Ratatoullie with Marrow Spaghetti

A few weeks ago Jason and I popped over to Italy to see my cousin Lindsay marry her now husband Luke in Lake Garda. It was a stunningly beautiful place and the wedding was a lot of fun and amazing.

We indulged in plenty of mozzerella and tomato, Spaghetti and the best Pizza ever! Plus a lot of laughter.

The summer is the time when the main competitions are over, and it's a great time to train, learn, work on mistakes and have a life again. It's been lovely spending time with Jason, not stressing about my weight and enjoying not having the pressure of a competition looming.

It's easy to slip in to an unhealthy diet, but I've kept my weight on track and really enjoy eating good fresh foods. My mum and dad have been staying for the past few weeks as they usually live in Spain. They enjoy treats, and my mum gave me a shortbread biscuit from Morrisons. It made me feel sick, even though it was the smallest biscuit, but it probably had more than my usual dose of sugar in one day, in that small biscuit alone.

So with the summer season here, there isn't much going on with Jiu Jitsu, except training and the small matter of releasing myself from the running of the Carlson Gracie Essex Chelmsford Gym.
I set the gym up on 5th March 2012 and rented space in Fitness First 3 times per week. My head coach's brother taught a few classes at the start, then James Costa took over instructing the classes and every so often, Alain would come and teach on Fridays. It was so tough at first, trying to get the word out there, advertising by flyer-ing, word of mouth etc. We had hardly any students and the money was all coming out of my own pocket to fund the classes, but I knew that it would work, I could feel it.
After being at fitness first for 3 months, we moved to a gym that was only for martial arts. It had just been opened by a guy who I trained with years before in Kickboxing and Muay Thai. It was the perfect place, and I made it our new home.
Two years later and 30 members strong, the Chelmsford gym of Carlson Gracie Essex is a huge success.
I would have loved to carry on running the gym, but it takes up so much of my time and I've never been paid an penny for the time and dedication that I put in to running it. It's all been done with love and to make sure the instructors get paid and James Costa gets a decent sponsorship from the gym profits.
Sometimes you have to let the love go and hand it over to those who want to take it to the next level. It'll be sad not having the control of running my little baby that I have seen grow from a seed to a blooming tree, but I won't miss all that running around for nothing. I'll still be training, and training for the Worlds on November 1st, so there is no change there.
Jason said that my jiu jitsu will get better as I'll have less stress and pressure now. I hope he's right, and I can finally enjoy Jiu Jitsu properly.

Now for the food....

One of my Jiu Jitsu friends Mike asked me to find him a one pot recipe that's quick and easy. Ratatoullie is one of my favourite dishes thats great to eat as a dinner and again as left overs the next day for lunch. It actually tastes better the day after as the ingredients have had a chance to infuse.

Ingredients:

For the Ratatouille
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Red Pepper
1/2 Yellow Pepper
1/2 Green Pepper
Courgette
5 Mushrooms
4 tomatoes
Fresh Basil

For the base of the dish
Marrow
40g Quinoa

Method:

Chop all the ingredients for the ratatouille in to cubes, apart from the courgette, I like to cut this in to discs, but there is no rule how to chop this. Add each ingredient in order and cook in a pan on a medium heat of the hob.
Once everything is in the pan, cook for about 15-20 minutes and add pepper to taste, and also a handful of basil.

Cook the Quinoa as directed on the packet

When the ratatouille is almost ready, use a jagged edge vegetable peeler on the marrow. This will create spaghetti like strips. If you don't have a jagged edge peeler, a regular peeler will be fine, but you will have ribbon like strips instead. They both work as well.
I bought my peeler from a market in Paris, but you can get them here, you just have to look hard for them or buy online.
Place the marrow in a pan of coconut oil and fry for a few minutes.

Serve the Quinoa on the plate, then add the marrow around it, then place the Ratatoullie on the top.

Et Voila!

Enjoy!

Jolie x

Roasted peaches

A lot has been going on over the last few weeks, so I have been a little slow in posting some recipes.
Since I last posted, I've been to Paris, and also Italy.
The Paris Open was fun and so was Paris itself. I can't believe I've been back over 4 weeks already.
It was a pretty last minute decision to go as I was planning to go to Glastonbury with Jason, but we couldn't get hold of a spare ticket. I was disappointed that I wasn't going to Glastobury, and Jason was, but pleased I had an alternative weekend I could plan.
So with less than 2 weeks to mentally and physically prepare myself with a busy working week, I managed to fit in a lot of training and strength classes, then before I knew it, I was on my way to Paris on the Euro star.

 Walking around Paris, being artistic

Last September Jason and I stopped off in Paris for the night and stayed with his friend Dustin, and did the usual sight-seeing things. So this time I spent time just taking my time, walking around and taking in the sights, and also doing a bit of shopping too.
I stayed in the South at a place called Malakoff. It was so close to the metro, but a girl at my hostel lent me her map, so I took to the streets and walked, and walked, and walked. Stopping for coffee, to browse in shops.
Cakes, Macaroons, Coissants were all so very tempting as I walked past the Patisseries and coffee shops, but I had about 200 grammes to drop for the No Gi comp on Sunday.

If I'm unsure about a country and how their food will be, I pack my own and enough for the duration of the stay. A friend of mine said that Paris isn't the most healthiest of places to eat. I think he was just speaking about the Patisseries.
I walked along the Sienne river and saw a funky al fresco restaurant that was made out of an old shipping container. The menu looked great and I ordered the Salmon and prawn salad. It was delicious, and for the city and location by the river, my 18 Euro's was money well spent.

I continued walking over the river, and looked behind me to see the Eiffel Tower. "There she is!" I thought to myself. It's funny how lumps of metal can actually look so beautiful.

I walked on to the Arch de Triumph along the Champs Elysees, then finally thought, that's enough for today. I think I had walked about 10km, that was more than enough and I didn't want to wear myself out before the first competition.

After a good night sleep, I made my way to the venue. My team mates were all competing when I got there, but I wasn't on until the afternoon. The Master 1 divisions were pretty stacked for the ladies and a great turn out.
My first fight was great, she got a sweep, then I got a sweep, but in the last few seconds she got the points for a second sweep. I'm happy with my performance, but there are a lot of things that I need to work on. I came away with a Bronze for my efforts.
I also competed in the Absolute. I won my first fight, but lost the second to my Russian friend Oxana.

Blue belt feather Master 1 division

The no Gi on the Sunday was the same ladies as the Gi, minus one. I won my first fight, but lost the second by a crazy neck crank that came from a jumping guillotine. Now that is something to work on. Respect to the lady who won, and she went on to win the absolute too. I also fought in the absolute too, but lost out to Oxana again. I think that she got me back for the two wins I had over her in the European No Gi in Rome. We laughed and said now we are equal with our scores 2-2. This is the great thing about Jiu Jitsu, we make friends, but when we fight, it's not with Malice, it's with respect for one another, and each time we fight, we are learning.

I had a lovely time in Paris, I made a visit to the Moulin Rouge and enjoyed the sights and sound of this fantastic city.

At the Moulin Rouge

So that was Paris, and now it's time to enjoy the summer, train, learn and work on my mistakes.

One thing I love about Summer is the fruits that are in season. At the moment there are peaches everywhere, so what better way to enjoy them, than to roast them.

Ingredients:

Peaches
Honey
Fresh ginger
Sliced Almonds

Method:

Halve the peaches and de-stone them. Place them in a baking dish, then drizzle honey all over them, filling the middle of the peach. Grate the ginger and sprinkle all over.
Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius. After 25 minutes, sprinkle the sliced almonds over the peaches.

I had a cheat day and served them with ice cream, but they are just as delicious on their own, or with home made granola sprinkled over them.

Enjoy!

Jolie x

Warm Spring Greens salad

Posting food on Facebook was how come I started this blog. People wanted recipes and inspiration.
I've been inspired by being sent a fruit and veg box from Able & Cole every week. If I can't find a recipe that takes my fancy in the book they give you, I usually find my inspiration somewhere else online.
It's a lovely thing when you can inspire people, and I'm always being inspired by so much around me, and I'm glad that I can share it.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my Facebook friends sent me a message. It seemed like she was at the end of her tether when it came to her son's behaviour. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and the doctors offered for him to take medication to 'help' his condition.
I'm not a doctor, nor a trained nutritionist, but I do have a lot of common sense and I knew, as my friend did, that her son's hyperactive behaviour could be down to his diet.
On the outset it seemed like he had a reasonably healthy diet, but when you look deeper, you uncover so much sugar and chemicals in food that aren't visible to the general public.

My parents did an experiment on my nephew a couple of years ago. He was diagnosed with ADHD and took medication to 'help' him. I saw him when he took it and he was dull and boring and very quiet. My nephew is a Gemini and naturally has a lot of energy. His parents don't give him the best diet, and he has admitted to "sneaking" coca cola and fizzy drinks out of the fridge when no one is looking.
My nephew went to stay with my parents for 3 weeks at their home in Spain. They didn't remind him to take his medication and to start with, he was really quiet as he was taking his medication,  but then stopped after a few days. He ate healthy good food and had a yoghurt for dessert and a treat once every two days, like an ice cream.
After 3 weeks, he had lost his podginess, showed his real, naturally energetic personality, but burned off a lot of energy from playing and swimming.
Two years on, he is back to his old ways, over weight and eating a lot of sugar, and no doubt about it being very hyperactive, or not, if he is taking his medication.

When someone comes to be for advise, more than likely they don't take it, so I was surprised when my friend did take my advice.
Swapping foods for Organic, fresh foods and drinks doesn't have to be hard, you just have to take your time and read the labels. Supermarkets don't care what you buy, as long as you buy a lot of it. The good thing now is that so many good alternatives are available.

Here are a few bad products that you can swap for good ones.

 Robinson's has the chemical Aspartame in it. It's banned in the USA, but I don't know why they don't ban it here. It's toxic and giving this colourful juice to kids is just asking for trouble. The alternative is Bottle Green or Organic Rocks. You usually find all the good squash bunched together on the shelves.

 Innocent is not innocent at all, especially the smoothies. It's full of added sugar and chemicals. Go for Coconut water or juices that have a shorter shelf life, but have no added sugars. Any sugar you have in a drink should come from the fruit. Read the ingredients!

 Cheerios 'delicious wholegrain'. Full of sugar!! If you want to eat a cereal and are OK with wheat, go for Shredded wheat. It has nothing else in it but wheat, and that's it.

 Snacks aren't too difficult. The digestive snacks were down the Confectionery isle, and the Jungle paws were down the baby food isle. You just have to learn where to find things. Jungle paws are rolled dried fruit and deliciously lovely for a snack with absolutely no added sugars or chemicals.

 Jam is full of sugar and preservatives. If you're going to eat it, make your own. If not, peanut butter or Almond or Cashew butter are a high protein alternative.

There is an advert on TV at the moment that makes me mad. It's for Nutella an boasts that it has protein in it. Yes it does, but the sugar and chemicals out weigh the protein. Another ugly product is this Milky way spread. In each 15gram serving has 8gram of sugar. The packaging is an easy squeeze tube, easy enough for kids to make their own portions themselves.

When you go shopping in the supermarket, just take a little extra time and look at the packaging, and read the labels. There are some things we have to buy out of a packet. To be on the safe side of all these added sugars and chemicals, eat and drink fresh.

This week's recipe is a lovely Asian infused Warm spring green salad.

Spring greens are pretty bland, but when you jazz them up and add some nice flavours, they are really nice. This salad is nice warm or cold.

Ingredients:

Spring Greens - sliced thinly
Carrots - Grated
Spring onions - sliced
Ginger - Grated
Chili pepper - sliced
Pepper to taste
Coconut oil

Method:

Melt coconut oil in a pan and add the spring greens and keep turning so that they change to a darker green colour and cook right through. Add the grated carrots, spring onions, chili and ginger. Season with pepper if you wish, then once everything is warm all the way through, serve immediately.

 Serve on it's own, or like I did last week, I had a piece of salmon, regular leaf salad with cucumber, tomatoes and peppers and home made coleslaw. See the quick recipe below, especially for Gary Ward who asked me about it yesterday.

Coleslaw Recipe:

Ingredients:
1/4 White cabbage
1/4 Red Cabbage
3 Carrots
1 Red onion
Pepper to taste
2 dollops of Mayonnaise

Method:

For best results chop everything in a food processor. Place it all in a large bowl. Add the pepper and Mayonnaise and use your hands to make sure all the ingredients are covered with Mayonnaise.
It's messy, but its the best way to make sure its all even.
Serve in a bowl or keep in a container in the fridge. It keeps well for up to a week, but if you're anything like us, it doesn't hang around for long.

Someone said to me yesterday that Mayonnaise isn't healthy. When you have so many veggies in a bowl with a smaller ratio of Mayonnaise, it's not that unhealthy.

Enjoy!

Jolie x

Honey & Ginger roasted Turnips

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