Shake Up Your Wake Up! - Healthy Breakfast 2016

Hello everyone! :-) How are you all? Hope you are well and healthy. Yes it has been a while and I have missed you all. Truly I have missed my nutrition world. The reason why I have been absent is because I have been busy with my other job at a lovely children's centre doing outreach work, which I am still currently doing. But today I worked as A H Nutritionist and did a healthy breakfast workshop to celebrate Shake Up Your Wake Up! and I loved it.

RECIPE: Vegetable Crisps

Hiya! I feel like it's been a while. Hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the half-term holidays, I had a family wedding which was fun! But slightly unhealthy, so I am trying to get back into the healthy mode and work off all those extra calories I consumed. A little while ago I had some extra vegetables and decided to try the new craze of vegetable crisps. Don't knock it till you've tried it, find out how I made them. 

RECIPE: Eggless Pancakes

I didn't have time to make pancakes for breakfast this morning so I decided to have some for dinner instead. But I'd used up all the eggs for another dish.... Oops! Well, I didn't let that stop me making pancakes on pancake day! So I started searching for egg alternatives and egg-less pancake recipes. Here's what I came up with. 

RECIPE: Banana and Walnut Loaf Cake

What do you do when you have a few extra very ripe bananas on a spare Sunday afternoon? Use it to make something yummy of course! Even though I’m a nutritionist I love the smell and taste of freshly made straight-out-of-the-oven home-made cake or any bakes. With my first attempt at making banana loaf cake I kind of just made up the recipe as I went along, which came out really nice (if I do say so myself!). This is very rare for me as I usually have to follow a recipe for something to come out right.

RECIPES: 3 Things To Do With Beetroot

If you’ve been following me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you will have seen that I posted a photo of the beetroot dip that I made a while ago. I promised to publish the recipe in the mini recipe e-book that I was going to publish, but that didn’t happen…..instead I’m sharing it here with you in this blog, as well as the other things I made with the lovely vibrant nutritious beetroot. 

Party Snacks: So Simple, So Healthy!

The healthy bug is going around; everyone is watching what they eat and drink, well most people anyway. Most of my family at the moment, especially with the New Year resolutions and making new goals (I’m still working on my dad!). So when my family get together, I try to experiment and make healthy foods that everyone can enjoy, including the kids. Here are some of the things I made for our last get together and I think it went well. They were all very quick and simple to make. Everyone enjoyed it, didn’t have any complaints and we all ate happily and healthily. I have included the recipes below; so try them out, give them a try and let me know what you think. 

RECIPE: Aubergine Towers

I came upon this recipe when browsing a low-fat recipe book and it just looked delicious. I first made this in Ramadhan 2013 (the month of fasting for Muslism), to have as a light snack/meal for iftaar, (the meal at sunset when you break the fast). I had it with a side of couscous and it tasted so yummy. In fact it tasted like I was having pizza. I would even use this as a healthy pizza alternative recipe, or a low-carb meal. 

RECIPE: Oaty Protein Pancakes

You probably all know by now how much I love pancakes, I am always experimenting and trying to make it more yummy and healthy. I love having pancakes for breakfast especially in the weekend, I do prefer my sweet fruit topped pancakes but I am growing fonder of the savoury ones too. My spinach and feta pancakes are divine! If I do say so myself...check out my savoury pancake recipes. 

Homemade Protein Shake

Since, my brother has become more active; going to the gym regularly and been going to play football (a lot!!), he has been asking me to make him a protein shake for a while. I have made some before and have been experimenting but I think I have finally mastered it.

With people being more health conscious, going to the gym and being doing more exercise, the interest in protein shakes has grown so much over the last couple of years. But what does it actually do? 

RECIPE: Homemade Granola

<<- This is the dessert I usually make with my homemade granola, fruit parfait. Since the first time I made everyone has loved it, even unhealthy sceptics! I usually bulk bake the granola and store it in a airtight container so it there for me to have and use whenever I want, a healthy convenience food! You can have the granola by it self as a snack, with milk for breakfast, top it on your porridge or any yoghurt for a healthy crunch. Try it yourself just to see how simple it is to make, recipe below: 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Serves: 10

Ingredients

·         200g rolled oats

·         2 tbsp of canola/coconut oil

·         3 tbsp of honey

·         100g of mixed seeds

·         50g nuts (of your choice, I used flaked almonds)

·         Dried fruit, pieces.

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Mix the oats, oil and honey together in a bowl. Make sure the oats are coated and sticking together a bit.
3. Add the nuts and seeds. I usually use a pack of mixed seeds and flaked almonds.
4. Lay the oats on a baking tray, evenly and pop it in the oven.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes, depending on how brown you like your oats. I like it really brown, so I bake it for a few more minutes but careful not to burn it.
6. Give it a mix and bake it for another 10 minutes.
7. Take it out the oven and let it cool. Add your dried fruit pieces.
8. Enjoy! Great for breakfast, snack or dessert. 

To make the fruit parfait dessert: I crushed some berries with the back of a fork, layer it in a dessert bowl or cup with Greek yoghurt (I used Total Greek), and top with the granola. Simple yet scrumptious! 

VARIATIONS: - You could add, walnuts, cashew, pine nuts. – Add honey to the yoghurt for a sweeter taste. 

By Ayshabibi H. ANutr

A H Nutritionist

14th November 2013

RECIPE: Healthy Oat and Raisin Cookies

Oat and raisin cookies are my absolute favourite! I always choose this combo, so I went on the hunt for a healthy version of this yummy chewy cookie. And here I am going to share it with you all! They are nutritious, chewy and have no butter, and SO easy to make. 

RECIPE: Savoury Pancakes - Pancake Day 2013

This year I decided to make savoury pancakes instead of the usual sweet pancakes. The great thing about savoury pancakes is that it can be eaten as a meal for lunch or dinner, not just for breakfast. I was so overwhelmed with the different recipes out there for savoury pancakes, I was spoilt for choice, they all sounded too scrumptious that I found it very hard to decide which to include in this blog. Keep in mind that you can vary the recipe according to your own taste and feel free to experiment with different ingredients and spices. Here are the ones I made for me and family:

RECIPE: Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Being a nutritionist has opened me up to a lot of new foods. I've tried, tested, adapted and liked many new food and drinks. One of them is butternut squash. 

A lot of people have asked me how I make this soup, so I decided to share it with you all. I love making it, it's so easy and taste so good. It will fill you right up even without a wholemeal roll. A great winter vegetable, perfect for those cold nights, it will leave you nice and warm inside. 

RECIPES: Buzzing with Blueberries

My mum brought home a BIG bowl of blueberries last week and I got so excited like a little kid, I started thinking of all the yummy healthy foods I could make with them. Blueberries are very nutritious and count towards you 5-a-day, one portion is about a handful. Blueberries like most berries are high in antioxidants which help to keep your body in balance and a healthy immune system. They also contain vitamin C, B3, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and folic acid. Blueberries are a great body cleanser and improve circulation in our body giving you a healthy glow to your skin.

RECIPES: Bean burger and Falafels

Being a nutritionist has made me more aware and informed about what is in my food, not only inside my home but outside my home as well. One of my missions is to make healthy alternatives to take away and processed food. My love for fresh food is always growing because I am always finding out about new foods that I may not have heard of, like recently I have been hearing a lot about kale, which I hadn’t heard of until recently (It’s a dark green leafy vegetable, a type of cabbage with many health properties). I still need to try it out!

RECIPE: Leek and Potato Soup

So last week I finally made leek and potato soup for the first time. With leeks being in season in February I thought it was a good time and it tasted yum on some of those cold wintery nights. It was very easy to make and I used the recipe from the ‘Eat Seasonally’ website. 

RECIPE: Healthy pancakes - Pancake Day 2012

Happy Pancake Day! I love having pancakes in the morning; they are so scrummy and filling. And if you have it the right way, it’s a great way to help you have your 5-a-day. It’s easy to get carried away with Pancake Day by having too many calories; buying ready-made pancakes or making them from the batter mix packets. But it’s not that hard to have a healthy Pancake Day. I have had a fun morning making yummy wholemeal pancakes and taking pictures to show you all.