Flat Tummy Snacks and Treats

A golden flat tummy club rule is to never let yourself get too hungry, as your body will then crave a quick fix in the form of sweets, pastries or biscuits. Make sure you always have plenty of healthy snacks on hand and grab one in the morning and one in the afternoon (just before a commute home is always a good time!).

A Few Ideas

• Fresh squeezed juices or Innocent smoothies
• Fruit that you like (obvious thing to say but I constantly try to win my tastebuds over to apples but I don’t really like them and end up hungry… which leads to dreams about Kitkats)
• Miso soup (which come in handy sachets)
• Muesli bars
• ½ an avocado
• Strip of dark chocolate
• Small pot of natural or organic fruit yoghurt
• Crunchy veg and low fat hummus
• A couple of slices of ham and a few cherry tomatoes
• Frozen grapes
• Seeds (some people like them)
• Date and Walnut Cookies
• Dawn's Banana Loaf
• Breakfast Muffins
• Beetroot Bread

Date and Walnut Cookies

This recipe is from Jane Sen's Healing Foods Cookbook, just very slightly adapted. 

Makes about 9-10 cookies
30g walnuts, finely chopped
30g dates, finely chopped
1 banana, mashed
60g porridge oats
40ml olive or sunflower oil
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Simply mix all the ingredients together and bake on an oiled baking tray for 15-20 minutes at Gas 6, 190 C, until golden.

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Dawn's Banana Loaf

200g Wheat and gluten free flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
Half teaspoon bicarb soda
75g butter
2 eggs
75ml agave syrup
4 large bananas

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon into a bowl. Add the butter in small blobs and rub in to make a kind of breadcrumb.
2. Mash up the bananas and the syrup to make a kind of puree. There can be some lumps, it adds a nice texture to the cake.
3. Whisk the eggs, add to the bananas and then add to the flour. Combine well and transfer to a greased loaf tin.
4. Bake in the oven at 180 for 50 mins.

You can add optional sultanas which is very nice and again makes a nice texture. Best served with a cup of tea however you can turn it into a pudding by adding a dollop of yoghurt and a splash of fruit puree. You can also cut and serve warm with vanilla custard but we don't know of any slimming custards.

  

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Breakfast Muffins

My friend Dawn adapted a recipe from Jo Pratt’s In the Mood for Food and I can personally recommend these warm with just a little butter on a Sunday morning.

175g wholemeal self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp wheatbran
2 tbsp linseeds
3 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
75ml agave syrup
Grated zest 1 orange
50g dried blueberries
3 tbsp groundnut oil
2 large eggs
250ml low-fat natural yoghurt

1. Pre-heat oven to 190C/gas 5.
2. Line a muffin tin with 9 cases.
3. Stir together the flour, baking powder, wheatbran, linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, orange zest and blueberries.
4. Add oil, agave syrup, eggs and yoghurt and mix until just combined
5. Spoon into cases and bake in the oven for between 20-25 mins.
6. Cool slightly before serving.

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Beetroot Bread

I recently met Jane Mason, who runs a fabulous baking business Virtuous Bread, who gave me this colourful recipe for Beetroot Bread. If you want to learn how to be your own master sourdough baker then check out Jane's delicious courses.

The day before you want to bake, soak a large handful of mixed seeds in water. The next day do the following:

1. Put 600g wholemeal flour in a big bowl and make a little well. 
2. Put in 6g dry yeast (or 3g instant yest or 12 g fresh yeast) and cover with 200ml luke warm water. 
3. Let this rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, peel 1 medium beetroot and grate it. 
4. After 15 mins is up and the yeast is frothy, add 200ml more water, 12g sea or rock salt, some chopped fresh rosemary. Drain and rince the seeds and add them too. 
5. Knead for a good 15 minutes and then rest the dough for 15 minutes, covered. 
6. Fold in the beetroot gently and then cover again and let rest 1 hour. 
7. Shape this into 1 big loaf or two little ones and then cover and let rest 45 mins. Bake for 45 mins at 200 C.
8.  

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