Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013!!

I hope you are all spending plenty of time with loved ones, and not stressing too much about being strict on your diet!!! A little treat here and there (especially for the sake of celebrating) won’t ruin progress :). However, aim for moderation (something I’m not very good at when it comes to sugary foods) and keep that determination to get back training and eating clean as soon as possible.

 

 

Motivation for the new year – can’t go past my fav!! Jenna Webb haha

 

In order to resist some of the yummy treats laying around our house at the moment, I’ve whipped up a couple of healthy alternatives and yummm they really hit the spot!!

 

Sugar-free Pavlova – inspired by www.ultimateperformancesupplements.com/banana-and-mango-pavlova/

For those of you who have never tried a pavlova (I’m looking at those non-Aussies out there) you MUST!! This is so delicious and is one of my favourite desserts. And this version tastes JUST like the real sugary one!! I’m so excited haha

Serves 6

4 eggs

15g Stevia (the powder version, not liquid)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Topping:

100g Greek yoghurt

1 scoop vanilla whey powder

Stevia to taste

Add whatever topping you want! I sliced up two kiwi fruits and grated some dark chocolate on top

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan forced

Line a flat oven tray with some baking paper and lightly grease with coconut oil

Separate the egg whites from the yolks and beat until soft peaks form, then add the Stevia and cream of tartar slowly while still beating – the mixture should become glossy and retain it’s shape when lifted with a spoon.

Scoop the egg whites onto the tray and fashion into a circular shape with a spatula, retaining as much height as possible. Work quickly!

Put in the oven for 45 mins (do NOT open the door to check progress because your pavlova will flop)

Once cooked, open the oven door a little bit and turn off the heat. Leave to dry out for a further 30 minutes to an hour

Just before serving, put together the topping by mixing the yoghurt, vanilla powder and Stevia (your amounts may differ from mine, because I just threw everything in and then tasted and added more of ingredients until it tasted perfect)

Top the pav with the yoghurt mixture, then throw whatever you want on top! Other yummy combinations would be banana and chocolate, strawberry and chocolate, banana and mango, just dark chocolate etc etc

Nutritional info: per 1/6 serves, with kiwi fruit and a little grated choc

Calories: 61.2

Total fat: 0.7g

Total carbs: 5.8g

Sugar: 3.5g

Protein: 8.4

 

Healthy Snickers Slice from www.tasty-health.se (mine didn’t turn out quite as pretty though haha see second picture)

Warning – these are addictive

Serves 12 (2 squares)

Bottom layer:

About 10 dates (100g)

1 cup almonds

1/2 scoop chocolate whey protein powder

2 tsp unsweetened cocoa

Filling:

150g natural peanut butter

2 scoops vanilla whey protein powder

3 serves Stevia

30g salted peanuts – coarsely chopped

About 1 cup water

Toppping:

60g dark chocolate

Grind the almond in a food processor until you have a flour with some larger almond chucks in it

Add the dates, choc protein powder and cocoa, and process until you get a fine pulp – if you are unable to shape the mixture, add more dates (ok so for me this was where the original recipe failed me… I added a heap more dates and still the mixture refused to stick together. I think next time I might add some water or milk… maybe try this and let me know how it goes!)

Press the almond mixture into the bottom of a foil-lined pan – I used a couple of tupperware containers

Mix the peanut butter, vanilla protein, Stevia and peanuts, then add a little water at a time and mix to a paste with the consistency of peanut butter (although I found it better to make the liquid more runny because it went further)

Spread the peanut batter over the bottom layer, then put in the freezer

Melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and spread over the peanut filling

Set in the fridge/freezer until the chocolate is set

Cut into 24  squares and store in the fridge/freezer

Nutritional info: per 1/12 serves (2/24 squares)

Calories: 194

Total fat: 9.3g (only 2.2g saturated fat)

Total carbs: 12.4g

Sugar: 9.0g

Protein: 10.6g

 

Have a wonderful time bringing in the new year everyone!!! If you’re ever waiting for a time to make changes and set goals, now’s the time to do it!!! xx

The Magic of Confidence

Started cardiology rotation last week and I absolutely love it!! I’ve started putting cannulas in and I did my first injection – I’m really getting my confidence up and it’s fantastic!! Unfortunately we only have 2 weeks of cardiology but I’m going to make the most of it this week 🙂

 

It’s incredible – as soon as I put my cannula in I felt my confidence just sky rocket – it was like a turning point for me. I took a deep breath and did something that I was so nervous about, and it turns out I had totally over-thought it and it wasn’t that bad 😀 it’s suprising how often that happens to me… I need to learn not to think to much about something! Just do it 🙂

 

Motivational pic for this week:

Oh and happy mothers day to all those mums out there!! 🙂

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

As usual I’m having my blueberry pancakes, but over the w/e my boyfriend didn’t have all of the ingredients at this place so I changed the recipe a bit and it was delicious!! Here it is:

Sweet Nutty Protein Pancakes

1/3 cup oats – ground

1/2 cup egg whites

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Splash of sugar-free maple syrup

Splash of almond milk

Peanut butter

1. Blend ingredients (except peanut butter)

2. Cook on frying pan (making 2-3 depending on how big they are)

3. Once cooked smear a little peanut butter on top, roll/fold, and enjoy!!

I think I’m going to leave these as a treat for when I’m at my boyfriend house because I can’t actually keep peanut butter at mine – I can’t resist it!!

 

Meal 2:

Ok so i’ve been wanting to try baking with beetroot for a while… and these were a bit of a disappointment haha. Maybe it was because I put too much beetroot in? I’m not sure.. but anyway here’s the recipe that I tried – it might be better if I added sugar-free maple syrup to them… this is from proteinpow.com

Whey Protein Muffins – the Pink Version

Serves 7

250g cottage cheese

2 cooked beetroots

1/2 cup vanilla whey protein powder

1 whole egg

2 egg whites

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup instant buckwheat (I subbed this for oat flour)

1 tbsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp toffee flavdrops (I subbed this for an extra 1 tbsp vanilla essence but maybe next time I’ll put in maple syrup? I can’t find these toffee flavdrops anywhere!)

1 tsp baking powder

1. Blend all ingredients together until smooth

2. Bake until 160 degrees for about 35 minutes

3. Apparently these are nice with butter on them whilst warm, but I don’t eat butter… I tried with peanut butter but I still didn’t really like them… I don’t know haha

 

Meal 4/Lunch:

Jamie Eason’s Meatloaf Muffins – I have posted this recipe before and have tried them with kangaroo mince, but I’ve decided I prefer the turkey version 🙂 I love these in a psyllium crepe (5g psyllium husks + 55g egg whites, cooked like a pancake) with salsa + spinache + Greek yoghurt – YUM!

 

Meal 5:

Chocolate and coconut protein bars – my boyfriend tried these the other day and he loves them too, so it shows that they’re actually nice 🙂 love them with a cup of sugar-free hot chocolate!

 

Meal 6/Dinner:

Tried a new recipe and it’s pretty yummy! I altered it slightly to make it lower in carbs and it’s delicious! Different… but yum! This is my version of the recipe that I found on busybuthealthy.com

Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole

Serves 4

1 onion

2-3 stalks of celery – chopped

1 red capsicum

1 green capsicum

2 garlic cloves – minced

600g chicken breast – diced and cooked

1 tbsp chilli powder

2 tbsp butter (I left this out and just sprayed the pan with a little canola oil)

6 tbsp oat flour

1 cup low sodium chicken stock

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

450g can diced tomatoes

Sprinkle of parmesan cheese

(I also added 1/3 eggplant and 1/3 zucchini)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Cook vegies in a frying pan until crisp

3. Add garlic and chilli powder and cook for 1 minute – remove veggies from pan

4. Cook flour for 1 minute, add chicken stock and almond and stir until thickened

5. Add in the cooked chicken, tomatoes and vegies

6. Pour mixture into a 9×13 pan and top with cheese

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until bubbly and browned

 

Meal 6:

Chocolate Protein Mousse 🙂

 

New Snack!! Full of antioxidants and super yummy! These are fantastic but I’ll struggle to refrain from eating them all…

Finally Fifty

I am dividing this weeks post into two – one meal plan, and one about nutrients, malnutrition etc. I had time to cook next weeks food today so the meal plan comes first – I’ll post the second one either tomorrow or the next day 🙂

I have reached my goal weight of 50kg 🙂 YAY! I am still a little underweight but by making small goals I am slowly getting myself healthier and happier! I’m stoked 🙂 my boyfriend is very proud of me.

Since mustering up the strength to finally get professional help, my health, self-confidence, and attitudes are gradually improving 🙂 I strongly recommend asking for help – there is no shame in it and you will never regret it! I’ve learnt that struggling through something like this on my own just prolongs the problem and it expands until it envelopes every aspect of your life.

Writing this blog, sharing what I know and hearing your responses shows that we all like to feel a part of something and together we grow 🙂

 

On that note: here’s my food plan this week (all new recipes are adapted from mealsandmovesblog.com)

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

Blueberry pancakes

 

Meal 2:

Blueberry Almond Chiaseed Protein Muffins

These muffins are quite nice, but not my favourite. I thought a combination of some of my favourite foods – almonds + chia + blueberries (my personal addition) – would be wonderful, but I’m not a big fan of the flavour of almond essence. I’m tempted to sub it with vanilla essence and see how that tastes next time.

Serves 12

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I subbed this for oat flour)

2/3 cup rolled oats

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

15g chia seeds

1/4 cup chopped almonds

2 tsp Stevia

1 cup fat free Greek yoghurt

3 egg whites

1 egg (I just added another egg white)

1-2 tsp almond extract

12 whole almonds (instead of almonds I sprinkled 4-5 frozen blueberries on top of each muffin before putting them in the oven)

1. Mix dry ingredients together (besides chopped almonds)

2. Add wet ingredients and mix well

3. Add chopped almonds, mix well

4. Spray 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray

5. Divide batter equally among the muffins

6. Place a whole almond/blueberries atop each muffin

7. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Yum, new recipe that I love! It’s so creamy and delicious, easy to make, reheats well, and is super healthy! Ticks all boxes :). Below is my version of the recipe:

Serves 4

500g chicken breast – diced

1 medium onion

2&1/2 cups chopped broccoli

500g can chicken, mushroom and rice soup (the original recipe calles for 1&1/2 cups of cooked brown rice, 280g can of cream of chicken soup and 280g can of cream of mushroom soup)

1 cup fat free Greek yoghurt

Salt, pepper and multipurpose seasoning (to taste)

Tinsy bit of light mozarella cheese

1. In a frying pan cook chicken and onion

2. Steam broccoli

3. Combine chicken, onion, broccoli and remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well

4. Pour mixture into a casserole dish and sprinkle with cheese

5. Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes (until warmed through and cheese is melted)

 

Meal 4:

Protein Packed Individual Cheesecakes

YUM! These are so delicious!

Serves 10

For the crust:

42g graham crackers (I used Shredded Wheatmeal biscuits)

45g almond meal (my supermarket was out of this so I subbed in LSA – ground linseed, almonds and sunflower seeds)

1-2 Tb unsweetened almond milk

For the cheesecake:

113g fat free cream cheese – softened

85g low fat cottage cheese – blended (the cottage cheese that I buy is already blended, I love it so much more than the usual stuff!)

85g fat free Greek yoghurt

1 Tb unsweetened applesauce

1 Tb Stevia (or another sweetener)

1 Tb corn flour aka corn starch

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg at room temperature

2 egg whites or 6 Tb liquid egg whites at room temperature

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

1. Line a muffin tin with 10 patty pans and preheat the oven to 160 degrees

2. Grind biscuits and almond meal (I just pounded it with a jar)

3. Add almond milk to the mixture, a little bit at a time, until it is slightly crumbly but not too wet

4. Divide the mixture into the muffin tray and press down with a small jar/spoon or thumb

5. Bake for 10 minutes

6. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, cottage cheese and Greek youghurt and mix for at least 1 minute until combined (I was able to blend it by hand)

7. Add other ingredients one at a time, allowing each ingredient to mix in before adding the next

8. Reduce oven heat to 150 degrees and pour cheesecake mixture ontop of the baked crusts

9. Bake for 30 minutes

10. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes

11. Refridgerate cheesecakes for at least 2 hours, then serve with toppings of choice (I’m going to try it with frozen blueberries – yum!)

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

Chicken Parmigiana 🙂 as posted last week (served with steamed vegies)

 

Meal 6:

Chocolate Protein Mousse

Check back later this w/e for information about vitamins, minerals, malnutrition, and exercise 🙂 x

Missing Ash

I’ve gone a WHOLE week without my boyfriend 😦 he’s still over in Thailand, having an absolute blast, but I miss him terribly! Thank goodness we have facebook and Tango/Skype; our brief moments of communication are keeping me sane 🙂

I have noticed though that it’s a lot easier to get things organised and done when my w/es aren’t devoted to spending time with my boyfriend – I feel on top of all my work and I got so much extra stuff done today!! I got all my groceries done and all my food was cooked by 3pm (not bad considering I went to gym + ran a bunch of errands including vacuuming and dusting beforehand). BAM, out of that kitchen!! I love getting all my cooking out of the way at the start of the week, I hate busy/cluttered/messy kitchens and, unfortunately, sharing a communal kitchen makes that very difficult to avoid. So I like to spend as little time in there as possible, and at times of the day when hardly anybody else is in there 🙂 I’m not antisocial, I just want to get the job done ASAP!

Here’s my quote for this week:

I really lack confidence when it comes to my medical degree (amongst other things) and when I’m in the hospital I really need to push myself to speak up, ask questions, and not be afraid of making a fool of myself. I was proud of myself last week because for the first time ever I went up to a consultant after a lecture and asked him some questions (in fact, the lecture was on chronic renal failure and one of the questions I asked him was whether protein can increase the risk of kidney damage, and he said no – YAY!) and it wasn’t as scary as I had thought it would be! So I need to try to apply that mindset to everything I do, and as soon as I overcome my fear and step outside of my comfort zone – and survive – I can instantly feel my self esteem and self confidence go up a notch :).

 

Food for this week:

 

Meal 1/Breakfast:

My pancakes 🙂 I bought some lemons this week so I’m going to put a little squeeze of juice on top before I eat them – delicious!!

 

Meal 2/4:

Ok so these are called Peanut Butter Layered Coconut and Vanilla Whey Protein Cakes, from the amazing site http://www.proteinpow.com/. As you can see I didn’t layer them or add peanut butter (I find it impossible to keep peanut butter nearby, I eat it way too quickly…) but they were so yummy and soft just by themselves!

3/4 cup egg whites

1/4 cup whey

2 tbsp coconut flour (can sub with ground almonds + oat flour)

4 tbsp coconut flour (can sub with oat flour, which is what I did)

3/4 cup quark (or cottage cheese, which is what I used)

1/8 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup coconut milk – I used almond milk instead and it still tastes delicious!

1/4 cup oats

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1. Blend all ingredients

2. Bake in the oven at 160 degrees for about 30-35 minutes – this was if they’r mini-cake size. I cooked mine as muffins (12) and they only took about 15-20 minutes! Just keep an eye on them and take them out when the knife comes out clean

3. On the website, Anna cuts the mini-cakes up and puts peanut butter in the cakes, just to make them a little more special 🙂

 

I also cooked my Chocolate and Coconut Protein Bars (see earlier post) – I can’t get enough of these! So soft and delicious… I highly recommend them!

 

Meal 3/Lunch:

Yummmm this is such an amazing lasagne!! I just used the recipe posted earlier (zucchini lasagne) but instead of turkey, I used…. KANGAROO!!!! Yum yum yum, so delicious and so healthy, I’m looking forward to lunch tomorrow 😀 (PS it tastes a lot better than it looks hah)

 

Meal 5/Dinner:

Chicken Taco

I have posted this recipe before as well but I’m going to retype it:

Serves 4

500g chicken breast/ground chicken

1/2 medium onion – chopped

1/2 capsicum – sliced

1 Tbsp chilli powder

1 tsp garlic powder (or minced garlic)

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1/2 cup water

Iceberg lettuce

1 tomato – chopped

8 Tbsp salsa

1. Brown chicken over medium heat

2. Add onion and capsicum and cook until soft

3. Add spices, and water

4. Serve with lettuce, tomato & salsa

This recipe differs the tinsiest bit from the other version because this time I’m skipping the tortillas and instead I’m going to wrap the tacos in iceberg lettuce leaves 🙂 I love doing this because it makes it taste extra fresh and yummy, as well as being lower in carbs! Good for a meal later in the day.

 

Meal 6/Dessert:

Chocolate Protein Mousse!! Super dooper easy – I just bought chocolate mousse sachets (the Weight Watchers brand) and added a scoop of chocolate protein powder! It takes longer than an hour to set, but it is sooo delicious and feels really naughty 🙂 I added some almonds as well, just because I like the added crunch.

 

Also, I have been looking for this everywhere and finally found it – liquid egg whites!! And not the frozen kind!! I was very excited because I actually didn’t have any egg whites that were already defrosted so it meant I didn’t have to wait before starting to bake!! I also found this sugar free mocha (using Natvia!) which will be perfect for cravings in the coming Winter (there was also hot chocolate, both are delicious!).

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and steps outside of their comfort zone!! It may mean trying a strange food (like spaghetti squash, I’m DYING to try it, but I can’t find it anywhere!), adding an extra couple of kilos to the leg press, or even talking to that guy that you’ve had a crush on – DO IT and you’ll feel so much better about yourself 🙂

Meanwhile I’m hanging out for this Thursday, when my boyfriend gets back to Oz and I’m going to surprise him at the airport 😀 YAY!!! This week is going to be a good one, I can feel it!