Super Salads

 

Super salads.. 

 

This salad pic has created quite a lot of interest as salads go. When people think of eating healthily or dieting salads are the first thing that pop into your mind but without some creativity can get all rather standard and miserable. Alternatively they can require so many ingredients they hardly seems worth the trouble. These are pretty simple, varied enough to taste good without hours of chopping or prep. Eat with a slab of protein and get involved!

Salads are not a science so measurements are lax, and you can pretty much supplement every ingredient for something else… but here is the basic gist.

Quinoa and roasted red pepper salad

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 red peppers

radish (sliced thinly)

3 spring onions (Sliced as thin as possible)

parsley

coriander 

toasted pine nuts

Dressing

1tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp mirin

juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp soy sauce

Squeeze of agave or honey

tsp mustard (dijon or wholegrain or whatever you have in)

pepper juice

Something quite wonderful happens to a pepper when you shove it in a very hot oven with grill on for about half an hour (turning a couple of times to make sure all is even and good in the world). 

Once the peppers are black all over, take out the oven, leave to cool and pull off the charred skin. What you are left with is a very sweet, soft pepper flesh which is delicious with quinoa, buckwheat or any other healthy grain. When you’re slicing it make sure you scrape away pepper seeds but keep hold of the pepper juice that it makes and add it to your dressing. 

Mix everything together. Pour the dressing on fairly last minute so that the radishes stay nice and crunchy - they add an important texture to the salad. Taste and make sure seasoned well (the soy in the dressing may not be enough so add salt). 

Roasted veg and tahini dressing

this salad works well with quite a wide range of vegetables. Done it before with squash and beetroot and have thrown in broccoli and red pepper when its lying around, so think of this recipe as a guide which you can adapt according to taste and what you need to use up in your fridge

ingredients

2x cauliflower head

2 x aubergine

2 x red onion

1 tbsp. ground coriander

1 tbsp. ground cumin

roughly chopped parsley and/or coriander 

toasted chopped nut of choice - I usually use almonds, pine nuts or hazelnuts. 

dressing

tahini paste

lemon juice

water

salt & pepper

Cut veg into relatively equal size so they cook evenly. spray oil. evenly coat with spices and season. roast for about half an hour, check on them half way through and spoon around if some bits are going brown.

cool

scatter herbs

pour over dressing

chuck on the nuts

job done

 

Green salad

A green salad is a green salad is a green salad. Except when its slightly better that your average green salad which this one is!

Mix up your leaves - this one is baby gem (cut lengthways) Chicory and a dolce verde romain lettuce (which is my current lettuce squeeze!). Variety is important to get a good sweet (romain, gem, iceberg) and bitter (watercress, rocket, chicory) mix and different textures. 

Add a large ripe avocado, pumpkin seeds and cress. 

Cress is massively underused, it is super cheap, tasty and can massively elevate salads so get some in, or hanker back to school days and grow your own. 

To keep in the realms of super duper healthy, dress with lemon juice (just before serving) and season.

or make a simple lemon vinaigrette with extra virgin love oil, white wine vinegar, whole grain mustard and a lot of lemon juice. 

 

Snack Attack

 Snack Attack!

The snack conundrum is something that we come up against time and time again. We all love to snack and we all find that there are various non meal times in the day when a little energy boost is needed. Classic snack times are mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and are usually the times when chocolate or some other handy, sugary filled convenience sends your healthy eating off into the wrong direction. The problem is that snacking on something sugary with no nutritional value, releases insulin into your blood stream, which then processes the sugars from your food and helps store it as excess fat.

There is actually nothing wrong with snacking. Having 3 nutritious meals and 2 nutritious snacks is a great way to keep your blood sugar levels steady and to avoid overeating at mealtimes. The trick is not to let snack times creep up on you. Plan for them. Decide you’re going to have them twice a day, what they are going to be, and make sure you have what you need at the time you need it and… Enjoy (with a nice cup of tea).  

Snack facts:

· 

•  A healthy snack made up of complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats               increases your energy levels for a longer period of time than sugary snacks do.
• Choose nutrient dense snacks, such as fresh vegetables and humus, a boiled egg, a handful of nuts, an apple or some melon chunks, greek yoghurt and berries, rice cakes with cottage cheese, rice cakes with peanut butter (personal fav and sometimes easier to organise than a boiled egg!).
• Snacks have to be small and not too calorific. Snacks are there to keep you going, but not to add 2 more meals to your day. Around 150 calories per snack is a good guide.
• Timing is everything, your first snack should be consumed around 2 hours after breakfast, and your second snack about 2 hours after lunch. This will help keep your blood sugar levels constant, and hopefully stop you from raiding the work vending machine.

Snacking wisely can really help you to lose weight and can add many essential nutrients and vitamins to your diet to help your body remain in a fat burning state!

Happy snacking…

Snack the ace way! We’re doing a bit of a snack deep dive over the next few weeks – look out for our blogs, recipes and some tasters at our classes. Make sure you put December 17^th in your diary for our healthy Chana TeaCember – we will have loads of snacks on offer, with recipe cards and endless advice!

For any more information on snacking or other nutritional matters do not hesitate to get in touch info@ace-london.com.

Ace's post workout snacks

It is even more important to eat a snack post workout then pre workout, this is because you need to make sure that you feed your body to help repair muscle tissues and replenish glycogen stores which are depleted after a tough workout. (The body breaks down most carbohydrates from the foods we eat and converts them to a type of sugar called glucose. Glucose is then stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver to fuel our bodies when we need the energy.)

Post workout your body needs plenty of protein combined with carbohydrates. Your muscles will be like sponges ready to soak up the glycogen to store as energy for your next workout, and now is the best possible time to consume carbs. Try and eat something within an hour to hour and a half after your workout. You can either have a full meal, or a small snack if you are not planning to eat a meal for a few hours. Here are some post-workout snack ideas:

A Protein Shake Made from a protein powder of your choice, water and a banana, is a great choice as your body quickly converts it to energy.

Banana and peanut butter sandwich This a favourite of Charlotte’s! Just slice a banana in half, length ways and spread a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter (preferably Meridian with no added sugars, salts or palm oil), then slice across into small pieces and enjoy!

Protein pancakes These are a proper treat, and you will look forward to these throughout your workout. They are more of a meal then a snack, so make these for your post workout breakfast. See our website for recipe.

Tuna on whole wheat toast You could swap the toast for a couple of whole wheat crackers or rice cakes.

Scrambled eggs on toast Scramble 2 eggs on some whole wheat or dark rye bread.

Peanut butter, banana and chocolate shake All you need is one medium banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter and 1 cup of low fat chocolate milk blended with some ice.

0% fat Greek Yoghurt with berries Non-fat Greek yoghurt (Fage Total is the most delicious) and a cup of berries is a lovely post workout snack and the yoghurt is so thick and creamy it feels very indulgent. Add a squeeze of honey, as that will be converted straight into glycogen.

What are your favourite pre/post workout snacks? We’d love to hear your ideas!