How to turn pregnancy superfoods into craving-worthy feasts

Category: Recipes

22
Oct
2020

How to turn pregnancy superfoods into craving-worthy feasts

Most of us have an idea about the types of healthy foods we should be eating during pregnancy, but when those pesky cravings hit, they can be quite the force to reckon with. Instead of avocado on toast, we crave anything salty and stodgy. However, there is a way to turn pregnancy superfoods into real treats that are craving-worthy.

After years of yo-yo dieting I decided to learn the truth about nutrition and what it is we should really be consuming for good health; and so I embarked on a diploma course accredited by the Association for Nutrition. I’ve completed 70% of my diploma so far and I have recently passed my pre- and post-natal course. With that in mind, along with the vast number of healthy recipes I’ve tried and enjoyed over the years, I’d like to share what I’ve learnt to be ‘pregnancy’ superfoods and how to create delicious dishes from them. I hope you enjoy reading this post.

Scrumptious one-pan salmon roast

Pregnancy superfoods: Salmon, broccoli and sweet potato
Do not underestimate a delicious one-pan roast. Not only will this hit the spot and satisfy your salt craving, it is also really easy to cook. Place salmon, broccoli and sweet potato into a pan with some oil and your seasonings of choice. Roast for 30 minutes and you’re done. Here’s why salmon, broccoli and sweet potato are great to eat when pregnant.

Salmon: It’s recommended to eat two portions of oily fish a week during pregnancy, because it is a great source of omega-3 which helps your baby’s brain develop.

Broccoli: This green veggie is a great source of folate which is vital for your baby’s spinal cord development and, like salmon, helps brain development.

Sweet potato: This spud provides beta-carotene, a form of vitamin A. While it is recommended to limit how much vitamin A you consume during pregnancy, this form is safe to eat and there is no limit how much sweet potato you eat. Vitamin A plays an important role in the growth of your baby’s eyes, heart and brain.

Here’s are some recipes using these pregnancy superfoods that you may like to try:
www.eatingwell.com
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes

Overnight oats with berries and yoghurt

Pregnancy superfoods: Oats, berries and yogurt
This recipe is so simple, healthy and filling. Mix jumbo oats, berries, greek style yogurt and a splash of milk. Pop in the fridge covered and the next morning you’ll have a really yummy breakfast (or healthy snack). You can also add sliced banana, a drop of vanilla essence or some honey if you prefer it slightly sweeter.

Oats: All oats are low in fat, high in fibre and release energy slowly. This will help combat tiredness as your body works hard to grow and care for your little one, while the fibre will help prevent a very common symptom of pregnancy – constipation!

Berries: These fruity delights are nutrient rich and will help with constipation too, thanks to their high levels of fibre. All berries are rich in antioxidants (great for your immunity) and vitamin C, which will help your body absorb iron through the foods you eat.

More overnight oats recipes:
www.weightwatchers.com
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes

THREE SWEET BREAKFAST IDEAS FOR BUSY MORNINGS

Moreish Moroccan stew

Pregnancy superfoods: Red lentils, dried apricots, rapeseed oil
In a little rapeseed oil fry onions, garlic, turmeric, paprika and any other spices you like. Add chicken, lamb or chickpeas, along with chopped dried apricots, red lentils and your choice of stock. Bring to boil and then simmer. This makes a moreish stew that can be eaten alone, with brown rice or a brown pitta bread.

Red lentils: Red lentils are a pulse and all pulses are packed with protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. They also count towards one of your 5-a-day.

Dried apricots: These provide your body with folic acid, iron and fibre. While they are delicious to cook with, they can also be eaten as a healthy and convenient snack on the go.

Rapeseed oil: This versatile oil can be cooked at relatively high temperatures and gives you and you baby a dose of healthy fats (including monounsaturated fats which are good for your heart) and the antioxidant, vitamin E.

A detailed recipe for you to try:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/moroccan-style-chicken-lentils

Water

It may not sound exciting, but water is so important to drink during pregnancy and there are ways to spice it up. Plus, sipping water regularly can help ease nausea from pregnancy sickness, maintain your energy levels and (it’s that word again) help relieve constipation. Here are some ideas to give your water a makeover.

Fruit infused cold water
Herbal teas
Water on the rocks a.k.a lots of ice
Hot lemon and ginger
Soup style, such as cuppa soup

Top tip: Invest in a water bottle with a straw and take it everywhere with you. You may be surprised by how much more you drink.

03
Nov
2016

Chocolate velvet post-workout protein shake recipe

Categories: Recipes

This delicious smoothie recipe is inspired by The Body Coach; Weight Watchers; close friends of mine at www.echosupplements.com; a nutritionist at my local gym; and what I had in my kitchen. It tastes great and you’re sure to love it if you’re a chocolate fiend like me! I hope you enjoy it if you give it a whirl… or should I say blitz (poor attempt at getting in a blender reference).

The following recipe includes some of the ingredients The Body Coach uses in his post-workout recipes, but has been tailored to what I usually ‘spend’ SmartPoints* wise on breakfast. It also includes some sneaky fruit and vegetables (tip given to me by a nutritionist at my local gym) and a scoop of PHD diet whey protein powder. Lovely friends of mine who run www.echosupplements.com inadvertently introduced me to PHD diet whey protein bars and powders – during a catch up they shared one of the bars they had on them and it was so good. It completely sorted out my chocolate craving, actually filled me up and as a pleasant surprised had a low SmartPoints value too!

A Weight Watchers friendly Chocolate Post-Workout Protein Shake Recipe
Requires a blender
For Weight Watchers it works out at 5 SmartPoints

Ingredients
20g rolled oats
200ml of Oat milk (could used almond milk)
1 scoop of PHD chocolate diet whey powder
1 banana
Handful of spinach (frozen or fresh)
Handful of blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Method
Chuck in a blender and whizz!

Do check out www.echosupplements.com or give them a call if you’re interested in trying PHD for yourself or want to know more about protein powders. They’re so knowledgeable and super friendly.

Enjoy the smoothie!

P.S I also noticed that the smoothie matched the colour of my nails, and so I thought I’d share that pic in this recipe too! haha.

* When you follow Weight Watchers – the counting method, as there is a no count method – every food and drink as a SmartPoints values

20
Oct
2016

A simple pasta sauce recipe

Categories: Recipes

This is a short and sweet post to share a little recipe… tomato and butternut squash pasta sauce. It’s tasty, filling and goes well with lots of stuff like prawns, beef or chicken, alongside pasta and whatever veg you may like (such as peas, spinach or peppers).

Tomato & Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

Tinned tomatoes
Tablespoon or so of tomato puree
Coconut oil (or your regular oil)
Olive oil
Onion
2 garlic gloves
Butternut squash – I use a packet of the frozen stuff
Salt, pepper and oregano
Teaspoon of agave syrup

Method

Cook your butternut squash until soft (then leave to one side or while that’s cooking crack on with the below)
Slice and dice some onion and crush some garlic – fry the lot in your chosen oil – I like to use coconut oil.
*You may want to use a pan larger than a frying pan for this as it’s going to contain the whole sauce shortly and it creates a decent amount!
Add your salt, pepper and oregano, followed by the puree and tinned tomatoes – stir it up.
* If you want to add fish or meat to the sauce, you could add your chosen item to the pan at this point to cook.
Once the onion and garlic look nearly cooked, add your butternut squash and mash it all up.
Bring to boil, reduce to simmer for 10 or so minutes. Stir in a little olive oil and I like to add agave syrup for a bit of sweetness and voila!

It’s basically your standard tomato sauce with butternut squash! I may be slightly obsessed with butternut squash at the moment. I love it in this sauce though as it makes it super thick and delicious. Plus, on Weight Watchers its 0 SmartPoints, whoop whoop!

The photo shown is the sauce with prawns and peas, which was later mixed in with some wholewheat pasta.

06
Oct
2016

Snacking on soup & a lazy veg soup recipe

Categories: Food, Recipes

I’ve found a way to sneak another meal into my day and that meal is soup! I’ve never been so excited by soup before, but stay with me while I explain.

I’ve been trying to think of new snacks I can enjoy late afternoon that are filling but not too heavy, as dinner is just around the corner – and no, I can’t wait till dinner! My Weight Watchers allowance is very precious and every point counts, so I’m keen to ‘spend’ only 2 or so SmartPoints on a snack at this time. With the weather being a little cooler I suddenly felt the urge for something warm and cosy, and then I remembered people make soup – and I could make soup with all the 0 SmartPoints veg I have. So that’s what I did.

Before I continue, you should know that I’m a lazy cook and a huge fan of recipes that are super quick, or can be left in an oven with very little attention required (so that I can do other things) .

I have found a very speedy (lazy) way to make a delicious soup out of any veg – ok, maybe not any veg but the ones I’ve tried have turned out to be pretty tasty. You simply need to cook your chosen veg and blend it untill smooth (or nearly smooth) with a can of tinned tomatoes, then add it to a cooked onion, spices, and vegetable stock. Cooking the veg is the most time consuming part of this recipe and the rest of this method is quick – if it’s easier you could always cook the veg on a separate day or time to when you intend on having or making the soup…

Lazy Veggie Soup
Requires a blender…

Ingredients

Any veg you have! I’ve made soup with carrots, courgettes and frozen chunks of butternut squash (you can buy packs of these – butternut squash is so hard to cut!)
Tinned tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Herbs (optional and you can use any you like – I’ve made soup with sage, mixed herbs and oregano of separate occasions)
Spices (also optional – a little curry powder or cayenne pepper gives this soup a nice kick)
Onion
Vegetable stock (I use a low salt vegetable stock cube with water)

Method

Roast, boil or steam your veg – however you like, just cook it and leave it to cool a little before blending.
– If you roast your veg add in a chopped onion at the same time.
– If you cook your veg in another way, you’ll need to fry up some diced onion.
While you’re veg is cooking make say 400-600ml of vegetable stock (this depends on how thick you like your soup and how much you want to make).
In a blender, mixed together your tinned tomatoes and veg (and roasted onion if you went down that route)
If you don’t roast an onion, fry a diced onion in a large pan then…
Add the blended mixture to your large big pan with your vegetable stock, spices, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and then simmer for a few minutes… Or you can mix it altogether and heat in the microwave when you’re ready to enjoy your soup (I did warn you I was lazy).

This makes a decent amount of soup if you wish to share it with everyone in your household or keep some in the fridge or freezer to enjoy on other days – speaking of which – I was recently given a tip that you can use those 1/2 pint milk cartons as soup containers in the freezer too! Just don’t pop it in the microwave – if you pull it out in the morning, it should be defrosted by late afternoon/evening. I really hope this recipe is easy for you to follow and you enjoy making this lazy soup!

As always, apologies to proper cooks out there!

17
Sep
2016

A weight loss friendly peanut butter curry recipe – this is delicious!

Categories: Food, Recipes

I wanted to share a curry I’ve been making for a while that is absolutely delicious, full of healthy stuff and best of all does keep you feeling full! Warning: this recipe contains nuts (the clue is in the title, after-all).

Peanut Butter Curry
This little number is a popular West African curry and it was made a lot by my family when I was growing up – whether at my house, my auntie and uncles, or around family friends’ houses. Traditional West African or Caribbean curry recipes of this kind can include a few more spices, butters and oils than my version – which do taste great – but this version is super quick to make and (if you’re following Weight Watchers like myself) is lower in SmartPoints values than some versions of this curry.

Before I start – I apologise in advance to great cooks out there who may see this recipe and think “ahhh you’ve destroyed a beautiful dish you evil woman!” Recipe writing is also much harder than I’ve ever appreciated (shout out to all those I’ve worked with previously who have been responsible for writing top notch recipes). I’m a little nervous I’ve forgotten some key ingredients, as I’m so used to just chucking this curry together quickly after a long day.

I’ve included a rough guide of the quantities I use, but you can easily add more or less of everything and it will still work. For those on Weight Watchers, this recipe comes to around 8 SmartPoints values and is totally worth every single point – calculate the exact value of your version and track it too for weight loss success.

Be warned, this is moreish!

Peanut butter curry
Serves 2

Ingredients

Pack of diced chicken
Tinned tomatoes
Chopped onion
Crushed onion glove or 2
2 tablespoons of peanut butter (I use smooth)
Tablespoon of curry powder
Teaspoon or two of coriander
Teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional if you don’t like spice)
Coconut oil (or your usual cooking oil/oil sprayer)
Salt and pepper
Teaspoon of agave syrup, honey or brown sugar (I tend to use agave but this is also optional)

*If you want to add veg to this recipe, you could include peas, beans or sweet potato to this curry. Diced pepper or spinach just about works, but I like it plain or with beans and peas best.

* Serve with rice (I tend to have wholegrain in the cupboard, but it works great with whatever you usually eat or jollof rice).

Method

Fry the onions and garlic in your chosen oil
After a few minutes add the curry powder and coriander
Add the chicken and cook for 5 mins or so; or until you’ve browned all of the pieces – stir frequently
Add tinned tomatoes, peanut butter and cayenne pepper
Stir thoroughly, bring to boil then simmer for 15/20 mins or until the chicken is fully cooked
Season with salt and pepper
Plate up with some rice and voila!

Enjoy and do post a comment below if you try this recipe and like it.