I used to hate blueberries. Something about the smell, the colour, the price! But then I don't know how or when, I started to fall in love with them! I'm still not a fan of fresh blueberries but I love them frozen and I make sure to have a packet in my freezer at all times. At only 184kJ/100g they are a great frozen sweet treat any time of day.

Two nights ago I picked up my box of frozen blueberries for a snack and discovered a recipe for blueberries and white chocolate muffins. It was VERY late in the evening but I had all the ingredients handy and decided to do some late night baking.

I made a few modifications with the recipe so here's a comparison of the original with my modified recipe.

Blueberries and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Original Recipe Serves: 6	Modified Recipe Serves: 14
1 cup blueberries 2 cups self raising flour ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar ½ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup butter milk ½ cup vegetable oil	¾ cup blueberries 1 ½ cup wholemeal flour ½ cup self raising flour ¼ teaspoon baking powder ½ cup low GI sugar ¼ cup white chocolate bits 1 egg, lightly beaten ¾ cup low fat milk ½ cup canola oil ¼ cup low fat yoghurt

    
Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl
3. Stir in egg, milk, yoghurt and oil 
4. Scoop batter into lined cupcake tray evenly
5. Push in a few blueberries and white chocolate into each cupcake 
6. Bake for 20-25mins  

Before they go into the oven!

 

 

These were beyond delicious. The only thing I would've done differently is to put MORE blueberries in! These are more dense than your ordinary cupcakes but they were very moist and soft and filling. So perfect.

Nutritionally Speaking....

Original Recipe (Per serve)	Modified Recipe (Per serve)
Energy 2320 kJ Protein 9.2 g Fat (total) 23.6 g Saturated fat 4.7 g Carbohydrate 74.8 g Sugars 36.7 g Sodium 410 mg	Energy 864 kJ Protein 4.2 g Fat (total) 9.2 g Saturated fat 1.4 g Carbohydrate 25.4 g Sugars 10.4 g Sodium 68 mg

As you can see I have significantly reduced the kilojoules! 864kJ is still a bit high for a snack but it's a big improvement on 2320kJ. An average person's kilojoule intake for the day is 8700kJ so just having one muffin from the original recipe would be 25% of your daily intake. Not such an innocent muffin now right? 


Some easy modifications to try when baking:

• Change the serving size. I prefer cupcakes over muffins because they're cuter and I only have cupcake tins at home ;). This way I ended up with over twice as many cupcakes than I would have! Good food should be shared so I passed some on to my neighbours, family and friends who dropped by. It's also quite impressive if they love it (and they will!) and you tell them you made them!
• Substitute white flour with wholemeal flour. This is really easy to do if you're baking a fruit cake or nut cake since there's already different textures in the batter. If you're not sure how much to substitute try 1/4 or 1/2 of the amount in the recipe and just experiment. 
• Choose Low GI Cane sugar, Natvia or Splenda instead of white sugar. These have lower GI or less kiljoules than white sugar. However read the packet for conversions of quantity. Usually sweeteners are several times sweeter than sugar so less may be needed.  With sugar it also helps to experiment with how much is really needed. As this cupcake already has blueberries and white chocolate I felt it would be quite sweet already so I cut 1/4 cup of sugar off and it was still quite sweet.
• Choose low fat ingredients. This includes using low fat milk, cream, yoghurt etc. Choose maragrine instead of butter. This can reduce the kilojoule content as well as the total and saturated fat.
• I've been exprimenting with adding yoghurt to my cakes and so far so good! Adding 1/4- 1 cup of yoghurt can make cakes more moist, dense and increase the protein content. Definitely will be experimenting more with yoghurt!     
  

 Let me know about any recipe modifications you've made and how it turned out!

Today I wanted to share a salad I've been obsessed over. I've had this for lunch for the past 3 days!! It is so unbelievably delicious you MUST try it! I've had this new fondness for fruit in salads and it's such a brilliant idea especially throughout spring and summer. Sadly summer is over in Australia and with the dreary summer Sydney has had this year, I feel robbed. This salad is the perfect mix of tangy, sweet and fresh taste that I have been craving.

This salad is under 2000kJ/large serve. I usually have some chicken or tuna with it or have it on the side with a meal. However at 2 serves of vegetables, a serve of fruit and plenty of good fats from the olive oil and cashews it's a great low salt lunch choice! Not to mention it's vegetarian on it's own which is why I've added it to Veggie Mamas Meatless Monday list.  


Adapted from: A Couple Cooks


Serves: 4 (side salad) or 2 (salad meals)
Preparation Time: 10mins

Ingredients

• A cup or two of strawberries (Watermelon works great too)
• Half of a red onion
• Handful of cashews
• Crumbled fetta cheese 
•  Vinaigrette dressing
• 4 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 teaspoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Fresh ground pepper

Method

1. Prepare the ingredients: Wash and slice the strawberries. Wash and dry the salad greens. Thinly slice a red onion (if you’d like it to be a bit less spicy, soak the slices in cold water for about 20 minutes prior to serving).
2. Make the dressing: Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl, whisk with a fork
3. To serve, spread the greens on a plate and top with strawberries, red onion, cashews, cheese crumbles and vinaigrette

Per large serve: Energy: 1610 (385kCal) Fat: 26g Sat Fat: 4.6g Carbohydrates: 24.8g Protein: 8.8g Sodium: 84mg 

This week, March 13-20 is Coeliac Awareness Week.

A person with coeliac disease has an abnormal immune reaction to gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, triticale and possibly oats. When a person with coeliac disease eats a food containing gluten their intestinal villi (small finger like projections that line the intestinal wall) gets inflammed. Over time these projections can flatten out. The problem with this is that the villi is responsible for absorption of nutrients in the gut.

Coeliac disease affects approximately 1% of the population but it is likely 75% of those with coeliac disease remain undiagnosed. More adults are diagnosed than children and it is more common among Caucasians. If you have a first degree relative that has coeliac disease then it may be likely that you are susceptible to it as well. This is because those with coeliac disease have a specific marker called HLA on their cells. This gene is present in about 30% of the population. A blood test or buccal swab can test for the presence of this gene but only about 3% of those with the positive genetics will go on to develop coeliac disease. This means that this test can only be used to rule out coeliac disease.

Environmental factors also play a part, for example there is a larger prevalence of coeliac disease in cultures that eat wheat.


Many people suffering from coeliac disease may have no symptoms or only a few non specific complaints. This means that many can remain undiagnosed for several years. 
Some common symptoms:

• Iron deficiency anaemia or other vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies 
• Weight loss
• Diarrhoea, bloating, flatulence, nausea, vomiting, steatorrhoea, abdominal cramps
• Muscle wasting
• Weakness and tiredness
• Osteoporosis
• Infertility
• Failure to thrive in children
• Skin rashes and bruising
• Recurrent mouth ulcers
• headaches and dizziness

Coeliac disease is treated with a gluten free diet. A vaccine is in development and is currently undergoing clinical trials but the best treatment we have now is still a gluten free diet. Although this may be a bit daunting it's important that there are risks involved in not treating coeliac disease.

• Chronic poor health
• Increased risk of GI cancers 
• Infertility and miscarriages
• Refractory coeliac disease (late diagnosed coeliac disease)
• Liver disorders
• Neurological disorders (ataxia, epilepsy, early onset dementia)
• Increased risk of autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and Dermatitis herpetiformis (skin condition)
• Damage to teeth 
• Poor nutritional status  such as anaemia, low bone mineral density, poor absorption of protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamins
• Osteoporosis

First of all don't start a gluten free diet just yet. The test used to diagnose coeliac disease will not be accurate if you have not been eating gluten and can give you a false negative. Therefore wheat products must be eaten for 6 weeks prior to a biopsy test.

The first test is usually a blood screening test that looks for antibodies in the blood. A person with untreated coeliac disease often has increased levels of these. However a blood test can not diagnose coeliac disease and it MUST be followed by a small bowel biopsy.

A small bowel biopsy is a conducted to look at the villi in the small intestines. This requires a gastroscopy procedure which is when they look at your bowel and collect small samples to look at under the microscope. This is to confirm the presence of a flattened villi, a sign coeliac disease.

A second biopsy usually occurs after at least 6 months on a gluten free diet. This should show recovery of the intestinal villi.

It is very important that this procedure of diagnosis is followed. Although it seems slow it is the gold standard for diagnosis. Coeliac disease is a life long medical condition that benefits greatly from a proper diagnosis. By obtaining a proper diagnosis you can be assured that the symptoms experienced are caused by coeliac disease and not another medical condition. There are other causes of abnormal intestinal villi and it's important to make sure what you have is coeliac disease as treatment is a life long strict gluten free diet.


Treatment of coeliac disease is self managed. How strictly you adhere to the gluten free diet is in your control so it's important to be aware of foods that contain gluten and how to read and interpret food labels. Symptoms often take 6-12 months to settle so keep at the diet even if you do not see any immediate effects. The Coeliac Society has a great collection of resources for anyone who has coeliac disease ranging from ingredient list booklets, magazines, restaurant cards, seminars, cooking demonstrations, gluten free food monthly discounts at Coles and recipes etc. It costs a small annual membership fee but it's really worth it! With the amount of gluten free products in the market now it's become a lot easier for people with coeliac disease to still have many of the foods they enjoy.



Remember individual consultations with an accredited practising dietitian can help manage coeliac disease and answer any questions you might have. 

I wanted to share 2 recipes today on one of my favourite foods of summer: Mangoes!

After the last post about Nok Nok I had an intense desire to make Thai Green Mango Salad and as luck would have it someone had gifted us some!

I did a quick search on green mango salads online and mashed together a few recipes that took my fancy and ingredients were available in my fridge.

Ingredients:

• 1 small handful of dried shrimp (around 1 1/2 tbsps)
• 1 green mango (peeled and sliced or grated)
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts
• 1 birds eye chili (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon coriander/cilantro (chopped)
• 1 green onion (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts (chopped)

Dressing

• 3/4 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• zest of 1 small lime 
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Method:

1. Mix the mango, bean sprouts, chili, green onion, dried shrimp and corriander in a large bowl.
2. Mix fish sauce, lime juice, lime zest and sugar in a small bowl.
3. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve garnished with the peanuts.

Look at this beautiful dish! This will be a flavour explosion in your mouth and with only 3 steps what could be easier? The salad can serve as a healthy and refreshing lunch during the summer or anytime of the day. For those who have never tried green mango salad or would give it a pass just imagine the flavour and texture of this dish in your mouth right now. The soft sweetness of the mango, the crunchy fresh bean sprouts, the flavoursome coriander, the spicy chilli, the crunchy roasted peanuts, the salty and fishy shrimp and fish sauce, the tangy sour lime and the sweet sugar all combined together in one dish. Heavenly!

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I first saw this salad shared on Twitter and knew I just HAD to make it! It had a lot of my favourite ingredients! Sadly it was the middle of the night and I was already in bed so I bookmarked the link for another day. That night I couldn't stop thinking about it and in the morning I recruited the ingredients from my fridge to make this beautiful salad.

Ingredients

• 500g prawns, peeled and deveined
• 2 mangos, peeled and flesh cut into bite sized cubes
• 1 avocado, peeled and cut into bite sized cubes
• 1 small bunch baby asparagus, lightly steamed, cut into small lengths
• small sprig snow pea sprouts, trimmed
• 1 tablespoon walnut pieces
• a few tiny baby cos lettuce leaves, rinsed, pat dry
• black pepper

Dressing:

• Juice of 2 limes (including 1 teaspoon finely chopped lime zest)
• 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, finely chopped
• 1 Birdseye chilli, finely chopped, seeds removed
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. If you are using green prawns, cook the prawns in gently boiling salted water until the colour changes to pink. Prawns don't take long to cook, so be careful not to overcook them. Set aside to chill in the refrigerator. Or if you are using cooked prawns, simply peel and devein, then chill them while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, lime zest, coriander, chilli, honey and olive oil in a small jug and whisk lightly. 
3. Arrange the lettuce on serving plates. Top with the mango, avocado and asparagus, then arrange the prawns over the top. Sprinkle the dressing over the salad, top with the walnut pieces and snow pea sprigs. Season with pepper. Serve immediately.

This salad was really fresh and lovely as well and my family really enjoyed having fruit in a salad. As the weather gets warmer I often find myself uninspired to cook or eat cooked foods so salads are really quick and easy during these times. I was too eager to make the 2 salads above and didn't get a chance to measure the kilojoule content of the dishes but they are definitely low kilojoule, low fat healthy meals. What's also great about salads is anyone can make them out of anything! Put in lots of vegetables and then add in a protein source like meat, chicken, legumes etc to make it more satisfying!

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I have officially graduated from my course a couple of weeks ago! I am now a fully qualified Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD). It's all very exciting and yet nerve wracking trying to figure out what to do with myself now, so I'm taking a holiday! I'll be going away to China for a lovely 3 weeks break with my family tomorrow. We'll be touring multiple cities across China so look forward to many food and travel posts ahead. The weather will be the polar opposite from Australia (though if this rain continues it might be quite similar) so I won't be having any salads! I can't wait to absorb in all the food and culture!

Hope everyone has a lovely and safe Christmas and New Year.

About a month ago some friends and I went to check out the new Darling Quarter on its opening day. It was quite a dreary rainy day but nothing comes between a bunch of girls and new restaurants and cool children's playground equipment. Sadly the playground equipment was wet and was dominated by children much smaller than us so we explored the restaurants.

All the restaurants in Darling Quarter had lovely interior designs and it was so hard to pick which to eat at! We settled for Nok Nok for its crisp white interior (but mostly for its mains priced at <$20).


So clean and pretty!

Nok Nok does dine in and takeaway. The menu is quite extensive with over 70 items! What's also great is they indicate how spicy their food is. And specify if the dish is spicy or just the sauce. They also offer substitutes if you can't handle to heat which I think is mighty sweet of them. There were 7 vegetarian options. We had a really hard time deciding what to eat and decided to order a number of things. A little too much I have to say....


Mixed starter plate $15.90

This had 2 pieces each of: gai haw bai toey (baked chicken wrapped in pandan leaf), fish cake, chicken satay, ka nom jeeb (steamed pork and prawn wonton) and spring rolls.

The pandan wrapped chicken was quite interesting and I never say no to satay sticks but otherwise there wasn't much out of the ordinary. What I love about the entree dishes is there was quite a few to choose from, and there were quite a few healthy dishes. What I find with Thai restaurants is there is often too much fried foods. At Nok Nok there were quite a few grilled, baked and steamed entree options which is refreshing to see.


Tum Mamuang: Green mango salad $12.90

I love mangoes (Yes it's mango season right now) and this salad is no exception. It was divine! Nok Nok had 8 salads to choose from and from the names they all seem like good healthy choices. Salads are great to have when it's hot and you just want something light. As you can see they're of a decent size and won't make you look like a rabbit munching on green leaves.

After the entree and salad one of my friends already declared she was full! But there were still mains to come!


Guay Teow Kua Gai: Bangkok's Chinatown favourite. Stir fried thick rice noodle with chicken,egg, calamari, lettuce and light soy sauce. Served with sriracha chilli sauce. %14.90

This is the dish I chose and I had made a bad decision nutrition wise! This dish was very low on veggies as you can see from the lack of colour. They did offer a generous amount of chicken and calamari and the noodles were of a lovely texture but I found the dish too salty.


This is a dish which I forgot the name of... I remember it was duck in soup... and I see bean sprouts.


I think this was Chicken Pad Si-Ewe: Fried thick rice noodle with chicken, egg, Chinese broccoli in sweet double soy sauce.

If you're looking for fried noodles this would be a much better choice with the addition of Chinese broccoli.

After lunch we were quite stuffed and took a long walk around Darling Harbour before going to Lindt cafe for some dessert hehe.


As a dietitian I'm not big on depriving myself of wonderful food. Often when I eat out I order the food that appeals to me the most which might not necessarily be the healthiest option. Of course home made food is often healthier so by choosing to eat out I am already stepping into a mine of unhealthy options.

A lot of the time a restaurant meal may not be something planned. A birthday dinner, business lunch or family get together might seem to get in the way of good eating habits but it should be part of it! I find people often deprive themselves too much during a diet and when a restaurant meal comes up they over eat. This often leads to feelings of guilt and self blame afterwards which lends itself to emotional eating. As a result the weight does not budge and often a dieter can feel like they've failed at their diet again. They might even vow to try again the next week.

Does this sound familiar? Maybe my example is a bit extreme but it's a common thought process. It sounds like a vicious cycle but it can be broken. It's important to remember portion control at your restaurant meal and not to treat it like a buffet (which is probably a bad choice if you're watching your weight). As well as this remember to resume healthy eating habits after the meal and not feel like your diet is sabotaged.

If you find yourself eating out a lot it might be wise to choose your meals carefully. Thai food for example have many healthy and unhealthy options.

Healthy Thai Food Options

• Choose the salads. Thai salads as well as a lot of their other dishes are full of antioxidant rich herbs and spices
• Avoid dishes with coconut oil and milk. Coconut oil/milk is high in saturated fat. This is the type of fat that raises your cholesterol and causes plaque in your arteries. There is a lot of controversy about the use of coconut oil/milk but the National Heart Foundation and American heart Association still recommends limiting their consumption. This is a large topic that I will not discuss this time. 
• When choosing soups pick clear broths eg. Tom Yum. Thick creamy soups often contain coconut oil/milk 
• Choose foods that are grilled, boiled or steamed
• Avoid curries as they contain high fat coconut milk
• Thai food can often be rich in vegetables. Take advantage of this and order dishes with lots of vegetables 
• Choose stir fries as they often come with lean meats and lots of vegetables. They are also less likely to be in a rich sauce. I found that although my dish had light soy it was still far too salty for my liking. 
• Choose brown rice instead of white or sticky rice for an extra boost of fibre
• Choose entree sized meals or share with a friend. Thai food is best enjoyed shared!

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Please excuse the long absence! I've been tirelessly working at placement which is where all my nutrition knowledge has been channeled towards! But don't fret 1 more week left and I will have (unofficially until May next year) graduated! Yes that's right a full fledged qualified dietitian. Hehe.