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!

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.

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.

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:

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!

Warming Vegetable Bolognese

The most famous pasta dish is Spaghetti Bolognese, everyone knows and loves it (well almost everyone!). Warming, nourishing, filling and the rich tomato, garlic and herb flavours combined creates a quick dish for anyone to enjoy. But for all you vegetarians and vegans out there, here is a recipe for you! 

The bolognese can be combined with many different options! The lightest meal would be to add it to a base of my marinated kale and spinach salad (click here for the recipe). In contrast for a more comfort food dish that is still clean, is on a bed of spaghetti rice pasta (gluten free)! This is the closest to the 'traditional' Spaghetti Bolognese and tastes amazing! 

Quinoa, Almond and Mint Salad

I am feeling really inspired at the moment with Moroccan food! The mix of flavours are amazing and create an unbelievable combination. This salad is inspired by a Moroccan couscous salad, that includes sweet raisins, crunchy salted almonds and fresh herbs!

This dish is not only gluten free it is also vegan too! I cannot get over the taste of this salad, the quinoa makes it so filling, as well as the avocado. No green leaves are this recipe so it is very much a hearty salad.

The Trick to a Great Kale Salad

A portion of kale is hard to beat when talking about the number of nutrients and minerals it contains. It is great to include if you want a healthy and balanced diet. There are so many benefits of eating the green stuff including a high source of vitamins A, C and K, as well as improve blood glucose control in diabetics, lowering the risk of cancer and blood pressure and improving bone healthy!

So that leads me on to introducing a trick to creating a great Kale Salad.

Sweet Potato, Lentil and Coconut Curry

If you are looking for the perfect winter warming dish then look no further! Such a healthy dish with no added nasties like your shop brought curry. Filling and nourishing ingredients like the sweet potato and lentils, that are also great for your overall health- what's not to love!

I served it on a bed of steaming brown rice, but alternatively you can use quinoa or just on its own if you want!

Healthy Fish and Chips!

Who doesn't love a good fish and chips right?! I live by the sea and there are so many fish and chip shops around being an English country town so I did some research and found a healthy version of battered fish. 

Of course I had to give it a try and it was honestly better than the fatty battered fish they serve in those shops as I find the amount of grease that you find at the bottom of the paper is not great to say the least! Plus you could actually taste and appreciate the fish with this recipe!

Then I had a thought that it wouldn't be right to serve these delicious healthy fish fillets with unhealthy chips- Enter sweet potato fries! The perfect nutritional alternative to normal potato chips. 

Serves 4
This recipe is just for the fish, for the sweet potato fries recipe click here.

Sweet Beet Raw Juice

This recipe below I fell into by chance with the leftovers from my Green raw juice. This was my added extra experiment juice- but boy does it rank up there with my green juice!

I'm okay to admit that I am not the biggest beetroot fan. I mean I can eat it if it is in small quantities but in this juice I could hardly taste it and it gave the juice an amazing vivid colour that looks so appetising!