Getting back into the swing of things

Happy 2015!!

I had the most amazing Christmas break this year. I was lucky enough to have two Christmases – a Danish one with my parents and sister on the 24th and an English one on 25th December with Welly and his family. It was awesome, everything from the food to the wine to the company was excellent – big smiles all around.

But all good things must come to an end right?! It’s probably for the best or I would be obese in no time.

This week I’ve been ready to get back into the swing of things. We met our diy deadlines which means I have more energy and my evenings back.

I’ve really been loving being able to cook nice homemade dinners but I’ve also taken the opportunity to prep my lunches for the following day. My main tips are:
– choose your meals for the week – breakfast, lunch and dinner
– order them online for delivery
– love preparing and eating each one

Its been an incredibly busy week and I’ve had more red flags in my inbox and more lunches at my desk than I care to remember so having my meals prepped was an absolute lifesaver. These are ‘some I prepared earlier’:

Homemade pea soup (onion, stock cube and frozen peas) with marinated turkey breast (dried coriander and cumin)

Homemade quinoa with mint and coriander accompanied with a green bean, broccoli, beetroot and lime salad. For protein it was leftover roast chicken:

Homemade Mexican burgers (turkey mince, jalapeños and spices) with a red onion and tomato dressing accompanied by a lentil, green beans, beetroot, feta and fresh herb salad:

How do you prepare for the week?

Deliciously Ella reblog: How to Eat Plant-Based Protein

I love Deliciously Ella’s blog and when I saw her how to eat plant-based protein blog post I immediately knew I wanted to share it with all of you 🙂

I’m not one of those people who NEED meat at every meal but Welly is so when I’m home alone, do breakfast or even a snack I often don’t include fish or meat.

I loved this bean stew:

Or my banana, cinnamon, egg and flaxseed pancakes:

And even my simple breakfast:

However, I’m not a vegetarian or vegan as you can tell but I love getting inspiration from people who know what they’re talking about – so here goes, enjoy!

Advice: How to Eat Plant-Based Protein

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What is the difference between plant and animal protein?
Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids. There are 20 amino acids in total and our bodies are able to produce some of these for ourselves (non-essential amino acids). However, there are 9 that you can only get from the food that you eat. Most people seem to think that plant-based protein sources don’t provide you with ‘complete’ protein sources and that you need animal protein for this, but there are several foods that include all 9 essential amino acids, so they are complete protein sources – these include quinoa, pumpkin seeds, chickpeas and black beans . Then there are lots of plant-based foods that contain a mixture of the essential amino acids, so by eating a variety of these delicious foods you can eat all the essential amino acids and your body will have everything that it needs! Animal protein is also harder to break down and digest and it moves through the digestive tract much slower, so a steak won’t make you feel as energised as a bowl of hummus, plus animal protein is much more acidic and the more alkaline the food we eat is the better we feel!

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Where can I find protein?
There’s protein in so many different sources, the list below outlines the best protein sources – all of which are so delicious! My advice would be to try adding at least one of these sources to every meal, you should find that it really energises you.

Beans and Pulses

Kidney Beans
Chickpeas (think lots and lots of hummus)
Black Beans
Lentils
Bean Sprouts
Grains

Buckwheat
Quinoa
Oats (a great excuse to eat bowls and bowls of porridge!)
Brown Rice
Vegetables

Broccoli
Peas
Avocado (hello guacamole for every meal)
Spinach
Kale
Any other green leafy veg, swiss chard, cavelo nero etc
Brocoli
Nuts & Seeds

…./ continue reading at deliciouslyella.com

Healthy living – it’s all in the preparation

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I love a good food post and lately I’ve had lots of comments and questions about how I have the energy to make breakfast that delicious. And I must say it’s all in the preparation!

I, like everyone else, have a time demanding job and actually having time to put good things in your body can be difficult – if you don’t plan a little bit ahead that is. If you’ve read my blog post on making the most of your mornings you know that I love setting myself up for the day with exercise and a good hearty breakfast. It’s not a diet, it’s my lifestyle and one that I simply have come to love. I wanted to share a few tips on what I do to make it quite easy:

– Do a bit of meal prep. I boil my eggs a few days in advance for example which means all I have to do is peel them and pair them with what I love such as avocados, nuts, fruit, meat, fish etc – this was awesome:

– buy what is on offer at your local shop that week to make sure you have a varied diet. Doing a weekly shop gives you an idea of food for the week and makes breakfast, lunch and dinner easy to manage. We had some awesome cooked mackerel from ocado this week:

– use leftovers from your store cupboard or from last night’s dinner to make an awesome lunch. I love some good liquid proof tupperware to take to work:

– get ready the night before. I love my juicer and get my veg and machine set up ready to go just before I’m off to bed. All I have to do is press play and we’re good to go:
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A good and healthy meal makes me smile and with just a few minutes prep each day it really is easy to achieve!

What are your tips on preparation?

Make the most of your mornings

As I’m sure you’ve realised by now I love my mornings and if you follow me on Instagram you will know that last Tuesday was pretty epic.

The house on the lake has many perks – 1, it’s bigger than the room we shared for a good two years 2, the garden is a sun trap 3, I have my own kitchen and plenty of space in the fridge and 4, the nature around here is beautiful and it makes me happy.

Luckily my holiday coincided with us moving so I’ve had time to explore, create and generally gloat a bit (sorry, it has just been better than I ever imagined)!

It’s all in the name of being active so I got up and made a beetroot, ginger, celery and carrot juice for Welly and I before he was off to work to set us both up for the day. I was then ready for my walk, where I met these fellas:

After a brisk walk to warm- and wake up my body I did my Tone it up HIIT workout followed by a relaxing yoga session:

I then got to use my newest ‘gadget’ – the infamous poached egg maker. Now if you’re like me rubbish at making these delicious eggs without a little help you must try this little fella:

It resulted in this – the perfect start to my day off:

What does your perfect morning look like?

The big move

It finally happened, we’ve moved to the house on the lake and it’s fab!However, let me take you back to when we started the big move.

It’s incredible how much two people who share one room can have between them. So Everyone who knows me will be aware that I like a good plan and the move was therefore organised, time managed and it came as no surprise that the first van load looked like this:

But the two other that followed was a bit of a shock. So what’s a girl to do?! After all I do have my priorities in check :-):

Welly and I did the move each day after work for three days, we could have waited for the weekend but the excitement of having bought our first home made us feel a bit like Hercules. Plus we treated each day like a big celebration:

I’ve always been a morning person but I realised that mornings in the house on the lake are better than what I could have imagined – they are simply blissful:

And when your morning commute starts with this wonder of a walk you can’t really complain:

I can’t wait to share the progress with you as we renovate, clean and unpack this little gem.

Do you have any exciting projects brewing?

My morning boost – a little bit of juice

There has been a lot of controversy over the juicing trend and whether it’s a fad or not. However, as I agree with not letting juices replace meals I believe the right one creates the perfect start to the day!

I started making juices a good five months ago when I wanted to up my intake of greens, the citrus fam and general loving vegetables. Man, did I quickly get the natural boost I was after!

First thing’s first – get a good juicer! You don’t want to have to cut, chop or peel you veg and fruit as it’s time consuming and a bit messy (especially if it’s beetroot) – I went for the Phillips juicer:

Secondly make sure you get hold of organic fresh produce or wash your items well ahead of juicing. For citrus fruits buy the unwaxed ones – I love the colours:

Thirdly mix it up and don’t be afraid of trying your luck (I’ve made some disasters but ya know it’s all goodness so just drink it quickly 🙂 ) – some ideas:
-kale, lime, carot, cucumber, ginger
-lemon, kale, beetroot, cucumber, ginger
-lime, ginger, kale, apple
-orange, beetroot, ginger, kale, lemon

I personally love kale and feel that it gives my skin a nice glow. I use ginger as a wake up boost instead of coffee and I get an extra spring in my step.

I have my juice with my breakfast past workout, which adds a colourful start to the day 🙂

How do you start your day?

Natural comes naturally – breakfast

Part of staying on top of my game as well as prioritising and taking care of myself is to eat a diet of natural foods that bring me energy and joy!

Having been raised on a Scandinavian diet of fish, meat, rye bread, oats and plenty of fruit and veg eating natural whole foods come naturally to me.

It’s never been trendier to be healthy (thank goodness) and my favourite Welch lass over at let her eat clean and I have enjoyed many great talks over rye bread, avocado and smoked salmon.

In order to have energy to do what I want to do I always try and start my day with a protein rich breakfast.

I can find it hard to be creative during breakfast time and know that many get bored of the seemingly uninspiring choices out there. I completely get it but I try to be a bit creative and so I want to share some must-try ideas with you.

Give these a go and I promise you’ll feel great:
– Toasted rye bread with cottage cheese, avocado and tomato
– Soft boiled egg with spinach, avocado and a bit of chilli
– porridge with almond milk, flaxseed and blueberries
– Greek yogurt with chai seed, honey and fresh strawberries
– Turkish inspired omelette with olives, tomatoes and a bit of halluomi on the side:

For a healthy celebratory inspiration and perhaps an alternative to the Great British fry up try this meal which we had for my mum’s birthday breakfast (it includes champagne whoop):

And if you have a bit more time or just want to be creative I would highly recommend the Protein Loving Veggie’s free breakfast guide – yum! However, sometimes when I have a super busy week I make sure I boil some eggs, keep them in the fridge and have them along with Avocado and tomato purée – that’s my express go-to favourite!

What’s your favourite healthy breakfast?