Vanilla + Peanut Butter Post-workout Protein Shake

Got miiiiilk? This little beauty is a firm favourite of mine at the moment; it's so creamy and thick it feels like a pudding, but the macronutrients of the ingredients make this an ideal post-workout shake.

To make this, you'll need:

1 ripe banana
1 scoop vanilla protein (I'm using Sunwarrior's vegan vanilla flavour at the mo)
1 tablespoon runny honey
Handful of ice
200ml unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon peanut butter (Meridian, Pip + Nut and Whole Earth are my preferred brands)

You know the score, chuck everything in a blender and whiz until smooth, then pour into an edgy, instagrammable glass / jar, and enjoy.

Protein and carbs are needed to aid muscle tissue growth and repair, and having protein with carbs after a workout is essential as when you're working hard, your body becomes starved of stored energy (glycogen) and usable energy (glucose). To compensate, with no more energy available for your muscles, your body secreted cortisol (the stress hormone), which essentially converts muscle tissue for protein into glucose - meaning you can actually lose muscle tissue.

More on that topic here, on the Body Building website, althougggh these guys do say that fruit isn't the best source of carbs here, and recommend something called waxy maize but, I love the taste of banana and it seems a little less processed.

Have a good one!

British Military Fitness Cookbook

It might not be an Amazon best seller, but I'm in a book! A recipe book, to be precise, crafted and made possible by British Military Fitness. They asked a handful of foodie, fitness and healthy lifestyle bloggers to share a recipe for either breakfast, lunch or tea as part of their #FitFoodBMF campaign.

I do circuits outdoors three times a week, and the bootcamp element to British Military Fitness classes has always (weirdly perhaps) appealed to me, so I was honoured to be asked to take part in this..

I chose to make a slow cooked lamb dish; to me it's something I look forward to tucking into after having battled with the elements (and kettlebells) at circuits, and it seemed a good fit given that we're in the middle of winter.

The recipe for this slow cooked paprika lamb with pomegranate quinoa can be found below, and if you want to download the e-book, the link is here!

You can't really make lamb stew look too pretty, so sorry about the picture...!

Slow cooked paprika lamb with pomegranate quinoa

Serves 4

400g lamb shoulder
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 can chopped tomatoes
2 celery sticks, chopped
4 carrots, diced
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or 1 tbsp dried)
2 tbsp hot paprika
1 tbsp cumin
3 garlic gloves, chopped
1 onion, diced
Salt and pepper to season

For the quinoa:

100g quinoa
Seeds from one large pomegranate

I served mine with Greek yoghurt and a couple of handfuls of spinach.

I always remove the majority of excess fat from the lamb before putting in the slow cooker. Once I've done this, I throw it all in the slow cooker and let it do its thing for around eight hours. If you don't have a slow cooker, you can do this in a large, deep pan, and keep things cooking on a really low heat - just make sure you keep your eye on it every hour or so.

As well as being one of my fave comfort meals, BMF also asked nutritionist Ben Coomber to look at each recipe from a nutritional perspective to sound them out. Ben reckons the dish is a great recovery option as it's full of proteins and carbs, which is good enough for me! Personally, I like using quinoa rather than rice in this - it's lighter and contains more protein. Plus, the dish as a whole is so easy to make - chuck everything in the slow cooker and voila. Freeze what you don't need and whip it out when you're stuck for making time to cook.

One of the best things about the campaign was discovering a load of new like-minded bloggers, as well as featuring along side my good pal Vicki :)

The variety of recipes everyone created in the book is diverse, and as well as sounding really tasty, none of them look too complicated to make! Each one has a nutritionally sound profile too so ideal if you're looking for a bit of healthy cuisine inspiration.

As a thank you, British Military Fitness have given me a free pass at one of their classes, so if I give it a whirl I'll be sure to let you know how it is..!

The Easiest Healthy Dessert?!

I'd heard banana icecream reviews before as I'm sure you have, but in all honesty never got what the fuss was about. But, never knocking something 'till I've tried it, I gave it a go a few weeks ago and OH yeah, it's good. Believe the hype.

It's probably one of the easiest things to make. You just need a food processor (if you don't have one I promise it'll be one of the best investments you'll make; go and buy one), and 1 banana (or 2, depending on how much you want).

Slice your banana and freeze it. After a few hours, or over night, take it out of the freezer and blend it until it's smooth and creamy. Don't worry, there will be a point during blending where you're like, umm, this looks like weird rice, but stick with it. It works.

This time I've topped mine with almond butter and blueberries but there are about a dozen other combinations that would be bliiiiss, like cacao powder and maple syrup, raspberry and cashew butter, you get the idea.

With a bit of vanilla essence, this would be flawless. It's creamy, silky and thick just like ice-cream.

I've started freezing individual sliced banana portions in sandwich bags so I can whip it up in a matter of minutes.. let me know your favourite 'nice-cream' recipes!

Clean Oat & Peanut Butter Bake Bar

Two of my nearest and dearest, Anna & Hannah, are keen oat / quinoa / breakfast-bar bake queens, and on Sunday I fancied making a batch myself for snacking on throughout the week, or as a quick-fix breakfast to take to work with me.

They turned out preetty d-lish, especially for a first go when I wasn't paying too much attention to quantities...

I used;

• 2 x handful cashew nuts
• 1 x handful pitted dates
• 2 x handful raisins 
• 2 x tablespoons peanut butter (I use Meridian 100%) 
• 50g oats (or there abouts...)
• 1 banana (mashed)
• 2 x tea spoons raw coconut oil (I use Biona) 
• 2 x eggs 

1. Chop up your cashew nuts, dates and raisins, as finely as you can be bothered to (you could use a blender but I wanted mine quite chunky). 

2. In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped cashew, dates and raisins with coconut oil and 'massage' with your hands. 

3. Then add your eggs, oats, PB and mashed banana.

4. Spread the mixture into a baking tin and put in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until crisp and golden brown.

It tasted really nice warm (I couldn't wait until it had cooled down), but it was also lush with a cup of tea in work this afternoon. When you get a mouthful of unexpected peanut butter it's literally like heaven...

Now the rest of them are just waiting for me in the fridge.. it's torture!

What's your favourite oat bake? 

Courgette Noodles

There's been so much hype about these recently. Intrigued, I bought a Julienne peeler from Amazon (for a bargainous £3.29) to see what all the fuss was about.

Obviously, these carb-free noodles are packed with nutrients but I've always been a little sceptical about the taste when reading other 'zucchini' noodle recipes, but I can assure you, these really don't feel like a cheap swap. They go all squishy and soft and taste really, really good. Here's how to make them:

These ingredients are for one, so just multiply as needed.

For the noodles:

• 2 courgettes, spiralized (I used one courgette for myself here but I'd definitely use two next time - the noodles shrink quite a bit when they're cooking.)
• Tomato puree
• 1/4 avocado

I like my 'pasta' really tomatoey so added double the amount of puree to avocado.

For the veg:

• Half a red onion
• Half a pepper
• Handful of plum tomatoes
• 1 portobello mushroom
• Paprika
• Black pepper
• Wedge of lime

Obviously, you can swap around your accompanying veg, I was just chopping and cooking whatever I had in the fridge, and luckily it tasted alright!

Peel your courgettes and pop them in a pan with some olive oil. Sprinkle with paprika and black pepper. Cook for five minutes. 

In a separate pan toss in all your remaining vegetables and cook for ten minutes. 

Mash the avocado and spoon into the courgette mix. Add a generous dollop of tomato puree and stir in.

Pop your noodles on a warm plate, arrange your veg medley around it, and give the lime a tough squeeze... and that's it!

Genuinely one of the easiest, tastiest healthy dishes I've tried.

*** UPDATE! ***

Ok, ok, I think I'm officially in love with these; I can't stop making them - currently my favourite variation is with paprika prawns. It's so easy.

1) Cook your noodles. You can either saute them as above, or steam them (I steamed them for this dish and think I prefer it this way). After they've been steamed for ten minutes, add your mashed avocado and tomato puree.

2) In a separate pan, fry off half a red onion and a clove of garlic. Add your prawns and douse in paprika. Cook for five minutes.

3) Mix the prawns and noodles together, and serve.