Cold Crab salad, brown meat dressing, mixed leaves and chilli

Ingredients:

One dressed fresh Crab (breadcrumb free just white and brown meat)
Mixed salad leaves of choice (curly endive, dandelion, rocket, butter cup lettuce)
Fresh red chilli-seeded and cut into fine strips.
Lemon –a squeeze
Olive oil
Tamari sauce1/2tblsp
Tabasco sauce- few shakes
Dijon mustard 1tsp
Horseradish sauce 1/2tbls

Method:

•  Scrape brown crab meat out of the shell of the crab and reserve in a bowl.
• Fork the white meat and set aside.

Brown crab meat dressing:

• Put brown crab meat, little lemon juice, tamari sauce, mustard, horseradish sauce, tabasco sauce in blender or work to a smooth paste with hand blender.  If very thick let down with a little water and aim for a consistency of pouring double cream.  Check for taste if you want it more spicy add more horse radish or Tabasco.

To serve:

• Very lightly season and dress leaves with olive oil, put in plate.
•  Out white crab meat in an attractive mound in the centre of the salad as sitting in a nest.
• Drizzle the brown crab meat sauce over the top like a lettuce
• Garnish with some fresh chilli strips.
•  Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Recipe

Raw Kale and Herb Salad with Avocado and Cherry Tomatoes.

Ingredients:

Couple large leaves of washed kale
10 small cherry tomatoes
Handfull of flat leaf parsley- washed
Handfull of fresh mint leaves-washed
Half a large ripe avocado
Cider vinegar-with mother
S+P
Olive oil and seed oils.

Method:

Rip kale leaves off the stalk and tear in to smaller pieces. 
Rub with some Sea salt and and let stand while prepareing the other ingredients.
Cut avocado in half and using a spoon scoop out the flesh ontop of the kale.  Add the whole cherry tomatoes, and roughly chopped herbs. 
Seaons further to taste and drizzle with cider vinegar, the oils and pepper. 
Mix to get all the flavours combined and serve.
Eat on it's own with a couple spelt crackers for a light vegetarian lunch or serve with a protein such as grilled wild salmon for an omnivore meal!

Recipe

BUTTERFLY CHICKEN WITH LEMON AND ROSEMARY

INGREDIENTS:

1 Free Range Chicken (1.2-1.5kg)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Organic large lemon
Fresh Rosemary
Olive oil


METHOD:

Joint chicken to open up like a butterfly.  This helps it cook evenly and faster.  To do this use a heavy and sharp chopping knife.  Cut along both sides of the back bone to remove it.  Push either thigh of the chicken away from each other and find the leg bones then follow on one side of  each thigh bone and then around the knuckle and through the leg bone and cut the meat away.  try and not cut throught the skin.  Then trace the bone back up the other side of the bone and remove the bone. Do the same ont he other leg.  Now trace the tip of the knife(you may wish to use a sharp but flexible knife for this stage) along the little rib bones and remove then around the breast cartilagge and bone.  Try and keep the skin intact.  For the wings either trim off the wing tip and remove the flesh off the large wing bone or just keep them as they are.  Make sure you have remove the bone that runs along the chest bone and wings.

Now you have a open piece of chicken flesh flat on the chopping board.  Transfer to the grill tray season with salt and pepper to you likeing and chop generous amounts of rosemary and rub into the bird.  Then grate the washed lemon skin and rub in. 

Put chicken skin side up under a pre-heated grill and turn over once starting to colour.   Once the other side is white pour over the juice of the lemon and cook alittle more.  Keep turning the chicken over while cooking.  You may also want to baste teh chicken between turning to keep it moist and get more flavour into it.

The butterfly chicken should be ready in about 20-25 minutes when the skin is golden brown and sightly caramelised.  Transfer to a serving dish pour over the rest of the cooking juices and some extra virgin olive oil. Serve with aditional lemon wedges.

This is nice to serve with some oven roast new potatoes and braised puple sprouting brocoli.

Stress

STRESS THE 21st CENTURY DISEASE

There are 3 stages of stress:

1. The Alarm Stage or the Fight or Flight Response: It can be described as your bodies natural response to a threatening stimulus.  Your natural instinct in a case like this would be to fight or run.  Your adrenals would pump adrenalin into your blood dilating your pupils and blood vessels, directing power to your muscles and shutting down your digestion.  Adrenalin secretion increases.  This sort of response would be life saving if you was to face an attack by a wild animal but instead the modern day scenario to this would be facing your angry boss or getting stuck in a traffic jam on your way to an important meeting.  Your extra energy turns into anger or other negative emotions as you sit at your desk.  This sort of stress response is short-lived and eventually the body recovers from it. Problems start when you repeatedly put yourself through it every day.  Stimulant and foods you eat can put your body in a stressful roller coaster state.
2. The Resistance State:  Cortisol is continually elevated.  The prolonged presence of cortisol causes inflammatory reactions in the body contributing to disease.  The final stage of this state is Exhaustion.  Although the resistance stage can go on for years this is an individual thing and some people can become very poorly rather quickly when they are experiencing this stage of stress.
3. Adrenal Exhaustion:  The end stage of the stress.  The adrenals are exhausted.  Cortisol is depleted.  You feel tired and not energetic any more.  In this stage you try very hard to pick yourself up to perform even simple tasks.  Another problem with this phase is blood sugar levels drop because of low cortisol leading to frequent sugar and stimulant cravings to help raise blood sugar levels.  You may start to experience weight gain even though you are eating the same foods you used to.

As you can see the foods we eat are closely related with how we feel and function.  Following a healthy diet is immensely important to support your adrenals to stave off Adrenal Fatigue.

Digestive Health

You're as healthy as your digestion gets!  Yes really.  You only notice this when things aren't working so well.  Many of us are fortunate enough to have a digestive system that keeps digesting our foods like clock work (touch wood).  You hardly notice it's there it just gets on with it's purpose and help nourish your body by breaking down the foods you eat and preparing them to be absorbed by the body.  But for some this senario may not be this straight forward.

Some people and children have problems with their digestion from word go and some may have developed problems along the way.  Although there may be various factors that can be investigated in any digestive complaint this needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis. As we have all experienced different factors that may be contributing to the manifestation of ill health. 

I just want to touch on a few considerations that may be worth looking into whenever mild digestive problems come about.

One of the first factors is stress.  Are you stressed on an on going basis?  Because if you are you need to know the first thing that will shut down in your body is your digestion.  When we are young our bodies take on a good hammering from various sources of assaults that it deals with successfully. But as we age our bodies become depleated in dealing with the usual stressors.  If we have not looked after our bodies and minds to find resources in nutrition and lifestyle solutions to help address the stress we are experiencing on an on going basis cracks finally show up in our bodies functioning capabilities.

When your digestion shuts down as a result of being over stressed you are not able to digest your foods properly as stomach acid secretions will become depleated.  This results in improperly broken down food proteins ending up in the intestines and causing havoc there and in the rest of the body!  This can manifest itself as food intolerances, bloating, stomach cramps and pains, feelings of sluggishness, depression, feeling rundown, water retention and puffiness.  You may in further instances experience other digestive problems such as diarhoea, constipation or IBS type symptoms.

So the moral of the story is if you feel you are rundown due to on going stress and can't change your circumstances find re-sources to deal with it as in nourishing your body by giving it digestive support and perhaps some adrenal support as these are the powerhouses dealing with stress on an ongoing basis and look at lifestyly factors that may help you in the long run.  Meditation, mindfullness or Tai Chi, Qi-Gong, Yoga type activities may be of great benefit to stressed individuals.

For children that are suffering from digestive problems it is always a good idea to look at the foods they are eating and provide them some nutrients that may help resolve some issues that may be present with in the gut.  These may be enzyme deficiencies, influences of pathogenic organisms and lack of good bacteria.  Probiotics may be an excellent starting point to help children suffering with digestive complaints no matter how mild it may be.  Some strains of Probiotics have been widely researched and scientific studies have shown that they have been effective in resolving or supporting various digestive complaints.  Always ensure you buy your probiotics from reputable sources.  Here at New Hopes Nutrition I only recommend brands that have been scientifically researched and that have a proven track record. 

Do you know anyone with a digestive complaint? If so do refer them on to me so I can assess their digestive health and help support them to better health.  info@newhopesnutrition.co.uk

Recipe

Venison Stew with Tomatoes and Rosemary

Ingredients:

Stewing Venison 500gr-600gr
1 onion chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Couple sticks of celery
3 Tomatoes
Sea salt and pepper
Fresh rosemary, 2-3 large sticks

Method:

Put diced venison in heavy pan put on moderate to high heat and stir as the heat starts to seal the heat.  Add in the chopped onion and sweat togerher till soft and most of the venion juice has evaporated.


While the venison is simmering pour boiled water on top of tomatoes which you have scored a cross on with a sharp knife and removed the stem.  Let sit inthe hot water foro couple minutes or till skin softens.  Refresh in cold water then remove the skins and roughly chop.

Add tomatoes to pan along with rosemary sprigs, season and cook out for couple of hours.  It should be tender in about 2 hours time. You may need to add some water to the pan to prevent it from sticking.

Serve with mashed potato and olive oil.  Parsip pure is also very good with this dish.