Monthly Archives: September 2011

by | September 28, 2011

WIAW – Moroccan-Inspired Giant Couscous

What another glorious day!  I hear we’re in the midst of a mini heatwave. This weekend I actually bought some winter boots and woollies. That’s so typical! I walked round Bath in the new boots yesterday and I thought my feet were going to melt off!

Anyway I better get myself over to Jen’s WIAW party. I’m sure I’m late already. Here’s what I ate this Wednesday:

Breakfast
Too hot for porridge today, so I grabbed a few ingredients out of the pantry and made some muesli.  In the bowl went a handful each of barley flakes, spelt flakes, chopped dates, goji berries (still loving those :) ), chopped brazil nuts, flaked almonds, ground flaxseed and a large sprinkling of cinnamon. It was delicious! And IMHO, better than the shop bought mueslis.

While I normally have Alpro’s Fortified Soya Milk on my breakfast, just for a change I thought I’d try some ‘Good Hemp’ milk. It was surprisingly nice! It’s already sweetened (with grape juice extract) so I didn’t need any extra sweetener on my muesli. Hemp ’milk’ is a natural source of omega 3 and the Good Hemp version (which I bought from Harvest in Bath) is fortified with calcium and vitamin D. I’ll definitely use this milk again.

Lunch
I needed a super quick lunch as I had to dash off to school to teach my meditation class.  I had four Scottish oatcakes, covered in roasted tomato humous and black olives. I normally make my own oatcakes, but the Nairn’s organic oatcakes are on special offer in Waitrose at the moment (63p a box I believe). It would probably cost more to make my own!

Snacks
When I got in from school, I ate a (large) bowl of Eve’s (apple) pudding, made with apples out of the orchard. :)

Dinner
For dinner tonight, I’ll be finishing up the leftovers from last night. I absolutely love giant couscous but have never found it in the shops… until last Friday when I spotted it in the ‘Love Life’ range in Waitrose. I was really looking forward to trying it out

Ta da! Moroccan-inspired giant couscous:

Here’s how I made it:

I filled a roasting tin with cubes of butternut squash, a tin of chickpeas (drained and patted dry on kitchen paper), a chopped red pepper and clove of crushed garlic. I drizzled over a little olive oil and thoroughly mixed it. This went in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, I simmered the couscous in some vegetable stock for about 8 minutes. I then drained it and mixed in some spices (I used a Moroccan blend that I bought in France this summer, but turmeric, cumin and coriander would do the job).

When the roasted veggies were ready, I mixed them in with the couscous along with some chopped apricots, coriander, flaked almonds, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

The couscous was gorgeous! I just love the texture of the giant version. It’s very different to the usual type of couscous.

Last night, we served it with a bowl of crispy kale (kale chips) and some segments of toasted seeded flour tortilla.  It was a great meal and I’m really looking forward to having the leftover 4th portion tonight.

Right, time to pop over to the party and see what everyone else is bringing. Hope you can join me there xx  ;)

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by | September 26, 2011

Nutrition Facts – Omega 3

I recently came across a useful website for anyone interested in the latest research on nutrition. It’s called ‘NutritionFacts.org‘.  

As a researcher by profession, I’m always keen to access the latest studies on whatever subject currently grabs my attention.  For the past 8 years (since Lil’ L was born), I’ve had a keen interest in nutrition. To keep up with the latest research, I’ve spent hours scouring the online scientific and medical journals.

So you can imagine how excited I was to discover that a certain Dr Greger, funded by The Jesse and Julie Rasch Foundation, is doing this for us. And even better, he’s publishing the findings in a bite-size, easy to understand format online. :)

Recently, I’ve been thinking about omega-3 and DHA.  As a vegetarian family, we mainly source our omega 3 from flaxseed (linseed), walnuts and hempseed. We tend to sprinkle ground flaxseed and chopped walnuts on our breakfast cereal.  We also mix walnut oil or hempseed oil into our main dinners. Lately, though, I’ve been wondering whether we should use flaxseed oil instead of the ground seed. Does the oil contain a more concentrated dose of nutrients? Over to Dr Greger…

 

Isn’t it incredible how much goodness is contained in those little flaxseeds!

I’ve noticed that chia seeds have been mentioned a lot lately as a good source of omega-3. I was wondering whether chia seeds have a higher nutritional value than flaxseed.  In less than 2 minutes, Dr Gregor had given me the answer:

 

He certainly puts some effort into livening up those videos! ;)  

Continuing on the subject of omega-3, I’ve read a few articles that have mentioned that the rate of conversion of omega-3 into EPA and DHA (which give protection against heart disease and ageing of the brain) varies from person to person. In one article, in particular, it stated that the rate of conversion was lower in males compared to females.

While our family has never taken supplements, I’m now debating whether to adopt a ‘belt and braces’ approach and give Lil’ L a marine-algae DHA supplement, just to make sure he gets adequate levels of DHA. These supplements are made of the marine algae from which fish get their DHA.

It makes sense (to me anyhow) to consume the DHA directly, rather than killing and eating the fish to get to their supply of DHA. Plus, the level of pollutants in fish these days is worringly high (thanks mainly to the humans that have accidentally polluted our seas). Mercury and petrochemical pollution is found in most fish nowadays and avoiding these pollutants is more important in infants, toddlers and children, as their growing cells are more sensitive to the damaging effects of toxic pollutants. Dr Furhmann et al have stated that fish is simply too polluted a food to rely on as a DHA source for children and they don’t recommend feeding young children fish in an attempt to supply them with their requirements of DHA.

These signs are popping up everywhere.

I probably will buy some DHA supplements for Lil’ L, but I’ll do a little bit more research before I ultimately make a decision.

I would love to know what your stance on DHA supplementation is.  Do you take supplements? Or do you simply try and get sufficient intake of Omega 3 through your diet?

Comments on this post can be found at: http://bitofthegoodstuff.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/nutrition-facts-omega-3/

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by | September 21, 2011

WIAW Party – I’ll bring noodles

Wahay! I’ve finally worked out how to get the technical bits working so I can join in the ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ virtual party hosted by Peas and Crayons.  Is it acceptable to drool over pictures of other people’s dinner or is that a bit weird?  Okay it might be weird but I doubt that I’m the only one doing this. ;)   It you fancy trying out some new meals, check out the WIAW party. It’s really inspiring! 

Anyhow, here’s my contribution to the WIAW event. It’s actually what I ate on Tuesday but I think that still counts. :)

Breakfast:
A bowl of porridge, made with organic jumbo oats, fortified soya milk, water, lots of cinnamon, chopped pecan nuts, almonds, and brazil nuts, a sprinkling of goji berries (one of my latest passions) and a sprinkling of ground flaxseed for an omega-3 boost. 

Sorry the photo's not great but I was starving and couldn't wait to eat it!

I’m a huge fan of porridge and eat it most mornings.  By far my favourite oats are Flahavan’s Organic Jumbo Oats.  The description on the back of the packet says that the Flahavans have been milling oats for over 200 years at their family mill beside the river Mahon, at Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, Ireland.    This conjures up so many wonderful images in my head. :)

The porridge was followed by a cup of nettle tea.  I absolutely adore this stuff!  Apparently it’s very good for you too.  

I'm sure you don't need to see a photo of nettle tea but I bought this mug the other day and justified the cost by telling myself that I NEEDED it for my blog ;)

Lunch:
It was such a cold, rainy day that I was looking forward to polishing off a bowl of watercress soup (left over from the weekend), with some toasted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.  This is Lil’ L’s all-time favourite soup.  It’s a great way to get kids to eat watercress as it has a lovely mild flavour in soup, compared to its raw peppery flavour.
 

Dinner:
I had to make a quick dinner as I was going out, so we had oriental-style vegetable noodles. I love stir fries as they are super quick and easy to make, as well as being extremely tasty. Lil’ L described this meal as ‘noodley doodely delish’. :)

Here’s how I made the noodles:

Serves: 4
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp fresh or frozen root ginger, grated
2 carrots, chopped into thin julienne strips
250g / 9oz / 3½ cups pak choi, shredded
100g / 3½oz / 1½ cups small broccoli florets
90g / 3oz / ½ cup Chinese or oyster mushrooms (optional)
1 red pepper, sliced
175ml / 6fl oz / 3/4 cup vegetable stock
2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce
2 tbsp cashew nut butter
½ tsp agave syrup (you can use any sweetener, to taste)
27g / 1oz / ¼ cup unsalted cashew nuts
4 tsp hempseed oil (optional).
300g / 10½oz wholegrain noodles (we used brown rice noodles)

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a wok. Stir fry the onion, garlic and ginger on a medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the remaining vegetables and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes.
  2. Mix in the vegetable stock, soy sauce, sweetener and cashew nut butter and cashew nuts. Cover and gently simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, cook the noodles for 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain, rinse in cold water, add to the wok and mix thoroughly. Arrange the noodles in four bowls. Allow to cool slightly, then mix in 1 tsp of hempseed oil into each bowl for an omega-3 boost.

For children that are not keen on big, chunky vegetables, chop them finely or whiz them in a mini chopper or food processor. Pak choi is a great vegetable for children as it blends very well into the sauce and noodles.

Dessert:
For dessert, we had some of our plum and blackberry yoghurt (made using home grown plums, foraged blackberries and Alpro Soya Natural Yoghurt).

Right, time to check out the WIAW party. Hope to see you there!  xx

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by | September 15, 2011

A Wonderful Summer

Before the summer is a long distant memory, I just want to record what an incredible six weeks I had with Lil’ L.  He’s growing up fast and I’m sure he’ll soon want to spend the holidays with his mates rather than good ole’ mum, so I really did savour every moment I had with him.

As I didn’t have an income for these six weeks, we thought of lots of fun, free (or low cost) activities to do.  Here’s a quick run down of our top five favourite summer holiday activities (in no particular order; they were all great :) )

1. Cycling
We devised our own version of the ‘Tour de France’, which included stages both here in the South West of England and in France. Each stage normally finished with a sprint to a cafe. ;)   In total, we cycled 150 miles. One of Lil’ L’s favourite rides was the Verderer’s Trail in the Forest of Dean. It’s graded Blue but has a Red downhill section at the end. Lil’ L loved it so much that, as soon as he’d finished it, he wanted another go! I need to brush up my mountain bike skills because I fell off 3 TIMES (I’ve got an issue about sharp right hand turns :( ).  Here’s a clip of someone else riding the trail. I’m glad I’m not the only one that keeps falling off. ;)

 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjSmpMQaI98&w=420&h=315]

Here’s a short clip of Lil’ L and M riding the Intermediate Skills loop.

 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85gdZkjaFXM&w=420&h=315]

Lil’ L loves the technical rides much more than road cycling. You should hear him woop while he’s hurtling down those dirt tracks!

2. Hiking / Walking
We did some amazing hikes and walks around our locality, such as the one up Little Solsbury Hill. We even found different ways to walk into Bath. One in particular, which we termed the ‘Wild Walk’, was really fun. We took our cameras and photographed the creatures and wild flowers we spotted along the way. It certainly made walking into Bath more fun (and saved us a small fortune in bus fares!)

Here’s Lil’ L at the start of our wild walk into Bath.

And here’s some of the beautiful wild flowers we spotted on our walk.

40 minutes later, we arrived in the centre of Bath. :)

3. Visiting friends and family
We had some wonderful trips on the train to visit friends and family, including 2 trips to Brockenhurst and Dorset, and 1 trip to Bracknell. I managed to trade in my Tesco vouchers for a Family & Friends Railcard (which lasts a year) and gift vouchers for Redspottedhanky.com, which meant that all our train trips were FREE! What a bargain! :)

4. Photography
We had lots of fun taking photos of beautiful flowers and views, as well as attempting to photograph food for this blog.  Needless to say, Lil’ L took the best shots every time. ;)

Here’s his shot of a poppy in the garden. Isn’t it beautiful?

And here’s a shot he took of my favourite house on the canal.

5. Cooking
We had lots of fun baking cakes and making chocolates (all healthy of course ;) ). Our favourite cake creation this summer was a super healthy, super delicious upside pineapple cake (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow).

All in all, it was a wonderful summer; one I certainly won’t forget. 

I’d love to hear what your favourite activity was this summer.

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by | September 13, 2011

Plumdiddlyumptious!

We picked our last bounty of plums last week from our little plum tree.

We’ve been enjoying lots of delicious plum crumbles over the last month but, as the last batch were so ripe and weren’t going last more than a day or two, I decided to simply stew them.  I absolutely adore stewed plums!  I could easily eat them morning, noon and night… although that probably wouldn’t be a wise move. ;)  

To stew them, I simply cut them up (leaving the skins on), added them to a saucepan with a little water (about 1/4 cup) and let them gently simmer for 10 minutes.  After this time, I mixed in a little Sweet Freedom fruit sweetener.

As we had such a huge batch of stewed plums, I decided to freeze a few portions, and refrigerate the rest for desserts and smoothie juices.  We made this gorgeous fruit puree, by blending the stewed plums along with some stewed blackberries.  (We foraged the blackberries during a bike ride along the Bristol & Bath Railway Path).  I sieved the puree to remove the pips, then used the puree to make fruity desserts and smoothies.  

To make fruity yoghurt, I simply mixed some of the plum and blackberry puree into a bowl of natural soya yoghurt.  The first time he tried it, Lil’ L polished off the bowl and then exclaimed “this is plumdiddlyumptious!” :)   This week, he’s been taking little pots of the yoghurt in his lunchbox to school (great way to get some more fruit into him. ;) )

To make the smoothie, I simply whizzed the plum & blackberry puree in a blender along with a handful of ice cubes.  It was absolutely delicious!  I felt like I was zinging with vitamins after downing a glass of this. ;)

Well, the plums are coming to an end… but the apple tree is laden with ripe fruit.  Time to get creative again!

I’d love to know what your favourite plum recipe has been this year.

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