10 minute meals

If it wasn’t for my 10-minute meals, I too would be tempted by takeaways or just end up grazing all evening on crackers, cheese and probably a square of chocolate or 10.
To save you from needing to buy junk food or feeling like rubbish after snacking all evening without a vege in sight, I thought I would share a couple of ideas with you so you too can make a meal in just 10 minutes!

Courgette and mint omelette with zesty lemon

Serves 2 – multiply ingredients depending on how many people you need to feed

• 4 large eggs
• 2 large courgettes, grated (squeeze out all the moisture)
• zest of 1 lemon
• small handful mint leaves, chopped (or use dried herbs if you don’t have fresh)
• grated cheese

Step 1 Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix to combine.
Step 2 Heat a frying pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. Add egg mixture and cook over a medium heat until egg starts to set.
Step 3 Sprinkle over a little grated cheese. Grill until golden brown and egg is cooked through. Serve with a couple of chopped tomatoes and if you have it, a few slices of avocado – yum!
Here is another omelette recipe you can try, too.
If you don’t have any of these specific ingredients, you can make your own combo up! I would say omelettes are my number one standby meal option for busy nights.

Helping your kids to make healthier choices

Often when faced with a food choice, they will independently choose the healthier option. As adults, it’s our responsibility to ensure those choices are available.
Can you make a difference at your kids’ school? In my experience, absolutely. In fact, as parents we are often charged with the task of providing food at social and sporting events and class functions. Sometimes this is directly and sometimes this is via the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). If everybody makes a conscious effort to ensure their plate is a healthy one, it means our children are presented with the ability to choose wisely.

We’ve done this with great success at our school in Wellington. At a recent sports day barbecue, we offered a healthy option alongside the standard hot dog. We also made fresh fruit smoothies as an alternative to store-bought popsicles. Almost a quarter of the students chose the smoothie – proving that healthy can equal the more delicious option.

Six steps to a meaner, leaner body

1.  Eat MASSIVE amounts of veges

I eat 5-6 handfuls of veges a day, easily. I snack on veges ideas here>>, have a vege-based lunch (be it soup or salad) and I always always have two handfuls of veges as part of my evening meal. I apply this principle wherever I am – eating out, in, weekends – I make it happen.

2.  High-intensity training

Short, sharp bursts of exercise get you results – sprints, burpees, skipping, you name it, I will give it a go. I also include weight/resistance training too, a must for getting leaner. Building muscle mass means you burn more calories at rest. If you belong to a gym, ask someone there about sorting you a program with HIIT training and plenty of resistance stuff. Of course, be safe and get clearance from your doctor if you have any health issues.

cure bloating

That full, uncomfortable and cramped feeling that makes you covertly unbutton your jeans at a dinner, or spend the whole day dreaming about getting home, just to put your pyjama pants on – ring a bell? That’s bloating.

For many women, bloating is a part of day-to-day life. Many of us continue with our normal lifestyle and diet, and accept the bloating as normal, or at least unavoidable. We take over-the-counter remedies like antacids and natural anti-bloat remedies, but more often than not, what we are eating is the reason we experience bloating.

Bloating can be a symptom of food allergies like coeliac disease or lactose intolerance, as well as disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome. It can however, be a symptom of other, more sinister problems and if you are experiencing bloating on a regular basis, a trip to your GP is a good idea.
Targeting bloating through food

The biggest killer of women

Did you know that 50 women will lose their lives to a partially preventable disease this week? Want to have a guess what that is? It’s probably not what you’d think.

Although we have high rates of cancers in New Zealand, heart disease is the single greatest killer of women. We are five times more likely to die from heart disease than we are from breast cancer.

These startling facts have been top of mind for me recently, as I spoke at the weekend to a group of women as part of an event for the Heart Foundation’s Go Red for Women campaign. The campaign aims to educate women that heart disease is not just a man’s disease, and also to help us understand the symptoms of heart disease and heart attack.

Because another startling fact is that the symptoms of heart attacks in women are often quite different from those in men, and not what we might expect. As a result, women sometimes overlook the fact that they’re having a heart attack.

Most people think a heart attack feels like crushing chest pain. While this is certainly one symptom, women can experience a range of other symptoms, including a feeling of indigestion, back and jaw discomfort and nausea, along with shortness of breath, light-headedness and fainting. These symptoms can occur with or without chest discomfort. The Heart Foundation says this may be because women tend to have blockages not only in their main coronary arteries, but also in the tiny coronary artery blood vessels that branch off from the main ones. This is called microvascular coronary disease.