fries for instance.
And it's not just for eating - massage it into your skin or hair for a really indulgent treat.

Creamy Sultana Porridge

Serves 1

40 g rolled oats

30 g sultanas

300 ml non-dairy milk

1 tsp Coconoil

1 knob stem ginger, diced

½ banana, peeled and sliced

drizzle of honey

• ·          Place the oats, sultanas, non-dairy milk and 200 ml water in a pan and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
• ·          Place over a medium heat and slowly bring to the boil, stirring most of the time, until thick and creamy.
• ·         Stir in the Coconoil until it has melted, then serve the porridge in a bowl.
• ·         Sprinkle with the diced ginger and sliced banana and drizzle with honey.

  More of my recipes can be found on the Coconoil website.

    

   Joy xx

   PS  For any Triathletes reading this, go to Total Sports Nutrition magazine for my latest feature, to help your improve your performance.

Eating for the rest of your life

It's now a few weeks since I gave up so many of the foods I thought I couldn't live without, and still I don't miss any of them.  It helps I suppose that I wasn't really 'hooked' on anything too addictive - no caffeine or alcohol to speak of, but it's more that I really want to feel that I am 'feeding' my body good nourishing food. ( I do have to admit to one slight glitch - a visit to beautiful Southwold would not have been the same without a portion of fish and chips on the seafront!).
We don't tend to think of eating as feeding ourselves, the way we do when we 'feed' plants, when we think they need nourishing - well so do we!  So instead of eating because we are hungry or because we happen to be passing a shop that sells foods that our body actually has no idea what to do with (most junk food), we need to get the idea into our heads of eating foods that can help our bodies to function, and hopefully carry us on into healthy old age.
And that is another way to think about 'diets' (how I hate even the word!) - unless you can sustain that way of eating for the next ten years, then there is no point - you need a healthy eating regime that fits into your everyday life FOREVER.
But even when eating healthily you need a few treats, and for me the Happy Kitchen brownies are one of the best raw chocolate brownies I have tasted - I just love the texture and thick fudge-like consistency.  So, needless to say, over the past week I have been trying to make my own version, and this comes pretty close, using ingredients from two of my favourite suppliers - Coconoil and Naturya, trying to use the healthiest ingredients I can, keeping them gluten and dairy free.

'Raw' Chocolate Fudge

Makes 30-40 squares

175 g Coconoil
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
100 g dates, stoned
100 g Naturya Cocoa Nibs
75 g brown rice flour
20 g hemp protein powder
50 g mixed ground seeds (linseed, sesame, sunflower or pumpkin)
grated rind of 1 orange

Place the Coconoil and molasses in a pan and gently heat until the Coconoil has melted.
Meanwhile, place the dates into a food processor and blitz until broken down.
Grind the cocoa nibs in a coffee grinder to give a smooth powder.
Stir the ground cocoa powder and rice flour into the Coconoil and molasses mixture and then add to the food processor with the remaining ingredients and process until smooth.
Spoon into a base lined 18cm square tin and press until level.
Chill until firm, and then cut into squares and store in an air-tight container.

Try not to eat all at once!

J xx

Life after detox.........

Wow, what an amazing experience - and that is not what you would expect to be saying after two weeks of not eating all the things you thought you loved and couldn't go without!
Yesterday was my final day of eating the cleanest diet I am ever likely to have consumed, having removed all foods that may be slightly toxic to the body, either because they are produced using chemicals (pesticides, mercury in fish etc), or may naturally cause intolerances (gluten, dairy, deadly nightshade family, soy).  And having cut out lots of foods, this meant I could increase the remaining food groups, and eat far more!
This was the interesting bit - to start with my weight started to drop, but I didn't want to lose weight, I just wanted to eat healthily and be sure to rid my body of unwanted toxins.  So each day I would weigh myself and if it looked like my weight was dropping I increased my intake of delicious foods that day - what could be better?!
And now I'm back to a 'normal' diet, I don't want any of those bad foods back, because I feel so great without them - more energy, amazingly smooth skin and very focused brain-wise!
This is what a detox should be, it's not about losing weight and starving yourself - for detoxification to work well it needs lots of nutrient support, so increasing your intake of colourful vegetables, fibre and plenty of liquid is hugely important.
De-stressing yourself mentally and physically also helps - taking long relaxing Epsom salt baths, having a massage, or even just going for a long relaxed walk in the countryside, all help towards a more relaxed you and hopefully a more relaxed digestive system.
Changing the way you eat also encourages you to try new foods and recipes, and even though I cook for a living (so you would think I had cooked pretty much everything!), I leant a lot having less ingredients to play with, but love some of the new recipes I have come up with.
My favourite of course has to be replacing the one thing I thought I couldn't live without - creamy natural yoghurt.  But guess what?  Creamy homemade coconut milk yoghurt is just as tasty and fits in perfectly with my thoughts on eating a dairy-free diet (we should all be doing it!).
Even entertaining became fun - the recipe below I cooked for a friend who is now converted to quinoa, and who knows, I may even get her to join me on the detox programme next year!
If you'd like to join us too, do get in touch.

Grilled Mackerel with Quinoa Beetroot Tabbouleh

Serves 4

225 g quionoa
125 g cooked beetroot, diced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
large handful parsley, chopped
large handful mint, chopped
large handful coriander, chopped
large handful chives, chopped
1/2 cucumber, diced
juice of 1 lime
1-2 tbsp good tasting extra virgin olive oil
seasoning
8 mackerel fillets

Cook the quinoa in simmering water according to the pack instructions.  Drain and refresh under cold water then drain and place in a large bowl.
Stir in the diced beetroot, grated carrot, chopped herbs and cucumber.
Squeeze in the lime juice and pour over the olive oil, mix and season well.  Leave to stand at room temperature.
Grill the mackerel fillets for 3-4 minutes each side and serve on a bed of the colourful salad.

Tip:  As with all my recipes, this is just an idea - change it to suit your taste - different herbs, chopped avocado, fresh anchovies, toasted seeds - the list is endless - have fun!

Happy Healthy Eating,

Joy x

Time for a Spring Detox

Now, if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I get very cross when, in the first week of January, every newspaper, magazine, radio and TV station are talking about detoxing!  You've just had the most stressful Christmas (I think that applies to at least 50% of the population!), it's freezing cold outside and all you really want to do is eat comfort food and snuggle up in bed.
Which is why, when spring arrives, the sun comes out, you feel like exercising, all the great spring seasonal foods are abundant, NOW is the time to detox!  This also doesn't mean fasting and starving yourself for a couple of weeks.  What is does mean is, removing all the toxins from your diet and your life, and supporting your body to help it detoxify more efficiently, using great foods and supplements that are based on supporting detoxification.
And what I love about doing this, is that each time I do it I learn more about how my body reacts to certain foods.  For instance, I 've been on the detox now for 3 days and my eyes are clear and sparkly!  This just shows that you really don't know how healthy you are until you change something, and then you realise how unhealthy you were before!  And I am somebody that could not be called unhealthy - I don't drink tea, coffee or alcohol (one drink a fortnight), and only eat fish (no meat), I hardly eat gluten, but do love natural yoghurt and have found this very hard to give up.  But now I realise I should.
One thing I do love to do is to snack, so finding a snack that would satisfy my sweet tooth was hard - no sugar is allowed - but then I started to play, and came up with these delicious and very nutritious seed crispbreads with raspberry jam - great whether you are on a detox or not!

Seeded Crispbreads with Raspberry Jam

200 g flaked almonds
100 g sunflower seeds
100 g pine nuts
3 tbsp ground flax seeds
75 g cooked red quinoa
75 g coconut oil, melted
150 ml water
pinch of salt
200 g raspberries
1 tbsp chia seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4.
Place the almonds, sunflower seeds and pine nuts into a food processor and blitz until broken down, but not too fine.
Tip into a bowl and mix with the flax seeds, quinoa, coconut oil and water and mix well.
Leave to stand for 10 minutes (this allows the flax seeds to thicken and hold the mixture together).
Spread the mixture over a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, pressing it to the edges and making it flat.
Cook for 30 minutes then remove from the oven and cut into squares or fingers.  Cook for a further 30 minutes, then place onto a cooling rack to cool.
While the crispbreads are cooking, blitz the raspberries in a blender and place in a bowl.  Stir in the chia seeds and leave to stand - the chia seeds will gradually thicken the mixture to give you a jam consistency.

More delicious detox recipes to follow over the next few days.

And if you would like more support while you detox, just get in touch.

Joy x

Custard Tart Heaven

Another country, another rowing training camp!  In the past my rowing club visited Seville for a week over Easter every year to get some serious training in, with the coaches putting us through our paces.  But Seville is a long way to drive with a trailer full of boats.  So last year we tried the South of France, and this year was the turn of  Portugal, at a sweet coastal town called Figueira de foz, at the mouth of the Mondego river, the longest river located exclusively in Portuguese territory.
Figueira de foz itself was obviously once a pretty fishing town, but now the beach front has become a tourist's haven, with lots of high-rise hotels and apartment buildings.  Strolling around the back streets of the old town was much more fun, seeing the traditionally tiled houses in perfect tree-lined streets.
The place we stayed in turned out to be a bit of a disaster, but on Boat Race day we were invited to watch the huge TV at The Paintshop Hostel, run by a lovely English couple, and we all wished we had been staying there!
As training camp involves training three times a day for 6-7 days, there's not much time (or energy) to explore a town, but one of our girls had been before and had met the local rowers, so we were invited to have dinner with them before we left, and it was delicious - lightly battered and fried sardines (which you eat from head to tail!), followed by monkfish, prawn and rice stew, made with locally grown rice.  The locals also wanted to tell me about their traditional dishes, one of which is a dessert made from pigs blood (which I didn't try!).  Salted cod is very big here, as is great seafood, so we were not likely to go hungry, and certainly had a great supply of protein to keep us fit and healthy.
One thing I did become slightly addicted to though, was the deliciously tempting custard tarts (pasteis de nata), and found myself trying one from a different bakery each day until I had researched them all to find the best!
And as with most things I love, I then want to make them myself, as most things are better homemade, although on this occasion I think I have been beaten by the experts!  I chose to try a recipe by Diana Henry that was published in the Telegraph a few years ago, you can find it here.  As Diana so cleverly mentions, the bakers in Portugal having been making these for years, so don't expect that you will get it right first time!
One thing I would point out having tried to make them is that getting the pastry as thin as possible is important, and maybe after making your swirls it would be better to roll them out with a rolling pin before putting into the tin?  Apart from that, the custard was delicious and lemony, and the pastry beautifully flaky, so not bad for a first attempt.
I am scared about having another attempt though - who is going to eat them all?!!!

Happy Baking.

Joy x

How to start the day.....

Most of my friends who know me well will know that my favourite way to start the day is to take my sculling boat down to the river Thames and disappear for a couple of hours into my own little world of serene water, sharing it only with the water-land wildlife.  There is something very magical about being propelled by your own efforts. And knowing that I have the river to myself is such a treat (that normally happens only when I get out there before 6am these days!).
Apart from loving my surroundings, I also love returning to the boathouse to enjoy a breakfast that I know I have really earned.  
As a nutritional therapist I see a lot of rowers as well as other sports people, and I am constantly asked about breakfast and whether you should eat before training and if you are going out so early in the morning how is this possible (as you need at least one hour for your food to digest)?  As with all things related to us humans, everyone is different.  Some people can cope with eating a small amount before training and not suffer any effects, whilst others really struggle.

A lot of the scientific evidence points towards having fuel on board before training. But then there is the evidence of the hunter gatherer who certainly didn't eat before he left his hut first thing in the morning, the whole point was he was going hunting for his food, so he ran and hunted first, then he ate, and finally he slept (which also puts the post-Sunday lunch digestive walk idea onto the back burner - next time choose the sofa!).
So my advice is to find out what works best for you, but just be aware that if you don't eat before you train your training session should not be a hard one, and don't expect to reach any PBs - save those for later in the day.
What is important about breakfast though, is to make sure it's substantial - including good protein is important, not only for blood sugar control but also, if you have been training, to repair and rebuild muscles.  
Protein is also essential for making enzymes that are needed for virtually all biological processes that take place in the body, such as transmitting nerve signals or helping the immune system to work.  
The best foods to eat for protein are not necessarily those that are highest in protein as it may also mean they are high is saturated fat, such as beef or lamb. Eating a varied diet, including vegetable proteins such as rice and lentils, as well as fish, is ideal.
So if you are keen enough to get up early and start your day with a plate of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, you will starting your day in a great way.

Good morning!

Joy x

Cyclist's Palsy and Rempeyek!

Well, after a week of no cycling, my left hand is no better at doing up zips, or typing this blog than it was before, but at least now I know why - don't you just love the power of the internet!  A cycling friend called Ed informed me that I am suffering with cyclist's palsy (also know as handlebar palsy), a common condition in road cyclists covering long distances.  It is described as a nerve injury that causes persistent weakness and clumsiness of the hand and thumb, and may cause difficulty with fine finger movements such as operating a computer keyboard or playing the piano (so now I know why I can't play the piano!!).
Unfortunately there is no cure, but the nerve should regenerate itself and the function of the muscles will be restored within 3 months - a little longer than I had hoped!
One thing it does point out to me though is that my new bike was possibly not set up properly for me, as I had cycled Lands End to John O'Groats on my old bike with no hand problems at all - a lesson to be learnt here I feel.

Luckily I can still cook with a dodgy hand (don't ask me to ice a cake though!), so I have been experimenting with recipes of foods we had whilst cycling through Thailand and Malaysia.  When you are cycling between 80-110 miles a day your body just craves sugar for energy, so most of the day is spent taking in jellies, sweets and sweet drinks.  I also used Cliff Shot Bloks, that are like a gel but in a jelly - easier to eat while on the move, and actually quite tasty.  So by the time you get to late afternoon the thought of any more sweet foods is just too much, what you really fancy then is something savoury, and having sweated heavily all day, something salty.
Whilst cycling through Vietnam in December, I would visit local shops and buy random foods that I didn't recognise and insist on all my fellow cyclists trying them - sometimes they were delicious, sometimes they were disgusting, but it was great fun to try so many unusual ingredients.  On this trip, fellow cyclist Ray decided he would do the same to me, and in the first place we stopped near a lake he bought Rempeyek - biscuits made with anchovies and peanuts - this was early in the morning and none of us really fancied the look of them, and then we tried them - they were delicious and from that moment we were hooked, we had them every day!  Helmi, our local driver told us they were a local biscuit, so I asked him for a recipe.  This is as near as I can get with the ingredients not being quite the same over here and the translation difficult!

Rempeyek

Makes around 12

100 g rice flour
3/4 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
500 ml coconut milk
10-12 anchovies
75 g peanuts
300-400 ml groundnut oil

• Place the rice flour into a bowl and mix in the spices and fennel seeds.
• Pour in the coconut milk and beat to give a runny batter, the consistency of single cream.
• Roughly chop half the anchovies and cut the remaining half into thin strips.  Stir the chopped anchovies into the batter.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot.  Spoon desert spoonfuls of the batter into the pan, spreading it into a circle, to make it as thin as possible.  Place an strip of anchovy and a few peanuts in the centre of each one.
• Cook for 5-6 minutes, until just starting to turn golden at the edges.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a rack to drain and crisp up, then place on kitchen paper to take off any excess oil.

These are best eaten freshly made!

Bangkok to Singapore by bike

Well we made it - 1161 miles from Bangkok to Singapore, and no injuries apart from a dead left hand (which I am told will gradually be restored if I stay off the bike for a while), so even typing this is proving tricky!

 I thought the toughest bit of the challenge would be having to dismantle my bike to get it packed into the bike bag that looked far too small - if only I had known what lay ahead of me.

First obstacle over, the bike was squeezed in, padded shorts packed and off I went.  I safely arrived in Bangkok after two long flights, but unfortunately my bike did not - the airline had managed to break it beyond repair (place a fragile sticker on anything being put in the hold and it appears to be carte blanch for them to crush it).  So, with only a few hours to spare, my afternoon in Bangkok was spent racing around the bike shops of the city trying to find a bike that would fit me in a country where the average height is around 4'3"!  

So off we set in an overland truck to the start of our adventure - cycling out of Bangkok was not an option, so we started a few miles on the outskirts.  Within a few hours it was very obvious that the organisers of the trip (Kukri Events) had no idea how to support a cycling team - for starters not one of them had ever cycled - not a great start!  So not only did they not know how to handle our bikes (chucking them in the back of an overland truck seemed fine to them - I was not so impressed with my brand new bike being wrecked so early on, and others who had bikes that were clearly worth a few thousand were even less impressed), they were also intending to feed us along the way.  We were in Thailand which, in my mind, is one of the best countries to eat in the world.  So what are we fed at lunch time?  Boiled pasta, grated carrot, chopped tomato and cucumber and luncheon meat!!  Seriously!  It turns out that the driver of the truck is doing the cooking, and his idea of a great meal is KFC!  And if the food is not sold in Tesco Lotus, then it isn't possible for us to have it, as that is where they did all their shopping (we cycled through hundreds of acres of pineapples but when we requested them for breakfast where told we couldn't have them because there were none in the supermarket!

The final straw was a few days later when we had to sleep in a brothel - yes, I kid you not!

So, after one week, four of us left the group and went it alone - so the next challenge was to find our way from the top of Malaysia to Singapore (thank goodness for Google Maps!).  We hired a local mini bus and a couple of drivers to support us and carry our bags, and low and behold one of them was training to be a chef - how lucky were we?  Instantly the trip changed and became really exciting as we learnt about the food and culture along the way.  Malaysian food is a real mix between Malay, Chinese and Indian, so depending on where you eat will also depend on how spicy the food is.  Rice and noodles obviously dominate most menus, but there are some great foods to be had, like these crabs that were cooked in a little shack on the side of the road where we had stopped for breakfast - we did consider hanging on until lunch, but had 108 miles to do that day so were under pressure to keep moving!

Although the locals do not appear to eat many deserts, it's not because they don't have a sweet tooth as their coffee and tea is made with condensed milk - a thick layer of it at the bottom of each cup, which gives it a very sweet and creamy taste.

It is easy to eat quiet healthily in both Thailand and Malaysia, they don't eat dairy or bread and everything is cooked from fresh - they don't have convenience foods like we do.  So I did manage to loose weight, but would have lost a lot more if we hadn't have found Magnum ice-creams in a few garages along the way!

Two foods really stood out for me - a lemon grass salad that included deep fried shells of prawns and cashew nuts, and Rempeyek biscuits that are made with peanuts and anchovies.  I will be testing both recipes over the next week, so watch this space!