Poppy-seed cake (gluten & dairy free)

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I love December, the year end with all the awesome food creations and yummy cakes.

Since I started my journey towards healthy eating – it’s become quite a challenge though. Finding gluten free, dairy free and sugar free desserts can be quite a challenge – as I had to say goodbye to all the traditional Hungarian winter treats – including ones with poppy-seeds.

I was so happy when my mum found this recipe and it ended up one of the quickest and tastiest festive cakes for me – and to be honest for my parents as well.  Hope you will enjoy it just as much as we did 😉

Recipe

poppyseedcake

Ingredients

  • 50g sultanas
  • 200ml water
  • 4 organic free-range eggs
  • 2 tsp agave syrup
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
  • 200g ground poppyseed
  • 100g shredded coconut
  • 2 medium sized organic apples

Method

Wash the sultanas and soak them in the water.

Beat the egg-whites with a drop of lemon juice and the yolks with the xylitol and agave syrup. Add the coconut oil, poppy-seeds, shredded coconut, sultanas and water to the egg yolks. Mix them all thoroughly and then slowly start to blend them with a hand mixer and start to add the beaten egg-whites to the mixture.

Pour half the mixture into a baking tray – the size should be around 230cm x 180cm (line the tin with baking paper or coconut oil first). Shred the 2 apples evenly and then pour over the remaining of the dough.

Bake it for 20 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius and then leave it in the oven for another 10 minutes on 150 degrees – check with a fork – once it doesn’t stick – it’s done. 🙂

Let it cool and enjoy with your favourite tea! x

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How to survive the festive season – any festive season ;)

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Just a quick note on my recent post on the Pulsin blog about how to survive the festive season without gaining weight and how to keep healthy all throughout the holiday season.

I hope you’ll find the tips useful and easy to implement in your busy lives 🙂

I really believe that these points are valid for any festivities – not just Christmas and year end.

Healthy Xmas Tips

Woman practicing yoga in living room

My favourite website for online yoga classes:

http://www.movementformodernlife.com

Take good care.

Edi x

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Getting ready for the new year

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Wow! Time has gone so fast and 2015 has almost closed its curtains on us. This time of the year for me is all about reflection – and my goal with that is to find gratitude for every single thiThankyoung that happened to me throughout the year. Good or bad – who am I to judge? They all helped me grow and to become who I am right now.

It’s so easy for us to complain, to never be satisfied, to want more, to chase something new – and yet it’s so important to feel grateful for every single day we are alive, all the amazing people in our lives.

So only 4 days before the year end, I invite you too –  to count your blessings, to be thankful for all the lessons, and tap yourself on the back for being the amazing human being you are right here and now. 🙂

Time for detox! You might think – ‘here we go again, don’t want to hear about it yet’. But I mean emotional detox – let’s get rid of all the greed, anger and foolishness, the self-limiting thoughts and let’s focus on our dreams and to become the best human beings we can be this coming year – and let’s all do this our own unique way. No comparison required.

Goodbye2015

It’s also time to forgive ourselves for resolutions that have never happened, let go of the past and focus on the present and the new year and new adventures to come.

Let go of what happened and get excited about all the new opportunities a new year can bring you.

You can make it all happen! You will make it all happen!

I’m wishing you all the strength, courage and seeking spirit to achieve all your dreams and to make 2016 a very special one!

Lots of love, Edi a.k.a. Nutreena  dark-key_01

Why eat a “Rainbow”?

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You might be wondering why all nutritionists are stressing the importance of eating a “rainbow diet” rainbow. Is it really that important? ‘I have my veg, so I’m fine, right?’ Well maybe not…

Even if you already know the importance of phytonutrients/phytochemicals, read on and get inspired to make your days as colourful as possible.

So what are they?

They are natural compounds of plants that are powerful defenders of health. Studies show that people who eat more plant foods have reduced risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Phytonutrients provide many functions in the plant itself, such as providing protection from pests and environmental stressors, along with imparting Blended green,yellow and purple smoothiescolor and distinctive tastes and smells. In the human body, phytonutrients stimulate enzymes that help the body get rid of toxins, boost the immune system, improve cardiovascular health, promote healthy estrogen metabolism, and stimulate the death of cancer cells.

Fruits and veggies are rich sources of phytonutrients, along with whole grains, legumes, herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, and teas. Phytonutrients in food come in all different colours—green, yellow-orange, red, blue-purple, and white.To promote good health,it is important to eat fruits and vegetables of varied color each day. Aiming for one to two of each color per day is a healthy goal to strive for! While darker-colored plants are generally higher in phytonutrients, fruits and veggies from the white family do have potent contributions to make.

Where to find them?

Sources of phytonutrients include any and all plant foods.

Fruits and veggies are rich sources of phytonutrients, along with whole grains, legumes, herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, and teas. Phytonutrients in food come in all different colors—green, yellow-orange, red, blue-purple, and white.To promote good health,it is important to eat fruits and vegetables of varied color each day. Aiming for one to two of each color per day is a healthy goal to strive for! While darker-colored plants are generally higher in phytonutrients, fruits and veggies from the white family do have potent contributions to make.

5 a day? – more like 9-13 a day!

Most people eat too few servings of plant foods every day. The old guidance of having your 5 a day are very conservative – just look at all the chronic epidemics (heart health, diabetes, obesity, cancer etc). We need much more – about 9-13 servings if we want to prevent chronic disease.

A typical serving is only half a cup of cooked vegetables, one cup of raw leafy vegetable, or a medium-sized piece of fruit. Fresh, cooked, and processed fruits and vegetables including frozen and canned, 100% fruit juices, 100% vegetable juices, and dried fruits are all considered as servings of fruits and vegetables

It would be best to aim for every meal of the day to have about 3-4 servings of plant foods so that at three general meals per day (not including snacks), you would make your serving requirement on a daily basis. Make half your lunch and dinner plate vegetables and you should have no problem meeting this requirements.

roastveggiesI’ll post my favourite roasted veggies recipe shortly (see pic), you can be as creative with it as you wish – and be very very generous with the spices (for even more phytonutrients, antioxidants and vitamins).The good thing about making a big portion is that it can be enjoyed as a side with your lunch or dinner on the weekend, but you can also supplement your lunch box salad – this way healthy carbs, fibre and colours can be ticked on your healthy lunch criteria 😉

Another wonderful way to increase the amount of colourful foods in our diet is smoothies – adding your blueberries, raspberries, mango etc. and the green “stuff” (spinach and kale) to them every morning will help you achieve your targets. 🙂

Make every day a colourful day 🙂                                                              Edi x

 

Welcome to my blog :)

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Welcome to Nutreena Blog!

Thanks so much for taking the time and visiting! These are very exciting times for me. Yesterday my brand spanking new website was born. As a Nutritional Therapist, you can’t not be a “foody”, right? Since my quest for healthy and at the same time nutritious, healing foods began, I’ve been much more inspired to cook as well. I will share as many recipes with you, as possible. All tried and tested – and easy to make. I will also do my best to share interesting topics with you on a weekly basis. This year has been a very busy one for me, with quite a lot of stress, lots of travelling and amazing foods all over the world. So watch this space forAppleheart posts on how to cope with an insane amount of stress in our daily lives, how to keep healthy on flights and at airports and where I go if I’d really like to treat myself (mostly in London, but wherever I’m travelling as well)

Hope you’ll enjoy my blog posts!

Take care,

Edi a.k.a.  Nutreena x

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