Happy New Year!

It's Juice Week!

Ok, so this week is all about experimenting with new flavours and loving all things juiced!  Every day there will be a new Juice coming from the Grow Eat Run kitchen.  Juicing is a great way to increase your fruit and vegetable intake, boost your nutrition and keep hydrated.  Some of the juices you will know well, but I will put my tastebuds on the line in experimenting with some fun and different flavours! 

 Sunday: Carrot, Celery and Ginger

• 2 Carrots (or 3 little carrots)
• 4 sticks of Celery
• 2cm piece of ginger

Tip of the day: Add some sliced lemon to your water for the day in a water bottle.  Not only will it change up the flavour a little, it will boost your Vitamin C and can help cleanse toxins from the body.  http://www.livestrong.com/lemon-water/

Monday: Beetroot, Orange, Celery and Mint

• 2 Beetroot - raw
• 3 sticks of Celery
• 1 Orange
• 6 Mint Leaves

Tip of the day: Drink at least a cup of water, maybe even two as you enjoy your morning coffee or cup of tea. Keeping yourself hydrated on the morning is super important and means you are playing catch up all day trying to drink enough. 

Tuesday: Watermelon, Lime, and Mint

• 4 pieces of Watermelon
• 1/2 a Lime
• 6 Mint Leaves

Tip of the day: A juice with Watermelon and Lime is a great source of potassium and vitamins A and C.  It will also keep you cool and refreshed in the summer months by the pool. 

Wedensday: Spinach, Cucumber and Green Apple

• 8 Spinach leaves
• 2 small Cucumbers (or 1 large one)
• 1 Green Apple

Tip of the day: Why is green so good for you? Green leafy vegetables cleanse the body naturally gently.  Green vegetables should be part of your daily diet - and why not, there are no many options to choose from - here's just a way to juice them!

Grilled Chicken with Greek Sweet Potatoes

Oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper - if I close my eyes I can imagine I'm back on a Greek Island, lying on a beach watching the sunset with some dinner and a mojito!  

Now back to reality...............

I've always had the lemon and oregano flavouring on potatoes but I've substituted them for the healthier version - sweet potatoes and with a salad and some grilled chicken.  This is a dinner you won't say no to.  (Serves 2) 

Super Chocolate Love Bites!

My husband and I made these just for fun this afternoon and were absolutely blown away by these little treats!  SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!

So many super foods in one recipe!  Goji berries, chia seeds, maca powder, cacao powder, cacao nibs, and 180 Nutrition protein!  I've included the links on these super foods and 180 Nutrition for you to take a look at - all of these ingredients pack a super punch, but the name of these bites comes from the addition of the maca powder.........(curious to take a look at the link now?).  There's no baking, just mixing so it truly is a recipe for everyone.  

Like us on Facebook

Grow Eat Run now has a Facebook page for you to "like" and keep up to date when new recipes, gardening tips or blogs are posted.  I'd love to stay in touch and keep you updated on what is happening in the kitchen, garden, and in my training!  Click on the link below and feel free to leave a comment or a suggestion of what new recipes, gardening tips or posts you would like to see next!  Tors xx

GROW EAT RUN FACEBOOK PAGE

I love the MCC!

I'm not talking about the Melbourne Cricket Club, I'm talking about three incredible ingredients: MANGO, CHICKEN and COCONUT! Ok, so this salad was so good - it gets a big picture.  You know those times when you don't want a meal to end - this was it for me.  It was like I was saying a huge hello to summer but in the healthiest way!  For those of you entering the winter months, there's no reason that you can't whip this up for dinner too and used canned mango and serve the cauliflower rice and chicken hot.  I was a little bit of a sceptic when I started using cauliflower as 'rice' but now I'm sold.  For those of you new to cauliflower, it is full of fibre, folate and vitamin C - most importantly for the gentleman, it has been linked to reducing the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.  Mangoes will give you a good dose of vitamin And the chicken takes care of your protein needs. You eat this meal and it's healthy, filling, nutritious, full of GOOD fats in the coconut milk and almonds and screams fresh and bold flavours.

Two delicious sauces for pancakes!

Hi everyone.  Here are two easy to make fruit suaces to serve over pancakes or some coconut ice cream.  I made them a few weekends ago to serve with coconut pancakes for my best friend's birthday brunch and they went down a treat.  They are fresh, fruity and have just the right amount of sweetness.  Way more healthy than store bought jams!  Hope you enjoy them too.  Tors x 

Mango sauce

• 1 Large Mango (or 2 small mangoes)
• 1Tbsp Pineapple Sage Leaves
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod)

Puree the mango flesh, pineapple sage leaves and vanilla extract/seeds in a blender until smooth. 

Strawberry Sauce

• ½ punnet strawberries
• Juice of ½ lime
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp mint

Puree the strawberries, lime juice, mint and maple syrup in a blender until smooth. 

Melbourne Marathon Festival - October 14 2012

 “The miracle isn’t that I finished. 

The Miracle is that I had the courage to start”

I start this post with a philosophical quote from John Bingham and it makes me smile.  Because it makes me think about the amount of good wishes and support I received once I realised my goal of running the Melbourne Marathon wasn’t going to be achieved this year.  A friend of mine found this quote and inspired me to challenge myself and look beyond my comfort zone, and then a few days after I found out I had a small stress fracture in my foot I received a text message from my husband with a photo of this quote - and I knew exactly the meaning behind it.  He was telling me that it wasn’t about doing the marathon, it was about having the courage to believe I could do it, to enter, to train and push myself beyond what I thought were my limits.  I pushed through my limits surpassing my previous longest run (half marathon in April) with training runs of 24km and 28km. 

Make your own almond milk - you're already sweet enough!

There are a lot of different almond milk brands on the market and you will see that there's a whole lot of sugar that goes into most of them.  If you're in Australia, then you'll know that the sugar-free almond milk is much more expensive and can retail from $4-8  per litre!  Making almond milk yourself will cost you approximately $2-3 per litre (depending on where you live and the quality you are buying) and you know that it is sugar free.  It's so easy to make your own even my husband has mastered this!  So what are the health benefits of almond milk? It has a high nutritional content, but low in calories and provides a great alternative to people that are either lactose intolerant or are looking for a cow's milk alternative.  So make it yourself - you don't need the added sugar, you're sweet enough!  

If you're not convinced already, I've found this great poster that was presented at the Academic Excellence Showcase, Western Oregon University by Megan Stinson.  It examines and compares what people think is the healthiest milk are with the facts in an easy to read format.  
http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=aes
Stinson, Megan. "Dairy and Dairy Alternatives: Media Portrayal vs. Nutritional Facts." Poster presented at the Academic Excellence Showcase, Western Oregon University, May 31, 2012.

Banana and Coconut Bread

Just for the loyal readership of Grow Eat Run I have baked and taste tested a largish quantity of different banana bread recipes (yes, it was all for you!) And, I love this one.  A delictable combination of banana to keep it moist and the crunchiness of the walnuts and coconut makes this a perfect little treat.  A few other flavours to add to the mix are cinnamon and vanilla - yum!  Feel free to replace the maple syrup with honey if that's all you have in the cupboard, or use a little stevia (equal to 2 tsp) if you want to keep the glycemic index down.