weight loss meal plan Archives - Beta Me Nutrition by Danielle Lamb

January 4, 2019January 4, 2019

Keto Bread Rolls (cut carbs)

The keto craze has well and truly kicked off and to those of you who are just starting up on their merry way, here is a recipe that will help you cut carbs without even knowing it! Bread lovers behold the ‘Keto Bread Rolls’.

The Keto Bread Roll Recipe

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

5 tbsp. psyllium husk
1 1/4 cups almond meal/flour
1 tsp Celtic/Himalayan/Sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
optional 2 tbsp. sesame seeds (I let these out in this instance)

Wet Ingredients

2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 egg whites (you can make flax eggs if you can not eat eggs)
1 cup water, boiled

Method

Preheat your oven to 175C fan forced.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Add all wet ingredients (boiling water, vinegar and egg whites) to dry ingredients.

Using a hand mixer, beat ingredients for 30 seconds (be sure not to overbeat).

Pre-grease a baking tray lined with baking paper.

With moist hands pull out six pieces of dough and lay them side by side with enough space to expand slightly on the tray.

Place in the oven on the lower shelf for approximately 50-60 minutes or until a tap on the bottom of the rolls produce a hollow sound.

Enjoy fresh or store airtight.

June 3, 2018July 23, 2018

Anti inflammatory Eggplant Curry

Anti inflammatory foods are important to our health and wellbeing as a whole as well as for specific health complaints such as headaches, muscle and joint aches and pains and immune support to name a few.

Curries are a great source of anti inflammatory herbs and spices. Ayurvedic medicine or Indian medicines have been using the spices in curries for many years to address various health conditions.

This Anti inflammatory Eggplant Curry with provide you with a fabulous dose of anti inflammatory support.

Enjoy!

Anti inflammatory Eggplant Curry Recipe

1 large eggplant (multi-vitamin and mineral powerhouse!)
• 2 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil (anti-inflammatory)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (immune booster and digestion enhancer)
• 1 medium to large onion, sliced finely (immune enhancing, anti-inflammatory, allergy fighting, cholesterol lowering)
• 2 crushed garlic cloves (immune enhancing, anti-inflammatory and cholesterol lowering)
• 2 – 3 cm piece ginger (depending how much you love ginger, me, I go for THREE), peeled and finely chopped (anti-inflammatory goodness!)
• 1 tablespoon curry powder (anti-inflammatory goodness!)
• 1 large diced tomato (Lovely lycopene and vitamin C antioxidants)
• 1 finely chopped green chilli (anti-inflammatory goodness! metabolism boosting)
• 1 teaspoon Celtic or Himalayan salt (these salts contain wonderful minerals that regular table salts do not)
• 1/4 bunch finely chopped coriander (all round awesome herb for almost everything)

Preheat your oven to 190C.

Place the eggplant on a medium sized baking sheet. Use a fork to spike the eggplant all over to allow heat to penetrate through. Place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until it feels soft/tender. Remove from the oven, allow to cool enough to be able to peel and chop the eggplant.

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and onion to the oil. Stir until the onion softens and slightly browns, roughly 5 minutes.

Add the pre-prepared tomato, garlic, ginger and curry powder to the saucepan with the onion and cook for a further 1 minute.

Stir in the chopped eggplant and green chilli, and season with salt to taste. Place a lid or appropriate cover over the mix, turn to a higher heat and cook for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to soak in.

Lift the lid or cover, turn the heat right down to low and cook for a further 5 minutes with the lid off. Garnish with the coriander.

This curry can be served as a side dish or as a dish on its own, possibly with brown basmati rice or quinoa

I served mine with fish, asparagus, roasted capsicum and fish. Random I know, but it was worth it 🙂

March 3, 2018July 23, 2018

Keto Buzz: What is it all about?

The buzz word in the diet realm currently seems to ring ‘Keto’. There are so many FAD diets around and so many that have come and gone over the many years that people have been ‘weight’ conscious. Most diets have their pros and cons and it is evident ‘diet’ is not a one size fits all protocol and the ‘Keto diet’ is no exception.

So, what is it?

There are several forms of the ketogenic diet geared towards different people including: Standard ketogenic diet: Very low-carb, moderate-protein and high-fat. Cyclical ketogenic diet: Phases of higher-carb reloads with majority ketogenic days (5:2). Targeted ketogenic diet: Carbs are consumed around workout times. High-protein ketogenic diet: The standard Keto diet with additional protein.

The most common however, is the standard very low-carb, high fat concept, where protein is left at a moderate intake. The diet is time consuming and leaves people open to obsessing over their ‘macros’. Counting total carbohydrate intake is the aim of the game. You can see how this may become problematic for those with eating disorders or addictive behaviours.

The goal is less than 50g of net (total minus fibre) carbs per day. In doing this, you are working towards the primary target of regearing where energy is derived from. Therefore, as glucose is our main energy source on a normal diet, our bodies will begin to utilise or create other energy sources, ‘ketones’ which are produced in the liver from the breakdown of fatty acids, essentially accelerating fat metabolism and weightloss.

Possible Benefits

– Ketosis has beneficial effects on blood sugar and may, benefit ‘some’ of the diabetic community along with other related blood sugar dysregulation conditions.

– It has been shown to benefit some with neurological disorders (epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s).

– It has shown benefits in sustaining healthy blood lipid levels for cholesterol control (when the correct fats are also consumed)

– Supports happy hormone levels and other hormonal related conditions

– Effective for some who wish to lose weight, if done properly.

On the flipside if poorly executed or with a lack of professional guidance, nutritional deficiencies can arise, hypoglycaemia may present, a temporary energy loss may leave one unable to live a normal life and too much weightloss may present.

What I suggest… Do lots of reading and research before you jump into any diet regime and seek the guidance of an extensively trained professional who can educate, support, guide and monitor your health.

February 21, 2018July 23, 2018

Minty Cauliflower Fried Rice

Cauliflower is extremely versatile and can be swapped out for cheeses in baked dishes or for rice.

Not to mention it is extremely nutritious!

Minty Cauliflower Fried Rice Recipe

1 head large cauliflower chopped in a blender or grated to resemble rice.

I added ¼ cup of mint into the blender but you can shred it and mix it through if grating.

1 cup thinly chopped green spring onion

2 cups mixed green, yellow, orange and red capsicum

250g roasted pumpkin cubed (optional)

½ head broccoli broken up into tiny florets

4 button mushrooms or other Asian mushrooms to mix it up

4 garlic cloves diced

1 onion diced

1 chicken breast roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper and cubed after being cooked.

2 tbsp. good quality tamarind soy sauce.

5 anchovies chopped up (you don’t taste them but they are optional)

Black pepper to taste

A handful of pepitas

Handful of cashews

Add garlic, onion, capsicum, mushrooms into a wok with 2 tbsp olive oil and sauté until fragrant.

Add cauliflower mint rice mixture and mix through until evenly distributed.

Add in broccoli, diced chicken, anchovies and pepper. Stir through.

Add in the tamarind soy sauce and stir through until the whole batch turns a slightly brownish colour, as pictured.

Serve in a shallow bowl topped with pepitas and cashews.

February 21, 2018July 23, 2018

Clean Orange, Poppy Seed & Pistachio Muffins

We all love muffins and they are often a convenient and yummy snack option. However, they often come with a hefty, less than nutritious caloric profile and this can impact both our waistline and overall health. Thankfully, there are raw ingredient options available to us to boost their nutritional profile and reduce poor quality calories.

Clean Orange, Poppy Seed & Pistachio Muffins

Ingredients

100g pistachios (unsalted), & an extra 1 ½ tbsp. chopped (for decoration).

100g almond flour/meal (if you don’t have any on hand, put 50g almonds in a food processor and grind down)

50g coconut flour.

60g rapadura sugar (or xylitol if you are looking to cut down on sugar)

1 tsp baking powder

1 pinch sea salt or Celtic salt or Himalayan salt

Zest of one orange + juice of 1 fresh orange.

1 tbsp. poppy seeds, plus 1 tsp additional for decoration

60mL almond milk

4 lightly beaten large eggs

3 tbsp. walnut, hazelnut or almond oil (or olive oil if neither are available to you)

1 tsp vanilla bean paste/extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 180⁰C. Line 10 spaces of a muffin tin with muffin cases.

Place 100g of pistachios in a food processor or blender and process until fine.

Place ground pistachios into a large bowl and stir in other dry ingredients as well as the orange zest.

Squeeze orange juice into a measuring cup and add almond milk up to 175mL. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and add eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir until smooth.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin cases, top with designated decorative pistachios and poppy seeds.

Bake for 25-30 mins or until a fork or skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool.

Transfer into an airtight container for storage in the fridge or freezer if left for more than 4 days.

March 21, 2013July 23, 2018

IBS: Gut Problems Got You Beat?

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Do you suffer from the following?

IBS

Gas
Bloating
Sore or upset stomach
Fatigue
Nausea
Irritability
Reflux or heartburn

Digestive Enzymes and IBS Type Symptoms

If you are suffering from one or more of the above digestive complaints, it is possible that you are lacking vital enzymes.

Digestive enzymes play a pivotal role in how the food we eat is broken down, digested, absorbed and used. These special little fellows occupy our digestion from our mouth (tongue) right through to our large intestine.

They are also present within our blood, assisting in anti-inflammatory and antihistaminic reactions, but that is a topic for another time.

Many things are known to deplete the number of digestive enzymes we secrete including, insufficient/incorrect pH environment for their survival and activation, tissue trauma to a secreting organ such as the pancreas, chemicals and pesticides stripping them from our plant foods, medications, drinking around food times, excessive intake of saturated and hydrogenated fats, fluorinated water, microwaving foods, heavy metals, dental fillings and pasteurisation.

As you can see, what happens to our foods has a lot to do with the number of enzymes that are viable to our body.

There are certain foods that are naturally designed to possess larger qualities of enzymes, but sometimes, eating enough of these at each meal can be a difficult task.

Sometimes the use of digestive enzyme supplements can fill this dietary gap.

But which enzymes are best for you? When do you take them? There are so many on the market, which provide the most benefit to your symptoms? It is important to speak with a dietary specialist to help determine the best fit for dietary intake of enzymatic foods as well as supplementation.

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