Sweet potato (Kumara) hash brown

Do you fancy hash browns?  It only takes minutes to make up a batch that has no gluten, dairy or any nasty additives in it.

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, grated

1 egg, beaten

1 Tbsp tapioca flour

1 tsp salt to taste

1 Tbsp olive or coconut oil

pepper

Method:

Mix all ingredients together and pan fry on low heat until it is cooked through.  This is useful for an afternoon snack or for lunch boxes.

30 min deconstructed gluten and grain free burger

This is a vegetable rich burger which has no grains, no gluten and no dairy.

Ingredients:

3 medium kumara (sweet potatoes, steamed)

1/2 head of cauliflower (steamed)

1 tsp garlic powder (optional, omit if you are on FODMAP)

1 tsp onion powder (optional, omit if you are on FODMAP)

4 Tablespoons tapioca flour to bind

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Steam the vegetables.  Allow to cool and blend together all ingredients.  Roll into patties and pan fry on low heat.

To assemble burger, you can use any meat or non-meat options of burger patties.  I just use pan fried salmon.  Garnish with lots of salad greens.

https://youtu.be/xkq-F6KMIz8

Easy Satay chicken on vegetables

If you love satay and would like to make a convenient satay chicken (or tofu or beef), know that the trick is in the marinate.  It does not need to be skewered for home made satay.

Ingredients for marinade:

3 large thumb piece of turmeric

1 large stalk of lemongrass

1 piece galangal

6 cloves ginger

1 large onion

2 chillies

pinch of salt

lemon juice to taste

Vegetables blanched:

Bean sprouts

French beans, sliced

Carrots, cut into strips

Fresh mint leaves

Prepare you protein source, which can be 500g of chicken/ beef/ tofu.  Slice protein source.

Method:  

1. Blend together all ingredients for marinade.  There will be enough marinate for at least 2 serves.  Save the extra serve in a small container in the freezer.

2.  Use the other half of the marinade in your prepared protein source.  Marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.

3.  Heat oil in pan and fry marinated meat/tofu until cooked.  Add an extra squeeze of lemon if preferred and some maple syrup to taste.

4.  Blanch all vegetables.

5.  Serve with cooked meat.  In this meal, I used chicken.

30 min dinner patties

On busy weekday nights after a long day at work, I want to feed the family quickly and have some relaxation time before bed.  I typically want to get dinner out in 30 minutes.  If you are like me and like quick, easy and nutritious meals, here is an idea.  From preparing to serving, these meat patties took less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

600g mince of your choice

1 bunch coriander chopped

1 large thumb piece ginger, grated or finely chopped

2 tsp tapioca flour (as binder and reduce moisture)

Braggs liquid aminos to taste

salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together.  Mould into patties on your palms.  Heat coconut oil in a pan and pan fry for 5-8 minutes on each side or until juice comes out clear.  The time is dependent on how thick you make the patties, the thicker it is, the longer the time.

Kale and Beetroot salad

These two dark coloured vegetables, kale and beetroot, are super food for your liver.  This easy to make recipe is super tasty.

Ingredients:

2 medium size beetroot

1 bunch of kale, removed from the hard stem and torn

Sea salt

Mustard seeds

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Method:

Chop beetroot into chunks, drizzle with oil and slow roast in the oven at 160C for 45 minutes.

Wash kale, spin dry, remove leaves from hard stem and tear large leaves up.  Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle seasalt.  Rub the kale, oil and salt together.

This can be roasted on a lower tray from the beetroot for the last 10-20 minutes of the beetroot.  Short period of roasting of kale just wilts the kale, longer periods will result in some kale chips.  You can choose if you just want it wilted.  I often go for just wilted kale.

When beetroot is soft and kale limp, mix in lemon juice and mustard seeds.

This is a nice roast that can be made in advanced and extras stored for next day's lunch or next meal.  As there is very little manual job once you put the beetroot in to roast, you can spend the time vacumming the floor or wiping down surface whilst the veges are roasting!

Almond Butter Cookes (No flour, no sugar)

Ingredients:

3 cups almond flour (or almond meal)

½ cup coconut flour

150g butter, melted

3 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

20 drops stevia

Pinch of salt

Method:

Mix flours, salt and baking soda together.

Melt the butter, add vanilla extract and stevia drops.

Add flour to liquid ingredients.  Break egg in and mix together to form a dough.

Let dough rest for 10 minutes.  In hot weather, you may want to refrigerate it for this 10 mins so it is easier to handle the dough.

Roll into balls and flatten with your palm or a fork.

Bake at 170C for 10-15 minutes.

Makes 25 cookies.

Variations:

Add shredded coconut for Almond coconut cookie

Add unsweetened cocoa powder for Almond cocoa cookie

Masterchef inspired Fish in Sweet and Sour Broth

Ingredients:
250g white fish fillet (tarakihi/ snapper/ lemonfish/ gurnard/ etc)

fish head and bones or chicken frame
1 handful celery leaves
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic
3 stalks lemongrass
1/4 pineapple cubed
lettuce
rice noodles or spiralised courgettes
2 pieces tamarind slices
1 bird's eye chilli (optional)
2 tomatoes
1 bunch Vietnamese mint
Piece of ginger (if using fish head)

To prepare the broth:
If you purchased the fish to fillet, you will have the head and frame available.  Heat a medium saucepan and brown the fish head and bones with ginger.  Then add 3 cloves garlic, 2 stalks lemongrass, celery leaves, tomatoes, onion, tamarind, Vietnamese (all except a few young leaves)  and chilli and chicken frame.  Add 1.5L waterand salt to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer on low heat for 1 hour.  Strain out broth.

(if you do not have the fish head and frame, simply replace with some chicken stock)

To prepare lemongrass oil:
Chop finely 1 stalk of lemongrass.  On a very low heat, add olive oil to a pan and fry chopped lemongrass.  Allow the herbs to infuse into the oil in a glass jar or bowl until ready to use.

To prepare garlic oil:
Chop finely remaining garlic.  On a very low heat, add olive oil to a pan and fry chopped garlic until golden and fragrant.  If you are on a low FODMAP diet, you can still use the lemongrass but skip the garlic.

To prepare the fish:
Slightly season the fish with salt.  Pan fry on medium heat for 2 mins on each side.

To prepare the courgette/ rice noodles:
If using courgette, spiralise vegetables and put on the base of bowl.
If using rice noodles, soak noodles in warm water for 10 minutes until it has softened.  Drain. 

Strain the lemongrass out of the oil and toss courgette or rice noodles into the lemongrass oil.

To serve, add fish pieces, lettuce, pineapple and ladle broth into the bowl.  Add fresh Vietnamese mint to garnish.  Spoon some garlic oil on.

Serves 2.

Garlic Butter Prawn

Ingredients:

12 large prawns shelled and deveined
3 pips garlic chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 chilli (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt

Method:
Put 1/2 tablespoon butter into a pan and fry prepared prawns until it turns pink (prawns turn pink when they are cooked).  Remove the prawns from the pan.  Put remainder 1/2 tablespoon butter into the pan and fry the chopped garlic and chilli (if using) until fragrant.  Add salt.  Once garlic turns golden, add prawns back into the pan and stir to mix.  Switch off fire.  Serve on a plate with coriander as garnishing.

Serves 2.

Sunrise Shape Up Smoothie

1.      This super antioxidant smoothie is not just great to help keep your weight in check, it also helps to keep you young.  It is packed with beta carotene, Vitamin C and curcuminoids which is anti-inflammatory.

Ingredients:

1 scoop Shape Up

½ orange peeled

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ carrot

1 glass of coconut water

Method:

Blend all ingredients in a strong blender together until smooth.  Enjoy in a tall glass or drink on the go.

Five-spiced Chicken with Goji Berries

4 pieces boneless skinless chicken thighs

Handful of curry leaves

1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets

2 tablespoons of goji berries soaked

2 cloves garlic

½ tsp five spice powder

1 tsp salt

Marinate chicken thighs in five spice powder and salt for at least 30 minutes.

Mean while, put oil in a pan and fry curry leaves until fragrant/ golden. Set aside.

Heat some olive oil and sauté garlic until fragrant and add broccoli florets in.  Put a dash of tamari to season and add drained, soaked goji berries in.

Fry marinated chicken thighs in a pan, 10 minutes on each side until juices turn clear (not pink).  Serve with broccoli and goji.  Sprinkle prepared curry leaves on top.  Serves 4.

Mushroom omelette with spinach and pomegranate

Ingredients:

2 eggs beaten
1/4 onion, sliced
4 white button mushrooms or 2 large brown mushrooms, sliced
salt, pepper
1 handful spinach
1/4 cup pomegranate

Method:

Put 1 Tbsp coconut or olive oil into a pan.  Add onion and fry till fragrant, add mushrooms.  Once mushrooms start to wilt, add in beaten eggs to cover the vegetables.  Allow mixture to firm in the pan on low heat.  Flip it over to cook the other side for another 2 minutes.

Take omelette out and serve on a wide flat plate.  Put spinach and pomegranate.  Serve.

Super Seed Crackers

¼ cup chia seeds

1 cup hot water

½ cup pumpkin seeds

½ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup linseeds/ flaxseeds

½ tsp salt (or less)

Flaky Salt to sprinkle

Preheat oven to 160C fanbake and line 2 oven trays with baking paper

Mix chia seeds with hot water stirring well with spoon in a medium bowl and allow to stand while the chia seeds absorb the liquid (about 10 minutes).  Stir in all remaining ingredients except salt to sprinkle.  Divide between the prepared trays and press out to roughly flatten with spoon.  Place a second sheet of baking paper over the top of each and roll out as thinly as possible with rolling pin (around 3mm thick).  Remove the top sheet of paper and sprinkle the cracker mix with flaky salt.

Bake for 30 minutes then remove trays from oven and flip the sheets of cracker mix and gently peel off the baking paper.  Return to oven and bake until they are crisp and firm and snap rather than fold when bent (a further 5-10 minutes).  Leave to cool and then break into crackers for a rustic look.  If you want them cut as neat crackers, bake for 20 minutes (rather than 30 minutes) before flipping, peel off baking paper and then cut into shapes.  Spread out on the trays and return to the oven to crisp (a further 15-20 minutes).  They will keep for weeks in an airtight container.

This recipe is with compliments from a client of mine, Felicia.  The crackers taste divine on their own or eaten with some guacamole, hummus or tomato and smoked salmon.

Feijoa Energy Balls

Feijoa Energy Balls

4 large feijoas, flesh removed
2 Tbsp almond butter or sunflower butter
2 Tbsp soaked chia seeds

1 Tbsp raw cacao nibs

5 dates soaked
desiccated coconut to roll

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix.  If it is too wet, add some protein powder to thicken.  Moisture can vary depending on size of feijoas and how juicy they are.

Roll into balls and roll onto desiccated coconut.  Chill for 1-2 hours.  Serve.

Golden Satay Chicken

Golden Satay Chicken – serves 2

Herb marinate

A handful of fresh turmeric

A root piece of galangal about 3-4 inches

3 large stalks lemongrass

Chilli (optional)

Salt

2 palm size piece of organic chicken breasts, sliced

Satay sauce

Herb blend

6 cloves garlic

1 onion

1 cup coconut milk

3 tamarind slices

Ground almond/ cashews to thicken

2 tsp maple syrup (optional), to taste

Salt to taste

Remove skin from turmeric and galangal or scrub them clean.  Cut out the pale part of lemongrass.  Put all herbs in a blender and blend till fine.  Put blended herbs into freezer containers, this makes about 4 serves.  Reserve 2 serves for satay sauce, where you will add garlic and onions, and other sauce ingredients in.  (do not add garlic and onion if you are FODMAP sensitive)

Slice chicken breast.  Marinate overnight or at least for an hour with one portion of the herb marinate. 

Heat some coconut oil in a pan and put chicken in to sauté until just cooked.  Serve with satay sauce.

To make the sauce, once the first herb blend is added with onions, garlic and blended again, sauté in a pan with coconut oil until fragrant.  Add tamarind slices and coconut milk to simmer for about 15 minutes.  Make sure liquid does not dry out.  After simmering discard tamarind slices and add ground almonds to thicken (you can make it crunchy if the nuts are not ground too finely).  Add maple syrup (optional) and salt to taste. If you have trouble sourcing for tamarind slices, use lime juice (1 medium fruit is typically adequate).

Save one half of the cooked satay sauce in a freezer container for later use.  Serve the other half with the cooked golden satay chicken.  Serve with 2-3 cups of lightly steamed vegetables or 150g rocket/ mesclun salad greens.

Pineapple Mint Cocktail (alcohol free)

• 1 handful Peppermint leaves sliced and steeped in 1/2 cup hot water
• 2 tsp chamomile tea or 2 tea bags of chamomile tea steeped in 1/2 cup of hot water
• Fresh pineapple juice 2 cups
• Sparkling mineral water 1 cup
• Ice cubes

Steep the peppermint and chamomile teas and leave to cool.  Juice fresh pineapple and chill in the refrigerator.  Mix all ingredients together and add ice cubes and a fresh slice of pineapple on the glass with some mint leaves to serve.

Goji Shape Up Balls

100g organic goji berries

30g organic chia seeds
20g ground almond

1 scoop Shape Up weight management powder

2-3 drops stevia (optional)

1. Soak goji berries and chia seeds until water covers over the seeds and berries.  Soak for 1 hour.  The berries would plump up and chia seeds feel gel-like.
2. Put both soaked goji and chia into a blender and blend using pulse.  There will be some leftover liquid in the bowl.  If you prefer the balls a little more moist, use the water in the balls. (There should not be a lot of water left over)
3. Pour out into a bowl and add 1 scoop of Shape Up.  Mix well with a spoon.  Shape Up is our non-allergenic weight management protein with fat burners, herbs and minerals.
4. Roll balls together with your hands.  This quantity makes about 8 balls.  They can be chilled in a covered container for 3 days or frozen for upto 2 weeks.
5. This makes a good snack over the holiday season when you are travelling or camping or when you have to bring a plate of dessert to share.  Double or triple up the quantities if you have to serve more people.

Golden Turmeric Milk Recipe

Turmeric is amazing, but poorly absorbed. This delicious adaptation of the Ayurvedic recipe provides lots of turmeric and increases absorption with quality fat and a good dose of piperine from black pepper.

Make Turmeric Paste

Mix ½ cup turmeric powder to 1 cup of water and bring to a low simmer.  Add a tablespoon of coconut oil, ghee, or butter. Stir for 8-10 minutes and add extra water as required. The consistency should be a soft paste.This is your turmeric paste that you can keep in a glass container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Make Golden Milk

To make one cup of golden milk, put one teaspoon of the paste into a saucepan with a level teaspoon of cinnamon powder, half a teaspoon fresh or powdered ginger, one or two whole cloves, and about half a teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper. Mix well.

Pour in 1 cup of your choice of milk, I often use almond milk and bring to low simmer. Continue to stir for a few minutes. Dissolve in a teaspoon of honey to sweeten and then pour yourself a big mug of delicious golden milk.

I am a Naturopath - This is What I Eat in a Typical Day

I am a naturopath and acupuncturist, have 2 children whom I am involved in chauffeuring around and a devoted wife.  To fit everything I do in a day, I make sure I feed my body with the right fuel.

In my current regime, I start off my day with some lemon or apple cider vinegar in warm water. I will put 2 eggs to soft boil and make some vegetable juice which I add Shape Up Protein Powder to or make a protein smoothie with berries, nuts and seeds.  What I have changes according to the seasons and what I need.   I would have my supplements with breakfast.  My current program includes O-Clear & P-Lift (to keep my hormones in balance), Hemagenics, MetaPure fish oil, thyroid supplements and Vitamin D.

At lunch, I often have leftover stewed/ roasted or stirfried chicken or fish or meat with some lightly steamed vegetables unless I decided to stirfry extra vegetables from dinner last night.

I typically have dinner before 7 p.m. Tonight’s menu is:

Panfried salmon served with seaweed

Steamed broccoli with maple walnuts and toasted sesame seeds

½ cup of brown basmati rice.

This meal is easy to prepare and tastes delicious.  As a busy working mum, I typically only have 30-45 mins each day to prepare meals, and it needs to be nourishing and tastes good, or else my children won’t eat much of it.

Here’s how I make my maple walnuts:

In a pan on low heat, put in raw walnuts (500g), a pinch of Himalayan salt, drop in a dollop of butter or coconut oil and 4 tablespoons of maple syrup.  Stir it well until it is mixed.  Spread coated walnuts onto a baking tray and put into oven at 50C for 20 minutes or until walnuts look dry.  Cool and store in an airtight container.

Toasted sesame seeds are simply just dry roasted on a pan on low heat.  It turns golden very quickly and needs to be removed from the pan.

Just before bed, I take my supplements for a good night’s sleep.

Cranberry Pistachio Flourless Biscotti

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond meal

1 egg, beaten

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tbsp almond milk

1/4 cup pistachios, shell removed

¼ cup dried cranberries

Grated rind of ½ orange

Method:

1.         Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

2.         In a large mixing bowl whisk together the almond flour, egg, baking soda and salt.

3.         Add the maple syrup and almond milk. Mix together with a wooden spoon until ingredients are well combined.

4.         Fold in the pistachios, cranberries and orange rind.

5.         Line a baking tray with baking paper.

6.         Using your hands pour the dough out of the bowl and onto the baking paper. Use your hands to form the dough into a sort of flat log. It should be about 1 inch high, 8 inches long and 2 inches wide.

7.         Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until it begins to brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for at least 1 hour.

8.         Once the dough is cool use a knife to cut the log into about 15 strips. I prefer to make diagonal cuts because this gives you longer biscotti.

9.         Place the biscotti on their side.

10.      Bake in a 130 degree oven for 10 minutes to dry the biscotti out. Flip the biscotti over and bake for an additional 10 minutes on the other side. If they are still very moist you may need to flip again and put back in the oven for an additional 5-10 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.

Hot and sour fish soup

     

4 kaffir lime leaves (middle vein removed, sliced)

1 stalk lemon grass, crushed

4 cloves garlic, bruised

½ large onion, chopped

3-5 birds eye chilli, optional

1 bunch coriander, chopped

300g white fish (this can be gurnard, dory or tarakihi), cut into pieces

1 medium carrot, sliced

4 large broccoli florets

4 large cauliflower florets

6 button mushrooms, quartered

8 okra, cut into 2-3 pieces per okra

1L prepared chicken or vegetable broth

½ lime, squeezed for juice

¼ tsp salt

Method:

1. Warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil and put herbs in (except coriander) to fry till fragrant.  Add chicken broth and let it simmer for 10 minutes to get the fragrance of the essential oils of the herbs into the broth.
2. Add the fish and vegetables and cook.  Let boil for 2-3 minutes until vegetables are just cooked.
3. Switch off fire, add salt and lime juice.
4. Serve and garnish with chopped coriander.

This is a great way of making hot and sour soup without using artificially flavoured soup sachets, which almost always contain a large quantity of MSG.

Serves 2