10 ‘Bad’ to Healthy Food Substitutions

March 11, 2014

Okay first off, when I say bad I do NOT want to demonize anything. All things in moderation are fine and dandy, so by ‘bad’ I mean foods that have a lot of calories, fat, or are just pretty nasty and chemical laden in general.

I realize that a lot of you are not all health gurus and thought it would be helpful to do a list of some easy ways to swap out ‘bad’ foods for healthier and more nourishing foods to jump start your journey to a healthier and fitter life 🙂

1. Instead of white bread (read lack of nutritional value and simple carbohydrates) for whole grain bread, or breads with low sugar content! My favorite breads are sourdough and Ezekiel brand ‘Sprouted 100% Whole Grain.’

2.No more soda!! Even diet soda please .. and I know it is hard, because even I get these completely random and absurd cravings for diet coke (damn you, Aspartame …). But please try and stick to water and teas (no not Starbuck’s chai tea latte’s, an actual tea bag placed into hot water).Be creative! Slice lemon and strawberries into your water, and buy flavored herbal tea’s 🙂

3. Instead of white rice (refer back to #1), substitute this for brown rice, wholegrain rice, or my favorite, quinoa! Quinoa is actually a seed but is classified as a whole grain.

4. Instead of white or milk chocolate (packed, packed, packed full of sugar) substitute it with dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher) or carob. If the taste is too bitter, you can always melt the chocolate and add a few drops of stevia to it to sweeten it up 🙂

5. Instead of french fries made from potatoes, use sweet potatoes to make them .. and bake them, don’t deep fry! If you would like a recipe, please let me know and I will do a feature on an upcoming Friday Fare 🙂

6. Instead of butter (on your toast, in your baking and/or cooking) use coconut oil! Another substitute would be olive oil, or avocado (for putting on toast).

7. Instead of a sugary candy bar, substitute it with berries and other fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, and apples!

8. Instead of fast-food pizza, make your own pizza at home with whole wheat flour!

9. Instead of ice-cream, which tends to have a lotttt of sugar in it, substitute it for my healthified ice cream 🙂

10. Finally, substitute your negative attitude into a positive one! I know this obviously is not a food substitute but it is important nevertheless. A healthy and positive mindset on life will do so much more than any food substitutions will, and give you the motivation to strive for a healthier lifestyle.

Hope this helps you find a way to have a healthier version of what you love eating. What is your biggest ‘bad’ vice? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare, Health

Friday Fare – Healthified ice-cream with toffee sauce

March 7, 2014

Woooow, it’s Friday already?? Umm, the weeks pass by too fast for me. And I have a lot of work due next week for uni, so that’s not necessarily a good thing lol.

Anyway, I thought I would show you all how to make a healthier and clean version of everyone’s favorite dessert: ice-cream! And since I loooove toffee, I thought I would show you how to make a healthy version of that, to drizzle on top of the ice-cream.

Healthified ice-cream with toffee sauce

I was inspired to do this, because a) I freaking love ice cream, and b) I am in LOVE with banoffee pie. Read bananas and toffee in a pie. Together. Heaven in a pie. And because this ice cream is made out of bananas, I thought it would be delicious to pair it with a healthy and raw toffee sauce 🙂

This recipe was also inspired by recipes featured on Blogilates and The Detoxinista 🙂

And note, before you can do ANYTHING, make sure your bananas are ripe and sweet and then slice it up and freeze the banana slices overnight. This is a crucial first step, as the frozen banana slices is what gives you a deliciously sweet and creamy texture to the ‘ice-cream.’

Also PLEASE USE NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER and not just any old peanut butter 🙂

Alright, banana slices all frozen? Excellent, let us move on.

Healthified Ice-Cream with Toffee Sauce

Alice Williams

Healthy 'ice-cream' that literally tastes and has the exact same texture as ice-cream!

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Ingredients

For the Ice Cream
2 bananas sliced and frozen
1 tbsp Peanut Butter
For the Toffee Sauce
12 pitted medjool dates
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

To make the ice cream
1. Throw your banana slices (or you can gently guide them) into your blender, and whizz it until the consistency becomes smooth and creamy. This will be done very quickly if you have a Vitamix or Ninja blender and unfortunately will take longer with a less high powered one. I found that a food processor actually worked very well in getting a very ice-cream like texture, but perhaps that has more to do with the fact that my housemates food processor is perfect ..
2. Then add your peanut butter to the mixture. Blend for another 30 seconds – 1 minute.
To make the toffee sauce
1. Make sure you soften the dates by soaking them in hot water for a few minutes (3-5 is fine) first.
2. Once the dates are soft, add the dates in first and blend them for a bit until adding in your milk and vanilla extract.
3. Blend until your desired consistency (I wanted to leave mine a bit gritty and thick) and then either add to the ice-cream, on top or by swirling it in orrrrr just eat it. Hehe, it is really good.

Notes

Adapted from Blogilates and the Detoxinista

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do!! I normally like to add some unsweetened cocoa powder to my ice-cream mix, or I stir in some unsweetened coconut flakes and dark chocolate chips. Experiment, the possibilities are endless!

If you make this delicious dessert and post it on Instagram, Facebook, or any form of social media, please tag me and hashtag it with #fridayfare and #honestlyfitness so I can find you 🙂 My name on all social media outlets is just ‘Honestly Fitness’.

Love you all so much, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. And remember to indulge once in a while! I had a ridiculously decadent little dessert last night and plan to go out for Indian food with my good friends tomorrow night. Although health and fitness is important, it is all about balance. Don’t deprive yourself, and don’t go too crazy 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare

Friday Fare – Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! Whether you have a special someone to spend it with, or are single and proud, I hope you are having a fabulous day.

Since I made a very decadent raspberries dipped in dark chocolate and cacao for last weeks Friday Fare, I thought I would make something a little lighter, but delicious nonetheless. I bring you Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins!

I really like muffins, particularly in the mornings but most commercial ones are full of junk and other yucky stuff I quite frankly refuse to put into my body. These muffins are light, healthy, and very versatile meaning you can add berries into the mix, dark chocolate chips, pretty much anything into them. If I had some coconut whipped cream I most definitely would have dolloped some on top of the muffins I made. They are still a sweet treat regardless of their lovely and wholesome ingredients however, so please treat these as a dessert and do not go nuts. I am planning on featuring a lower calorie sweet treat soon that you can definitely eat quite a few of, so stay tuned 😉

You need the following ingredients to make 8 muffins:

Almond & Oat Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

Alice Williams

Muffins that won't pack on the pounds!

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Ingredients

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp high quality salt
1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees farenheit 🙂
2. Mix all of your WET ingredients in a large bowl (eggs, vanilla extract, unsweetened applesauce, melted coconut oil, and raw honey).
3. Mix all of your DRY ingredients into the wet ingredients (high quality salt, baking powder, oat flour, almond flour, and almond flour).
4. Once you have mixed all of the ingredients together well, get a muffin or cupcake pan and either put muffin cups into the cupcake pan holes or grease the holes with some olive oil or coconut oil. Put the batter evenly into 8 of the muffin holes.
5. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes (or 25 minutes if you like them more firm).

To make the oat flour, all I did was buy rolled oats and then quickly pulse them in a food processor (a blender works too).