February 2015 – Supercharged Food

The Greengrocer’s Diet

Visiting your local green grocer or farmer’s market is a wonderful way to discover new vegetables such as daikon and celeriac and rediscover old favourites like cauliflower and green beans.

Now a book has come along that focusses on the virtues and deliciousness of vegetables through simply brilliant recipes.

Judy Davie’s recently released book The Greengrocer's Diet has over two hundred and twenty recipes that focus on eating with the seasons for optimal weight loss.

The book includes testimonies from participants of Davie’s program that has seen some lose up to thirty two kilograms, decreased blood pressure, improved digestion, better sleep, improved skin and hair quality and outstanding increases in energy levels.

The diet primarily consists of portion control and focuses heavily on consuming large portions of vegetables, as they are a great source of nutrients and low in calories.

The Greengrocer's Diet focuses on eating seasonally, something I am very passionate about, so it’s a great book to look over before heading to your local farmers market or produce store for some inspiration.

The diet focuses on long-term, sustainable weight loss rather than a fad temporary body transformation that has both an expiry date and high level of unsustainability.

The Greengrocer's Diet is the most recent book for Judy Davie, following on from other best selling titles including Star Foods and The Food Coach.

You can order your copy online here.

Forage Cereal

I love it when a yummy breakfast cereal hits my desk and it’s rare that one does that’s healthy and still tastes good.

For all those with a penchant for paleo, Forage Paleo cereal will fit right into your caveman or woman pantry and being grain free, having no added sugar and packed with good fats of almonds and macadamia nuts you’ll be getting benefits of prehistoric proportions.

for·age- (noun)- The act of look or searching for food or provisions…

… and that is exactly what the team at Forage Cereal have done- searched high and low for great quality ingredients that compliment each other to make a range of delicious breakfast cereals that are sure to provide you with enough energy to get you through your day.

Forage has four different cereals available. Often after eating a bowl of cereal you can feel heavy and bloated, but after my bowl of Forage Cereal served with my homemade nut milk I felt energized, satisfied and ready for the day ahead.

Forage Bircher and Porridge are the other two cereals in the range. Often with Bircher muesli you can end up with an indistinguishable bowl of mush that works well as a poly-filler but on your gut, not so much! Forage Bircher features macadamia nuts, almonds and cranberries to ensure that you can gather morsels of flavor and texture with every scoop.

Check out the Forage website where you can find out the nutritional benefits of the range and also buy online.

Carob Kitchen Products

When chocolate cravings are high there’s a great alternative that you can enjoy without all of the added sugar and questionable oils and yum-oh I have a great creamy chocolate alternative to review today in the form of Carob.

The Carob Kitchen has a range of products available to purchase online and in a number of health food stores across Australia.

I was fortunate enough to try their range of 100% Australian made products, which all have no added sugar and are caffeine and gluten free! I tried the nibbles, mint bar and almond bar which were all delicious, creamy and full of natural chocolaty sweetness.

The range is also 100% natural, with no preservatives, no added colours and no added flavours- making it a great alternative to chocolate.

The team have also just released a new Easter Egg range just in time for Easter so you can ensure that your treasure hunt this year is the healthiest yet!

Don’t forget to put in an entry for our big Easter Chocolate competition here!

The Carob Kitchen really lets the Carob bean become the hero of the product, focusing on the amazing nutritional benefits of Carob including being a great source of dietary fibre and rich in both calcium and iron.

I personally loved their Banjo Bear and also the Carob Mint Bar was a yummy treat.

For a little added bonus instead of using cacao nibs, I popped in a couple of broken up pieces to my favourite Choc Chip Mint Smoothie you can find a video of the recipe here.

For more information and to buy your own delicious treats, checkout the Carob Kitchen website.

Mismo Skin Care

I’ve recently discovered MSM which is an ingredient that I hadn’t heard too much about. My sister came over from Perth to visit me over Christmas and had bought with her some MSM powder as she suffers from Osteo-arthritis and had heard about it from one of her friends. She mentioned how she has been really happy with the results and her symptoms had diminished significantly, so I thought I’d give the skin care products a try.

Mismo skincare products treat skincare conditions naturally and the range includes cleansers and make up products also. All of the creams and gels include MSM- an organic sulphur and natural pain relief agent. I tried out the Cell smoother, A-C-E Vitmain Serum and Rejuvenating Gel and they all made my skin look smoother brighter and replensihed.

MSM has super powers and can help to treat a range of conditions from arthritis to acne, constipation and irritable bowel to psoriasis and allergies. Mismo’s MSM powder can be bought online and added to a cup of water and consumed daily to help treat a variety of ailments.

I loved using Mismo’s Magnesium Gel to help release tight muscles and inflammation. Because it is absorbed through the skin rather than the digestive system, the maximum amount of magnesium is absorbed which is often compromised when digested orally. Mismo is also Australian made and ethically tested making sure no animals are used in the testing process. The products contain NO sodium lauryl sulphate, propylene glycol, Alcohol, artificial colours or mineral oils and are paraben free which is a bonus.

More information about Mismo and how to get your hands on their MSM products can be found here.

Spotlight on Peas and Pea Soup Recipe

Flavour of the month

I’ve been zig-zagging the country for the past couple of months giving talks about my latest book Eat Clean Green and Vegetarian and one of the common requests that I’ve encountered is the opportunity to look at individual ingredients in more detail.

I’m going to be adding a new section to the blog whereby each month I’ll shine the spotlight on one of my favourite ingredients and present its unique health benefits, along with deliciously clean and simple recipes.

To kick off, I’m letting you in on one of my favourite secret ingredients the overly overlooked green pea. By the end of this post I hope that you’ll agree this little pocket rocket will be worth shelling out for.

The dreaded green pea has for some families and in particular their children been one of the worst nightmares at the dinner table, primarily in the form of a torturous sphere of green mush on a plate.

However, with the help of my new column I’m hoping to reignite the vividly emerald Green Pea and provide it with a new lease of life in your kitchen by offering you an insight into its enormous health reimbursements.

Background

Although we consider the pea a vegetable for culinary purposes, each pea pod and its contents is collectively a fruit, and the peas inside are the seeds.

The toddlers of the bunch are harvested young and known as snow peas and sugar snap peas, or mangetout. The latter being fuller and rounder than pea pods and both the pod and peas can be eaten. To prepare younger varieties, rinse in cold water, and top and tail by removing the string running along either side of the pod.

Sugar snaps are delicious in a stir fry or crunchy salad or steamed until crisp then topped with olive oil. Snow peas have an edible pod that is flatter and it’s best to look for smaller more tender versions.

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Love Heart Chocolates

Ciao Bellas!

Love is in the air… and so is the aroma of freshly made chocolate. There's no better time to share a recipe for my delicious Love Heart Chocolates for you to woo your boo or BFF.

When you think of Valentine’s Day clichés do you conjur up little Italian men meandering and weaving their way around restaurant tables selling freshly picked red roses for "all the beuwdiful ladies out there"?

However you celebrate The Feast of St Valentine, make the ones you love feel special and show your adoration with delicious hand-made Love Heart Chocolates made with raw cacao for the ultimate understated romantic gesture.

What makes these indulgent delights so lovingly special is their smooth and velvety texture and chocolaty and buttery taste. As they melt in your mouth they also fill you up with goodness too.

Why choose to frequent confectionery aisles, when the superiority of homemade chocolate is so simple to achieve at home?

Whether you’re indulging in a little self-love, or wanting to impress that special someone, my Love Heart creations exude adoration and will win over the hearts of even the most discerning chocolate lover.

If you do happen to go overboard this Valentine’s Day, be sure to remind yourself of the following reasons to eat raw cacao, especially when you're nibbling on your second batch of chocs.

Raw Cacao is overflowing with one of the world’s most deficient major minerals, magnesium. In fact, there’s no known source on earth that provides more. Magnesium is essential in developing a strong healthy heart, can help to relax menstrual cramping, strengthen your bones and open up more than three hundred detoxification pathways in the human body.
Raw Cacao is super-rich in antioxidants. Ten percent of raw cacao powder is filled with them. They act as protective factors for the heart and circulatory system by increasing the ability of arteries to dilate, improving the functioning of the cells that line blood vessels and reducing the oxidsation of bad cholesterol (LDL). Interestingly, dairy appear to counteract these amazing antioxidant effects; just another added reason you should try my DAIRY FREE love hearts.
Raw cacao= happier you= lots of loving! Thank Phenylthylamine (PEA), a chemical that’s released into the blood stream when we are sexually aroused, and abundant in the brains of happy people. PEA is responsible for dopamine (the pleasure hormone), adrenaline and noradrenaline. When you eat cacao, your mental concentration will increase, livening up your attitude and increasing positive emotions such as joy, happiness and perhaps some hanky panky with the apple of your eye. Nudge nudge wink wink!

Bite into my bite sized treats anytime of the year and if you’re having a downer of a day pump yourself up with cacao. It’s a delicious way to improve cognition and emotional health.

These can be made in different shaped moulds for after dinner treats or fun treats at your next family party. If you’re feeling a little adventurous, add some orange or peppermint extract, crushed raw almonds, walnuts or cashews.

This recipe is from my new recipe book Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian.

Happy Vee Day,

Love Lee xo

Love Heart Chocolates

WF DF GF SF VEG VG

Serves 2

Ingredients

40 g (11/2 oz) shaved cacao butter
1/4 cup organic coconut butter
30 g (1 oz/1/4 cup) raw cacao powder
3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
1 tablespoon alcohol-free vanilla extract
10–12 drops stevia liquid, or 1 teaspoon powdered, or to taste

Method

To make the dark chocolate, melt the butters in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Add the other ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Place in love heart moulds and freeze for 30 minutes.
Remove from the freezer and wait a few minutes before popping the chocolate out from the moulds. If in hard moulds, tap the bottom until the hearts fall out.
To make white chocolate, follow the method above but omit the cacao powder.
The chocolates will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

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