Ingredients:
1 avocado – cut in to cubes
1 papaya peeled – deseeded and cut in to cubes
1 small red onion – chopped in to small pieces
Handful of fresh coriander – roughly chopped
2 red chillies – deseeded and cut in to small pieces
Juice of 1 lemon and lime
Method:
Put all ingredients in to a bowl and mix gently
For a long time I, like many others I have talked to, seem to have been in the pursuit of the perfect diet – the key few ‘must have’ ingredients or ‘must do’ approaches to eating. I have followed the latest hot topic dietary approaches and listened to all the ‘experts’ wanting to share their ‘dietary magic’. At times I have been lulled in to the promises of quick fix approaches – which have ‘worked’- but of course any weight loss has slowly returned or different diet approaches have not be sustainable. If I have followed a restrictive diet my emotional reaction has always ended in rebellion.
I have realised over the last year that for me to be successful in maintaining my diet -not on a diet – I must firstly identify my own individual appetite drivers and my food choices. Once I understood my triggers to eat, triggers not to eat I then became able to manage my weight. Fructose was a trigger for me – so I removed it. Snacking and being unaware was another trigger.
I now have a sustainable positive mindset about choosing the foods I eat and the amounts of food my body wants. I actively listen out for the feelings of satiety and most importantly and totally amazingly for someone for whom bulimia has been a constant companion for so, so many years I am eating guilt free. It has been such a liberating experience – I am now free from my bingeing habits and the suffocating feeling that food is controlling me.
Preheat oven to 180c / gas mark 4
Ingredients:
170 g gluten free self raising flour
150 g light muscovado sugar
170 g softened butter
4 eggs (3 if using non gf fl)
2/3 stems of rhubarb chopped and softened by roasting in oven
Method:
Mix all ingredients (except rhubarb) together until smooth.
Fold in rhubarb.
Put in 20cm square tin. Bake in centre of oven for about 30 mins
Perfect as a pudding served with cream, yoghurt or custard.
In the 70’s and 80’s it was trendy to have various pulses sprouting in jars around the house. I remember having jars of alfalfa and mung beans everywhere…along with the obligatory mustard and cress on cotton wool – slightly yellowing and curled at the edges. I did this because ‘everyone else’ did. I did enjoy them but the ‘fad’ soon ended.
Now, all these years on, once again I have jars with sprouting pulses in cupboards and in dark corners. This time however, I do it not only because I enjoy eating them but also because I know the health benefits that eating them brings.
I know that soaking and sprouting de-activates the acids and enzyme inhibitors present in the pulses preventing them from growing until the conditions are favourable. This de-activation then enables our bodies to digest and absorb the vitamins and minerals more readily.
Now I sprout a wide variety of legumes – lentils, chickpeas, quinoa and (of course my old favourite) mung beans, to name few.
Green lentil Quinoa Mung bean
I’m yet to try chia seeds – I’m sure they will but am just not sure how to as when they are soaked they get a mucilaginous coating. Any advice?
Ingredients:
1/2 cup drained sundried tomatoes
Handful fresh basil
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup pine nuts
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli pepper (optional)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Using a food processor blend tomatoes, basil and garlic in to a coarse paste.
Add all the remaining ingredients and blitz for 10 seconds.
Preheat oven to 180c / Gas 4
Ingredients:
1 cup of rinsed and cooked quinoa
1 cauliflower cut in to small florets
1 tin of chick peas – drained
Coconut oil
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsps cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
(or any combination of your favourite spices)
Method:
Arrange the cauliflower, chickpeas and quinoa on a baking tray and sprinkle with the spices. Dot the mixture with coconut oil. Place in oven. After 10 mins remove and gently turn the ingredients to ensure all coated with coconut oil. Return to oven and bake until cooked and – about 30 mins.
Perfect eaten on its own or served with a poached egg on top. Also a great alternative accompaniment for a curry. Delicious cold as well.
Preheat oven to 180c / Gas 4
30 x 23 cm cake tin (12 x 9 inch) greased and lined
Ingredients:
250 g stoned and chopped dates
40 g butter
300 ml boiling water
3 large eggs (2 if using non gluten-free s r flour)
350 g gluten-free self-raising flour
150 g dark muscovado sugar
150 g chopped walnuts
125 g ground almonds
Method:
Soak the dates in the boiling water – allow to cool
Mix all other ingredients together and add the soaked dates (I don’t drain the liquid off)
Bake in the centre of the oven for 50 mins – 60 minutes or until cake is firm to touch
Turn out and cool.
I don’t add icing to my cakes but a lemon icing would taste good with this cake – topped with walnuts.
Preheat oven to 180c / gas mark 5
Ingredients:
Curry paste- 2tsp ginger puree, 2tsp garlic puree, tsp curry powder, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp chilli powder and a splash of water.
1 onion chopped
1 pepper coarse chopped
1 potato diced into small cubes
3 carrots diced
1 courgette cubed
Small cauliflower
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Method:
Sauté onion, pepper and potato cubes in a casserole dish. Add curry paste and tomatoes. Add carrots and courgettes and stir. Place cauliflower in the centre and bake in oven until vegetables are cooked.
So…one week has passed and I have not eaten any meat at all (I have had some fish) and I cannot believe how much better I feel. The sluggish feeling has gone completely.
It has however made me realise how ‘alternative’ diets are still not readily catered for and I wonder if they ever will be. Let me explain what I mean. Yesterday, I spent a glorious day helping out at a function with several people. All the helpers had lunch provided – a picnic. A picnic with standard fayre – an assortment of tasty looking sandwiches, crisps and delicious looking cake. It wasn’t an event ahead of which you would state you are gluten-free, fructose free and meat free – so having helped at previous functions I knew to take my own food.
The point I’m trying to make is that I couldn’t eat any of this ‘normal food’.
When my husband and I go out for dinner it can be quite disheartening when I look down the menu to see only a couple of items that I can choose from and a few more for him because he is only gluten-free..
Now I know, and I’ll say it before you do, that these diets choices I have made are from personal choice not a medical directive so maybe I should suck up and shut up. But, there are millions of people out there for whom a change of diet is a necessity to stay well.
I wonder when the balance of ‘normal’ food to ‘different diets’ will shift?
Ingredients:
50 g pine nuts
50 g parmesan
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
large handful of basil
1 clove of garlic (optional)
Method:
Dry fry the pine nuts until golden brown
Put all the ingredients in to a food processor,
and blitz until the desired consistency.
Jo's food bites. 