Preserving months........

I can't believe it has been so long since my last writing - where has the start of the year gone?  Well in my case it has been 'preserved'.  I've spent the last 2 months working on a great project with the lovely Thane Prince, testing recipes for her latest book 'Perfect Preserves', which comes out in July to coincide with her judging of 'The Great Allotment Challenge'.
I've never really been into preserving, it always seemed like such a lot of work for not much of a result - certainly tales from friends who spent hours slicing citrus fruit skins or watching a rolling boil, didn't inspire me to join in.  But then I started making the most wonderful curds, marmalades and fruit butters, and I was hooked - the beautiful colours, creamy textures, jewel-like jellies - and the smell every time I re-entered the house, was bliss.  That is, until I started on the pickles, chutneys and relishes, and then the smell was of vinegar - lots of scented candles were required for those few weeks!
But one of the best things about making preserves is giving them to friends - the delight on their faces of being given something that you have slaved over and they know will taste so much better than anything they can buy - it was worth all the smells!
So after that I was relieved to escape to Bordeaux for a week of rowing training, on a stunning lake on the outskirts of Libourne.  With a perfectly flat lake for the whole week, we managed to get our scheduled 36km done every day.  A lot of mileage, but good for getting fit if only we had been given food that could sustain us for that amount of exercise.  You'd think wouldn't you, that being in France would be a certainty of at least getting great food.  But no, we were being catered for by a training school whose idea of a balance meal was for everything to be the same colour (mostly beige), and not a fresh green vegetable was spotted all week!
The only time we escaped training we headed off to the pretty nearby town of St Emilion, a place known not only for its' great wine, but also it's light but chewy, delicious macaroons!  Clearly this did not improve our diet much either!
So now I've returned home I am in desperate need for some micro-nutrients!  

The juicer is out of the cupboard and I have bought every green vegetable that is on offer!  I can feel my body soaking up the vitamins as I write!  If you need inspiration to get into juicing then you need to watch 'Fat, sick and nearly dead' - hopefully it will kick-start you into a new healthy regime too.

Cycling the Backroads of Sri Lanka

As usual, I found the need to escape the English winter just as all the Christmas festivities came to head, and on Christmas Day I headed off to explore Sri Lanka by bike.  If you want to feel, smell, and be part of a country, being on a bike is pretty good way to do it.
The only downside of course is the energy required!  And when climbing some of the steep hills through the tea plantation area, I did struggle to remain polite with all the locals who called 'Good Morning' - all my energy was required for getting up the hill.  But then I remembered something that Dame Kelly Holmes talked about at the ISENC - she said that when in training her coach had told her to chat with her colleagues while she was running, so that when she was running alone in competition 'all of her oxygen would be her own' - needless to say I made it up all the hills!
My trip started in Columbo, staying with a lovely friend who was so inspired with Sri Lanka that she now imports her own delicious Kandula Tea.  As it was still the party season we spent a lot of time eating out and trying lots of great new dishes, one of which I had quite a few times at Columbo Swimming Club, and have already tried at home - devilled cashews.  Cashews are grown in Sri Lanka so are on the menu a lot, although they are not cheap even there.
After the madness of Columbo setting off to the countryside was heaven - cycling along tiny tracks and country roads, with only the odd tuk tuk or motorbike passing us, and the occasional dog chasing us for a bite at an ankle (which thankfully they never got!).
And when we got hungry we stopped at the small cafes for a bit of local food - string hoppers steamed with coconut and brown sugar were a favourite, as were homemade spicy lentil patties and vegetable samosas (and their idea of spicy is pretty hot!).
The main dinner offering in most places is a Sri Lankan buffet - don't be fooled, this is not a few salads and nibbles, this is a full buffet of at least 7-8 curry dishes, with soups, salads, sambals (spicy coconut side-dish), poppadoms, rotis, 2-3 types of rice, plus a host of other dishes we were too scared to try!  At the beginning we all made the most of the abundance of food on offer -  we figured we were using up so many calories on the bike each day.  After the first week we all realised that the eating had overtaken the cycling and we were now on a 'buffet tour' of Sri Lanka!  So it was time to reign in and be sensible, which for me just meant reverting back to Paleo rules and cutting out a few things, one of which was rice.  This caused lots of concern to the locals who don't believe you can eat curry without it!  And obviously it's their main crop and a staple of their own diets.  But for me it did the trick, I have returned without the excess buffet weight!


Devilled Cashews

Serves 4

4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
200 g raw cashew nuts
small handful curry leaves
1-2 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper

Heat the oil until smoking hot.
Add the shallots and cashew nuts and cook until golden.
Add the curry leaves and cook until crisp.
Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Mix together the chilli powder and seasoning and toss the nuts in the mixture.
Leave to cool slightly before serving.



After staying with friends over the holiday period and talking a lot about food, nutrition and health, it made me realise how much I assume people know about nutrition and their bodies.
So over the next few months I hope to write about nutrition basics, and how you really can affect your health, both now and in the future.  
If there are any subjects you would like me to cover just drop me a comment and I will do my best to accommodate.

Healthy, Happy Eating,

Joy x

Christmas is coming.......

In my food-styling work, Christmas starts around May-June, and continues up until December (for those weeklies or dailies that run last-minute food stories), so by the time Christmas really is here I've had enough!
And whilst everyone else is planning all the naughty food and drink they are about to indulge in, I'm normally trying to get myself fit for another cycling trip somewhere warm - this year is no exception.
But before I whizz off I've been working on the second of two books due out early next year.  The first - The Paleo Diet Made Easy is out on 6th January, with a follow-up full-colour Paleo book due in May, just in time for the spring detox season!
So, needless to say, I've been experimenting with some new recipes, and loving eating such a great, clean diet (and have kept trimmer and fitter than I've ever been before) - good to know that it works!
The great thing about eating the Paleo way (think caveman - no processed food, only foods you can hunt, fish or gather), is that it is so simple, and once you get rid of all the other stuff you really don't crave it.  Tonight I craved a plate of steamed broccoli, carrots and sprouts, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and pepper - how mad is that?  It was delicious.
Obviously I've been doing my usual experimenting with new ingredients too, and recently had to put together some recipes for The Chia Co, using their chia seeds and oil - great sources of omega-3 fats and fibre.
Always one for a great pudding, I came up with one of the simplest yet - assorted berries and chia seeds make a perfect mousse (chia seeds tend to thicken liquids into a gel-like substance) - just place them all in a blender and blend until smooth then chill until ready to serve.  If you really want a little extra sweetness you can add a tsp or two of honey, but after a few weeks of eating Paleo you probably won't even want that.
So this is probably my last blog post of the year - I'm heading off to cycle around the hills and tea plantations of Sri Lanka over Christmas and January.  I  hope to return with lots more recipe ideas for you to try in 2014!

Happy Christmas and Happy Healthy Eating.

Joy x

Winter Comfort

So this week we have been told, we will be seeing the real start of winter - not a very cheering prospect.  But it happens every year, so we should be used to it.  And as the great Ranulph Fiennes once said "There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing"....so get your thick vests out!
Much the same also applies to food.  We were having a discussion this week about how, in the winter, you really fancy comforting foods.  One person described it as 'stodgy' food - think of those great steamed puddings, or meat pies - that is certainly comforting.
But equally comforting, and possibly more nutritious, are great colourful stews and curries.  Just because it's winter doesn't mean we have to leave the bright colours of summer behind.  Going back to the clothing theme, it's interesting how all the clothes available to buy in the winter are devoid of colour - why?  When surely we want to brighten the dreary days?
So forget the beige and brown puddings and pies and pile on the colourful veg!
Adding spices to your food also adds heat, so you are warming yourself from the inside, as well as getting other great benefits from these foods, for example - ginger (anti-inflammatory), garlic (anti-oxidant), turmeric (anti-inflammatory), black pepper (rich in minerals) - the list is endless.
So even though this recipe uses a ready-made sauce for convenience, I still add lots of other spices to improve it.  Or you could make your own sauce completely from scratch.


Vegetable Thai Curry

Serves 2-3

2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
3cm piece root ginger, peeled and diced
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp red Thai curry paste
1 x 400 ml can coconut milk
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
5 stems of tenderstem broccoli, halved
small handful green beans, halved
6 cherry tomatoes, halved 
3 tbsp almond flakes, toasted

Heat the coconut oil in a wok or large frying and and cook the seeds for 2-3 minutes, until the mustard seeds start to 'pop'.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute.
Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes before stirring in the curry paste and cooking for a further minute.
Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
Add the vegetables, then simmer for 8-12 minutes, until the sweet potato is tender.
Serve with cooked quinoa or rice and sprinkle with the toasted flaked almonds.

Enough cake already?!

To satisfy the request for more cake, my healthy blog is turning into a cake blog, so this has to be the last, for a while at least!  
This recipe idea came purely from having some great products delivered to my kitchen - firstly a box arrived from Naturya, with their great superfood ingredients, and then more personally, my lovely friend Gail (founder of Kandula Tea) arrived fresh off the plane from Sri Lanka, with her latest blend of delicious teas.
Obviously the first thing we did was to have a cup of tea and catch up with all the gossip, but then I felt the need to use the tea for something more.......so cake it was!  
If you are a lover of mint tea I have tasted none better than Kandula - it tastes really fresh and tangy - as if there were fresh mint leaves dropped into the cup, with no tannin aftertaste that you find with a lot of other teas.
In December I will be visiting Sri Lanka, so will hopefully find out more about not only the tea, but also the wonderful food - lots of great vegetarian dishes and delicious fresh fish - watch this space!

Kandula Maca Tea Bread

Makes 1 loaf

200 g mixed dried fruit
250 ml Kandula Moroccan Mint tea (made with one bag)
125 g wholemeal self-raising flour
100 g self-raising flour
1 tbsp Naturya Maca powder
100 g golden caster sugar
25 g pecans, roughly chopped
50 g Coconoil, melted
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Grease and base line a 2 lb loaf tin.
Place the dried fruit into a bowl and pour over the hot tea.  Leave to stand for at least 4 hours.
Place the flours, maca powder, sugar and pecans into a large bowl.
Beat together the Coconoil and egg.
Add the dried fruit, tea and egg and Coconoil mixture to the dry ingredients and gently mix together - do not overmix.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack (if you can wait that long - I couldn't!)

Happy cake-eating!

J xx

First there were apples, then there were delicious muffins!

Quick training session on the river this morning (gorgeous water, just not much of it!), then boat de-rigging and loading before heading home for healthy fruit smoothie breakfast.
A few of us are off to race at Teddington Small Boats Head on Saturday - the last time I did it the conditions were appalling and not many people stayed above the water!  So I realised we would need sustenance to keep us going through the day (there are two divisions to race, one at 10.30am and the other at 1.30pm), especially if it's going to be rough.
The great thing about making muffins is that pretty much anything tastes good in one (that should get a few comments rolling in!), and they are extremely simple to make.  Basically I look through the food I have at home and start baking.  So this recipe gives you lots of options - start experimenting yourself - that's how all recipes are born!







Spiced Apple and Sultana Muffins (dairy-free)

Makes 12

240 g wholemeal plain flour (could use white, or gluten free?)
80 g rolled oats (could use oatgerm?)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 g dark brown sugar (could use caster, or demerara?)
2 apples, grated (use peel but not core)
1/2 tsp mixed spice (choose your favourite spice)
120 g Coconoil (could use butter if OK with dairy)
1 egg
100 ml non-dairy milk (could use milk or yoghurt if OK with dairy)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
Place the flour, oats, baking powder, bicarb, sugar, grated apple and mixed spice into a large bowl and mix well.
Beat together the Coconoil, egg and milk.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and roughly mix - do not overmix!
Bake for 22-25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.

Enjoy xx

Never enough cake!

Lots of great comments about the recipes and blog, but one comment that stuck out was that there was not enough cake!!  Anybody who knows me well will know that cake features quite highly in my life.  Eating healthily is one thing, cake is quite another and certainly cannot be missed out!  And luckily my rule of 80% healthy and 20% naughty allows for this.
So here follows a healthy naughty cake recipe - it's rich in antioxidants (dark chocolate, cranberries and raspberries), is gluten and dairy free (gluten free flour and coconut oil instead of butter), and is to die for!

Raspberry and Cranberry Chocolate Brownies

Makes 12-16

225 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)

250 g caster sugar

4 eggs

225 g coconut oil, melted

75 g cocoa powder

75 g gluten-free plain flour

150 g fresh raspberries

50 g dried cranberries

·      Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F) Gas mark 5.  Lightly grease a 20 cm square tin.

·      Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water.

·      Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar and eggs in a large bowl, until the sugar has dissolved.

·      Whisk in the melted coconut oil then sift in the cocoa powder and flour and fold them into the mixture.

·      Finally, fold in the melted chocolate, raspberries and cranberries then pour into the prepared tin.

·      Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle of the mixture comes out with only a little of the mixture attached.

·      Leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares to serve.

You can find more of my antioxidant-rich recipes in Total Sports Nutrition next month.