New York City Food Adventures :)

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I had the great good fortune to visit one of my favourite cities again this August, New York city is just so much fun.

I guess as a nutritionist it’s a different kind of fun – but I promise, it was amazing.

The challenge is to find tasty food, ALWAYS, and for me it also has to be healthy. I am so sad when people think “healthy” to be boring and dull. It really upsets me if they think that if you’re eating healthy you’re missing out. I hope my blog will show you, that it’s not the case and NYC is the perfect place to find the best of all – tasty, nutritious, ethically sourced food.

AcaibowlEdiI really like to start my day at one of the Juice Generation shops when I go there. (https://www.juicegeneration.com) They have anything you’d want for a yummy breakfast. Cold pressed green juices, awesome smoothies and acai bowls all can be boosted with extra plant based protein powders – all vegan and gluten free, colourful ingredients, and they use their own home made nut milks. We tried the Amazing Green Acai bowl topped with blueberries and hemp seeds and after my 10km run around Central Park – I chose the Protein Revolution bowl, both were super delicious and filling.AcaiBowl

For lunch – especially if you’re playing with the thought of becoming vegan I can definitely recommend Candle 79 (http://candle79.com) – it’s on the East side of Central Park, really cute little restaurant, their meals are very filling and flavoursome – great introduction to some exciting veggie dishes. As the weather was super hot I chose a melon salad with some grilled tofu and vegan cashew cheese, while my friend tried their super yum crepe filled with all the veggie goodness you can imagine. We enjoyed our meals so much, that we just simply didn’t talk to each other for a change 😀

Coffee lovers are also well supported in New York, there are so many great little independent stores, but we also found some nice quality chains there too. One of our favourites was Joe Coffee (http://joenewyork.com) and the ultimate favourite for bullet proof coffee and paleo food – Hu Kitchen (http://hukitchen.com) We had several meals here, dinner and lunch, hot or cold, meat or vegan – it’s up to you, you’ll find the tastiest dishes, best raw vegan and sugar free desserts and most amazing chocolates.

HuKitchenEdi

Our last dinner we chose another one of the ethical and organic chains, Bare Burger (http://www.bareburger.com) All their veggies are organic, they support little farms, their meat is also organic, grass fed and all natural. You just can’t go wrong if you fancy something naughty. They have gluten free buns, vegan, veggie, and different meat patties and you can build your own burger – toppings are also pretty awesome, the selection contains from guacamole to kimchi anything delicious and nutritious you can imagine. My guilty pleasure was their sweet potate fries. But I ran it off next day, all around Central Park, promise.

RunmapNYCA weekend brunch must do is Chelsea Market and walking it off on the High Line – we found the perfect place there as well called Indie Fresh (http://indiefresh.com) – they have healthy soups, broths, smoothies, eggs, pho – all the good stuff your potentially hungover tummy can dream of. 😉

I even found a lovely organic café in Hoboken (Pure Pita) for our last lunch – and we were very positively surprised by the food quality, the choice of yummy meals available and the service was extra nice. (http://purepita.com) We both chose one of their brown rice bowls with lots of veggies and Ahi tuna. It was yum.

I find it super easy to locate quality food in this city and hope my few recommendations will help anyone choosing the right food there as well.

Have you got any favourite places to eat there? Leave a comment if you’d like to share J

Peace, Love & Juice 😉
Edi x

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Eating healthy in the City

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The title of my blog my sound a little bit controversial for you, but it is not impossible to find healthy options during your lunch hour food hunt.

I have spent 10 years working in the City and especially after starting my training in Nutrition it became my challenge to find the healthiest options while out and about.

It’s wonderful to see that most of the high street cafes and restaurants are recognising the new demand for nourishing, vitamin and nutrient packed lunches and your usual triangle sandwich is not good enough for most customers any more.Skinny_ThaiGreen_0

Since joining SuperWellness this January, I’ve also become part of something great. A team of Registered Nutritional Therapists, who are helping city workers transform their habits. We have all been there and have long years of experience in working for corporates, being under tremendous amounts of pressure and finding food could often become a less priority.

We also recognise though the importance of nourishing, healthy meals and how these can actually become our allies while juggling a crazy busy day.

So here we are, our mission became helping our ex companies and all corporate employees to create new, healthy habits. We run wellness awareness days, nutrition centred talks and seminars, food workshops and challenges. We write blog posts on interesting and current topics, all backed up by latest research and spiced with our personal recommendations.

In the spirit of all this, we have launched a series of helping anyone working in the city to find the healthiest food options, and this month, I reviewed POD and how to choose your meals there. Read about it here.

Nutty Nibble Pot copy

If you are a Pret fan, my colleague, Francesca has posted a wonderful review on their menu as well here.

 

Just because we are busy we don’t have to follow the unhealthy eating habits any more.

Enjoy your lunch 😉 x

Heart-healthy Beetroot Smoothie Recipe

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As some of you already know I am one of the proud Team members of SuperWellness Nutrition, and what we do is something truly amazing and transformationaBeetrootl. More info here.

All of us are Registered Nutritional Therapists and have been working in a corporate environment previously. Our stories are very different, but they all led us to our biggest passion: healing with food and lifestyle changes.

We are working really hard to deliver Nutrition Centred Talks, Seminars and Challenges to employees as part of their corporate wellness. Our approach is unique, as we focus on the most of the times neglected – but almost the most important thing – healthy nutrition. This is our way to give back to the companies as well as employees. We empower them with very practical, and easily implemented advice to change their health and wellness, and consequently their productivity, vitality and drive as well.

We have some amazing talks and topics already (including Brain Health, Digestive Health, Stress etc) and we just launched our latest talk on Heart Health.

This is something very close to my own heart as well (pun intended LOL) – and therefore I’m sharing one of my favourite heart health recipes with you:

Beetroot smoothie

Ingredients:Beetrootsmoothie1

1 medium beetroot
1 handful of walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vegan protein powder (pea, hemp, rice)
100-150ml of organic almond/coconut milk

Optional:
2 handful of organic spinach leaves
1 scoop of chocolate flavour superfood powder
Toppings can be:
pistachios, shredded coconut, beepollen, blueberries, etc

Method:
Place all ingredients in your blender, blend for a minute or two and enjoy with your favourite toppings

In my next blog post I will share the amazing benefits of beetroot and walnuts.
#takehearttakepart #superwellness

If you’d like us to come to your company, please get in touch via below form. x

Beetrootsmoothie2

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London Marathon is coming – volunteering for the British Red Cross

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April in London – celebrating the 35th London Marathon

April is such a wonderful month. It’s the time of the year when nature awakens again, when the sun starts to shine more often, when the warm winter coats are disappearing, you can see daffodils everywhere. April in London is especially magical – if you live here, you know what I mean 🙂

April is also the month of one of the most important and most amazing sport events of the year – the London Marathon.

HistoryLondonMarathonCartoon

The current London Marathon was founded in 1981 by former Olympic champion and journalist Chris Brasher and athlete John Disley.  Shortly after completing the New York City Marathon in November 1979 Brasher wrote an article for The Observer newspaper which began:

“To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.”(1)

Inspired by the people of New York coming together for this occasion, he asked “whether London could stage such a festival?”(1) Within months the London Marathon was born, with Brasher making trips to America to study the race organisation and finance of big city marathons such as New York and Boston, the oldest in the world. He secured a contract with Gillette of £50,000, established the organisation’s charitable status, and set down six main aims for the event, which he not only hoped would echo the scenes he had witnessed in New York, but also put Britain firmly on the map as a country capable of organising major events.The first London Marathon was held on 29 March 1981, more than 20,000 applied to run. 6,747 were accepted and 6,255 crossed the finish line on Constitution Hill. (2)

Back to 2016

A record number of 247,069 people have applied for a place in the 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon following the decision to keep the online ballot application system for 2016 open for five days.

More than 55 per cent of the applications for 2016 were from people who have never run a marathon and more than 42 per cent of the applicants were women. (3)

The race will take place in less than 3 weeks on the 24th April 2016 and as a running enthusiast, I cannot wait to cheer all those amazing people who chose to give up lots of free time and undergo a really hard training period and challenge their limits both physically and mentally.

They all have their stories, their “Why?”’s and this race is such a wonderful example of humanity, comradeship and the positive power of supporting and encouraging each other. Peace and unity.

If you’re in London on that weekend, make sure you go out there and cheer those crazy amazing people – they will so appreciate it, it will help them fly.

Having run 3 half marathons myself I have experienced how great those high fives from kiddies and cheering from anyone are.

As a nutritionist I had the great privilege to give a talk and nutrition tips to the fundraisers for my favourite charity – The British Red Cross on the 5th April in the Virgin Money Lounge. After my presentation we heard an experience from a lovely finisher from last year, about the truly remarkable and very much needed work the British Red Cross do – examples of how far the fundraisers efforts go and we all learnt some breathing relaxation techniques and easy and safe yoga poses to stretch and recover pre and post the event.

carbloadingsquirrelSport nutrition is one of my favourite topics, so if you’d like to improve your performance, signed up for a race (let it be running, cycling, cross fit etc) or just wondering how to support your exercise regime with good nutrition and you’d like to make sure you’re fuelling properly for maximum performance and quick and efficient recovery, please get in touch.

If you are running the London Marathon this year, massive respect and wishing you best of luck!

Edi x

Healthy Gluten-free Pancakes

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Happy Pancake Day 2016! It’s my great pleasure to share this super easy and super yummy recipe with you all.

PancakesIngredients:

  • 4 organic ripe bananas
  • 4 organic free range eggs
  • 80gr of brown rice flour
  • 1 tsp organic cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp organic raw coconut oil

Method:

  1. (Invite friends around)
  2. Mash the bananas with a fork and add the eggs, cinnamon and coconut oil. (make sure the coconut oil is liquid so if you need to, warm it up a little bit)
  3. Mix them in a food processor or use a hand mixer.
  4. Add the rice flour and mix again thoroughly, then leave it to rest for for 10 minutes
  5. After the 10 minutes, blend the mixture throughly again and your pancakes are ready to be fried.
  6. Use your pancake pan to fry them, fry both sides for a few minutes. This mixture is so amazing, you won’t need any extra oil – it just won’t stick and will be super easy to flip as well.
  7. Enjoy your pancakes with organic berries, and any other topping you like – and make sure you share it with your friends. 😉

Pancakefriends

 

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Breakfast for Champions – 10/10

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The last Champion breakkie is here! And this is a morning time saver. Because you’ll have to make it in the evening, leave it in the fridge, then only add your toppings in the morning and either enjoy it straight away – or take it with you to work, to the gym, park, wherever you’re going.

I love chia seeds as they are not only high in omega 3 essential fatty acids, but also great sources of protein. So perfect for blood sugar balancing, easy to make and you can dress them with literally anything – they will be great. My sweet tricks are my usual berries, organic ground cinnamon and vanilla powder. At the moment those two are added to all my breakfasts, my coffees and matcha lattes as well 😉

OvernightCHiaBowlBreakfast for champions 10.

Overnight chia bowl 

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 tbsp of chia seeds
  • 150ml of organic unsweetened almond/hazelnut/coconut milk
  • Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder (optional)
  • handful of almonds/walnuts to dress
  • blueberries to dress
  • cinnamon and vanilla powder to dress

Method:

Add the chia seed and almond milk in your favourite bowl and mix well, until all the little seeds are covered with the milk and it starts to become a little bit jelly like. You can even add a little bit of cinnamon then and cover the bowl and leave in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, add your favourite nuts/seeds/paleo granola/ and berries and enjoy!

It’s that simple. If you forgot to leave it in the fridge but still fancy this for breakfast, stir in the chia seeds well, and leave it while you take a shower. It does get to the right consistency and soaks up all the almond milk in about 15 minutes.

Enjoy – all the 10 recipes!

Happy blending, stirring, cooking! And have a magical weekend!

Edi x

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Breakfast for Champions – 9/10

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Let’s start Thursday morning with a healthy kick – another green smoothie for you all. This one is perfect especially if you’re having it after your exercise, in which case I would also recommend you to add a scoop of vegetarian protein powder to it (Pulsin, Sun Warrior, Purple Balance – just to mention a few options).

Keep warm and enjoy the blending 😀ChiaBananaSpinachWalnut

Breakfast for champions 9.

Banana-walnut-spinach-smoothie

Ingredients:

  • 1 small or half a big organic banana
  • 3 tbsp of chia seeds
  • 150ml of organic unsweetened almond/coconut milk
  • 2 big handfuls of organic baby spinach leaves
  • handful of walnuts
  • 1 scoop of protein powder (optional)
  • blueberries and cinnamon to dress

Method:

Blend the almond milk and spinach first – then add all other ingredients and blend again until smooth. Dress with blueberries (or any of your favourite berries) and sprinkle over some cinnamon.

Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Edi x

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Breakfast for Champions – 8/10

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Hope your week is going well – and that you’re enjoying the healthy smoothies and the ‘not so boring’ porridge recipes 😉

Today I’m sharing with you my longing to summer and the strawberry season. You don’t have to spend a fortune on organic fruit though, you can buy them frozen for much cheaper and possibly packed with more vitamins as well as they don’t necessarily have to travel the world to get on your plate. Try online or I know that Planet Organic, As Nature Intended or Whole Foods definitely store them.

Breakfast for champions 8.

Berry Chia Pudding

Ingredients:BerryChiaPud

  • 150ml of unsweetened organic almond milk
  • handful of organic mixed berries (or frozen berries – leave them in the fridge overnight so they won’t be that cold first thing in the morning)
  • 3 tbsp chia seeds
  • optional any booster: maca powder, raw cacao powder
  • handful of walnuts
  • organic toasted coconut flakes
  • organic raspberries (or any other berries to dress)

Method

Put all ingredients (except the coconut flakes and extra raspberries) and blend until smooth. Dress and enjoy! Have an amazing day! Hopefully the sun will shine on you today, but even if it isn’t, this bowl of healthy goodness will defo make you shine brighter 😉

Edi x

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Breakfast for Champions – 7/10

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Getting ready for your Tuesday morning? Would you like to boost your immune system with some green goodness again?

This is the smoothest smoothie you can imagine and the secret ingredient is avocado. Don’t get discouraged, give it a go, it’s going to be amazing! 😉

Breakfast for Champions 7.

Avocado banana spinach protein bowlAvocado-Spinach-Protein_Bowl

Ingredients:

  • half an avocado
  • half a banana
  • big handful of spinach
  • 1 scoop of vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder
  • 150ml of unsweetened almond/coconut milk
  • handful of pistachios
  • blueberries
  • beepollen

Method:

Add the almond milk and spinach in the blender/Nutri bullet and blend until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, and blend again. Pour your smoothie in your favourite bowl – and dress with blueberries, pistachios and bee pollen for some extra boost and protein source.

Enjoy x

Edi

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Breakfast for Champions – 6/10

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Is it Sunday evening already? Are you planning to start the week with some healthy choices?

Here’s my 6th champion breakfast to help you with just that 😉

Breakfast for champions 6.

Four Grain (Gluten-free) Porridge with Grated Apples 

Ingredients:

  • 1 tsp of raw organic coconut oil4grainPorridgewithApples
  • 40-50g four grain porridge mix (I chose Amisa gluten-free)
  • 100 ml organic unsweetened almond/coconut/hazelnut milk
  • 50ml water
  • 1 apple grated
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • coconut yoghurt to dress
  • bluberries
  • walnuts

Method:

Cook the four grain mix in some coconut oil for the first few minutes, then add the apples and the nut milk. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the grated apples. Add the water if the porridge soaked up all the nut milk. Cook for a few minutes, until both the grains and apple feel cooked.

When done, serve in a bowl and dress with coconut yoghurt, walnuts (or any nuts) and blueberries. You can add extra cinnamon if you need more sweetness. Enjoy x

Edi

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As always, any comments or feedback, please get in touch below…

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