Have you taken a breath today?

If we take the time to listen we realise that we have an amazing body that gives us messages, either through feeling an emotion, tension or pain. But, it also gives us a solution to soothing ourselves, and the solution is the breath.

How many times in a day do you remember to breathe or take a deep breath? Sometimes I’ll come to the end of my day and realise that I haven’t taken any, instead through our unconscious programming our body has taken control and done it for us. Similarly, we don’t have to remember how to grow our hair, digest our food or learn to sleep, because our body is clever enough to manage these processes for us. However, when we do remember to breathe we empower ourselves to create our own inner peace and tranquility, giving our bodies the opportunity to refresh and reboot, which helps us to feel more balanced, optimistic and aware.

When working as a therapist I help my clients to relax and work through any emotion or physical pain through focusing on their breath and using it to create space whether that is in the mind or focusing on a physical tension that manifests itself somewhere in the body. Just take a moment to think about the last time you were stressed or worried about something and note where you felt it physically. In your tummy or chest perhaps? Do you remember what you did you soothe it?

Realising that we have an inbuilt tool to managing tension, stress or even panic through the breath can change our whole reality and our perception of both what is going on in the world around us and in our our own body. Through taking some time to breathe you can soothe and resolve feelings of discomfort, through focusing on massaging that part of the body with the breath – it really is a wonder.

I notice this power the most when I am running hypnotherapy and EFT sessions in preparation for birth with my pregnant clients. As I begin a calming relaxation with them we always focus on the breath first. I am always struck by the true beauty of pregnancy as I see the mother-to-be just relax into her body as they create their own serenity, their own paradise through slowly melting into a personal peaceful sanctuary. It makes me smile when they tell me how the baby has positively responded to those moments of sheer tranquility; always a reminder of how beautifully connected mother and baby are.

To allow the body to calm, all of our bodies are built with something called the parasympathetic function; this enables us to relax. We can switch this on through taking some deep tummy breaths. This is something you can do relatively privately (no one will ever know!) but in a public space. At work, travelling to and from work on public transport or at home. Breathing is key to our health because it can  overpower our stress response which locks our body into survival mode, shutting down some of our bodies day-to-day functionality so that we focus our energy on surviving. This is ok once in while but if you are regularly activating this it can begin to weaken your immune system as your body begins to feel overwhelmed by the the regular release of stress hormone and lack of sleep.

The key thing to remember is that you will need to take a longer exhale than inhale. So begin with breathing in for four counts and out for seven and see how that rhythm works for you. You can make it shorter or longer, and as you experiment you will soon find your bodies natural rhythm. Through taking the time to breathe it will give your body a soothing break. Make sure that you breathe from your tummy up and place your hand on your stomach to connect with it. Too often we are breathing from our chests and throats and not truly allowing the body to benefit or be fueled by refreshing new oxygen.

I have shared some breathing technniques called 7/11 breathing and HeartMath here.

Like anything this takes time, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the prospect when we are already so busy. Consider focusing on your breathe at some point in your lunch break, on your journey to a from work, at the end of a work out, when you’re cooking your evening meal or perhaps when you take a bath or before bedtime. Even consider using the time that you would intermittently browse the internet or social media to focus on your breath instead. By integrating it into another day-to-day task just makes it feel so much more manageable and possible.

We were all born to breathe and it’s a magically soothing tool that we should all be learning to empower us to manage our own wellness and increase our day to day mindfulness.

Here’s also a little vlog that I made last night, you can have a watch or listen to it as a podcast.

Dairy-free potato gratin

Everyone who tries this delicious plant powered potato gratin comments that it’s just as creamy and delicious as the dairy version but feels a lot lighter. This is really simple and quick to make and can be a scrumptious side dish for a stew, a pie or Sunday dinner. If you’re like me, you’ll want to eat a whole bowl of it when you’re snuggled on the sofa one autumnal evening – this is the ultimate comfort food.

Ingredients

• 600g potatoes
• 400ml coconut milk
• 1 onion (around 100g)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• Half a cup of nutritional yeast
• 1 spring onion (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Method

Turn the oven on to 200 degrees (fan).

Slice and dice the onion (red or white) and pop it in the frying pan with a drizzle of oil – I use rapeseed oil. Cook it on a low to medium heat while you slice the potato into really thin rounds.

As you start to smell the rich sweetness of the onions and they become nice and soft add the can of coconut milk to the pan and stir.

When the coconut milk is warm add the garlic powder and the nutritional yeast. Continue to stir until the nutritional yeast has dissolved into the mixture.

Add the salt and pepper.

Lightly grease the bottom of the baking dish with a little oil and then pour a little of the mixture in. Add the first two layers of potato slices.

Then pour more of the coconut mixture in, make sure all of the potato is covered before adding two more layers of potato. Keep on doing this until you come you have used up all of the potatoes, making sure you have a little bit of mixture to coat the final layer.

Add the slice spring onions and sprinkle more nutritional yeast on top.

Cook for 50 minutes and then serve.

Nourish

What is nutritional yeast?

It’s a deactivated yeast and is a complete protein while being super rich in B vitamins. The one I use is also fortified with B12 which is usually only found it animal products. It has a natural cheesy flavour which is why I add it to anything which is intended to imitate cheese. You can find it in most health food shops or online. I use the Marigold health foods version.

This version of potato gratin is totally approved of by my family and friends who eat dairy. I hope if you’re lactose intolerant or vegan you find this recipe – I think it will make your autumn. Let me know 🙂 

Hx

Vegan ‘chorizo’ with creamy courgette and sweet potato noodles

I choose to eat vibrantly. The more colour on the plate, the happier I am. If there is anything I have learned over the last ten months; it’s that you eat with your eyes first. This dish is beautiful on the eye, with citrus-coloured noodles topped with a golden cream sauce which is set off perfectly with a deep pink plant-powered ‘chorizo’.

I created and cooked this for my friends last night who are all fans of meat chorizo and they loved it. I hope you love it too.

This serves four people.

Ingredients 

‘Chorizo’

• 120g sweet red pepper
• 120g sun dried tomatoes (rinsed)
• 100g walnuts
• 50g oats
• 0.5 tbsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp ground cumin
• 0.5 tsp mild chilli powder
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.5g ground garlic

Cream sauce

• 600g squash
• Drizzle of rapeseed or olive oil
• 150 cashews (soaked for in cold water for two hours)
• half cup of nutritional yeast
• 300ml plant milk (i.e. almond, oat, soya)
• 150ml water

Noodles

• 2 standard courgette
• 2 standard sweet potato
• tsp coconut oil (or rapeseed or olive oil)

Equipment

I use a Nutribullet to blend the sauce, a Magimix 3200 food processor to make the chorizo and a spiralizer to make the noodles. If you don’t have a spiralizer you can use pasta or gnocchi.

Method

1. Set your oven to 200 degrees.
2. Peel the squash and cut it into bite-size cubes. Place it in a bowl and drizzle a little rapeseed or olive oil. Top with salt and pepper. Use your hands to move the squash around the bowl to ensure it is well seasoned and covered with a little oil.
3. Spread the squash out evenly on a baking tray and cook for 50 minutes at 200 degrees. My fan oven is a little old – if you have a healthier, happier oven 180 degrees may be more appropriate.
4. De-seed the red pepper, rinse the sun dried tomatoes (if kept in a jar with oil) and pop them in the food processor along with the walnuts, oats and spices. Pulse the mixture until comes together. Although it should be relatively smooth it should still have some texture.
5. Roll the chorizo mix into sausages, place on grease-proof
   paper and pop in the fridge for 40 minutes or so to chill.
6. Once the squash is cooked let it cool on the tray before blending. It should be soft, but hard enough to still hold it’s shape and not mushy.
7. Blend half of the squash, cashew nuts nutritional yeast and 200ml of the plant milk until smooth. Gradually add more of the squash, milk and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. When all blended together this will be quite thick, if you want it to be thinner, add more plant milk or water when you come to heat it later.
8. Peel the sweet potatoes and spiralizer. Wash the skin of the courgette and then spiralize, place in a wok with the coconut oil and gently heat. When you serve the noodles they should still be firm and a little warm – the bonus of eating these relatively raw is that they retain so many more nutrients. 
9. Remove the chorizo from the freezer and slice into rounds. It should be firm but still easy to cut.
10. Warm a frying pan with half a tsp of coconut oil and place the chorizo in. Cook at a medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side. When you turn it you should notice that that it has darkened and looks a little grilled.
11. In the meantime pour the cream sauce in to a saucepan and heat, continually stirring at a medium heat to ensure it doesn’t stick or burn.
12. Serve up the noodles and top with the cream and chorizo.

This chorizo is a lot softer than the mean version but the use of paprika and other traditional chorizo spices give it that very familiar smell which wins over everyone who is doubtful that the plant-based version will ever compare. If you like your chorizo hot, add more chilli powder and if you love the smokiness of paprika load it up.

Overall this meal is surprisingly fulfilling and you may be surprised at how comfortably full you feel relatively quickly. If you want to add in even more veggies, try stir-fying the noodles with sliced chestnut mushrooms and peas.

Nourish

The nuts in this meal are well-known for their heart boosting powers, strengthening our bodies against cardiovascular disease as well as cancer. Walnuts are rich in anti-oxidants and omega-3, while cashews are rich in zinc and iron which supports a healthy immune system.

Sweet potatoes are high in nutrients but low on the glycemic index which helps stabilise our blood sugar levels, keeping any cravings and hunger at bay. They also support our bodies to lower bad cholesterol and are also high in anti-oxidants and vitamin E.

🌟

I really hope you enjoy this recipe this Autumn and do let me know what you think. 

Hx

Scrumptious green juice

This green juice is scrumptious. It’s full of veggies like kale and cucumber which are high in bioavailable vitamins and minerals – this means that they are easily absorbed by your body. It also provides an excellent source of bone boosting calcium and is high in plant protein. I’ve topped it up with helpful plants like kiwis and cucumber which actually help the body to break down and absorb this protein goodness more efficiently.

This vibrant drink tastes refreshing and the kiwi gives it a delicate sweetness. Because of the protein content it leaves me feeling full and nourished. It’s super easy to make – it’s really just a case of throwing it all in a the blender, pouring it into a glass, drinking it, and letting it work it’s magic.

Scrumptious green juice

Ingredients

• 1/5 cucumber (around 100g)
• Big handful spinach
• Big handful kale
• 1 green kiwi
• 1 scoop (around 30g) organic hemp protein (optional)
• Tablespoon spirulina
• 10 almonds
• Teaspoon chia seeds
• Half a juice of one lemon
• Top up with water or coconut water

I always use the large Nutribullet cup for all my juices.

Cucumber

I love using cucumbers in my juices because they give the flavour a taste of freshness.

I actually feel a bit sorry for cucumbers, because I don’t think they’re perceived to have all that much gravitas in comparison to other veggies. They’re the kind of vegetable that just gets thrown on a green salad without a second thought. Cucumbers though, are actually pretty awesome and can be especially useful when it comes to maintaining a healthy digestive system.

When using cucumber in this juice just wash the skin and chop it into chunks – you want to include everything. The seeds act as a diuretic which helps to maintain the body’s water balance while the skin is a super source of chlorophyll which supports digestion. Cucumbers also contain a digestive enyzime called erepsin which helps to cleanse and tone the intestines.

Curly kale

Kale is hogging the limelight right now, in fact, you can’t walk into sandwich shop without stumbling over a packet of kale crisps – they are everywhere.

So why is everyone going so krazy for kale? Well, kale has the highest source of antioxidants in comparison to all other veggies. If you are ever making your own version of a green smoothie, always shove a handful of kale in it. It also reigns supreme over every other vegetable when it comes to both iron and calcium content, one portion of kale provides you with a 1/5 of your calcium intake – if you only eat plant-based foods like me, it’s worth stocking up on kale for healthy bones and teeth.

Like most veggies, the less you cook them the more nutrients you retain so popping this in your juice is a really effective way of eating it. By adding the lemon juice they work together to boost your body’s absorption powers. This means that you’ll absorb optimum levels of iron and calcium.

Green kiwi

Everyone is trying to stay clear of colds and the flu at this time of the year and kiwis can help you. I’ve discovered that they’re a particularly good resource to help our body strengthen its immune system because they really high in vitamin C.

Like kale, kiwi is best eaten raw  so when I put a green kiwi in this juice, I simply cut of the nobble at the end give the skin a bit of a scrub under water and put it in whole. These little fruits are so full of fibre that I don’t want to lose out to any of it by scraping out the green inside away from the skin. Two kiwis a day can provide you with 20% of your recommended fibre allowance and are great at keeping your digestive system moving.

The little black seeds though small contain omega 3 fatty acids which support a healthy heart by acting as a natural blood thinner. Pretty amazing.

Green kiwis may be small but they pack a big nutritional punch

Almonds

Think a juice won’t keep you feeling full? Add in some almonds and you may be surprised at what happens. This particular nut is full of monosaturated fats and so takes a long time to be fully digested, keeping hunger pangs at bay.

Almonds are also even higher in calcium than Kale so this nutty addition helps to boost your intake for the day. They are also high in vitamin E which supports a healthy cardiovascular system.

Spirulina 

“Have you got that mouldy pond scum in your smoothie again today Hannah?”  My work colleagues are referring to the impressive green superhero which is spirulina. It may smell a little bit funky but based on its hugely impressive nutritional benefits I will continue to eat it.

So now you might be wondering if spirulina actually does come from a pond? The answer is yes. It is a type of blue green algae that grows in both fresh and salt water. That might turn you off, but hopefully, you’ll change your mind when I say it’s been referred to as the most nutritional plant on planet Earth! Holy moly! Get this stuff in your juice!

Spirulina actually rivals eggs for protein content and per gram is far higher in protein than red meat. It also contains all the amino acids we need. It’s far more digestible than red meat so for vegans constantly battling against protein deficiency statements just tell everyone about spirulina, it wins hands down. It is also full of vitamin B1, B2, B3, copper and iron and also contains good levels of magnesium and potassium.

A packet of spirulina will cost you about £10 for 200g – I buy the Naturya product. It might sound like a lot but it does last if you’re only using a tablespoon a day.

Chia seeds

These seeds have also become super popular in the last year or so. Some people call them Ki-a, others pronounce them Chi-a – the correct way is the latter. You can find them now in a lot of supermarkets and places like Holland & Barrett, as well as online. They can be quite expensive so it’s worth considering buying them in bulk. You can use them on salads, stir-fries, smoothies, porridge andcakes so they’re worth the investment.

They a great supporter of heart health, being high in omega-3 and also high in calcium and magnesium for strong bones.

Spinach

Spinach is high in vitamin K which boosts your bones and when eaten raw it’s best absorbed through adding lemon juice. Spinach helps fight inflammation in the body and its antioxidant properties can help reduce the risk of some cancers. For more information in spinach check out my choco-root smoothie post.

Organic hemp protein powder

Hemp is a complete source of protein (containing all 21 amino acids) and fibre and because it is high in omega-3, 6 and 9 its fatty acid content help support brain and heart health. Because I regularly practice yoga and work out a lot I use this to support and maintain my muscles. I personally find that adding hemp protein also keeps my hunger at bay.

I have loved researching this juice – I’m in awe of all the incredible things these plants can do to support our body’s well-being. Let me know what you think, especially if you are as wowed by them as me.

I hope you get to enjoy this juice soon, when you do, let me know what you think.

Have a gorgeous weekend,

Hx