Healthy Saturday Treat for Everyone

Another great weekend in London! Its getting really chilly here and we are expecting some snow… I have to say I am excited about that! I spent half of my Sunday at Winter Wonderland with friends and it was a great fun!

Since Christmas is just round the corner I am getting into a festive Christmassy mood and therefore I organised a little Christmas tree decoration evening on Saturday. It was a great evening with a lovely, tasty and healthy little dinner.

I love Baltic Herring and we eat a lot of this salty fish back home and it always reminds me of Christmas because my mum prepares it in loads of different ways at this time of the year. I chose the simplest way of preparing the fish and it was really lovely. Herring is rich in vitamins necessary for our daily diet and it has fewer calories than meat, it is also rich in oils and calcium! It is a good evening snack, but only if it’s not too salty!

Simple Baltic Herring marinade

My mum usually sends me some Baltic Herring and it’s marinated in the oil already, but this recipe is ideal for a fresh Herring!

The marinade is so easy to make, very tasty and refreshing!! Try it yourself:

2 Herring Fillets
1 large onion
0.5L of water
3-4 spoons of vinegar
5-6 potatoes
fresh dill

Pour some water into a deep dish, depending on the quantity of fish you will be marinating, then mix it with a few spoons of vinegar. This time I used cider vinegar and it tasted great! Don’t pour too much vinegar as marinade will taste very sharp, If it does just add more water. Roughly chop one onion and place it into the dish together with the chopped Herring. Cover the dish and place it in to the fridge. Job done! Keep it for a few hours until the fish soaks in this lovely marinade sharpness! Serve it with hot potatoes sprinkled with fresh dill!

Hummus treat

I have also made 3 different types of hummus to complete my evening and my friends loved it! Hummus is great and it’s filling and healthy! My new blender works great and it’s a pleasure mixing soft chick peas with roasted pepper or caramelised onions!

My plain hummus was truly lovely and I was proud of it, it is my favourite. To make it you will need:

2 cans of chick peas
2 cloves of garlic
2 table spoons of sesame seed paste
1/2 of lemon juice
a little bit of dried Basil
salt and pepper
a dash of Olive oil

Boil chick peas for a few minutes and place them in to a large dish together with minced garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, sesame seed paste, salt and pepper. Blend it well with a small amount of the left over water from your boiled chick peas. The smell is gorgeous and it tastes so much better then a supermarket one!

The red Pepper Hummus

You will need:

1 roasted pepper and all the same ingredients as above

The process is the same! Just roast red pepper for a little bit and blend it with chick peas and the ingredients used for my plain hummus. Red roasted pepper enriches hummus with its lovely taste and red colour.

Caramelised Onion Hummus

I am not a fan of caramelised onion hummus but I made it because my boyfriend loves it! And I have to say it turned out really good as it wasn’t as sweet as the one I once bought in a shop! It is fun making caramelised onions! To make it you will need:

                                          

1 onion

2 table spoons of brown sugar

        2 table spoons of vinegar

Just finely chop one onion and fry it a little bit with olive oil. Add vinegar and mix it all with brown sugar! Blend half of the caramelised onions mixture straight in to the hummus and just add in the other half to give you chunky bits of onion for texture.

At the end of my little dinner the caramelised onion hummus was voted as the best one from the three I made!

Crunchy suggestion:

This is how we enjoyed our warm tortilla wraps with hummus and crunchy fresh salad:

1 packet of tortilla wraps

2 tomatoes

0.5 cucumber

1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper

1 packet of fresh lettuce

Warm up tortilla wraps and spread a generous amount of hummus on them. Then stuff your warm wrap with freshly chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, crunchy colourful pepper and lovely green lettuce! It’s finger licking good!

It was a beautiful dinner and it’s a very comforting food when the temperature is below zero outside!

Evening snacking (2)

In one of my blogs ‘Evening snacking’ I promised my housemate to provide him with some healthy evening snacking ideas. So I am keeping my promise and here is something I am confident he is going to love!

Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables ever! I love it with everything! With rise, pasta, lentils, chick peas or just on its own with a dash of soya sauce! For me it’s a super food!!!

I love it, just like many other vegetables, because of its benefit not only to my stomach but my skin as well!

Helping your stomach

Broccoli is extremely rich in fibre which can cure many stomach disorders. It’s also enriched with  magnesium and vitamins which help to facilitate proper digestion and absorption of nutrients from the food and soothe the stomach by reducing inflammation. Broccoli also cures acidity in our stomachs!

Glowing skin

Broccoli is full of anti – oxidants such as vitamin C, B complex, vitamin A, omega 3 acids, amino acids, foliate and vitamin E – the most important vitamin for our skin care! Broccoli simply looks after our skin!

Broccoli Soup for cold winter evenings!

I enjoy broccoli soup quite often! Especially on cold and dark winter evenings when my stomach is longing for something warm and light!

The soup is creamy, smooth, warming and so easy to make! It takes no time or effort! This is something I would like to recommend my housemate to have as his evening snack! It contains a little bit of cheese, but do not be afraid of that. It is truly yummy!

Just chop & boil one head of broccoli, not for too long, it takes only a few minutes! Place it into a blending dish and add a little bit of left over water from the boiled vegetable. Mix it with a pinch of salt and pepper, drop in some cheese (I love it with the Stilton cheese because it makes it creamy and smooth) and just liquidise it all! Add some cream if you want, it adds this extra silkiness… but since it’s a healthy evening snack it is not necessary!  The soup is as a good as it is!

Just toast a piece of bread and enjoy your evening! 

ZZZzzzzzZZZzzz….. ZZZZZzzzzz….

What a perfect Saturday… Just watched my favourite ‘Saturday Kitchen’ with James Martin and lovely Nigella’s Kitchen. I was waiting for this morning all week when I can just sit back in front of the telly and relax… later I had my morning or should I say afternoon shower and I can tell you that there is only one way to deal with the cold: if the coming winter is biting you, you have to bite it back! And that’s what I did! I treated my skin with a warm and 100% natural honey&sugar scrub!

Having my beauty regime in place is great but unfortunately last night I didn’t sleep well!

I am usually blessed with good night sleep and I can sleep wherever and whenever… When I travel back home to Lithuania and if I travel on my own I always sleep in the plane… how lucky am I! A few times I fell asleep just before taking off and woke up when I landed in my country!

My lovely Australian friend Neil suggested that I write about quality sleep and its impact on our health. Also my sleepless night gave me a few ideas… I didn’t sleep because my head was packed with thoughts of Christmas presents… so I got my laptop and simply looked through a few websites, bought some lovely Christmas presents for my family and my friends… only then I calmed down… even thought I was just too excited to have a good night sleep…

Importance of quality sleep

I believe that the simplest secret of health, youth and glowing skin is quality sleep! I recently read loads of articles related to beauty sleep and in summary I can say that sleep is as important as food and water!

It is important not only how long you stay in bed but the quality of sleep. Make sure that you have as few disruptions as possible when you sleep! My boyfriend has attended the ‘sleep well, perform well’ seminar the other day and he said that ‘the biggest interruption is our mobile phones, because usually we have them  somewhere near us and mobile phone radiation wrecks our sleep!’

Impact on our health

Reading some insomnia articles makes me glad I do not have this problem. Some people deliberately sleep less hours and have the excuse of having loads of things to do. This leads people in to dangerous health problems such as irritability and stress. Lack of sleep weakens our immune system and it can also affect our memory and mathematical ability!

Sleep is extremely important for the health of our skin! The lack of good night sleep results in dark circles underneath our eyes and the skin looks dull and lifeless. It also results in early ageing which none of us wants to experience!

Quality sleep benefits every aspect of our life quality, the way we feel, the level of energy and our happiness!

Every person should have their sleep pattern and make it a regular event! We should sleep from 8 to 9 hours a day. Personally for me 6-7 hours is enough. But I do let myself lie in longer on weekends and get some extra beauty sleep!

What can help you sleep?

Switch off all the devices in your room and don’t leave your TV, lap top or speakers on stand by as they produce electrical waves which can disturb your sleep.

When your head is full of thoughts about work or things you have to do, just write them down on a piece of paper. It will help you to relax because you don’t need to worry that you might forget them, literally taking the thoughts out of your brain.

Try some breathing exercises. Concentrate only on your breathing from the diaphragm, breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.

Go to a happy place! If you feel stressed and unhappy just imagine good things which happened to you or things you want to happen!

Do not go to sleep extremely hungry and also do not drink too much liquid before bed!

What helps me to sleep?

My mum visiting London

Occasionally I can’t fall asleep when I am cold, stressed or hungry, also if I slept too long that morning…

Nice, crisp clean and cute bed sheets and a tidy room help me to have my beauty sleep.

Just letting in some fresh air to my room before bed time helps me to have my quality sleep.

Warm milk is a good old cure for sleepless nights, also herbal teas like camomile tea and especially cinnamon tea. See the recipe in my ‘Lovely cinnamon’ blog.

From all the reading I’ve done on good night sleep I loved the sentence that ‘the bed should be used only for sleep and sexual relationship and not for reading or watching TV. Excessive time in bed seems to fragment sleep.’

Diet... diet... diet...

I was listening to the BBC news this morning and couldn’t help but wonder how many people are desperately trying to loose weight and how many teenagers are on various strict diets without realising the dangerous impact on their health.

It is scary to listen to all these 12 year old girls telling you how they avoid oil, sugar and even cereals just because it’s too filling… There are so many reasons why girls are afraid to eat! One of the biggest reasons is the pressure from society but I don’t want to be judgmental towards all the skinny models…. They are beautiful if they are natural! I once read in a magazine an interview with one model company representative and she was saying that they are looking for naturally skinny girls and there are only 1% of such girls in the world and their job is to find this 1%. The company is not looking for someone who is starving to become size zero because they look unhealthy and don’t have life in their eyes…

Suitable diet

From my point of view and to be honest with you, there are no right diets… I am not a dietician or a doctor, but I speak from my own experience. And I have been there, I have tried many different diets which didn’t really work and the reason they didn’t is because diets are temporary! We can’t follow just one diet, because we will end up with very poor daily meals and how long can it last? A day or two… very soon we will get board and tired with the limited food choice…

My story

When I was 15 and realised that my weight is not healthy, I decided to change my habits. I used to eat late at night, snack in between meals and sleep in. I started attending fitness lessons and my lovely trainer said that I sleep too much! She suggested sleeping 7-8 hours and being as active as I can. She also showed me brilliant exercises to do at home. They are easy and do not require much space, I use to do them every morning in my room and I could feel the difference just after 2 weeks. The exercises involved just simple sit ups, legs and hips lifting, body stretching. For my arms she gave me little weight lifts in the gym, but for my home exercise she just told me to use small bottles filled up with water! It was my summer holiday and I will never forget this feeling of my jeans just dropping down! I still ate normally, tried to eat more vegetables and drink loads of water, move more. I was a happy teenager and I didn’t feel tired! The exercises gave me even more energy and I was waking up excited every morning to do them all over again! And I lost weight not because of dieting but thanks to exercising and eating healthier!

Be true to yourself

You have to be true to yourself and if you say ‘I will start being healthier tomorrow’ you never will! Just start it today! It’s not hard to do it step by step and I always say that you don’t need to give up your favourite meals just find the balance! Eat smaller portions or put more green veggies than potatoes on your plate! And if you really want something sweet just have it… but make sure it’s not too much because if you will not have it on the day you want it I am sure you will eat double the next day!

Make it your lifestyle

I love cooking, I love eating and I love making desserts and experimenting with food! Going to the gym at least two days a week allows me to enjoy my lovely meals now and again! I always choose fish or sea food over meat, but I love turkey and duck and I try to have vegetables mixed in my food because then its not as heavy! I am careful with salt in my food and avoid ready made meals!

My lovely chick peas lunch

We all are individuals and the same diet or the same advice can not work for us all! You just have to make it your lifestyle and chose the way you want to follow! I have done it and it’s been nearly 15 years now I am maintaining my healthy lifestyle and it makes me happy! I allow myself to be naughty and I treat myself but I know one thing that I never ever want to go back to where I was before I considered changing my habits!  

Make your life more colourful and exciting by adding more vegetables to your meals and make it more dynamic by introducing exercising! And it doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym! Just go for a long walk and get some fresh air!

Lovely cinnamon

Today is rainy and cold outside… The perfect day to stay indoors and keep warm! And I am sitting here with a towel on my hair keeping my olive oil hair mask warm and enjoying my Sunday!

I have been chatting to my mum for a while today and we had our little conversation about wellbeing and the little secrets cinnamon holds. I didn’t know that cinnamon can be so amazingly versatile, have so many benefits to our health and I am hurrying to share all this with you!

I remember eating loads of cinnamon when I was a kid, my mum would always sprinkle some on my porridge and I remember those yummy cinnamon rolls… and it always smells like Christmas…  

Apart from being a great ingredient to loads of meals cinnamon provides us with a lovely smell and taste. It also has a huge positive impact on our health and it’s really exciting to think that this little brown stick can do so much, we don’t even realise what a great spice it is!

Wellbeing

Studies have confirmed that cinnamon reduces blood sugar levels, it can also reduce cholesterol and has the ability to increase HDL (high density cholesterol, which is otherwise known as "good cholesterol").

Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory healing properties that relieve joint and muscle pain. It is also useful for blood circulation, digestion and stomach pain relieve. Also antibacterial properties of cinnamon are suitable for the prevention of urinary tract infections and gum disease. The spice is best taken with honey and it helps to get rid of a depressed mood!  (Source Delfi.lt)

The spice has also been found useful to women’s health because it helps in providing assistance to menstrual cramps and other period discomfort.

The odour of cinnamon is still used in cosmetic creams, perfumes and body oils. 

Research has found that half a teaspoon of cinnamon in your morning tea restores the necessary amount of sugar in the blood.

This spice is very much one of the strongest anti-oxidants. It is well known that this substance prevents the occurrence of atherosclerosis and neutralizes many toxins. 

The benefits of cinnamon

Skin care

This is amazing! It’s so easy to fight spots with just cinnamon and honey! Mix 3 table spoons of honey with 1 table spoon of cinnamon, apply the mask onto your skin in the evening and rinse it off with warm water in the morning! The results are fab!

Long lasting life…

Boil 4 table spoons of honey, 1 table spoon of cinnamon and 3 cups of water together and drink one 1/3 of the mixture three times a day to live a long and happy life!

Cinnamon can get rid of the tiredness! This spice improves the energy and circulation and gives people more vitality. In addition, due to its warming properties, cinnamon is particularly useful for people who tend to feel hot in the upper body, but cold feet.

Honey and water mixed with cinnamon powder helps to boost your immune system during cold season.

Digestion

Every day, half an hour before breakfast and your evening meal drink a cup of water boiled with cinnamon and honey. Regular consumption of such a mixture helps to avoid the accumulation of fat in our bodies!

A little cinnamon sprinkled on 2 table spoons of honey will help to digest even heaviest food!

Cinnamon is an excellent source of fibre and can help reduce constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. 

Can’t sleep?

At bedtime mix half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey with warm milk to help you fall asleep. 

I am always fascinated by how much this spice can do!

Have a lovely Sunday and I am off to make a nice cup of cinnamon flavoured tea!

Evening snacking

My housemate asked me the other day what kind of food he could eat late in the evening which wouldn’t be too heavy or expensive but healthy at the same time…and I know he wouldn’t be happy with only fruit or salad… After my lovely evening snack last night I offered him some couscous because these tiny little grains are a perfect accompaniment to meat or fish and can have various ingredients such as spices, lemon, seeds and herbs added to make a really tasty snack or be part of a main meal!

Easy cooking

To make a bowl of couscous is so easy and effortless! In a saucepan, bring water to the boil. Add salt and stir. Add couscous, remove the saucepan from the heat and allow grains to sit for about 5 minutes until the water is absorbed.  Add your own spice mixture.

I love couscous with roast vegetables. Just chop an onion, carrot, courgette and some mushrooms, squeeze a little bit of garlic, add a little bit of olive oil and roast until vegetables are soft and golden. Then mix them up with the couscous and enjoy it!

My delicious dinner

By the time I came back home from the gym last night it was already 8 pm and I wanted to make something quick, fresh and easy to digest.

So I went through my cupboards in the kitchen and found a box of couscous… a little jar of sun dried tomatoes marinated in lovely sunflower oil with aromatic basil, garlic and oregano… 

I love sun dried tomatoes because they are simply delicious and I thought that it should work well with a little bit of couscous… And it did!

The couscous was nice and fluffy and chopped sun dried tomatoes not only made it look nice and colourful but tasty and enjoyable. I didn’t add any extra oil because my tomatoes had it all… silky sunflower oil and spices! The dinner was light but filling and I was happy with my choice! 

Is it healthy?

Couscous is among the healthiest grain-based products. In terms of protein, couscous has 3.6g for every 100 calories, equivalent to pasta, and well above the 2.6g for every 100 calories of white rice. Furthermore, couscous contains a 1% fat-to-calorie ratio, compared to 3% for white rice, 5% for pasta, and 11.3% for rice pilaf.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couscous)

Couscous is a low fat food and on average only contains approximately 112 calories per serving for a plain variety but this is before adding any butter or oil!

Yellow miracle

We all use this juicy citrus fruit in our daily life and it is a well know source of vitamin C. Lemon adds taste to our food and drinks, we use the well known combination of honey and lemon when we feel ill, we decorate our dishes and deserts, especially I love decorating my signature cheesecake with a lemon zest, nothing can beat the lovely smell…

Lemon is not only good for our health, not only a tasty and refreshing yellow fruit but it also helps us to stay beautiful in the most natural way! Consuming lemon keeps our skin brighter and younger!

Beautiful hair

I found this tip in one of my favourite health magazines and I use it all the time after my home made hot oil and rosemary hair mask. I love the fresh smell and feel of my hair. Just mix 2 lemons juice with 1 litre of warm water and rinse your hair after shampooing!

Little tip: Don’t rinse your hair with hot water as it dries it out and your hair looses its liveliness! When you blow dry your hair give it a cool blow at the end, which will keep hair cool, light and beautiful!

Keeping your teeth healthy  

I always check the condition of my teeth when I go home to Lithuania for my holiday because it helps me to keep it in a good health. Last summer my dentist told me that my gums are a bit tired and I should try lemon juice and soda mix. As soon as I came back home, I checked my mum’s cupboards for soda. I then mixed one scoop of tea spoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) with a little bit of lemon juice and a little bit of water. After brushing my teeth in an ordinary way I then washed my mouth with this lemon & soda water and gently brushed my teeth for about a minute. It’s amazing how you can feel the difference straight away as this fantastic natural mix has ability to whiten and polish the teeth surface and also refreshes gums!

Beautiful nails

Everyone likes to have nice and looked after nails. Here is something affordable, easy and natural. Lemon skin is an ideal tool to polish and strengthen our nails. I remember doing it when I was a little girl. My mum once told me that nails grow stronger if you soak your hands in lemony water. Just be careful if you have irritated skin! You can simply drop a few drops of lemon juice on each nail and that will strengthen your nail surface. Peal a peace of lemon zest and polish your nails with the white peel and I promise your nails will grow stronger!

The Challenge.. the Results..

So I am sitting now in front of the computer on this lovely Sunday afternoon with a big cup of peach flavour green leaf tea...  In my blog ‘why cottage cheese' I have set myself a challenge to stay away from coffee for a week and I am happy to say I have kept my promise! Having in mind that I am a coffee lover I thought it will be much harder to resist, but it wasn’t really! I did miss it though, but I was absolutely delighted by smooth and enjoyable taste of lovely green tea!  

Last Monday I armed myself with green, white and fruity teas and been drinking it all day long. I have to say I feel great... I think green tea has some magical powers... My skin looks lively and healthy and my stomach was keeping well!

I do not like going shopping to Oxford Street in London, it’s just too busy and too crazy, but there is one little shop I love in Tottenham Court Road and it’s just round the corner from my gym so I had a peek the other day for the tea selection they have. And I got myself this lovely caffeine free peach flavour green and also white leaf tea and I am loving it! It tastes as good as it smells... just a little bit of honey... a slice of lemon...  and I am sorted!

Tea history

Tea originated in China 4000 years ago! Green tea has been used as both a beverage and a method of traditional medicine in most of Asia, including China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea and Thailand, to help everything from controlling bleeding and helping heal wounds to regulating body temperature, blood sugar and promoting digestion.

Simple truth

Over the last few decades green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its health benefits, with some evidence suggesting that regular green tea drinkers have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer.  Although there is no scientific evidence that plain green tea can produce weight loss, a green tea extract is useful for "obesity management", since it stimulates fat oxidation.

Green tea consumption reduces risk of heart diseases, bad cholesterol, increases metabolic rate, fat oxidization, lowers incidence of cancers, prevents of the death of brain cells (less chance of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s diseases).

Green tea also contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), minerals such as chromium, manganese, selenium or zinc and all of these are great for our health, and I like green tea because of the zinc as it keeps my skin healthy and my hair 

shiny!

It’s very complicated how green tea works to benefit our health. It is a complex biological process and the easiest way to explain it is that green tea makes our body and immune system stronger and keeps away all the bad intruders. In this way our body is strong enough to fight various illnesses and also cancer. To fully benefit from this drink we should drink at least 8 cups of green tea per day and ensure the tea is the best quality!

 

Making green tea

I once read that we shouldn’t pour boiling water on to the tea (not only green tea) as it loses all its goodness and we should always use fresh water. Water left in the kettle loses vitality and makes tea taste dull!

So sit back...get yourself a cup of lovely green tea enriched with your favourite flavours, enjoy it and stay healthy!