Simple recipe ideas for winter

In the last month, I have very commonly heard from many clients that they have found it difficult to eat well because of the cold.  I would like to give you some ideas about eating well with warm foods.  Eating well does not mean raw salads everyday.  Especially in the cold winter, balancing the energetics of the cold with some warm food is great.  Warm food can still be very healthy.  I find it hard to have a meal, especially dinner, without soups these days. 

Making a bone broth on the weekend, with quantity enough for a whole week helps to keep cooking time on the weekday manageable.  I often get over 1kg of chicken carcass, add onions and garlic, carrots and about 5L-6L of water to boil for 1-2 hours.  I strain the soup, throw out the carcass, divide the soup into small containers and freeze them ready to use for the week.  Adding broccoli to it makes a good broccoli soup, adding turnip and lotus root makes one of the soups my children love, or simply chopping up some leek and ham makes a good chunky soup. Other options include leafy greens like watercress or spinach and/or some seaweed for the extra minerals and iodine that you can benefit from.  Another popular option I use is barley, lentils, cauliflower and carrot cubes added to the stock and boiled. Vegetable stir fries with a protein of your choice makes a simple, warm and satisfying dinner.

If you want to make some warm breakfast without cereal, grains or flour, try our flourless pancake.  It’s our family favourite when eaten with cashew or almond butter:

Flourless Pancake Recipe

1 rounded scoop Shape Up Protein Plus or 1 sachet Shape Up

1 rounded scoop ground almond

100ml soy milk (or any milk of your choice)

1 egg

Mix above mixture and pour into a heated stainless steel pan with coconut oil.  Cook until mixture sets.  Makes 2 medium size pancakes.  Add some cashew or almond butter or some blueberry coulis to serve.  Blueberry coulis can be very simply made by cooking 1 cup frozen blueberries (bruise them), 1 teaspoon honey and some lemon juice. Cook until mixture thickens.