Red cabbage cooked with red onion and plum - yum!

I’ve started adding fruit to cooked vegetable dishes and I have to say they taste rather lovely! During the summer I was adding lots of fruit into my salads, be they goji berries, strawberries or pears.  As the nights draw in, I’m carrying that over into my cooked vegetable dishes. So next time you’re stir-frying some vegetables or making a vegetable based casserole try adding in a little chopped apple, pear, whole lemon or plum. They add a real zest to the dish and of course with the added colour, that equals more phytonutrients with all their wonderful restorative functions in the body.

The photo is of a red cabbage dish with added plum, but try it with whatever fruits you have to hand. Enjoy!

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic. For more information contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

Fast and healthy supper

This literally takes 10 minutes from start to finish, in fact, it’s taken longer to photograph, write up and post. It’s  delicious, a slow release of energy and packed full of fibre & nutrients. It can be recreated with any mixture of vegetables and beans:

Heat olive oil in a pan, add some cumin seeds, saute half a diced onion, add a sliced leek, and a chunk of diced or grated fresh ginger. Cook until soft and then add a handful of chopped spinach leaves and some cooked (or tinned) sweetcorn & black beans from a carton (any other beans or lentils will do). Add a little water and heat through. To season, pour a little of the water from the pan into a dish, mix in with a teaspoon of miso paste and put back in the pan to stir through. Serve.

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic. For more information contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

How to Choose Olive Oil – Dr. Weil’s Daily Tip

Click here to shop (click on Angela’s Choice to access the login area)

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic offering bespoke nutrition programmes. For more information contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

Wash the curly kale, chop off the thick stalks and chop or rip up. Drizzle with olive oil and rub it in to make sure it covers all the leaves. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt (Himalayan is the best), some diced garlic and dried chilli. Pop in a pre-heated oven and cook for a few minutes; you want the kale to be crisp but not burnt. Serve as a side dish.

If you want to learn about how to improve your diet contact nutrition expert Angela Walker through the book appointment tab above.

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. Whether you have a diagnosed condition, want to improve digestion problems, lose weight, slow the effects of aging or kick-start a new health regime, Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition can help. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

Mackerel & Avocado pate: It really doesn’t get any quicker or easier: (enough for one, but make more and keep in the fridge)

• fillet of smoked or grilled mackerel

• half an avocado

• dash of good olive oil

•tablespoon of fresh grated horseradish root (you can use horseradish sauce, or if none available, just double the miso paste below)

• juice of half a lemon

• teaspoon of white miso paste

• Fork all the ingredients together until they are well blended. Serve with watercress salad or on wholegrain bread

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

For more information please contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition on 07775 582 332 or ange@fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

• Soak tablespoon of seaweed (Hijike or Arame) in water for 10 minutes.

• Slice salmon (wild, sustainable please!) fillet into strips and sauté gently in juice of one lemon for a couple of minutes

• Chop vegetables into small sticks: 1 small carrot, ½ courgette, 3 small broccoli florets & stalk, ½ onion, 1 leek, 1 chunk of ginger (3 cm).

• Heat olive or sesame oil or coconut oil in a large pan and sauté the onions; add in the rest of the vegetables and 2 tablespoons of water.

• Cover and allow to cook for a couple of minutes.

• Drain the seaweed and add to the pan along with the salmon. Allow to cook gently; the salmon should be under done rather than over.

• Add in bunch of chopped coriander.

• Add more water if it looks too dry.

• Just before it is finished, spoon out a little of the juice and blend it with 1 tablespoon of white miso paste, put blended mix back into the pan and stir, take it off the heat.

• If you are trying to lose weight or improve body composition, then you want to reduce starchy carbohydrates, in which case serve this on its own or with some extra leafy green vegetables. Otherwise you can serve this with buckwheat noodles or brown rice.

This is a good example of a well-balanced meal, containing a good protein, good fats, fibre and a wide range of micronutrients and phytonutrients. Seaweeds contain high levels of minerals that can be lacking in land vegetables due to demineralisation of soils. They are also thought to bind and draw out toxins.

Fabulous Nutrition is a London based Nutritional Therapy Clinic, addressing functional imbalance in the body with bespoke nutrition programmes. www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

For more information please contact Angela Walker at Fabulous Nutrition on 07775 582 332 or ange@fabulousnutrition.co.uk.

• The nibbles: Replace salt and fat laden crisps with raw vegetable batons and home made humus of beetroot dip (see below) and bowls of raw nuts
• Main course: Turkey is good protein source containing all the essential amino acids, in fact it’s a great source of tryptophan which we need to make the mood moderating neurotransmitter serotonin. Traditional roasting however involves fat and oils heated to a high temperature, which can produce damaged fats and of course high levels of saturated fat. If turkey is already on the menu, then chose the light meat, as it’s lower in saturated fats and avoid the skin. If you are in charge of the cooking, then choose a turkey crown, which will require less roasting and contains a higher proportion of the white meat. It goes without saying, but make sure it’s organic! Or you can break with tradition and have a baked whole fish or lovely nut roast.
• All the trimmings: You can really improve the healthiness of a traditional Christmas meal by adding some extra vegetable dishes to the table and cutting out or down on the roast potatoes. Leafy dark greens like kale are in season and delicious steamed. Beetroots are packed full of antioxidant carotenoids and flavonoids, folic acid, betaine and manganese. Don’t forget to use the beet tops as well, they work well steamed. So if you are asked to bring something to a Christmas dinner, make sure it’s a couple of vegetable dishes.
• Something saucy: Traditional Christmas dinner sauces are laden with unhealthy fats and sugars, but if you cut these out and replace with sauces based on good oils, you’ll make a huge difference. There is a lovely recipe for raw cranberry relish on Elana’s Pantry. Or try these ideas:
  • Pommegranate dressing: seeds from half a large pomegranate, pinch of sea salt, half to one clove of garlic (depending on your taste), olive oil (approx 6 tablespoons). Mix together in the blender, goes a lovely pink colour and tastes delicious.
  • Beetroot sauce: peel then dice or grate medium raw beetroot, add a clove of garlic, cup of raw sunflower seeds (even better if you soak overnight), juice of half a lemon, pinch of sea salt, ½ teaspoon of Manuka honey to taste then blend together. This can be used as a dip aswell
• Drink is always going to be a stumbling block for a healthy Christmas, but one thing you can do is make plenty of delicious non alcoholic drinks available. Make up a big jug of fresh juice (include some vegetables such as cucumber, carrot, celery and beetroot as well as fruit). Add a slice of lemon or lime or a little fresh fruit juice to sparkling water. Try this almond nog recipe adapted from the Sunday Times: 500ml almond milk, vanilla pod, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg. Warm the milk with the vanilla pod, but don’t let it boil. Remove the pod, then blend milk with other ingredients and serve. If you are serving it from a jug, then you can pop the vanilla pod back in to retain some more flavour. Do make sure you keep hydrated, with plenty of water and herbal teas.
• Remember: not to over eat, just try a slightly smaller bit of everything, chew it thoroughly and enjoy whatever you are eating!

At the end of the day, it’s all about balance, so just remember these two things:

1. Have a little bit of what you fancy just don’t over eat.
2. Make sure there’s more of the good stuff than the not-so-good-stuff

If you are out socialising a lot and unable to eat the foods you want to eat, then at least make sure you have something really nutritious everyday to help counterbalance, like a green juice, green smoothie and seaweeds as these can really help to draw toxins out of the body. Failing that, there’s always the 21 day Nutritional Detox Programme in the New Year…..details here! Angela has a practice in Notting Hill where she offers nutrition consultations. She looks at functional imbalance in the body and works with clients to develop bespoke nutrition programmes. Please contact her on 07775 582 332 ange@fabulousnutrition.co.uk or www.fabulousnutrition.co.uk to find out more.

2 cups almond flour (i.e. ground almonds, found in health food shops)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon Malden sea salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup of pitted dates
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¼ cup coconut oil
1 ½ cups carrots, grated
¾ cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. In a bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
2. In a food processor, combine dates, bananas, eggs, vinegar and oil
3. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and blend until thoroughly combined. Fold in carrots and walnuts
4. Spoon mixture into paper lined muffin tins
5. Bake at 170° for 25 minutes

Thanks to  Elana’s Pantry for this recipe

The first one is from the World Cancer Research Fund, and has some really tasty sounding, well balanced ideas;

This second is Fat Free Vegan; again, lots of tasty and healthy ideas and seems to be updated quite regularly

Enjoy!