Lee – Page 58 – Supercharged Food

Suvana Paw Paw & Honey Lip Balm

Lip Balms have come a long way from the original chemically laden, sickly sweet smelling, tubes of thick sticky ‘balm’ we once coveted. Suvana Paw Paw and Honey Lip Balm is Australia’s first ECOCERT Certified Organic Lip Balm and a must for your handbag.

All Suvana products contain natural, organic ingredients, grown with energy provided from the sun. It’s fitting to know then, that the name Suvana comes from the ancient Sanskrit language meaning ‘the sun’.

What I like about the Suvana brand is their commitment to organic, natural products. There are absolutely no synthetic preservatives, chemicals or fragrances and fortunately for us, no petroleum jelly so often found in commercial lip balms so you can wear this balm with ease and confidence.

The balm felt lovely and smooth and protective on my lips and this is due to the gorgeous ingredients Paw Paw extract and Honey, which contain healing properties as well as Cocoa Butter, a high quality emollient working to soften skin and add moisture, and Vitamin E, known for its skin healing properties.

Suvana balm can also be used as a natural cure to soothe dry, cracked skin or to prevent nappy rash. Visit the website here.

Banana Bread

When fruit cravings happen, berries and bananas are a good choice as they are rich in vitamins. Banana's wonderfully sweet, creamy flesh, and the fact that they’re perfectly packaged by nature in their own yellow jacket leaves me simply smitten. Whether baking, mashing, blending them into a scrumptious smoothie or a remarkable raw dessert, or simply enjoying them straight from the skin; bananas are a brilliant sweet treat to work with in the kitchen, and they’ll reward you by working wonders on your health, and renovating your body into a sanctuary of wellness.

Bananas are one of the highest sources of vitamin B6 you can eat, and provide impressive amounts of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and manganese. Vitamin B6 is a vital nutrient that helps with the production of several neurotransmitters; chemicals that carry signals from one nerve cell to another. B6 is therefore needed for normal brain development and function, and helps to make the hormones serotonin and norepinephrine, which influence mood; and melatonin, which helps to keep your body clock in top order. (more…)

Slow Cooked Green Beans

Slow cooked green beans

We’ve all experienced a questionable serving of green beans at some stage in our lives; the boiled-to-death, soggy, watery, grey tinged version that tastes like something you’d find in the bottom of the kitchen sink after a big round of washing up. These kind of food experiences are what turn people into veggie enemies. It pains me to think that the green bean isn’t able to display its true splendour; but when given the recognition it deserves, the humble green bean accompaniment can drop the jaws of an entire Masterchef panel.

I’m sooooooo excited for spring, not just for the bursting forth of fragrant flowers, but because this is when glorious green beans come out to play. There’s nothing like a freshly picked, sweet green bean to munch on during a sunny spring day. They’re also very nutritious; containing high amounts of vitamins C, K, A, B6, B2, B1, as well as folate, fibre, and a multitude of minerals; including bone building calcium, bone and tissue supporting silicon, manganese, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous and energy producing iron. (more…)

Dietlicious by Gourmet Dinner Service

I have been enjoying the luxury of delicious pre-organised meals this past week! The team at Dietlicious have kept my hunger at bay whilst detoxing my insides as I made my way through their 5-day dietician designed Cleansing Diet Program. I’ll give you a little snapshot of the scrummy meals I was indulging in whilst on the program! On day one I began with a cleansing lemon in water, followed by a Watermelon, mint and acai smoothie. My chicken tagine with quinoa for lunch was proceeded by a nutritious nut and seed mix and I was give a box of lovely fresh seasonal fruit to choose from for an afternoon snack with ginger tea. My dinner for day 1 was a Thai red tofu curry with stir fry vegetables, followed by a piece of fruit as a healthy alternative to a fat-laden dessert.

The Cleanse Program is preservative, additive, dairy, wheat and red meat free and the meals come pre-packaged for convenience. Although you all know I absolutely love to cook, it was a really welcome change to have a quick and easy nutritious meal ready to go. The Cleanse program is only one of the various meal plans on offer and you can personalize the plans so that they are targeted specifically to your needs.

Dietlicious was launched by Janel Horton and her company Gourmet Dinner Service in 2011 and continues to be one of the leading Meal Delivery services in Australia.

I would really recommend Dietlicious for anyone time-poor and looking for a healthy alternative to those salt and preservative-laden meals found in the frozen meal section of the supermarket.

Lentil and Sunflower Seed Moussaka

As winter subsides, I can spy a tiny glimpse of summer on the horizon. Until the hot weather finally arrives, I’ll continue to dream of island holidays and balmy nights. This week I’ve been dreaming of Santorini sunshine, and all of the culinary delights that come with the beautiful country of Greece. I love to immerse my imagination and let it become fully involved in cooking; if I feel like a Greek island holiday, I’ll make it a reality with my mixing spoon. Even though I’m not globetrotting at this point in time, why should I let that stop me from experiencing the sensory delights of the world?

If you can’t get your mitts on a plane ticket, working your magic in the kitchen is the next best thing to a travel adventure. With the wonderful World Wide Web supplying a wealth of knowledge and information, you can find thousands of recipe ideas that’ll zip you off to Rome, Nairobi, even Beijing at the drop of a rolling pin. But if you’re after a Greek getaway, you can’t really go past the illustrious moussaka.

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Mixed Leaf Seeded Salad with Cashew Nut Mayo

Move over apples, I think the age old saying needs to be re-written to “a SALAD a day keeps the doctor away”. I know that whenever I’m feeling a little under the weather, if my body feels a tad on the acidic side, or if I can sense a bug coming on; a beautiful, colourful, crunchy salad is the perfect pick-me-up.

If you don’t include at least one raw salad into your day, now’s the time to start. Millions of people, especially in the western world, eat diets that are dominated by packaged, lifeless, additive, and sugar filled foods. When illness arrives (which will inevitably happen with this kind of lifestyle), the answer is generally some form of pharmaceutical medicine. But eating a diet that is plentiful in raw veggies in a range of colours is probably one of the cheapest forms of medicine; both preventative, and in many cases curative, that you could ever access; minus the side effects!

The wonderful thing about salads, is that they’re quick, easy, and have the potential to be one of the most delicious meals you’ve ever devoured. Don’t for a second think that salads have to be a drab, flavour-less experience; you can mix and match, or add and subtract a multitude of components to get the exact blend of flavours for your own personal taste. You can also add nuts and seeds to give it some protein and bulk your spectacular salad up into a satisfying lunch or dinner. Also, concocting your own delicious dressings, whether creamy, zingy or sweet, is so much more satisfying than any of those watery supermarket creations that are designed to survive longer than the average human! (more…)

Black Bean Burgers with Green Salad

Black Bean Burgers

A true enjoyment of food can never exist when your focus is constantly on what you can’t have. Instead of battling through lengthy diet rules, and running for the hills from your fast food foes, start focusing your creative mind on turning any sugar filled treat, or preservative laden burger into a meal full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. This approach to food brings a joy to both your mind and your body, and is a fun, freeing experience. The journey of appropriating meals will open your eyes up to a world of exotic flavours and ingredients that you never thought existed, and you’ll be constantly surprised at the astounding impacts that the everyday components of your meals are having on your health and wellbeing. When you embrace this lifestyle of true appreciation and passionate interaction with your food, the local fast food franchises will be like a distant memory and the locavores will be top of mind.

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Roast Pumpkin and Tamari Seeded Brown Rice Salad

The perfect winter salad

This recipe is legen...wait for it...dary. I absolutely adore pumpkins, and they’re really going off at this time of year. Whenever I’m blessed enough to have one of these golden girls at home, the first thing that comes to mind is pumpkin soup. But there are so many other possibilities with this versatile wonder vegetable, and limiting it to a standard soup, or even a jack o’ lantern isn’t giving this vegetable the recognition it deserves.

Pumpkins are one of my favourite veggies, because they’re so sumptuously sweet and oh-so comforting. In the cooler months that’s all you really want right? Something that’s going to fire off your senses, but also give you that big hearty cuddle that wholesome cooked veggies can bring. A raw salad is often the last thing you want to dig into in the middle of an icy, wearisome day. It can sometimes feel like a punishment having to dig your teeth into such a crunchy, cold concoction. When the warm weather hits, sure; bring on the raw, juicy, cold veggies. Pile them on high. But when the cooler months arrive, you need something a little bit more welcoming; and a bit of gorgeous, glowing, roasted pumpkin can really make the difference. (more…)

Vegetable Tamari Stir Fry

There are so many nights when I’m just too busy to spend huge amounts of time fiddling around, toiling in the kitchen to have dinner ready. But at the same time I still want something substantial, interesting, and packed full of nutrients. When I find myself in this fussy dilemma, a speedy stir fry hits the spot.

Stir fries can be dated back to the Han Dynasty in China between 206 B.C and A.D 220. Chronic fuel shortages meant that people needed to find alternative ways to cook, without using too much oil. Stir frying was the perfect method of cooking; quickly heating the ingredients in a pan with a little bit of oil. Today, stir-frying has become China’s most favoured cooking technique, and has infiltrated all through Asia, and jumped over to the west. It’s now a worldwide favourite.

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Raw Lemon and Lime Cheesecake

You can find the recipe here.

Creamy Curried Cauliflower with Cashews

Like humans, different foods can become better versions of themselves by association. Certain ingredients are taken up to another level when married to Mr. Right; think tomato and basil. They’ve been soul mates all along, partners in crime, just waiting to bring the best out in one another. Cauliflower is another one that’s transformed when matched up with an eligible bachelor. She’s quite a plain-jane ingredient on her own, but a dead set knock-out when in the right relationship. Although if she were on facebook her relationship status would be “Its complicated". Rather than a sensible matrimony between two ingredients, she benefits greatly from more of an open-marriage, or a multiple-partnered approach.

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Supercharged Food Shopping List

I love food just as much as the next person and just because I'm on a wholefoods diet doesn't mean I miss out on delicious foods or compromise my taste buds.

It also means that I don't have to stake out weirdly named super foods hand-picked by natives in the wilds of the Congo or from the far corners of a tropical rain forest. There are no strange names like camu camu or macca powder on my shopping list.

If you're looking for inspiration, the key to motivating yourself to cook starts with a well-stocked pantry and good food on hand. My shopping list can vary depending on produce in season, what is available and what's on special.

The golden rule when you’re planning to shop is to remember to try and include organic ingredients where possible and try and swap out processed and packet food for fresh. Look at the label and if it has more than 10 ingredients then it's probably not going to be good for you.

Here are some everyday foods that you can buy at your local supermarket, farmer's market, wholefoods store or online that will help you eat your way to health...

Vegetables

Artichoke
Asparagus
Avocado
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Cabbage
Capiscum
Cauliflower
Celery
Cress
Cucumber
Daikon
Eggplant
Fennel
Garlic
Green Beans
Kale
Leek
Lettuce
Okra
Olives
Onions
Pumpkin
Radishes
Rocket
Rutabaga
Shallot
Snow Peas
Yellow Baby squash
Spinach
Spring Onion
Sprouts (all)
Tomatoes
Turnip
Water Cress
Zucchini

Meats:

(Preferably Organic)

Beef
Lamb
Pork
Chicken
Duck
Turkey
Quail
Organ Meats
Veal

Seafood:

Salmon wild caught
Fresh Fish
Anchovies
Prawns
Squid
Tuna
Sardines
Scallops
Sashimi
Oysters
Sea Vegetables

Eggs Organic

Chicken
Goose
Duck

Dairy (if tolerated)

Organic Butter
Cream

Fats & Oils

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (cold pressed)
Coconut Oil (extra virgin)
Seed & Nut Oils
Sesame Oil

Nuts and Nut Butters

Hazelnut
Brazil
Macadamia
Pecan
Walnut
Almond
Pumpkin Seeds

Flours and Baking

Almond Flour
Coconut Flour
Buckwheat Flour
Brown Rice Flour
Quinoa
Buckwheat
Millet
Amaranth
Baking Powder (gluten and additive free)
Bi Carb of Soda
Cacao Powder
Cacao Nibs
Cacao Butter
Coconut Flakes
Alcohol Free Vanilla Essence
Vanilla Beans

Herbs/Spices

Basil
Rosemary
Oregano
Coriander
Parsley
Sage
Thyme
Tarragon
Chives
Ginger, Nutmeg, Cinnamon

Condiments

Mustard Powder
Eden Foods Mustard with ACV
Celtic Sea Salt
Fresh Black Pepper
Wheat Free Tamari Sauce
Apple Cider Vinegar
Stevia drops
Stevia Powder
Tahini

Fruits

(Low in fructose)

Lemons
Limes
Berries
Stone Fruits
All other fruits in moderation

Supplements

Calcium
Magnesium
Probiotics
Cod Liver Oil
Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Vitamin C Vitamin E

Beverages

Decaf Coffee/Tea
Herbal Tea
Dandelion Tea
Coconut Water
Mineral Water
Soda Water

Healthy Home

Epsom Salts
White Vinegar
Eucalyptus Oil
Lemon Juice
Tea Tree Oil

You can purchase baking items, nutritional yeast flakes and stevia here...

Happy Shopping 🙂

Lee xo

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