Tag: diet

A Great Coconut Curry recipe

Today I thought I would share a great curry recipe.

Since my last post, Scott and I have been eating primarily a plant-based diet.

This is intended to help our bodies eliminate any toxins and improve our digestive system. I am also hoping to shed a couple of ‘cruise kilos’. So far I am on track. We are both feeling better and interestingly our sleep has improved.

Recipes for Inspiration

There are many great recipes that I regularly use for meal inspiration and this is 1 of our favourites.

The original recipe is in a small booklet that I got from The Source Bulk Foods last year. I have made a couple of small additions.

This quick, easy and delicious meal has many health benefits.

  • Garlic contains antioxidants that protect against cell damage and ageing.
  • Onions have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
  • Broccoli is high in many vitamins and minerals.
  • Cauliflower provides a significant amount of antioxidants
  • Capsicum is very high in vitamin C
  • Studies show that tomatoes and tomato products may reduce the risk of heart disease and several cancers.
  • Turmeric contains curcumin, a substance with powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

You can add or change out the vegetables to suit your tastes, or what you have in the fridge. Though it is a vegetarian curry, it can easily be changed to a meat curry by simply adding your choice of diced meat.

Coconut Curry

serves 4

Ingredients

½ onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

½ broccoli cut into small flowerets

½ cauliflower cur into small flowerets

4 small potatoes diced

½ capsicum roughly chopped

2 tbsp tamari sauce

2 heaped tbsp. curry powder

2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tin diced tomatoes

400ml coconut cream

bunch of fresh coriander roughly chopped

* Cooked rice, noodles or quinoa to serve

Method
  • In a large saucepan, cook the onion and garlic till the onion is translucent
  • add the spices and stir for a minute
  • add all the rest of the ingredients (except coriander and rice/noodles)
  • bring to the boil, then reduce and simmer until the vegetables are cooked
  • add ½ the coriander and stir through
  • serve on rice or noodles
  • sprinkle rest of coriander on top

When I first made this, I thought that the sauce would split. This is not the case.

It becomes a really creamy sauce.

 

Till the next post,

 

Live clean n prosper

Those ‘Healthy’ recipes and Sugars

Today I am talking about the ‘healthier’ recipes and sugars.

There are many magazines and books available that contain healthy recipes lately. It can be quite a task choosing one that suits your needs. Manufacturers, authors, cafes and restaurants use the term ‘healthy’ very loosely in recent times, as most of us are aware.

Healthy is a buzzword that has been used to describe all sorts of foods.

Focus on Sugar

You may be trying to limit your intake of sugars as part of a healthier diet.  Most people would like to think that recipes for ‘health’ foods and snacks would have less sugars and processed ingredients.

The use of dates or other dried fruits has become popular as a way to sweeten cakes, bliss balls and other desserts.

Fresh fruit contains lots of fluid, which fills us up. Dried fruit is stripped of its water content, which then concentrates the sugar. To put this in perspective:

– Half a cup of fresh cranberries contains 2g of sugar. One cup of dried cranberries contains a whopping 37g, or 9 teaspoons.

– One date is over 60 per cent sugar and 30 per cent of this is fructose.

In my experience, including these ingredients in the recipe is instead of adding processed sugars, as they are sweet enough.

Recently I was looking through a free recipe magazine. Of particular interest were some ‘Bliss Ball’ recipes, as it’s always good to get some new ideas. I was always of the belief that these great little snack balls were developed to help people to make better snack choices.

Consequently it is very disappointing to see that these recipes also included brown sugar in the ingredient list.

Less is Best

People are becoming used to cakes and slices being very sweet. It appears that the authors feel that the addition of extra sweeteners is necessary.

It is a scientific fact that sugar is addictive. Therefore the more sugar we eat, the sweeter we want our food to be. It is a vicious circle that leads to certain decline in our health.

That many people are still having issues with weight gain, is not surprising, with these types of recipes being published as a healthier option.

At the end of the day, everyone is looking for his or her own version of a healthy diet. Each of us has different needs and goals.

Our preference is to reduce our sugar intake. Over the past couple of years we have managed to remove added sugars from most of our diet. We have found that over time, the less sugar we consume, the less we crave or can eat.

Till the next post,

 

Live clean n Prosper

First Post for a new year

Happy New Year

A new year and a time for re-evaluation and making plans for the year ahead.

Thank you for joining me for another year of thoughts, research and recipes.

I have decided to make a change this year and post every second week instead of every week.

This is to enable you to have time to read the post and respond if you would like. I would love to hear from you.

Email me any questions in relation to my posts or recipes. My vision for this blog was for it to be somewhat interactive as well as informative. If I write about a topic that you would like to know more about, let me know.

I have also created a Recipe page where I have copied across all of the recipes so far. If I write a post that contains a recipe, I will also copy it to the recipe page.

Live Clean n Prosper has always been about sharing information we have learned or as we learn about it. For this reason, Scott’s studies will continue to be a catalyst for some of my posts. Along the way, we are also learning more about our own health, bodies and diet.

A couple of points that I think are important are;

  • It’s not about finding the ‘right diet, it’s about changing your lifestyle. Short-term diets don’t really last and we don’t learn how to make sustainable change.
  • The trick is to find what suits you and your situation; don’t just follow the latest ‘fad’ in the media. What works for one person, doesn’t always work for someone else.
  • I also think the 85-90% rule is important. Sticking to your meal plans and exercise routines 85 to 90% of the time allows for enjoying the occasional day of binge TV and take away.
  • Most important of all, is finding time to relax and have some ‘me’ time. I learned the hard way many years ago. That not spending enough time to look after you, leads to poor physical and mental health.
  • Last but not least – If you get off track, just make a new goal and start again.

So with that all in mind, here we come 2018!

Till the next post,

Live clean n Prosper