Healthy pancakes

I’m pretty excited about this recipe. If you read my breakfast blog you’ll know I have a life long love affair with lemon and sugar crepes. This love was so strong that when asked the “what would you request as your last meal on earth?” question, my reply was always “Crepes with lemon and sugar”.. I never thought that this would change.

But now, I can honestly say it has!

I’ve been making these healthy pancakes for a few months now and every time I am shocked at how brilliantly delicious they are! I even convinced one of my clients who doesn’t like banana to try them and he also thought they were delicious (surprisingly you can’t taste the banana).

And the most shocking thing is that a few weeks ago I had lemon and sugar crepes and while I enjoyed them at the time, afterwards I thought to myself “I really don’t need to eat them ever again”. I felt quite unwell in the hours after eating them due to the ridiculous amounts of processed castor sugar and all I could think is that I wished I had eaten my healthy pancakes instead.

Sometimes I get an image in my head of the former me gaping at myself in wide eyed horror, mouth open, clearly wondering who this new Laura is! That’s the image that flashes through my head when I think about this pancake scenario!

So without further ado here is the most amazing gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, totally guilt free

Healthy Pancake Recipe

Ingredients:
– 1 Banana
– 2 eggs
– 2 tablespoons blanched almond meal
– A little bit of coconut oil for cooking

Method:
1. Blend or whisk banana, eggs and almond meal together.
2. Heat a small amount of coconut oil in a frying pan.
3. Cook batter like a normal pancake flipping when the edges start to brown and bubbles appear on top (smaller pancakes are easier to flip).

Serve with coconut yoghurt and berries. (Serves 2)

Yes it’s that easy! Enjoy these for breakfast, dessert, morning tea, dinner, lunch ANY TIME!

Buckwheat Biscotti

I am pretty proud of this unbelievably good gluten free, refined sugar free buckwheat biscotti recipe.

Last week I decided I was going to make buckwheat biscotti and bought the ingredients before I'd looked up any recipes online. When I got home and searched for recipes I couldn't really find any! So I had to invent my own!

YOU WILL NEED:

• 1.5 cups buckwheat flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 4 lightly beaten eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup shelled unsalted pistachio nuts

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160C
2. Sift flours and baking powder into a bowl, add sugar and mix together
3. Add eggs, vanilla, cranberries and pistachios. Mix until a dough is formed.
4. Lightly flour your workbench with buckwheat flour and knead the dough until smooth
5. Dived into 2 logs and place on tray lined with baking paper
6. Bake for 30 minutes then remove from oven and allow to cool
7. Use a serrated knife to slice the biscotti log into biscuits - approx. 8mm thickness
8. Place slices back on baking tray and bake for 15minutes or until golden and cooked through
9. Allow to cool and store your delicious buckwheat biscotti in an airtight container

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10 reasons to eat Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are likely to help balance blood sugar, improve heart health, reduce inflammation, aid weight loss and improve digestive function. All fantastic reasons to include them in your diet!

I am a little bit obsessed with chia seeds at the moment. I add them to my oat bran of a morning, make puddings, put them in my banana muffins, choc mint brain power bites, smoothies, yoghurt, salads and pretty much anything else I can think of!

Here are 10 reasons why you should add
some chia seeds to your diet:

1. They are high in fibre which improves digestive function and bulks up the stool to make bowels more regular
2. Chia seeds contain all 8 of the essential amino acids making them a complete protein. Protein helps with muscle repair, blood sugar balancing and appetite regulation.
3. They are high in antioxidants so they help to destroy disease causing free radicals.
4. Chia contains good amounts of lots of essential nutrients including calcium, iron, vitamin c and potassium.
5. They are mucilaginous which means they secrete a gel like substance that is nice and soothing and healing to the gut – put some chia seeds in a small amount of water and watch it turn to jelly. Now imagine this in your digestive system. So good!!
6. Can be used to substitute egg. Yep! If you’re allergic to egg you can mix chia seeds with water so it goes all jelly-ish and use that in place of egg in your recipes! To make Chia gel mix 1 part Chia seed with 10 parts water, stir, then let it sit for around 10 minutes
7. Chia is full of omega 3 ALA fatty acids which are anti-inflammatory and good for cardiovascular health as well as arthritis sufferers. If you’re a vegetarian you can use chia seeds as one of your non-meat or fish sources of omega 3.
8. Chia slows the digestion of carbohydrates to glucose which provides a slow release of energy to keep you going and going and going.
9. Chia seeds have been shown to increase HDL cholesterol and lower Triglycerides as well as lower blood pressure all good news for heart health.
10. Chia seeds are gluten free so can be enjoyed by coeliacs and those with gluten sensitivities.

If you are a naughty person who doesn't drink water, you will need to start if you are going to include chia seeds in your diet. A lack of water may result in constipation due to the high fibre content.

While chia seeds are an amazing superfood to include in your diet to boost overall health and nutrition, if you do have any medical conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, you still need to seek professional medical advice for your condition.

Giveaway - Closed, sorry!

The lovely people at The Chia Cohave given me one prize pack to give away to a lucky Burton Health friend :)

The pack includes:

• 1 x 150g black Chia
• 1 x 150g white Chia
• Sunscreen
• Jute bag with recipe card

Just head over to the Burton Health Naturopathy Facebook page to enter. You will need to 'Like' our page and comment on the competition picture to tell us how you will use your chia seeds if you win. Winner will be drawn on Monday 26th August. Good Luck xx

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Chia Pudding

If you don't have time to make breakfast in the morning chia puddings are great because you can make it the night before and have it ready to eat in the morning. And if you make it in a jar it's easy to take with you if you run out of time to eat it at home!

• 3 tbs chia seeds (I used 2 white & 1 black)
• 1/2 grated apple
• A few crushed cashews
• 3 strawberries (mine were frozen)
• A few raisins
• Desiccated coconut
• 1 cup milk (almond, coconut etc)

Mix all ingredients together and leave over night in fridge. The chia seeds will absorb the milk and become soft and gooey.

In the morning your pudding will be ready to eat!

Enjoy at breakfast or any time of day :)

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Veggie Soup

Winter is the perfect time to make big batches of soup. If you’re a little over salads and craving something warm and satisfying at lunch you can make a batch of this veggie soup and take a portion to work each day.

This soup has quite a few ingredients as I tried to make it as nutrient dense and souper immune boosting as possible! You can pretty much add or subtract whatever veggies you like/don’t like. 

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced

• 5 cloves garlic, crushed

• ½ teaspoon fresh turmeric, grated

• ½ teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

• 1 small chilli, finely chopped

• 5 shitake mushrooms, sliced

• 2 celery stalks and leaves, chopped

• 1 zucchini, chopped

• 1.5 large red capsicums, chopped

• 2 large carrots, diced

• 800g chopped tomatoes (fresh or jar)

• 400g lima beans, soaked overnight (or tinned)

• 400g brown lentils, soaked in warm water overnight (or tinned)

• 3 handfuls green beans, chopped

• 500ml vegetable stock (homemade or additive free)

• 500ml miso soup (from miso paste)

• 150 g baby spinach

• black pepper

• Parsley

Method:

1.       Sauté the onion and garlic in a large saucepan until soft add turmeric then carrot to soften followed by celery, zucchini, chilli and capsicum and cook for 2 minutes.

2.       Transfer to preheated saucepan

3.       Add the tomato, ginger, beans, lentils, shitake, stock and miso. Simmer over a gentle heat for 20 minutes.

4.       Add green beans, parsley, celery leaves and spinach right at the end. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Healthy Banana Muffins

These healthy banana muffins are great as a snack or for breakfast on the run.

They are gluten free, wheat free, dairy free.
The nut meal gives them a good amount of protein to help balance your blood sugar and keep you satisfied between meals and the flaxseeds help put a little extra omega 3 in your diet.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups nut meal (I used half almond and half hazelnut)

• 2 ripe bananas

• 2 tbsp. honey

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

• 2 tbsp. flaxseed

• 3 eggs

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 2 tablespoon macadamia oil

Method: Combine all ingredients (I blend everything but the nuts in my food processor then combined with the nut meal). Makes quite a wet batter. Divide into muffin tins and bake at 170 for 25-30minutes.

 Enjoy!

Notes: For a nut free version, use sesame, pepita or other seed meal instead of nut meal.