Food
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How to add heat to your food
If you like hot (spicy) food and/or want to get more adventurous with chillies, here is your guide on how to add heat to your food. Spicy vs hot Many people use the word spicy to describe food that is hot due to the addition of chillies. This term might get confusing if you consider there are foods that are heavily spiced sometimes get labelled as “spicy” as well. How to add heat to your food Heat is normally added by the addition of chillies, although some spices such as black pepper and ginger can also introduce a bit of heat to meals. However, this article will focus on chillies…
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Recipe: Mexican baked beans with eggs
These Mexican baked beans with eggs are an easy and affordable breakfast, brunch or anytime vegetarian meal. Using canned tomatoes and beans make this recipe quick, convenient and affordable. If you don’t have pinto beans you can substitute black or red kidney beans. Speaking of convenience, I use a ready-made spice mix (Mexican spice mix from Spice and Co) but you can use another brand, just look for Mexican or taco seasoning. If you can’t find any or prefer to make your own, the ingredients in the spice mix I use are: paprika, chipotle chilli, chillies, cumin, coriander, oregano, onion, garlic, cinnamon, sea salt and pepper. This recipe has a…
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10 food swaps for a healthy gut
Instead of changing your whole diet it is easier to swap food items for similar ones that are better for you. In this article you will find 10 food swaps for a healthy gut. Foods for a healthy gut Although there is still a lot more to discover about the gut microbiome, in general higher richness and diversity are correlated with positive health outcomes. As seen in previous articles, a healthy gut microbiome can be achieved by limiting ultra-processed foods and eat a variety of dietary fibre and resistant starch. 10 food swaps for a healthy gut #1: Swap highly highly processed crackers for wholegrain crackers Highly processed crackers contain…
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How to choose between food products
Navigating supermarket shelves can be overwhelming due to the increasing variety and confusing messages in packaging, including health claims. Below is some advice on how to choose between food products. How to choose between food products The triangle paradigm There is a paradigm used to illustrate the fact that there are trade-offs every time you choose one service or product over another. The way I learned it: if you want a service or product you can have it fast, cheap or good. These 3 characteristics are the vertices of a triangle. You can have 2 of the vertices but not all 3. So you can have something done fast and…
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What to do with leftovers
Cooking your own food is great for many reasons: saving money, eating healthy, ensuring your dietary requirements are met, etc. Cooking in bulk has extra benefits: leftovers. If you are of those people who don’t enjoy eating the same meal over and over again, you should learn what to do with leftovers. What to do with leftovers The obvious thing to do with leftovers is to eat them as the original dish. However, I prefer to save leftover food components to put them together as different meals afterward. Principles Food safety Other considerations Food categories Cooked vegetables Cooked vegetables are very versatile. They can be eaten as a side for…
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How to make Mexican-style bowls
In this article we’ll look at how to make Mexican-style bowls as they can be a healthy, delicious and easy meal option for your repertoire. What are Mexican-style bowls? What I calling Mexican-style bowls include what are commonly known as burrito bowls and Mexican or taco salads. However, some burrito bowls have no vegetables and I like my bowls to be heavy on the veg. How to make Mexican-style bowls You can follow recipes but I don’t. You can also get inspiration from the menu of your favourite Mexican restaurant. I have a general structure and ingredients I gravitate toward, which I’ll explain below. However, it’s more important to use…
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Substituting ingredients
If you cook some or all of your food, you might have to substitute ingredients due to a variety of reasons. Lately, these reasons have been mainly bare supermarket shelves due to Covid or floods. This article explores the reasons and ways of substituting ingredients. Reasons for substituting ingredients There are many reasons why you would want or need to substitute a particular ingredient in a recipe. These include: You (or someone you are cooking for) don’t like it You don’t have it when you need it You have it in your fridge or pantry but it’s expired You went to the shops and couldn’t find it It’s too expensive…
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Recipe: Gluten-free banana bread
Much like brownies, there are different kinds of banana bread. Some people like them dense; while some enjoy the cakey, airy variety. This gluten-free banana bread falls in the second category and is great either fresh or toasted. Besides being gluten-free, this banana bread does not contain any added sugar. The riper the bananas you use, the sweeter the bread will be. Having said that, if you are used to commercial banana breads, you might want to add a drizzle of maple syrup or honey on top prior to eating. Of course, toppings are optional, we usually enjoy ours with butter but peanut butter is also a great option. If…
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An introduction to resistant starch
Resistant starch is one of the most recently "discovered" types of dietary fibre. It continues gaining scientific attention due to the fact that certain species of gut bacteria feed on resistant starch to produce short-chain fatty acids, which are beneficial to health.
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Book review: Gutfull by Dr Joanna McMillan
Gutfull by Dr Joanna McMillan is an audiobook with a wealth of information about how to keep a healthy gut in an easy to understand format. The author Dr Joanna McMillan is a nutritionist and dietitian born in Scotland. She is very well known in the Australian dietetics community and the general population as she is very busy with professional webinars, TV shows, etc. She is an author, nutrition consultant and ambassador for many food, nutrition and health organisations and food businesses. Gutfull by Dr Joanna McMillan This audiobook is structured in podcast format, i.e. divided in episodes rather than chapters. The episodes are short and, as mentioned before, in…
