I’m often asked what makes a good breakfast. As with any meal, it should comprise balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fruit / vegetables, protein and fat. There are many options available to fulfil those criteria however one of the simplest, and most nutritious, is porridge.
Porridge, and oat-based muesli, contains something called oat beta-glucan which is a soluble form of fibre.
Constant snacking can be harmful to teeth. Eating sugary foods or drinks produces acids that attack teeth. Our saliva takes an hour to neutralise those acids after each snack.
But don’t despair! There are lots of snack choices that are healthy for teeth as well as for our bodies.
Cakes are popular as a post-exercise snack however much of the health-related press will suggest that they should be avoided in all circumstances. I did some baking for sale after a local race recently and a club runner asked me, with a wry smile, if I was going to make a low GI cake.
Great recovery food to follow exercise (carbs, fat and protein), but not so good for the dieters! (183 kcal per serving)
Prep time 10mins; cook 15mins; 20 servings.
Pre-heat the oven to 200 C / 400 F / Gas 6.
In a large pan, melt the spread, sugar, syrup and treacle together, stirring until melted and smooth.
Remove from the heat and stir in the carrots, oats and seeds until thoroughly mixed.
Tip into a 30x20cm (12x8in) tin, press down well and bake in the centre of the oven for 15mins.
When lightly golden around the edges, remove from the oven. While hot mark out 20 squares, then leave to cool. When cold, remove from the tin and separate properly.
Store in an airtight container. Suitable for freezing.
Source: www.britishcarrots.co.uk
One in a hundred people suffers from a true allergy to dietary gluten, known as coeliac disease. Many more find that they are intolerant to wheat and hence foods such as bread, doughs and cakes make them feel uncomfortable.
Following a gluten-free diet is the solution for both groups. A wheat-free diet may be sufficient for coping with wheat intolerance but coeliacs will know that there are also other sources of gluten to be avoided. Larger supermarkets stock ranges of ‘free from’ foods including bread, pasta, pizza, cakes, breakfast cereals, flours and ready made sauces. When preparing meals from basic ingredients, it is not difficult to avoid wheat or gluten in many dishes, and to substitute other foods such as rice, potatoes and gluten-free oats.
Perhaps the two foods most missed by coeliacs and wheat avoiders are bread and cake. I’ve tried to make basic gluten-free bread in my bread machine but without great success. It seems that the dough needs to rise in a warm place in the conventional way and then be baked in an oven to get reasonable results.
I’ve had varying results with cakes. Whilst a light Victoria sponge totally eludes me, rich fruit cakes and recipes using fresh fruit (such as banana) or grated vegetables (e.g. courgette) work well with gluten free flour such as Dove’s Farm. These cakes do tend to dry out faster, however, than if they were made with wheat flour.
If you fancy something very rich and chocolately, try the ultimate beetroot and chocolate cake. This recipe will work with gluten free flour as the beetroot is very moist and, arguabley, you’ll be getting extra anto-oxidants with your portion of cake!
Recently, I’ve discovered a range of recipes which use some specific ingredients to counter the absence of gluten in producing moist and very tasty cakes. Glycerine (liquid) keeps moisture in and xanthan gum (a form of powdered starch) binds the ingredients together to give a conventional cake texture. Relatively small amounts of these ‘magic’ ingredients convert the usually dry gluten-free cake into a really moist delight, which is difficult to distinguish from a conventional wheat-based recipe.
The buttermilk breakfast muffin recipe is the first of these specifically gluten-free recipes to get the Russell-Price ‘tried and tested’ stamp of approval!
If ‘going on a diet’ sounds like a step too far, you may be able to reduce your calorie intake less painfully by cutting down on some of the worst offenders, the foods (and drinks) that are loaded with calories but don’t satisfy or fill you up for very long.
Replace those silent calories with some lower calorie alternatives, and increase your activity levels, and soon you could be losing excess weight steadily and permanently.
Sounds a bit like painting by numbers, doesn’t it?
A healthy diet needs to contain adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, but you might need to make a study of nutrition in order to work out where to find all these good things.