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

Breakfast Muffins

It's been a couple of weeks since the Rome Open and European No Gi Championships. You could say that I did better than I expected. One gold medal would have been enough, but to win 3 was quite spectacular. Rome itself was spectacular, so was the competition and so was standing on top of the podium 3 times.

Rome Open, Absolute winner

 European No Gi Light weight winner

I won my division in the Rome Open, and also the absolute. Then 2 days later I won the European No Gi championships. I went up a weight division and fought in Light weight as there was no one in my division. I was so chuffed and I know my coach was too. Unfortunately Alain couldn't be there, but I had a few Carlson Gracie team mates there to shout at the side of the mats. I came second in the No Gi absolute. It was so late in the day and I was tired when it came to the final. Anniles was a great opponent to have in the final and worthy winner.

Three gold and one silver, not a bad weekend of Jiu Jitsu at all

In enjoyed Rome and the food it had on offer, but it's not a great place to be if you want to stick to a low carb diet. I had a blow out after the competition which is traditional. I ate lots of bread, pasta and relaxed for a few days when I got home, then got back in to eating healthy.
It's funny when you eat healthy all the time, when you have cheat days, sweet foods aren't really that appealing anymore. I still love bread though and all it's varieties.

At the Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Often people ask me what they can eat for breakfast on a Paleo diet. I generally refer them to my blog and tell them about Pancakes, omelettes or smoothies, but I've heard often that people don't have the time in the morning to make them.

I found a really nice recipe for Easter muffins that are supposed to be a replacement for Hot Cross Buns. I made them, and they are perfect as breakfast muffins and a good replacement if bread is your thing in the morning.

Here is how I made them:

Ingredients:
75g Honey
75g Coconut Oil
3 Eggs
50g Coconut Flour
50g Ground Almonds
2 tsp Baking powder
Grated zest of one lemon
2 tsp Mixed Spice
1 tsp Cinnamon

Makes about 12 Muffins

Method:

Melt the coconut oil in a bowl and add the honey, then the eggs.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Place the mixture in muffin cases and fill 3/4 of the way. I used silicone cases.
Place in a pre heated oven at 170 degrees C for 20 minutes or until brown.
Once baked, cool on a rack and then enjoy.
They taste lovely when cut through the middle and smothered with Cashew or Almond butter.

Enjoy!
Jolie x

Thai Pomelo Salad Pots

It's almost 4 weeks since I came back from my epic adventure with my boyfriend Jason. It's also been a very long time since I updated this blog!! Life is so busy sometimes, especially when you are travelling around Australia meeting so many lovely new friends, catching up with old ones too.
We also went to Singapore to visit one of my lovely best friends, Michelle and her husband Charles. Then we went on to Thailand and the incredible happened, Jason proposed marriage and I said yes!

On our travels I tried loads of new foods, kept as much to the Paleo diet as possible and still kept training as much as possible.

Since I've been back, I have realised how much I do and how much I did before we left for our travels. It's a lot! I've been tired and my body is still very much getting used to being back on the go all the time. Slowly but surely I am getting back in to the swing of things and training twice a day for 5 days a week.

On Sunday 23rd March I have my first competition of 2014. It's a small and local competition and in my division there is just myself and another girl. Training has been good, my cardio is getting better and I'm ready for the first of quite a few competitions this year.

My diet has been super healthy, no alcohol has passed my lips at all this year and the crossfit training I have been doing is making me feel strong. Things are very good right now and that's how I plan to keep them.

Whilst travelling around Thailand, I tried something new and different. I had eaten a Pomelo on previous trips to Thailand, but hadn't thought of putting it in a salad.
Pomelo, if you haven't tried it before, is large, has a really thick skin. Some would say it's like Grapefruit, but it's no where near as bitter. The pulp is huge, so once it bursts in your mouth there is a lot of juice from it.

Here is how I made the Thai Pomelo Salad Pots

More idea's are coming soon. You have to bare with me as I catch up of every day life, business, training and all sorts.

Jolie x