Sam’s Seedy Vegetable Bread for a nutrient dense breakfast. Delicious spread with avocado or topped with an egg for a good hit of protein and fibre. Thermomix recipe by Samantha Bake Clinical Nutritionist.

• 500g spelt or wholemeal spelt flour (can use wheat flour)
• 2 slightly rounded teaspoons dry yeast
• 50g rolled oats or barley
• 30g linseeds
• 45g sunflower seeds
• 45g pumpkin sees
• 30 g chia seeds 
• 30g Blue Label Unsulphured Blackstrap Molasses (can use honey)
• 30g Rice bran or grapeseed oil
• Approx 250g vegetable puree (eg pumpkin, zucchini, sweet potato, tomato or leftover veggie soup)
• 250g lukewarm water (total amount of vegetable and water should equal 500g, I have found it best not to exceed 300g of veg or the dough isn’t wet enough)

If using zucchini that doesn’t need to be precooked – just add roughly chopped to Thermomix, add water to make 500g total and blitz until consistency of a puree. Place all ingredients into the Thermomix bowl. Set lid to closed position and knead for 3 minutes on Interval speed. The dough should be sticky, scrap into bread tin and sprinkle top with oats or seeds. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise for 30-40 minutes or until near the top of the tin. 

Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (temperatures may vary from oven to oven). Bake for 30-40 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped. Let sit in tin for 10 minutes then cool on a rack for a while before slicing. This makes a moist, dense (fibre filled) but delicious loaf perfect for toast or with a hearty soup. Pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini make for a neutral tasting loaf that can be enjoyed with sweet or savoury toppings. If using tomato or leftover soup you will get a more savoury loaf.

Quinoa and roast vegetable salad (complete vegetarian meal) – enough for a crowd/lunches for the week #glutenfree

1.5 cups quinoa (rinsed well and drained) – cooked in 3 cups water – bring to the boil, cover and decrease heat to a simmer for 10-11 minutes. Switch off heat and leave sit for water to finish absorbing 5-10 minutes. Then I tip out onto a large tray to let cool slightly. You could use brown rice, farro or even couscous as the base if you wanted, however quinoa is a source of protein if you are cooking for vegans or vegetarians.

Roast until cooked and golden:

1. 1 LARGE sweet potato cut into cubes
2. Half a cauliflower – cut into chunks. (you could use pumpkin or even beetroot for an earthier flavour)
3. Spray lightly with oil and sprinkle with Masterfoods Mild Moroccan Seasoning (alternatively just garlic powder, salt and pepper is good too).
4. Lightly toast any combination of sunflower seeds, pepitas, pistachios, sliced or slivered almonds – about ¾ cup in total
5. 1 tin chickpeas, rinsed (approx. 300g cooked)
6. Mix of sliced dried apricots, craisins or even figs (approx. ½ cup, if not using pomegranates can increase to 3/4 cup all up).
7. 2-3 large handfuls spinach leaves or mixed greens

Optional – Pomegranate seeds – fresh or frozen – to garnish or if you have enough stir them through and then use more as a garnish.

Dressing:

1. Juice (approx. 100g) and zest of one orange (can do half orange, half lemon)
2. 2 teaspoon cinnamon
3. 35ml olive oil
4. 1 tablespoon honey (or maple syrup if making for vegans)
5. 2-3 teaspoons apple cider or red wine vinegar (to taste – can omit if you use a very tart lemon)
6. Salt and cracked pepper to taste

In a very large bowl mix together everything but the dressing, nut/seed mix and pomegranate.
Stir through the dressing and half the pomegranate seeds (if you have enough). You can then choose to stir through the nut/seed mix now or leave it until just before serving so that it will be crunchier. Garnish with the last of the pomegranate seeds and enjoy!

A little bit of feta is delicious with it and it makes a lovely side to BBQ meats or salmon as well as being a complete meal in itself. You can easily increase or decrease how much you make by varying the volume of quinoa and roast vegetables.

How often have you heard your child complain about a sore tummy?

While it can be related to what is going on with the different types of bacteria in their gut it can also be due to anxiety. When I have a new child patient I take a thorough family history and overall health preview with the parent and then talk to the child about how their symptoms actually feel and impact them.

 This allows me to try and establish if it is linked to particular foods or potential intolerances, gastrointestinal tract dysbiosis or anxiety. 

So if your child has been experiencing stomach pains the school holidays are a good opportunity to investigate further. Appointments can be booked online at www.redmed.com.au or call 1300 173 633 during business hours.

Link: https://awarenessact.com/children-wont-say-they-have-anxiety-they-say-my-stomach-hurts/?=aa&fbclid=IwAR1fmKE-rsL9XtnYBEl24tGB0GCoQK3GIbGDLbVn9wuwjWB0B3m32Jcv8HM 

ReMed Natural Medicine is one of Melbourne’s leading clinics

When the weather turns cold I start to make chai tea more often, and when I actually have a weekend afternoon at home I make a big batch and drink it by the bucket (or in the this case my Clifton Hill Pottery cup/bowl). The spices used in chai are antioxidant rich, good for your digestion and anti-inflammatory plus cinnamon helps modulate blood sugar levels, ginger is anti-microbial, chilli is an analgesic and anti-bacterial, cardamom and star anise relieve flatulence while black pepper helps increase gastro-intestinal enzyme secretion and the absorption of a number of nutrients including curcumin (found in turmeric). I do tend to go a bit by “feel” when I make this so feel free to make your own adaptations but do try to make a note of what you do for when someone asks you for your recipe! Here is my version –

This is the amount for one person/cup:

• 1 heaped teaspoon black tea leaves or 1 tea bag (I often use Rooibos or a decaf Ceylon)
• Grind the following in a mortar and pestle
• 4 cloves
• 4 cardamom pods
• 1cm cinnamon quill
• 6-8 pieces kibbled ginger# or a small knob of fresh ginger chopped up (if it’s organic you can leave the skin on)
• Couple of chilli flakes
• 1-2 twists cracked black pepper
• 2 pieces star anise
  

Optional:

• decent sprinkle of turmeric
  

Put the ground spices and tea in a coffee plunger/tea pot with approximately 200ml boiling water, steep for 5 minutes or a tad longer. Pour into a cup until 2/3 full then fill the remainder with warm milk of choice. 

OR – you can make it in a saucepan on the stove top. Boil tea and spices for a similar amount of time, you just want to warm the milk through though, not bring to the boil on the stove. Alternatively, as with the tea pot add separately warmed milk to your cup.

OR – I usually make 6 times this amount (plus a couple of extra everything for the pot) in the Thermomix blitzing the spices for a few seconds then adding 1200-1300g boiling water. Have the blade running backwards, heat at 100, for 5 minutes. Then add 4-500g milk of choice (basically to the maximum fill mark), 1 heaped teaspoon honey (if you like) and reheat to 70 degrees for 2 minutes. This makes enough for 4 large mugs and a couple of top ups or you can reheat and drink it throughout the day. 

P.S. Made with Rooibos which is naturally caffeine free it is perfectly fine to drink before bed.
# kibbled ginger can often be found in Asian grocery stores but if you have fresh ginger use that.

It’s lunchtime not party time! We expect our kids to be able to sit (relatively) still and learn while at school so we should be feeding them foods that help with that rather than ones that hype them up.

Yes it needs to be easy to eat for those kids who have too much else they want to do at lunch time and it has to be able to stay fresh and safe in widely varying temperatures. However, when a third of your kids’ food intake happens out of the lunch box it is important that if you are including pre-packaged foods that their ingredients lists are short and you recognise every ingredient!

Positive Article

Do I really only need “Just 10 minutes exercise a week”?

Obviously headlines like this are designed to be controversial and get readers to click through. What the nine-year observational study of 88,000 US adults aged between 40-85 found was that even short periods of low-intensity activity can “have a meaningful impact on health”. In fact, “virtually any amount of exercise reduced the risks of dying of cardiovascular disease, cancer or any other cause”. However, what the headline doesn’t tell you is that the more you exercise the greater the reductions in risk. 

So, for an 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or 14% lower risk of dying from cancer than your sedentary counterparts between 10-59 minutes a week of light-to-moderate exercise was enough. Increase that to between 60-149 minutes per week though and you have 22% less risk of early death, 150-299 minutes of exercise per week was 31% less risk and if you manage to fit in 3 hours of light-to-moderate exercise a day your risk of dying early decreased by 46%.

Now most of us would probably struggle to devote 3 hours a day everyday to exercise BUT – every little bit counts and it is cumulative! Remember we aren’t talking high intensity exercise. Light-to-moderate would include – taking the stairs, gardening, hanging washing, house work, walking the dog, collecting the mail – basically anything that requires movement is good for you.

So let’s get moving!

Link to Time article: Click Here

Thermomix Seedy Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 500g spelt or wholemeal spelt flour
• 2 slightly rounded teaspoons dry yeast
• 50g rolled oats or barley
• 30g linseeds
• 45g sunflower seeds
• 45g pumpkin sees
• 30 g chia seeds
• 30g Blue Label Unsulphured Blackstrap Molasses
• 30g Rice bran or grapeseed oil
• 250g pumpkin puree
• 250g lukewarm water

Method: 

Place all ingredients into the Thermomix bowl. Set lid to closed position and knead for 3 minutes on Interval speed. The dough will be sticky, scrap into bread tin and sprinkle top with oats or seeds. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise for 30-40 minutes or until near the top of the tin.

Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (temperatures may vary from oven to oven). Bake for 40 or until it sounds hollow when tapped.

For a nutrient dense breakfast this is delicious spread with avocado or topped with an egg for a good hit of protein and fibre.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE (The Allergy/Intolerance Friendly Version)

by Samantha Bake Clinical Nutritionist

I love Chai – real chai tea – and after trying just about every brand there is I was given a Make Your Own Chai Kit. BEST PRESENT EVER!

The spices used in chai are also very good for you, especially through winter as they are antioxidant rich, good for digestion and anti-inflammatory plus cinnamon helps modulate blood sugar levels, ginger is anti-microbial, chilli is an analgesic and anti-bacterial, cardamom and star anise act as carminatives (relieving flatulence) while black pepper helps increase gastro-intestinal enzyme secretion and the absorption of a number of nutrients including curcumin (found in turmeric). I do tend to go a bit by “feel” when I make this so feel free to make your own adaptations but do try to make a note of what you do for when someone asks you for your recipe!

Here is my version – a cup of anti-oxidant rich, immune boosting deliciousness to help warm you up through this crazy autumn weather (although I have been known to chill it and drink it cold in summer too).