A couple of weeks ago a blog reader Andrea emailed me asking if I could do a post on some of the more un usual ingredients I feature on the blog. I often forget that back when I started reading blogs I had no idea what chia seeds or nutritional yeast were or where to get them so I thought this would be a great idea for a post.

I’m going to start with a list of a few items which Andrea asked about, with why and how I use them and where to find them:

Item: Non Dairy Milks – soy, rice, oat, coconut (kara brand) and almond – some of these also come in various flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut and almond and also sweetened / unsweetened.

Why and how – I use non dairy milks as I like the taste better than normal milk and feel that they add more variety to my diet. I also try to avoid consuming too much dairy as I have concerns over the levels of antibiotics in cows milk and the treatment of the cows as part of the dairy industry. I like to rotate the kinds of non dairy milk I drink for variety but also so I don’t end up consuming too many soy products.

Where to find it – soy milk is pretty widely available at supermarkets. I find that my local Tesco also stock vanilla rice milk and kara coconut milk. For almond milk (which is expensive – try making your own – its easy!) and hazelnut and almond rice milk (my fave) try Waitrose or Holland and Barrat.

Item: Natural unrefined sweeteners – including agave syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt, sweet freedom, maple syrup, honey, xylitol

Why and how – I use natural sweeteners in place of sugar for most things as I find that regular refined sugar raises my blood sugar levels too much leading to sugar highs and lows which can cause me to eat more and have energy slumps. I sweeten my coffee with agave syrup, add brown rice syrup to porridge etc. Brown rice syrup has a mellower taste than agave syrup which is very sweet. Xylitol is a low GI sugar alternative that I have used instead of caster sugar in baking. A lot of healthier baking recipes often use agave or brown rice syrup instead of sugar too. Basically where you would add sugar there is usually an unrefined natural alternative!

Where to find it – My local Sainsbury stocks agave syrup and Xylitol next to their sugars (not with the honey as I had thought!) They also stock maple syrup with the ice cream sauces. Brown rice syrup is a little harder for find. You can purchase it from Goodness Direct. I bought mine as part of a big iHerb order (more on iHerb later) Holland and Barrat also stock Sweet Freedom which is delicious!

Item – Tofu – plain firm tofu, silken tofu, flavoured tofu, braised tofu.

Why and how – I use tofu because I love it! Even before I became a vegetarian I ate tofu because it is a truly versatile ingredient. I could probably write a full post on tofu! I like tofu in stir fries, baked in a marinade in the oven scrambled, in salads or blended into a dessert or smoothie. Tofu is an excellent source of protein for veggies and even if your not veggie – some recipes that use tofu are delicious and cheaper, and arguably more environmentally friendly than meat.

Where to find it – I get Cauldron Foods plain firm tofu from my local Sainsbury’s refrigerated section, it seems pretty widely available. I also get the small packs of mori nu silken tofu at my local supermarket too. The Taifun organic and non GMO basil, smoked tofu and tofu sausages that are my absolute favourites only seem to be stocked at Waitrose and can also be found at Goodness Direct (along with a wider range of flavours). Holland and Barrat stock small tins of marigold braised tofu which I’m yet to try, but again I have heard good reviews. I have seen blocks of firm tofu in oriental supermarkets but I’m dubious about buying them as they don’t say that they do not contain genetically modified soy which I try to avoid.

Item – Maca powder

Why and how – I use maca powder in smoothies or sprinkle the powder on to sliced apples with cinnamon to add extra nutrition due to its benefits which include supporting the adrenal gland and helping the body to cope with stress, balancing hormones and providing energy – find out more here. It has a pleasant malty taste.

Where to find it – It is available online from UK sources including Detox your world and Viva Pure. It could be that your local independent health food shop sells it, I haven’t seen it in Holland and Barrat however.

Item – Chia Seeds

Why and how – I use chia seeds in porridge, smoothies, pancakes and to make a tasty chia seed pudding. Chia seeds are a great source of essential fatty acids, they absorb liquid so can help to make you feel fuller and add volume to foods. They also contain an impressive amount of protein, calcium and iron – find out more here. I like the texture and bulk they add to porridge as they absorb water and become an almost jelly like substance, hence why they make a nice pudding if soaked in a flavoured non dairy milk.

Where to find it – I bought mine from iHerb but it is also available from UK sources such as Viva Pure and Red 23 like the maca powder this could also be available at your local independent health food shop.

Item – Matcha Green Tea Powder

Why and how – I’m a huge fan of green tea in any of its guises but matcha green tea powder has to be the best. Its the ground up green tea leaves so your getting 100% of the actual tea leaf. It is full of antioxidants and some research has been done to show that it can support metabolism and weight loss. I love adding it to smoothies, juices or making a matcha latte with soy milk and agave.

Where to find it – I have bought my matcha from Teapigs. You can also purchase it from Vita Life

Item - Nutritional Yeast

Why and how – Nutritional yeast is a non active yeast product that has a cheesy taste and is high in protein and B vitamins. It is therefore used by veggies and vegans to add a cheesy taste to many recipes.

Where to find it – I bought my nutritional yeast as a powder from iHerb but in the future I would be looking to purchase the Engevita nutritional yeast in flake form from Goodness Direct.

So there’s a quick run down of a few of the more unusual ingredients I talk about here on the blog. Are there any other ingredients that you’ve seen me use or mention on the blog that you’d like to find out more about? Leave me a comment and I will make sure I cover them in Part 2!

I also thought it would be useful to give you a few links to some of the websites that I have came across that stock some of these kinds of ingredients:

• iHerb – a US based site which is excellent for sourcing a lot of the goodies you see on US blogs including Bob’s Red Mills products, Spirutein Protein Powder, Luna Bars, Clif Bars etc. The main downside with iHerb is the scary delivery charges and the tax that you have to pay once you receive the goods, I usually look at what I can get here in the UK, convert the cost from dollars to pounds and compare the whole price of the goods plus delivery to workout what provides best value. If you use code AGA105 you’ll receive a discount off your first order.
• Goodness Direct – Excellent UK based site with a wealth of healthy living foods and ingredients. They also stock some refrigerated items so they’re great for sourcing some of the vegan cheese alternatives and tofu etc.
• Viva Pure – I haven’t ordered from this site yet (but I have a wish list ready!) They seem to have a great range of mainly raw products.
• Detox Your World – Another site that I haven’t yet ordered from but seem to have a good stock of raw superfoods.
• Red 23 Organic Food – A fantastic range of specialist products including my beloved Sun Warrior protein powder!

Do you have any favourite online sources for more unusual ingredients and products that you’d also like to share?

Hi Everyone! I've got loads of yummy recipes in todays post but first things first, breakie! I made a 'bit of everything in the cupboard' muesli. It contained jumbo oats, brown rice puffs, quinoa flakes, grape nuts, ground flax, flaked almonds, desicated coconut, mixed nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and some green grapes with skimmed milk. It was very filling and tasted great, I think it was the coconut that really made it.

After some lovely Sunday morning pottering I went to the shops for a few bits to set me up for my day of cooking. I then came home and did 30 mins of Tae Bo and my strength routine as detailed in my April training plan. I managed to hold my plank for a full minute (I hope your reading Laura!) I was pouring of sweat afterwards, but felt great!

For lunch I made 2 scrambled eggs on toasted mulitgrain rye bread. It was the first time I'd had rye bread, it was only a slim slice but it was very filling!

I also made myself a smoothie which was inspired by a recipe in the Innocent recipe book and a recipe from Pimp my Protein Shake.

Jasmine Vanilla Blackberry Melon Protein Smoothie

1 cup of chilled jasmine green tea
1 small punnet of blackberries
1 scoop of vanilla whey
A few pieces of melon
2 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients together and drink! This tasted lovely, although if I was making this again I would try and just use jasmine tea and not jasmine green tea as it had a slightly bitter after taste.

After lunch I started on my cooking. I made a quinoa salad for lunches next week and a roast vegetable bake for dinners. I also made up some chia seed pudding for desert tonight.

Quinoa Salad

1 cup of Quinoa
2 cups of hot veg stock
1 red pepper
half a red onion
6 spring onions
half a cucumber
1 grated carrot

Tablespoon of Olive oil
juice of 1 lemon

Cook the quinoa in the hot veg stock until all the stock is absorbed (about 15 mins on a medium heat). Chop all of the veg into small pieces. Allow the quinoa to cool a litte then mix together with the veggies. Mix together the oil and lemon juice and dress the salad. Serve with additional salad leaves if desired.

I'm not eating this until lunch tomorrow but I had a quick taste. I've never tried quinoa before and this was really good. The veggie stock had flavoured the quinoa really well. Can't wait to have a big lunchbox full tomorrow!

Roast Vegetable Mozzerella Bake

2 small aubergines
1 courgette
1 red onion
1 red pepper
10 cherry tomatoes

For the sauce
1 carton of passata (seived tomatoes)
1 white onion
2 gloves of garlic
A good glug of balsamic vingar

1 ball of mozzerella cheese
Olive oil
Nutritional yeast (optional)

Chop the aubergine into half inch thick slices and spread out on a baking sheet, sprinkle over some salt and leave for 20 mins. Chop the courgette, red onion, pepper and add along with the cherry tomatoes to a roasting tin and spray with oil. Brush the aubergine with olive oil and bake all the veggies for 20 mins or until golden and slightly charred at about 200. To make the tomato sauce chopped the onions and mince the garlic and sweat in some olive oil over a medium heat until transparent. Add the passata and simmer for 5 mins then add the balsamic. When the veggies are done layer up all the ingredients in a baking dish -

Veggies first...

then tomato sauce...

then mozzerella and nutritional yeast

Repeat for again, finishing with mozzerella on the top. Bake at 200 for 20 mins or so until bubbling.

I can't wait to have this for my dinner tomorrow with a big salad. This makes two very large portions (well it is mainly just veggies!) or three medium portions. I've boxed these up to keep for during the week as I have other stuff that needs eating up tonight.

Later in the afternoon I did 30 mins of Geri's Yoga DVD (she wasn't as annoying as I thought she would be)and then had a mid afternoon snack of cottage cheese, pineapple nakd raisins and a chopped apple. The pineapple raisins were amazing! They tasted just like pineapple cubes (those boiled sweets).

Dinner was baked salmon with lemon (just salmon fillets with a couple of slices of lemon wrapped in foil and baked in the oven) served with half a sweet potato, green beans, brocolli and cauliflower.

Desert was some of my experimental chia seed pudding!

Vanilla Chia Seed Pudding

2 tablespoons of chia seeds
Vanilla rice milk (enough to cover the seeds plus a bit extra)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of agave syrup

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and leave in the fridge for at least three hours so that the chia seeds form a gel like substance.

This was suprisingly tasty and filling.

I've been doing a bit of a think about my training for the Great North Run. I think I'm going to stick with my training plan for this month, but next month swap out a gym session for an additional run. I'm going to continue increasing my distance each week on my weekend run and working on my speed during intervals at the gym. The new run session will be a mix of the two, a longer distance but incorporating some speed work. Do I almost sound like I know what I'm doing there? Ha Ha, I'm really going to have to look at some back issues of magazines, books and get tips from bloggers on this running lark!

Well I've had a lovely day, I find pottering about in the kitchen with tunes on while I cook is very relaxing. Do you find cooking relaxing or stressful? I used to just bake occassionally but now I love to cook and experiment with healthy dishes.

Hope you have all had a great weekend and have a good week ahead! x

Anyone else feeling a bit out of sync after the bank holiday weekend? I do love an extra day off but I don’t know if I’m coming or going at the moment! Thankfully I have the routine of good old WIAW to keep me right…

These are my eats and goings on from yesterday and as the title of this post suggests I feel like I was on the go all day! I got up, had the usual warm water and lemon and headed out for a quick run. I put the Garmin on again to track my distance and pace and did 3 miles in 28.20 with an average pace of 9.26 which was a big improvement from Saturdays run. As I said then, I’m not really that concerned about my pace, I’m no longer going out running and half killing myself in the process. It’s just nice to enjoy running and the weather yesterday morning was lovely too!

For breakfast I’d prepared a big chia pudding made with 1/4 cup of chia seeds, raw cacao powder and stevia mixed with water and left to gel overnight in the fridge. I had that with some semi frozen summer berries and a sprinkle of buckwheaties on top for crunch:

As it was a warm morning I thought I’d follow that up with another icy vanilla protein frappe:

I can’t get enough of these at the moment! I just blended up ice, water, vanilla sun warrior protein powder, instant coffee, stevia and a pinch of xanthan gum for creaminess. So so good.

I had a work meeting not far from where I live later in the afternoon so I was able to work from home for the day. I answered a few work emails and then took some time out for a quick grocery shop. I bought all the ingredients for my healthy eating workshop I ran later in the day, plus this lot for me and James:

The fridge was looking a bit empty so I thought I’d stock up! I bought kale, spinach, cucumbers x 3 (as they were on offer), romaine, lemons, papayas, strawberries, bananas, pumpkin seeds, organic braeburn apples, mushrooms, Italian seasoning, coffee, PJ Tips tea (I got two boxes as they were on offer), sugar, skimmed milk and tomato passata. That should keep us going for a while! I also bought a new coffee press as both of my other ones had cracked, and while I was getting that I noticed this funky teapot for brewing loose leaf tea:

I love making up a big pot of loose leaf tea, especially when I’m working from home so I decided to treat myself. This is so much less messy than using my other tea pot and pouring the tea through a strainer. I made up a pot of Teavivre White Peony Tea (review coming up!) and it was wonderful. I cracked on with some work, hit publish on my Bread Lasagne post and then took a break for lunch:

This salad was quite simply epic. Romaine, spinach, roast red kabocha squash, cooked beets, edamame, half an avocado and some tahini dressing I’d made at the weekend (tahini, apple cider vinegar, tamari, smoked garlic). It was an incredible salad with so much flavour!

After lunch I got ready to go to my meeting. It was just an informal meeting at a cafe close to wear I live so I thought I’d wear in my new jeans:

I got those jeans from Mango at the weekend. They were only £16.99 and have a great zip detail at the ankle. I love them to bits! They fit pretty well although I have been buying things in a size up so that I have some expansion room if I gain a little more weight – I’d rather my clothes be a touch baggy than too tight! I wore them with my Topshop purple tank, gold feather design necklace from Warehouse and my new bag from Accessorize. I’m so into hot / neon pink at the moment and I couldn’t resist this bag with its bright pink zip!

My walk to the cafe was lovely, we actually had some sunshine for a change!

I just had a little pot of green tea:

My meeting was very interesting and productive then I walked home and made myself a snack:

My Cherry, Pear and Almond Smoothie, hits the spot every time! After that I did a bit more work and got ready to make my way to the Community Centre for my healthy eating workshop.

Last night we made some granola, healthy parfaits with fruit, yoghurt, nuts, seeds and some of the granola plus green smoothies at the end. The granola went down very well! I thought I’d just show them a very simple one with oats, natural caster sugar and rapeseed oil with a few nuts and seeds mixed in. I’d also bought a load of fruit and some different yoghurts – natural plain yoghurt, plain fromage frais and some Alpro vanilla yoghurt which I thought would be interesting for them to try – it was their favourite! We layered the fruit, yoghurt, nuts, seeds / granola in plastic cups for healthy parfaits:

I made myself one with strawberries, blueberries, soy yoghurt, pineapple, coconut, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds then ate more pineapple and seeds during the session. I wanted to get a good variety of fruit, nuts and seeds for the young people to try. A lot of them had never tried blueberries before! This was my fourth session and my last for a few weeks so we did some evaluation with them and I made up a few green smoothies for us at the end since they loved them so much the first time. I just blended spinach, banana and orange juice, we all had a couple of cups each and they loved them yet again!

I was so tired by the time I got home, I felt like I’d been on the go all day! The parfait and smoothies had held me over quite well so I just wanted something quick and easy to take the edge off my hunger, enter Oats in jar!

I made up some oats with water on the stove and added some vanilla stevia and a pinch of sea salt (that was amazing BTW!) and poured into a near empty coconut butter jar. I it topped with a couple of tablespoons of St Dalfour Black Cherry Jam and it was perfect.

While finishing off the washing up and folding laundry I sipped on a mug of delicious Pukka Licorice and Cinnamon tea:

Lovely end to a busy day!

I’m actually really pleased I managed to eat so well considering how crazy yesterday was. I think having a few things prepped and then having good choices available really helps. I did miss my veggies though but at least I got a good portion of them in my lunch time salad. I’m also just so so happy with how well the healthy eating workshops have been going, last nights activity was fantastic and I really feel like I’ve introduced some of those young people (and a couple of parents) to how tasty healthy minimally processed foods can be.

I know I’ve blogged about this before, but how do you keep on top of healthy habits when you have busy days? I’m now quite used to getting up at 6am, working out, working most of the day and not stopping till gone 9 or 10pm, but I do have to make that extra effort to eat well. How do you approach it?

Hello guys, hope you are having a wonderful relaxed Sunday! I’ve had such a lovely extended weekend – being off on Friday was a real treat and turned out to be an almost perfect day, but more on that to come later in the week.

I have been enjoying my kitchen time this weekend and have made some utterly luscious goodies! I am going to tease you with pictures of some raw treats:

Those would be my raw caramel slice and raw fruit and nut chocolate! Incredible, will be sharing the recipe soon! I also made some little raw cacao nib and goji berry chocolates:

Alongside those I had several brown banana’s that needed using up so decided to make something I could share with James and take through for my friends. I made some chocolate banana macaroons and they were gorgeous:

That would be James hand pinching one off the plate while I was taking a pic! These are so so simple and taste surprisingly buttery. They might not look that photogenic but what they lack in looks they make up for in taste. They only have 5 ingredients too!

I took them through to my friends house last night, we had a girls night in which was just brilliant. We ate garlic bread, tortilla chips and salsa, fresh strawberries and chocolate as well as those macaroons. Here’s a quick OOTD:

Nice and relaxed: necklace: H&M, grey tee: New Look, jumper: H&M, bag: Accessorize, jeans: Topshop, flats: Next

I adore that jumper and those jeans are fantastic. I got them in the sale and they are just the softest denim. They are the ‘Martha’ straight leg cut and I got them slightly long so I could roll the bottoms up :-)

This morning I went to a kettle bell class for the first time in ages. It was really enjoyable! When I came home I made myself this delicious smoothie:

Vanilla sun warrior protein powder, 1 nectarine, 2 doughnut peaches, 1/4 can of full fat coconut milk, ice, water. Well lush :-) Yesterday morning for brunch I’d made myself a socca pancake topped with my home made vanilla sea salt sunflower seed and cashew butter and some raspberry chia jam:

I’ve seen chia seed jam on several blogs and had been meaning to try it. I just mashed some fresh raspberries with 1/2 tbsp of chia seeds and left overnight to thicken. Delish!

For part of my lunch today I’ve just enjoyed this big bowl of raw kelp noodles with an avocado, tahini and white miso sauce topped with some fresh parsley:

I haven’t had kelp noodles in ages and this was lovely and creamy.

As I got so much fruit at the market on Friday I decided to add some to my usual ‘hard core’ green juice:

This was so good – the usual cucumber, celery and ginger base with added parsley and pineapple. I’ll be having more of that this afternoon!

Are you a fan of raw chocolate or raw desserts?

Well I am going to watch the Men’s Wimbledon Final! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

As predicted I felt totally out of sync this morning when I woke up. My body had been expecting a Monday routine, but no, it was up early for my strength DVD - Davinas 3 30 Minute Workouts Pump Section. I haven't done this DVD in ages and really enjoyed it. It was made tougher due to the DOMS I was experiencing pretty much all over. I don't get DOMS very often but it must have been due to the strength on Sunday and Cardio yesterday.

After I done that I went and made myself a huge Chocolate Cherry Green Monster with loads of spinach, frozen cherries, scoop of chocolate whey, vanilla rice milk and water. This was just wonderful, I love Green Monsters so much!

Work hasn't been too bad, I have no meetings for the rest of the week which makes a huge change so I can really catch up with my to do list.

Lunch was a bowl of Asian Chicken Soup from my frozen stash. I'm trying to demolish the giant pile of frozen stuff in my freezer as its getting rather crowded in there!

Followed by 2 juicy pears.

Mid afternoon I snacked on an apple and two babybel light.

After work I popped to the supermarket for some more grocery shopping, considering I'm trying to eat stuff from the freezer I'm still buying a load of fresh stuff! I really need to try and focus on getting my shopping bills down a bit too. Its just very difficult when you try and eat a clean, healthy diet and you like experimenting with food, if I was happy to eat ready meals and crisps I'd save a fortune! But I wouldn't be very healthy and sometimes you can't put a price on that!

Anyway, speaking of spending too much money on food, when I got home my first order from iHerb had arrived!

My wish list this month had included maca powder, chia seeds and nutritional yeast and iHerb seemed like the best place to be able to order all three 'Superfood' products. I've read so much about them on other blogs I really wanted to give them a try. Heres a brief description for anyone who hasn't come across these before -

Maca Powder - powdered maca root, has been used in South America for years to help general nourishment and healing. Is nutrient packed and can support the body to deal with stress. I've seen it used on other blogs in smoothies, porridge, sprinkled on apples with cinnamon etc.

Chia Seeds - high in omega 3 fatty acids and an array of other nutrients also very high in fibre. Can slow the absorption of sugar in to the blood stream. I've seen this used in numerous blogs added to porridge / oatmeal and smoothies

Nutritional Yeast - good source of protein and vitamins, especially Vit B12. Can be used in a similar way to parmesan cheese, sprinkled on popcorn or mixed with hummus and water to make a humnut sauce for vegetables.

I can't wait to try them all out!

For dinner I continued with trying to use up some frozen stuff so I had some defrosted and microwaved homemade chilli with a big pile of salad and topped it with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast so I could have a taste.

I couldn't really taste it that much but it has a nutty cheesy flavour. I can see me trying this in a few different dishes. For desert I whipped up a bowl of tofu vanilla pudding.

Photographed on my new butterfly tea towel!
Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Have you tried maca powder, chia seeds or nutritional yeast? Can you give me any ideas for recipes I can use them in? Hope that if today was your first day back at work after the Easter break it wasn't too bad! Hope you've all had a good Tuesday! x