Marrakech Food Diary

Another food diary from a trip to Marrakech, Morocco. What an amazing place and the good is out of this world! The spices and herbs used on all the dishes are just heaven...

South of France Food Diary

A food diary in photos of a week long holiday to the South of France. Beautiful, fresh, delicious food...

Courgette Fritters

These fritters are my new go to for lunch and dinner! So tasty and go with many other dishes such as houmous and ratatouille. I top my fritters with slices of avocado and a squeeze of lemon and the combination is absolutely delicious! I even love them cold (but others prefer them as a hot meal!).

                          

These are a great vegetarian meal with high levels of protein that you will get from the ground almond and eggs.

Date and Oat Crumbles

 So I have had requests for the recipe for these Date and Oat crumbles, so I thought I would speed up this blog post so you can start baking them!

                   

These are so delicious and the texture of the crumbly oats and the gooey date centre is so yummy! Sweet but not sickly. They are the perfect energy boost for a snack or post workout for example. You could even eat these beauties for breakfast as the oats would give you a good slow release of energy throughout the morning! 

Keep them airtight and they will last a few days or freeze them in squares for when you want a sweet treat.

Here is the recipe!

Beetroot and Spinach Tortilla Wraps

This is my favourite recipe in a long while! These tortilla wraps are a dream! Perfect lunchtime inspiration or for when you are feeding a crowd. The colours are just glorious when eating and the flavour tastes just like you have bought a pack of wraps from the supermarket- but better (okay Im slightly biased).

Before you think that they are going to taste strongly of beetroot and spinach you would be mistaken as you can struggle to taste those flavours at all actually!

Little fact: Did you know beetroot and spinach are often added to foods as a natural food colouring without impacting the taste! Healthy and colourful foods- whats not to love! 

The wraps are gluten free and refined sugar free. 

Makes around 5-7 wraps depending on how thick and big you make them.

Ingredients:

Rice Porridge

I have been looking for a new breakfast that I can have that is gluten and refined sugar free, filling, nutritious and something different. Enter Rice Porridge! 
The best thing is with this breakfast is that you prep it the night before (which takes 5 minutes) and it is slow cooked all night so is ready and waiting for you in the morning whenever you are ready! What’s not to love about that!?

The only thing you need for this (apart from the ingredients) is a slow cooker. They are so useful for us busy people that can prepare 6-11 hours before you want it (timings depending on the recipe) and don’t require you standing over a hob for an hour a day.

I love this creamy rice porridge so much, it is basically having healthy rice pudding for breakfast!

Walnut Butter

Similar to the Almond Butter post I did a while back, this time walnuts! I love to mix up the different nut butters and try different ones. This recipe makes a tasty and creamy nut butter.

I have figured out walnut butters perfect pairing for a great snack- dates! Dates stuffed with creamy walnut butter is like caramel and toffee heaven. Way better than any refined sugar alternative you would find in the supermarket. 

Strawberry and Almond Cake

Summer is a perfect time to use the seasonal fruits into baking! This is a great one to make over a summertime weekend for friends and family.

This cake is gluten and refined sugar free! It tastes so good and is light and moist with the added strawberry. It also freezes very well for you to eat in slices whenever you fancy!

Serves 12

Homemade Guacamole

Avocados are the best! Use it for a face mask, the base of an exfoliator, in brownies or making it the feature dish- Guacamole!

As the temperatures are getting warmer and we all aren't eating hot meals constantly for warmth, it is so nice to have a refreshing chilled meal once in a while, enter guac. So nourishing with a creamy texture and great flavour you can pair it with any dish or have it as your main meal.

There are so many benefits of eating avocado to boost your health. It is full

Avocado Toast

This is such an easy and filling breakfast. For the toast I use Biona bread Quinoa and Amaranth. This bread is great protein so perfect for breakfast.

I use half an avocado and 1 piece of bread as it is so filling but by all means add another half avocado or extra slice of bread.

Cacao Oat Crispies

This is my newest recipe that I absolutely love, they actually remind me of when I was a child making chocolate covered corn flakes as a sweet treat! They are refined sugar free and gluten free and include superfoods coconut oil and raw cacao. I have actually had one for breakfast before- why not?! But equally as perfect for a sweat treat or to make a batch for a special person, party or occasion.









 Makes 4-6

Cookie Dough Bites

I am very excited about this recipe!! Cookie dough is the ultimate indulgence and now it is healthy! Of course this is gluten free and refined sugar free as usual, but this is also suitable for you lovely vegans out there. So simple and quick to make and no baking required! I taste tested these on friends and family and has not been forgotten about so here is the amazing recipe for you all to enjoy...

Ingredients:

Energising Smoothie

I have been experimenting a lot with smoothies and juices at the moment. Differing flavour combinations to keep things interesting!

This smoothie is a great and energy boosting drink that you can drink either for breakfast or after a good workout as it includes Matcha Green Tea powder! You need a good blender if you are going to add the few cashew nuts and if the frozen banana won't break up just leave it at room temperature for 5 minutes to defrost.

There isn't really any need to put instructions to this recipe, other than chuck everything in the machine and blend away! Serve and enjoy :-)

Make Your Own Almond Butter!

Nut butters are one of my favourite foods. Seriously, half a pot could be gone in 24 hours! They are a nutritious, filling and a great addition to many meal.

They are generally quite expensive to buy, especially the organic nut butters that I love to get. So I wanted to create a recipe that you can make easily and efficiently at home that doesn't break the bank! My ultimate favourite nut butter is Almond! So here is my recipe for Almond Butter...

The only thing you need to purchase is almonds! There is two stages to making the almond butter and they can be done on totally different days if you want, the first stage makes the roasted salted almonds (great addition to meals) and then the second stage makes them into the butter we know and love!

Fruit and Nut Protein Flapjacks

I have had a lot of requests from you lovely people for a flapjack that is high in protein, but still clean and healthy. So I can't let you down and here it is! This tastes amazing and could seriously compete (if not beat) the traditional bakery flapjack that is high in sugar and fat. 

With so many different nuts it has the perfect amount of chew in it.

Healthy Hazelnut Frozen Chocolate

Okay so time for a great new chocolate recipe that is guilt-free and best of all good for you! Coconut oil really is the saviour of everything. The base to this amazing chocolate, a great hair mask and a body moisturiser! Cant get much more versatile than that can you?!

The recipe takes 10 minutes maximum to make and then frozen. You may think eating chocolate straight from the freezer would be strange, but seriously don't knock it until you have tried it!

Equally you can keep this chocolate just chilled in the fridge or at room temperature instead of frozen, as coconut oil is solid at an average room temperature. But remember if it is a hot day best to keep this in the fridge unless you want a chocolate fondue...

Makes 10 regular pieces if keeping at room temp or chilled or if frozen, freeze in block

Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Here is another amazingly tasty gluten free and sugar free cake recipe!

Apple and cinnamon is such a good combo (and you know how much I love cinnamon) so I thought a while back it is time to make one that I can enjoy. I have uploaded a photo on Instagram the first time I made this and realised I havent shared the recipe!! Here it is....

Ingredients:

Injured: A Guide to Eating For A Fast Recovery

Now this is not my normal food post (no yummy recipe unfortunately, sorry!). But I think equally important, so I felt I should share. When a person is injured, either a sports related injury or any accident, how important diet is in the recovery, mentally and physically! After all it would be easy to just eat rubbish junk food while on bed rest or not being able to exercise. This however is not the solution and have discussed these points below. Please do comment after reading this post and let me know your thoughts on this interesting subject.

I will start at the beginning on how intrigued I became with the subject of recovery. A few weeks ago I had a car accident. I was the only person in the car thankfully and I came out very lucky... Glass cuts, bruises and a very sore back but overall okay! I was told to rest, and to be honest I had no choice as my back was very sore standing and even sitting down. This continued for a good week after my accident. In the first few days after I completely lost my appetite presumably due to shock (anyone who knows me knows I am a complete foodie, yes hence the name). Not being able to eat the smallest bowl of porridge was surprising. But then it occurred to me that I wasn't active, doing my usual routine of work, gym or swimming. So it was good I wasn't eating as much food as my regular diet because I didn't need to. It was more about listening to my body, eating when hungry and stop when my stomach felt content.

Focusing on the quality of what I was eating was of course another light bulb moment. Just like an injured runner I needed to eat right for a fast recovery. I eat clean anyway but this was adapting my diet to aid the repair of my muscles, tissue and ligaments specifically. This meant eating a balance of the following and definitely not cutting out any food group: 

Powders and Spices for Optimum Health

I think it is so important to add additional nutrients, vitamins and minerals in your daily routine. 

Mainly these do come from the meals we eat for example sweet potato which is so rich in Vitamin A as well as high in Vitamin B-6 , magnesium and potassium. But these powders are the nutritions and minerals in their most raw and potent form that will aid the bodies functions to perform and live to our best!

After adding these in my, already healthy diet, I have more energy and am able to keep healthy at optimum level (AKA no sick days needed from work- Literally!)

Dont stress about adding all of these straight away because it might not be what your body needs. Read below the benefits of each powder and if you feel like you could improve that area of your health then try it out! Small changes do make a big difference.

My personal Top Five are: 

Homemade Garlic and Basil Pesto

Got a perfect dish like a salad or rice pasta but cannot think to add to it, that is clean and tasty?! Enter pesto!

There are many different pesto flavours, and this is a recipe for Garlic and Basil, which means I can use my basil plant! So great and satisfying using your own fresh produce, not just for freshness and flavour but also a lot more cost efficient.

Also so quick to whip up a batch, can be easily done for last minute flavour!