Pantry Samples

You cannot have a well stocked pantry without having a plan in place first, it starts with planning or at least having a idea of what your going to cook for the week/month ahead. A well stocked pantry changes with the seasons, that is if you are really listening to your body and the different ways you need to nourish it with the changing seasons.

I always plan from my breakfasts to lunches to dinner and have to consider a variety of options for healthy snacks. I keep it simple with breakfast but variety of flavours, texture is key for satiety and to ensure I have a good range of macro & micro nutrients. I design it so I have many choices for breakfast and vary between warm, cold, quick, easy, to ensure i never miss the most important meal of the day.

Breakfast favourites include:

• Propper Porridge (the best Low GL way)
• Overnight Oats
• Buckwheat Granola
• Granola Cereal
• Buckwheat and Oat Porridge
• Pancakes (Spelt, Paleo, Vegan)
• Home Made Museli
• Veggie Fritters, Smoked Salmon, Avacado

Planning lunches and dinners in the week should be easy, & for me these are really the same category as I don’t distinguish too much between the two meals, many of the ingredients I use make up either meal are similar. I always cook & eat foods that are light on my digestion and not to taxing on my energy levels in order to digest them. I eat a wide variety of cooked and raw veggies each day and week in salads, stews, ragu, curries, my traditional meat & 5 veg, soups & sandwiches. I eat complex carbohydrates in the form of brown basmati rice, quinoa, buckwheat, oats, rice flour, gram flour, beans, lentils, vegetables, nuts & seeds. I include a wide variety of protein both animal and plant, & over the years I have moved more away from consuming meat every day to meat a few times per week and find myself balancing meals with more plant protein such as chickpeas, black beans, aduki beans, mung beans, cannelloni beans etc. and lentils. Normally when eating plant proteins I have 2-3 varieties per dish so I mix beans & lentils together, beans & rice, and top them off with nuts or a nut pesto or creamy cashew cause etc. By doing this I am increasing my protein profile as well as having complete animal protein I am aware to choose complete plant protein sources also, such as hemp and buckwheat. No matter what, I do not follow a diet I eat to regulate my blood sugars and choose whole foods throughout my day to satisfy my taste buds and my nutritional needs on a cellular level. I enjoy a diet that is varied with a huge amount of choice, flavour, texture, colour & never before have I had so much choice and variety, so don’t be fooled healthy whole food eating is not limiting, it is like in many cases a limiting frame of mind that make us think this.

Healthy whole food eating is not a diet, it is a lifestyle choice!

Sustainable snacking is key to health, firstly like every human I love to snack or have my sweet treats in the day, with something like a healthy indulgent orange cacao bar, or maybe a blueberry vegan “cheese” cake or the beloved healthy whole food flap jack… the only difference is I make most of my snacks or sweet treats with alternative ingredients to ensure a healthy wholesome approach. I use healthy alternatives to sugar, honey or sweeteners that are plant based and have a more favourable GL rating, this is so I can regulate my blood sugars for optimum health. I use oats, buckwheat, almond flour, coconut flour, gram flour etc as a healthier options to wheat flour and flavour my treats with natural organic flavours like lemon, lime or orange zest, raw organic vanilla powder, spices such as ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg and much more. There are many snacks out there that you would perceive to be healthy but infact are not. Now not only are we taking about everyday “healthy” foods such a yoghurt but even the bars and sweet treats marketed as healthier options for example a “Raspberry greek style yoghurt, high protein with 0% fat” has as much as 11g of sugar in just a 150g tub, thats nearly 3 teaspoons of sugar, nearly half the level of what the World Health Organisations recommends for additional health benefits and sugar consumption per day for a grown adult. The ever popular “bounce energy ball” are marketed as being healthy energy bars, the key here is that they are energy bars and have free sugars such as brown rice malt syrup or grape juice that will do exactly what it says and give you an energy spike, if this energy isn’t burned off you will store it as fat if your liver glycogen stores are sufficient. Excess free sugars or refined sugars in the diet will be converted to fat and adipose tissue if the energy output is not there to match it, not only this but the blood sugar spike caused by high energy or sugary food & drinks will cause a cascade of hormonal unbalanced that will in promote more sugar cravings and the process starts all over again!

The recipes I feature for treats & snacks use only natural Low GL sugars such as Xylitol, vanilla powder, cinnamon, maple syrup, figs, apricots or Dates (I normally keep the dates to approx 6-8 per recipe to keep the sugar levels low) coconut sugar, stair anise, mixed spice and nutmeg and whole fresh fruits.

I balance the blood sugar regulation in recipes further by adding plan protein such as nuts, seeds, whole grains such as oats, buckwheat, amaranth and more. Check out the ginger bread bars , theses are a no brainer to make, so healthy and beyond delicious 🙂