Whole wheat banana pancakes and fruit platter

food

I made this for my husband’s birthday! I have to admit that it doesn’t taste like buttermilk IHOP pancakes but they are light, delicious and good for you! No guilt!

What do you need?

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1/2 cup skim milk or almond milk

Oil spray

Fresh fruits

Honey

Unsweetened fat free greek yoghurt

Mix the eggs, milk, banana, flour, baking soda and salt in a blender

Under medium to low heat, spray pan and place 3 tablespoons of the mix in pan. Let the bottom set and then turn the pancake and cook the other side.

Spray the pan in between each pancake.

Do not try to do this on hight heat! Trust me! I had to throw about 4 away! 😦

Place fruits and yoghurt in between layers and drizzle with honey! I served this with a fruit platter with pretty much everything I had at home! Mix together honey and yoghurt for a delicious dip!

Enjoy!

Celebrating our birthdays!

Lifestyle

This week was extra special! It was my birthday followed by my husbands. The person that I am I had to celebrate it to the fullest!

It’s really easy to dread any upcoming celebration when you are trying to lead a new lifestyle. I was brainstorming for weeks trying to figure out what to do for our birthdays, the healthier way!

I had a lunch party for my cousins and really also a way for me to show them that healthy foods can be just as delicious!

The menu:

Honey Dijon citrus whole roast chicken

Seafood salad with chili, lime and coriander dressing

(I simply cooked the seafood with the sweet chili sauce and added in lime and coriander. Tossed that with salad greens!)

Cilantro brown rice

( Warm brown rice + 1 tbsp olive oil + salt + coriander + lime)

Sweet and spicy ground beef lettuce wraps

Fresh salsa and guacamole ( one of my friends made this!)

Cheese platter and flavored waters

Brownies ( I will add this recipe at a later date as it did not turn out exactly as I wanted, some liked it some didn’t so…..)

Every dish was wiped clean! YAY! I also gave the sweet chili sauces as birthday party favors 😀

Since our birthdays were on a weekday, well mine was, I had the lunch party on a Sunday before. I felt so pleased being able to feed my family what I was eating on a daily basis and what was making us feel so good! It wasn’t a no carb thing nor was it a huge table full of death warrants, it was something I could feed my guests, guilt-free!

Moving onto the mandatory midnight cake cutting ritual, I was really hell bent on not eating a cake at midnight!! I mean I know it was my birthday but c’mon it just didn’t make sense! I have recently discovered my love for unsweetened fat free greek yoghurt and I thought why not a parfait? My husband and I put it together and it looked as great as it tasted!! We scrapped it off! It was full of goodness rather than refined sugars and butter. I didn’t think it would do the job but it clearly did as I repeated the same parfait for Zayed’s birthday, candles and all!

You can layer is however YOU want! Add any fruits YOU want! So no sieving through prepackaged yoghurt bowls of the things you don’t like! It is also a great mid day snack!

What do you need?

Unsweetened fat free greek yoghurt, you can also use natural yoghurt

Sugar free granola or any sugar free muesli or cereal

Fruits of choice

Acacia honey or any good quality honey

Easy to make, full of nutrients and great for your body!

I know this is getting quite long but here’s the last part of the ‘homemade’ birthday celebration! I made my husband brunch in bed!

Whole wheat banana pancakes and fruit platter!

It was the perfect weekend brunch and it allowed us to ‘cheat’ without feeling devastated about it! I mean if you call 1/2 cup of flour cheating! 😉 He was ecstatic saying that he wanted to eat really slowly as he was afraid to finish it! Success!

There’s no reason to be scared about falling of the wagon during a celebration nor is there a reason to make yourself believe that it is okay to fall of the wagon because it’s your birthday! I worked out twice on my birthday and went to my favorite japanese restaurant for the the miso black cod! I couldn’t be happier with the way I felt, this isn’t a fad diet or a crash diet, this is my life!

Happy birthday to us!

Why shouldn’t you mix Carbohydrates and Proteins?

food

This food plan that I follow is the one devised by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. Their bestselling book “Fit for Life” was first published in 1985, and was re-released in 2010 and contains information in details. Buy the book

Here are the basics:

Till 12pm

You must only eat fruit, homemade smoothies in this period. No coffee, tea, toast etc. You can drink herbal teas, and water. This works as fruits have their own digestive enzymes and only takes 20-35 minutes to digest. Fruits also contain fructose which will aid you to give up sucrose, refined sugar!

Lunch

Carbohydrate + Vegetables (preferably steamed as it holds most nutrients)

(30:70 ratio)

Dinner

Protein + Vegetables (preferably steamed as it holds most nutrients)

(30:70 ratio)

Do not mix carbohydrates with proteins. Protein is digested by acid and carbohydrates are digested by alkaline. Alkaline cancels out acid and so the food consumed is not properly assimilated and is very difficult to digest.

Do not eat fruit after a main meal as it will ferment your meal.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil to main meals.

My daily everyday

Lifestyle

It’s good to be back home, rejuvenated from a month long holiday! Even though I followed my London routine while I was away, it’s simply not the same.

I used to be pretty much like a sloth before; I went to school, ate whatever, sedentary mostly, sleeping at strange hours (with sleep aid), woke up past noon. Oh! It was a mess!! And by the way I was always tired or felt sick just ask my husband or sisters.

Looking at my everyday now, I must say I have come a long way in just a few short months. Remember it takes 21 days to form a habit!

My day starts with me craving for the fruit smoothie. Blitz the fruits with some spinach and kale. Add in matcha green tea and then stir in some chia seeds.

Why matcha green tea? Why chia seeds?

I drink half of the smoothie an hour before training.

Train with Gary for an hour and half. By that time I am dead beat!

Within 20 mins of training, I drink a whey protein shake with water followed by multivitamins that’s when your body is craving for all that goodness! Then i head to work feeling quite full. At some point before lunch, I take the remaining portion of the smoothie.

Why whey protein?

I take lunch around 12:30 pm which consists of carbohydrates + veggies

Between lunch and dinner, I have 2 snacks.

Snack # 1: Either apple with nut butter or seeds or porridge. Anything that is slow releasing. Fruit or milk chia puddings are great too.

Snack # 2: Another whey protein shake with water.

Then I take dinner by 7:30 pm which consists of proteins + veggies

Why this food plan?

Around 9:30 pm I drink some chamomile or herbal tea

By 10:30 pm, I am already dying to sleep. This is so unlike me but I love it!

And all day I drink a lot of water (4 liters) in many forms and keep nuts and seeds handy. You never want to feel hungry thats a sign of your metabolism slowing down.

You just have to make it work around your schedule. Everyone’s life is different and there is no template to getting it just perfect. You devise your own plan and make it work for you! Just remember to add in all the goodness so each day you are one step towards your goal. Everything you put into your body should have a reason, when something doesn’t thats when you toss it out!

You decide what goes into your body, it deserves the best!

fklifestyle

Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tip toe if you must, but take the step!

fruits

Whole wheat banana pancakes and fruit platter

Celebrating our birthdays!

Why shouldn’t you mix Carbohydrates and Proteins?

My daily everyday