On the go snack from Nakd

Everyone has been caught out somewhere, no food in the bag and in need of something to cure the hunger pangs. It may not even be that, you may need something healthy for a pre work out snack. This is just it!

Nakd bars are all full of goodness and no chemicals what so ever! They are very Paleo friendly and perfect for a healthy snack. Most supermarkets stock them or you can buy them direct from their website in bulk and with free delivery. It makes them slightly cheaper than the stores, but the best thing is if you sign up to their newsletter. They often send out emails telling you of new products and special discounted offers they have on. It's worth a look here http://www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk/nakd/

Watch out for some of the bars, not all are wheat free.

Ginger bread and very berry are most definitely my favourites!

Paleo Bread

The last 2 weeks haven't been that great for me. My diet has been superb and clean, but my weight just hasn't shifted. I have a competition this Saturday in Brighton and was aiming to be at 56.5kg, but I'm still sitting at 58kg. I took the advice from a friend of mine who is a personal trainer and also an MMA fighter, that I need a cheat day and to load myself up with carbs to get my metabolism working again. It seems my body has got used to the diet I'm on and nothing is shocking it in to dropping the extra 1.5kg I am carrying around with me. I have stepped up my training to twice a day, gym in the morning and BJJ in the evenings 5-6 days a week. I had a cheat day in Saturday like my friend told me to, Porridge in the morning followed by a late lunch of Wholewheat pasta cooked in Balsamic vinegar. After eating the pasta, I wanted to go to sleep, in fact I did, I had a nap on the sofa for half an hour! Carbs bring me up, then crash me back down. I will have a healthy carb filled cheat day each week to keep my body dropping the weight.

On to the main subject of today. Bread! My friend Natasha is a bread fan and has a sandwich every day for lunch. She gave me the task of finding a recipe for Paleo bread and I found it!
At first it was a little dry and a bit hard to swallow, I think it was the coconut flour, but I added one more tablespoons of olive oil and it has given the bread the moisture that it needed.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

8 Eggs
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1/3 Cup of Coconut milk
3/4 Cup of Coconut flour
3/4 Cup of Chia seeds
2 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 tablespoon of Rosemary
1 Tablespoon of dried Sage
1 1/2 Teaspoon of cider vinegar

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees celcius
Beat the eggs and add the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the Coconut flour, Seeds, baking powder, salt, Rosemary, Sage, and cider vinegar to the mixture and mix well. Your mixture should be nice and fluffy.
Line a loaf tin with baking paper and bake in the oven for 65 minutes or until golden.
The bread will not rise.
Turn out on to a plate and eat warm with a layer of almond butter, or make cheese on toast, or wait until it's completely cool and make a nice cheese and salad sarnie with it.

                        

The Chia seeds really make this bread delicious and high in protein. It's an alternative to the real thing and great for those who are wheat intolerant.

Enjoy!

Chocolate, Chocolate Chip cookies

Why not start the week with a treat?
I set out to make some Paleo bread, but realised that it takes 90 minutes to bake in the oven and I'm off out training Jiu Jitsu in a short while and I wanted to rustle up something quick.
So I made these Chocolate, chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients:

150g of Ground Almonds
2 Tablespoons of Honey
40g of Coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
30g of Green & Blacks 85% Chocolate - cut in to pieces
Grated willies Cacao

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 130 degrees.
Melt the coconut oil and honey in a pan
Add the ground almonds to a mixing bowl and add the melted oil and honey to the mixture and also the vanilla extract too. Add the grated cacao and when it is all mixed in, add the chocolate.
form small balls of the mixture and place on a baking sheet. I got 11 cookies out of my mixture and garnished them with a flaked almond.
Bakes for 20 minutes
Cool completely until diving in.

Thanks to www.thehealthychef.com for the idea. As usual I put a little Jolie spin on it, but didn't have to change too much.

Enjoy!
Jolie

Strictly Paleo

This week I have been back on the Paleo 100%. I'm being really strict with myself now until after the British open. No cheat days, no alcohol, no carbs!
Since competing in the Abu Dhabi pro trials back in February, I have been on and off Paleo. Eating few carbs, and lots of Haribo, Green & Black Chocolate, and my ultimate downfall, cakes and biscuits! I have kept my training up, but not been running as much. Thankfully today my weight was just 58kg. I have 2 weeks to drop a minimum of 1.5kg for the Southern Open, my practise run for the British.
The unfocused eating habits all changed this week when my focus was on my goals and my goals are competing to the best I can. I train a lot more than I did last year, my diet is better and I feel fitter. I have a lot to prove to myself at this years British Open. I messed up big time last year and was so annoyed at myself. Even though I am a higher belt grade this year, I'll be in a lower weight catagory and have a lot more knowledge and competition experience.

What I have found in the Jiu Jitsu comunity is how many people are now following the Paleo diet. A friend who I see often at the women's open mat, Jenny, is now on her way to dropping a weight division, feather, like me, but she is a white belt. She asked on facebook what the best way was to drop weight without training. I butted in and said 'follow the Paleo diet'.

I'm not going to lie, you don't feel great when you start off. I found that this week when I got back on the wagon. I felt a little tired and my stomach felt strange. By the 3rd day, I felt better, had more energy. Someone described the first week of Paleo as having flu like symptoms. It's not like that at all. You just feel a little low in energy as your body adjusts to the change in diet.

Today is Saturday and the sun is shining, I've trained already today, even though it was tough training I feel like I could train a whole lot more.

Speaking of training. Since I stopped my crossfit membership and gone it alone (in my regular gym). I found that there is everything I need there and I have everything in my head to push me to keep going, especially since I have been given some really great WOD ideas.
My friend and one of my training partners at Carlson Gracie Essex in Colchester, James Wheatley has a really awesome blog. James is a personal trainer and a Muay Thai coach, as well as the only Ginastica Natural (look it up on YouTube) teacher in Essex, maybe even England?
You can find out more about James's workouts on his blog here:
Zenshin Fitness Systems
Honestly, check it out, he's a really kool guy and knows what he's talking about.

I'm waiting on a delivery of cashew and almond butter on Monday, so unlike most, I can't wait for the weekend to be over so I can get it. I've got some more ideas for Veggie Paleo food up my sleeve ready to share with you. For now though, it's Saturday and having a night of Chilling with DVD's with the boyfriend and Chilli leaf Taco's for dinner. Mmmm

Have a great weekend!

Jolie x

Koh Samui No Names

This week I have been back on the Paleo 100%. There will be no cheat days for the next 2.5 weeks as I train for the Southern Open in Brighton on 4th May, as a warm up for the British Open 2 weeks later. I'll be completely honest, I was having one of those days where I didn't know what to eat, my recent recipes were not wetting my appetite. So I thought about what I would really like, or rather where would I rather be? On a beach in Thailand as they celebrate Songkran this week.
It's been 2 years since I was last in Thailand and apart from the beach and beautiful waterfalls, one of my favourite things on the Island of Koh Samui are 'No Names'. No other Island or place in the world serves them. They are fried potato with vegetable and shrimp fillings made in to a ball and eaten with your fingers. The best place on the Island to eat them was at Moon Hut Bungalows.
So, I took the idea and made them Paleo friendly.
Here is how I made them....

Ingredients:

2 Sweet Potatoes - I used small ones
3 Eggs
3 Tablespoons of Coconut Flour
5 Large uncooked Prawns / Shrimps cut in to pieces
Chilli"s - I used my mums home grown bad boys
3 Spring Onions - Diced
1 Teaspoon of baking powder
1 Clove of Garlic
Salt and Pepper - I used a fair amount of pepper

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 220 degrees.
Cover a baking tray with baking paper.
Peel the sweet potatoes and boil until soft. Once soft, mash then up, but still keep a few lumps and bumps as it adds texture to the No Name.
Melt the coconut oil, then put aside in a bowl. Add the shrimps to the pan and cook until they have turned pink. Once cool, cut in to small pieces. Fry the spring onion.
Beat the eggs and add to the sweet potato, the the coconut oil. Add the spring onion's to the mixture and mix thoroughly.
Then add the Coconut flour, salt, pepper, garlic and baking powder.
Mix thoroughly, then by using 2 spoons, take a scoop of the mixture with one spoon and use the 2nd spoon to shape the No Name. I used to work in a very fancy restaurant and this was a good way to make mash look nice and posh on the plate.
Put the No name on the baking tray. With this mixture you should get about 9 good size No Names.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Serve with a nice juicy salad.
I know it's not Paleo, but No Names need to be enjoyed by dipping in to Sweet Chilli Sauce.

 My mums home grown bad boy Chilli's

I didn't eat this many in one hit, this was simply to show how delicious they all look.

Ok, so they aren't the real thing, but hopefully you get the idea and appreciate that they are not full of bad fat and carbs. There were plenty left over and are going in my lunch box for tomorrow. 

Enjoy!

Jolie

Avocado Pudding

My parents came to stay with me from Spain a couple of weeks ago. They brought with them lots of fresh food, very Spanish size tomatoes, peppers, lemons and a whole bunch of avocados.
I like avocados, but don't love them. Their weird texture creeps me out a little bit and I can't eat too much as it gives me indigestion.
Once my parents had left, so did they leave the Avocados. They have been sitting in the fruit bowl for almost a week after they left for Spain, staring at me, getting very ripe and waiting to be eaten.
They are boring on their own, not bad in a salad (see the hot Salmon Salad from a couple of months ago) and obvious in Guacamole.
I did a little googling and came up with something quite strange. Avocado pudding....

For someone who just likes Avocados, I LOVE this pudding!!!

Ingredients:

1 whole very ripe avocado
1 heaped teaspoon of Coco powder
Table spoon of honey
Shaving of 100% Cacao

Method:

Cut the avocado in half, de-pip and scoop out the avocado in to a bowl. Keep the skin of the avocado as you will need it later.
Mash the avocado until there are no lumps or bumps. Add the coco powder and mix thoroughly. Add the honey and then cacao shavings.
Once everything is mixed, place back in the Avocado skin and top with more Cacao shavings.

Invest £6 of your money in some of Willies Cacao. You can find it in Waitrose.

It's a bizarre texture, but anyone who likes avocados and chocolate with LOVE these!
Enjoy!

Jolie x

What is Paleo?

For a few months now I have been posting my recipes and blog link to my facebook profile for friends to see and enjoy the food I make. Most people who train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are very concious of what they eat and constantly watch and keep their diet clean as much as possible.
When my friends look at my blog, I'm sure many are intrigued as to what paleo is, and how they can incorporate it to their every day lifestyle.

This is what Wiki-pedia says: The paleolithic diet, also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years which ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture and grain-based diets. In common usage, such terms as the "Paleolithic diet" also refer to the actual ancestral human diet

All Paleo boils down to is natural raw foods, lean meat, fish, dairy, fruit, veg and seeds. Food that does not come from a packet or been processed from grains.

Eating the Paleo way helps if you have IBS and find that bread or starchy foods bloat you.
The food is colourful and healthy and the fats that are in the food are good fats that our body needs.

Junk food is out of the question. To get these images I googled 'Beige Food'. 

The idea of my food blog was to use the Paleo idea, but make the recipes Veggie and Pescatarian friendly. I don't eat meat, not because of animal rights decision, just because I don't like it.

The recent horse meat scandal in the UK has proved that with processed food, you do not know what you are getting. If you choose to eat meat, get it from a good source, a local butcher or fresh meat counter.
I also want to show people that it's not difficult to cook with fresh ingredients. Most of the meals that I make can be made in around 30-60 minutes and as they are fresh, they can be frozen and heated up when you're ready.

If you're still unsure of what Paleo is, have a look at this simple chart that a Crossfit trainer I know added to Facebook one day.

Make sense? I hope so.

Enjoy eating the Paleo way, you'll feel great!

Jolie x

Protein Bars

Last week I went Snowboarding in Austria with my boyfriend for 6 days. It was my second time shredding and I knew how much energy it zaps out of you. I wanted to take some snacks for us that we could put in our pockets and eat on the way up in the chair lift.
I have been to Austria a couple of times before. The last time was spent there at turn of the Millennium there where I DJ'd at the Winter Gardens in Vienna, (the place where Adolf Hitler used to make his speeches from), and very different to Mayrhoffen which is surrounded by huge mountains and plenty of snow. I wasn't sure what kind of snacks they would have at the local supermarket. I'm glad I took my own because they were all chocolate based snacks and definitely not paleo friendly.

The night before we left I made some protein bars. They were super easy to make and tasted great.
Here is how I made them....

Ingredients:

1 Cup = 8 floz

1/2 Cup of sliced almonds
1/2 Cup of Pecans
1/4 Cup of desicated coconut
1/2 Cup of coconut oil
1/4 Cup of Ground Almonds
1/2 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon of raw honey (Manuka is best)
2 Scoops of Protein powder
Pinch of salt
1 Egg
1/4 Cup of Dried Cranberries
1/4 Cup of Sunflower seeds
1/4 Cup of Linseed
1/4 Cup of Pumpkin seeds

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees.
Line a square baking tin or even a loaf tin with baking paper. Coconut oil helps to keep it in place.
Place the sliced almonds, Pecans and coconut in a food processor and whizz until it looks like bread crumbs.
Melt the coconut oil on a low heat and add the honey. Add the vanilla extract and salt.
Remove from the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Fold the whizzed up nuts and ground almonds.
Add the protein powder, seeds, cranberries and egg to the mix and make sure the mixture is evenly covered.
Transfer to the baking tin and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut in to slices in the tin. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes.
Once completely cool, wrap the bars in cling film and they will keep for up to 5 days.

I used Chocolate orange flavour protein powder and gave a bar to my friend James. He said they tasted like they shouldn't be healthy, and they definitely got the thumbs up!

Enjoy!