Finally out of hibernation

It's that time of year when, after a few days of sunshine I finally feel like I can come out of hibernation.  No more layering on the clothes, staying indoors because it's dark at 4pm, or eating comfort foods due to being bored!  Yes, it even happens to me!
This is the time of year I love, it's time to get out and get living life to the full again.  And I do mean for you to get out - don't exercise in a gym when it's sunny outside - get out there and climb a hill or cycle to the shops - include it into your daily routine.  I feel hugely lucky that I live in the beautiful Chilterns so for me the perfect antidote to feeling sluggish is a brisk walk over the nearest hill - it's amazing how positive I feel when I return home.
For a lot of people it's also a time for spring cleaning, but as I've never been that keen on hoovering and dusting, I tend to do my spring cleaning on myself!  I will not mention the D word, or I will have you all rushing to make cauldrons of cabbage soup and the like, but spring cleaning your body is a great way to help you towards optimum health and vitality, and all it takes is changing your eating habits to only include fresh, clean foods.
Cutting out processed foods doesn't have to be difficult, and once you start experimenting and enjoying fresh food, you will never eat processed food out of choice again!
Next time you go food shopping fill your basket with fresh vegetables, herbs and fruits, nuts, seeds, eggs, fresh fish, lean meat, olive oil, quinoa, rice, lentils, coconut milk, spices, and anything else you love that is not processed, then go home and start to experiment (that's pretty much what all good cooks do to come up with recipes).  You will be amazed at what you can make - tabbouleh with grilled fish, Spanish tortilla, Thai curry, vegetable soups, fish pie, rice salad - the list is endless, and not a processed food in sight.  Here's what I came up with this weekend - a protein rich meal made with fresh ingredients, ready on the plate in 20 minutes!

Salmon Burgers with Griddled Asparagus

Serves 4

700 g salmon fillet
20 g fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 sticks lemon grass, sliced
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
5 g fresh coriander
freshly milled black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
400 g asparagus
4 eggs
2 tbsp flaked almonds

- Place the salmon, ginger, lemon grass, sesame seeds, coriander and pepper into a food processor and blitz until well combined.
-Using wet hands, shape into 4 burgers then chill for 20 minutes.
-Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and 1 tbsp olive oil on a griddle.  Cook the salmon burgers for 6-8 minutes on each side, until golden and cooked through the middle.  Keep warm.
-Poach the eggs in a pan of simmering water, and cook the asparagus on the griddle for 2-3 minutes.
-Serve the salmon burger on a bed of asparagus, topped with the poached egg and sprinkled with flaked almonds.

Happy eating!

Joy x

Life after detox.........

Wow, what an amazing experience - and that is not what you would expect to be saying after two weeks of not eating all the things you thought you loved and couldn't go without!
Yesterday was my final day of eating the cleanest diet I am ever likely to have consumed, having removed all foods that may be slightly toxic to the body, either because they are produced using chemicals (pesticides, mercury in fish etc), or may naturally cause intolerances (gluten, dairy, deadly nightshade family, soy).  And having cut out lots of foods, this meant I could increase the remaining food groups, and eat far more!
This was the interesting bit - to start with my weight started to drop, but I didn't want to lose weight, I just wanted to eat healthily and be sure to rid my body of unwanted toxins.  So each day I would weigh myself and if it looked like my weight was dropping I increased my intake of delicious foods that day - what could be better?!
And now I'm back to a 'normal' diet, I don't want any of those bad foods back, because I feel so great without them - more energy, amazingly smooth skin and very focused brain-wise!
This is what a detox should be, it's not about losing weight and starving yourself - for detoxification to work well it needs lots of nutrient support, so increasing your intake of colourful vegetables, fibre and plenty of liquid is hugely important.
De-stressing yourself mentally and physically also helps - taking long relaxing Epsom salt baths, having a massage, or even just going for a long relaxed walk in the countryside, all help towards a more relaxed you and hopefully a more relaxed digestive system.
Changing the way you eat also encourages you to try new foods and recipes, and even though I cook for a living (so you would think I had cooked pretty much everything!), I leant a lot having less ingredients to play with, but love some of the new recipes I have come up with.
My favourite of course has to be replacing the one thing I thought I couldn't live without - creamy natural yoghurt.  But guess what?  Creamy homemade coconut milk yoghurt is just as tasty and fits in perfectly with my thoughts on eating a dairy-free diet (we should all be doing it!).
Even entertaining became fun - the recipe below I cooked for a friend who is now converted to quinoa, and who knows, I may even get her to join me on the detox programme next year!
If you'd like to join us too, do get in touch.

Grilled Mackerel with Quinoa Beetroot Tabbouleh

Serves 4

225 g quionoa
125 g cooked beetroot, diced
1 carrot, peeled and grated
large handful parsley, chopped
large handful mint, chopped
large handful coriander, chopped
large handful chives, chopped
1/2 cucumber, diced
juice of 1 lime
1-2 tbsp good tasting extra virgin olive oil
seasoning
8 mackerel fillets

Cook the quinoa in simmering water according to the pack instructions.  Drain and refresh under cold water then drain and place in a large bowl.
Stir in the diced beetroot, grated carrot, chopped herbs and cucumber.
Squeeze in the lime juice and pour over the olive oil, mix and season well.  Leave to stand at room temperature.
Grill the mackerel fillets for 3-4 minutes each side and serve on a bed of the colourful salad.

Tip:  As with all my recipes, this is just an idea - change it to suit your taste - different herbs, chopped avocado, fresh anchovies, toasted seeds - the list is endless - have fun!

Happy Healthy Eating,

Joy x

Defeating Muscle Soreness

As I am surrounded by sports people for the majority of my day it's inevitable that I am constantly asked for advice.  But that's what I love, the chance to go off and do a bit more research and to be able to help somebody with a simple solution - and that's the great thing about nutrition, normally the solution is quite simple, it's just a matter of doing it!
So this week, one of my fellow Masters students (who was clearly suffering from over-training, as he couldn't walk in a normal manner!) asked me what he could do nutritionally about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, otherwise known as DOMS.
As with most things there is not one magic pill to cure all, but a planned diet may certainly help in relieving some of the soreness, which is mostly due to mechanical and oxidative stress.
Protein is an important component of the diet and is involved with almost every structural and functional component of the human body.  In general, exercise may affect the need for dietary protein by increasing the oxidation of amino acids.  Protein rich foods include eggs, fish, lean meat, lentils and beans, so be sure to include these regularly into your diet.  Antioxidants help counter oxidative stress, so including lots of colourful fruit and vegetables into the diet is also important for athletes.
The timing of nutrient delivery is also important for resistance and endurance athletes, with the first 40 minutes post-exercise being the time when your body is ready to absorb and replenish stores of nutrients it has used.  Replenishing nutrients is imperative to ensure your body is ready for the next training session or race - without replenishment your body will not recover to its' full strength.  Having a bag of dried fruit and mixed nuts and seeds in your sports bag will ensure you are never without food straight after training, follow that within two hours with a healthy protein rich meal such as this delicious Salmon recipe - 

Salmon with Lentil and Roast Vegetables

Serves 4

250 g butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
seasoning
1 x 400 g can green lentils, drained
4 x 150 g salmon fillets
40 g watercress

• Preheat the oven to 200°C(400°F)Gas Mark 6.
• Place the butternut and peppers into a roasting tray and sprinkle with 2 tbsp of the olive oil, the cumin seeds and seasoning and toss together.  Roast for 25-30 minutes.  Just before the end of cooking time, stir in the lentils to warm them through.
• Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and pan-fry the salmon steaks for 3-4 minutes each side.
• Divide the watercress between four plates, spoon over the lentils and vegetables and top with the salmon.

If you need an even quicker protein fix, cook yourself a tortilla filled with colourful peppers and herbs - the left-overs can be taken to the gym for after your next training session!

Happy training.

J x

Time to bulk up!

With only 14 days left before I fly out to Lusaka and join the other members of the Row Zambezi team, I have to really work hard now at keeping fit and healthy, so I can start the trip at the peak of fitness.
Luckily the team have been helped along with sponsorship from a few supplement companies, so we will all be taking probiotics and multi-vitamins prior to and during the expedition, in the hope that this may give us a good base of nutrition, especially for the days when we are surviving on army rations (which I have been told will cause constipation, so I will also be sneaking a little pot of ground linseeds into my bag, to help me in that situation!).
But what also sprang to mind was that I will certainly be losing weight whilst on the trip (rowing for 4-7 hours a day for 17 days does have some benefits!), so could allow myself a few treats before I go!  So as well as taking in my normal healthy day to day nutritional foods, I have been allowing myself a bit of free rein on everything else.  Pudding for me (I have a very sweet tooth) would normally be fresh fruit and natural yoghurt, which I do adore, but this week I found a little banoffee pudding to be equally satisfying!
Getting away from my normal diet also gives me more inspiration to try new recipes, and this soup was served to me in a restaurant when I was on a press trip in Germany many years ago and I had always wanted to try to recreate it - I think I've just got it right!
I have also recently acquired a fantastic machine called a Vitamix - an amazingly serious blender that can blend almost anything, and it makes this soup taste extra creamy and light.

Salmon and Horseradish Soup

Serves 4

Prep time: 8 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 leek, trimmed and sliced

500g potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 ltr fish stock

260g salmon fillets, cut into chunks

1 ½ tbsp creamed horseradish

100g double cream

snipped chives to serve

1.     Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the sliced leeks for 6 minutes.

2.     Add the chopped potatoes and stock and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 16-18 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.

3.     Add half the salmon and cook for a further 2 minutes.

4.     Process in a blender or food processor with the creamed horseradish and cream until smooth.

5.     Return to the pan, add the remaining chunks of salmon and reheat until the salmon is cooked – about 2-3 minutes.

6.     Serve garnished with snipped chives.

Hugh's Fish Fight

I think it would be impossible not to have noticed the fuss about fish that has been going on in the media this week.  But if you have been too busy doing other things, get on the internet this minute and watch Hugh's Fish Fight that has been screened every night this week on Channel 4.
If you didn't feel passionate about our fish stocks before, hopefully this will make you think a lot more seriously about it.
And to give you more inspiration to cook fish that is not endangered, here is a great recipe for mackerel that is also super healthy.   Rich in omega-3 essential fats, mackerel is not only healthy but also extremely tasty and hugely inexpensive - two large fillets from my local fishmonger, Sandys in Twickenham, cost a mere £3.50.

Mackerel with Horseradish, Fennel and Beetroot.

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large fennel bulb, halved and thinly sliced, tops reserved
1/2 small Savoy cabbage, shredded
2-3 tsp creamed horseradish
2 cooked beetroot, diced
2 mackerel fillets

1.  Heat the oil in a pan and saute the sliced fennel for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in the cabbage, then reduce the heat, cover the pan and let the vegetables sweat for 5-6 minutes.
2.  Finely chop the fennel tops and mix with the diced beetroot.
3.  Stir the creamed horseradish into the vegetables then cover again and leave to cook while you grill the fish.
4.  Place the mackerel skin side up under a hot grill and cook for 5-6 minutes, then turn and cook the other side for another 4-5 minutes - do not over cook it.
5.  Divide the horseradish vegetables between two plates, top with the mackerel then spoon over the diced beetroot.  Squeeze over some lemon juice, a sprinkling of olive oil and a grinding of black pepper and enjoy!

The early bird catches the freshest fish!

If, like me, you are a lover of fish, then this is an experience you should not miss. I have just spend the most inspirational day at Billingsgate Fish Market in East London - what an experience.

We started the day at 6.15am (I realise to most of you this may actually be the middle of the night! But for us rowers, it's half way through the day, so was no hardship for me), and it was so worth getting up for. We started with a tour of the market with Brian, who told us everything we wanted to know about the market itself and all the types of fish and

seafood that were on offer - you will have never seen such fresh and wonderful fish!

We were given the odd taster - hot smoked salmon at 6.45am on a freezing cold winter morning tastes heavenly! After the tour we moved upstairs to the Seafood Training School and were served a delicious plate of kedgeree (one of my favourite fish dishes) and a hot drink to thaw us all out.

After that it was over to us - we were all shown to our work stations, and from then on followed the wonderful Adam who talked us through dressing a crab, skinning monkfish, filleting a mackerel, and loads more tips on how to prepare the fish that is available to us in the UK.

Finally, all our hard work was rewarded with a delicious bowl of fish soup, made with the results of our filleting, peeling and chopping!

So impressed by the whole day, I offered to run a healthy eating workshop along the same lines and CJ who runs the school agreed - so watch this space for more details of workshops taking place in June and October this year.

For details of other workshops available go to www.seafoodtraining.org.