No crust Asparagus & Goats Cheese Quiche

It's been almost 2 weeks since the British Open. As it's the year of the Horse, it really is running away with us.
As a team, Carlson Gracie did amazingly well. I had a stacked blue belt feather weight division, 8 in total an probably the biggest ladies blue belt division of the tournament. My team mates Edyta Opalk from Camberley and Kat Gibson from London were also in the division. I had trained with Kat on the week leading up to the competition and she said that we should go for the Carlson Gracie 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
After a tough first fight with madeline from GB Cornwall, I won by 9 points, then went in to the semi final with Edyta, who had already won her first fight 15-0. Kat had won hers and went on to beat Claire Crowther from Checkmat. Edyta caught me in a really nice choke with the grips coming from nowhere! She went on to fight Kat, and Kat won. We made the Carlson gracie 1st, 2nd and 3rd place like we planned.

Kat went on to fight yesterday in Los Angeles for the IBJJF Worlds. She got a very respectable Bronze medal. Well done Kat!!


As life has been so busy, and doesn't look like it's slowing down. It's always good to have a meal ready to eat.
I love quiche, but it doesn't sit very well if you are eating the Paleo way. The pastry is full of fat and flour isn't great if you have IBS or any other digestion problems.
So I made a no crust quiche!

Here is how I made it.....

Ingredients

5 Eggs
1/4 Pint of milk
Grated cheese
Small Round pack of Goats Cheese
6 Asparagus spears
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Turn the oven on to 180 Degrees C
Break the Asparagus in half and cook in a pan with coconut oil until they are slightly undercooked.
Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the milk and then the grated cheese.
Use a sandwich tin too cook the quiche in. If you have a silicone one, great, if not, grease the pan with coconut oil.
Place the thick ends of the Asparagus in the tin so they are even. Then add the egg and cheese mixture. Place the rest of the Asparagus around the tin and add some sliced goats cheese around the tin too.
Season and then place in the oven for about 25-30 minutes.

 Leave to cool and enjoy warm or cold. 

Or with a salad

Enjoy!
Jolie x

Pistachio Pesto, Tomato & Mozzerella

Last weekend I visited Copenhagen for the 1st IBJJF Copenhagen Open. Unfortunately I didn't have the success I did in Rome. I can make the excuse that I went down an age division, and up a weight division, but it all boils down to others being better on the day.
Each competition I take part in, I learn so much from, win or lose, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is life long learning for your mind, body and soul, for as long as you keep training.

Copenhagen itself is such a lovely place. I stayed in Nyhavn which is pretty much central to everything. Danish people are lovely, they all speak English very well, and everyone is so fit and healthy as they ride around on bicycles in the purpose built bike lanes. There are bikes everywhere!

There are also lots of Pizza restaurants and cafes. I'm a little unsure why, maybe there has been a big Italian influence in the City at some point, but I found it a little hard to eat healthy food here.
I guess when you cycle everywhere, and are a nation of super fit people, you don't need to stress too much about what you eat.

The little Mermaid

There was a cute little bakery opposite the venue for the Open that I visited when the competition was over. I had a feast to say the least! It's something I enjoy when a competition is over, to be able to relax my strict eating for a couple of days. The huge chocolate chip cookie, the chocolate scone and the chocolate marzipan ball I ate were all so delicious, and didn't leave that sugary film across my teeth as most high sugar sweets do. They tasted perfect!

A place which I loved, was a juice bar called 'Joe and the Juice'. On leaving Copenhagen I had the apple, spinach and ginger juice. It was the perfect start to the day!

After visiting Rome for a weekend back in April to compete in the IBJJF Rome Open and the European No Gi championships and seeing the Italian influence in Copenhagen, I felt inspired to create something a little bit Italian.
As you can imagine, Italy is full of Pizza and Pasta and a little difficult to stick to a low carb diet, and was the same case in Copenhagen. I'm sure if you looked hard enough, there would be plenty of healthy places to eat.

This is a quick and easy addition to any main course, or if you want to have it as a lunch dish, that will be lovely too.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients for the Pesto

120ml Olive Oil
50g Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Garlic clove
40g of Fresh Basil leaves
40g of Spinach
25g of Pistachio nuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the ingredients in order to a decent food processor or Vitamix
Whizz everything up until it's in a paste.
Easy!

Ingredients for the rest

Beef tomato
Mozzerella
Basil leaves
Pesto paste you just made

Method:

Slice the tomato through the middle and discard the top and the bottom. You should make about 3 slices. Slice the Mozzerella so you have enough to cover each layer of the tomato.
Place one slice of tomato on a plate, cover the layer with Pesto, then add the mozzarella and a couple of basil leaves. Repeat until you have slice of tomato left, and this will be the top.

Enjoy!

There was plenty of Pesto left over from making this dish and it keeps well for about 5-6 days in the fridge. You can freeze it and use it later, and maybe add it to a Paleo Pizza, top some Salmon with it or use it as a dipping sauce for snacking with sliced carrots and peppers.

Jolie x

Granola

On the 27th April, our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu team, Carlson Gracie Essex had an awesome seminar at the Chelmsford gym. Including the instructors, and our head coach and black belt Alain Pozo, we had around 60 people on the mats training. It was a celebration of 2 years of the Chelmsford gym being open that myself and James Costa started back in 2012. We went from having classes in a rented space at Fitness First, to a huge purpose built Martial Arts gym called Chelmsford City Martial Arts.
We run 4 classes a week there and each week we have new people coming and trying the classes, and now have over 30 members training.

Carlson Gracie Essex

The seminar was taught by Alain and Chelmsfords Friday night class instructor, brown belt Sam Gibson. Alain taught some passing of the guard, and Sam taught an Omoplata sweep.
All the team then lined up in grade order and Alain presented a lot of students with stripes on their belts, and me included was given my 3rd stripe. Then came the belts and a few students from Colchester and Chelmsford were promoted to their blue belts. Alistair Tweed who trains in Chelmsford was promoted to a very deserving Purple belt.
The great thing about Carlson Gracie team, when someone is presented with their belts, they really do deserve it and have worked so hard to achieve their belts.

Receiving my 3rd stripe on my blue belt

 A new Gi courtesy of my sponsors, scramble

The atmosphere was brilliant on the day, and we ended the seminar with plenty of hard sparring. Then on to a meal at Frankie & Benny's.
With a competition coming up this weekend, I had to make sure that my diet was good, so I opted for a Crab salad.

Keeping a good diet hasn't been too much of a problem. Don't get me wrong, I do crave unhealthy foods, but I think about how they make me feel after I eat them, and instantly it puts me off.

I saw a low carb Granola for sale at the strength gym that I go to, but they were out of stock when I wanted to buy some. After searching on the internet for a good recipe to make my own Granola.
After a few attempts and one burnt batch, I found the perfect recipe of my own.

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

120g Mixed Nuts (Brazils, walnuts, almonds, cashews.... you get the picture)
40g seeds
20g Flaked Almonds
40g Cranberries
20g Raisins
40g Coconut strips
Tbspn Coconut oil
Tbspn of honey

Method:

Whizz the nuts, seeds and coconut strips in a food processor for about 10 seconds. Put in a bowl and add the raisins, cranberries and flaked almonds.
Melt the coconut oil and add the honey together and pour over the nuts and seeds etc.
Mix well, then place on a baking tray with baking paper and place in the oven for 10-12 minutes at 180 C.
Cool completely. You may want to put it in the fridge. Once hardened, break in to pieces and keep in the fridge until you want to use it to sprinkle over smoothies, or eat handfuls at a time for a snack.
Be warned! This is so yummy, you will be addicted!!!

 Before the Granola is baked in the oven

When its ready to eat

Enjoy!
Jolie