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oatmeal

Health, Products I love

5 Healthy Foods I am Loving!

October 15, 2014
top 5 healthy foods I am loving

For the record, in this post I am not telling you that you NEED to be eating these foods. I am simply sharing what 5 foods I like and always seem to be eating, as a way to share their nutritional benefits with you and to inspire you to include these into your diet. Some of you may already know and eat all of these, but I am sure there are a few out there who haven’t tried them or do not eat them regularly. And here at Honestly Fitness, I want to help everyone 🙂

1. Brown rice

brown rice is a really healthy food and a great source of carbohydrates

 Brown rice is such a powerhouse of a grain. I like eating it because it has more texture than white rice, is a good source of fiber (de-bloating, ahoy!) and is a complex carbohydrate. As such, it helps to keep you fuller for longer. It is also full of vitamins and minerals such as iron (important for the ladies), vitamin B-6, and magnesium. 

 2. Strawberries

strawberries are a really healthy food and low GI

 Okay so I truly hope all of you reading this post have tried strawberries before! Strawberries are such tasty gems of a fruit, and very healthy for you too. They are also full of vitamins and minerals, are low in calories, and has a lower sugar content than many other fruits.

  3. Oatmeal

oatmeal is a healthy food and makes for a great breakfast

Mmm, this was most certainly an everyday staple during the winter when I lived in England and still something I eat at least twice a week. Not only are they a comforting and heath breakfast, they are also high in iron, high in fiber, and low in sugar. I normally have rolled oats with some skimmed milk and berries when I do have it for breakfast, and it honestly keeps me full and satisfied for hours. 

And yes, the oats in the photo on the left are the ones I use to make my oatmeal 🙂

  4. Asparagus

asparagus is a healthy food and has a lot of fiber

 Hehe, okay so my love affair with asparagus took a while, but now I am madly in love with it! I found that baking asparagus with a small amount of olive oil, pink himalayan salt and black pepper created a mouthwatering dish. Like most vegetables, they are low in calories, but they are also high in fiber (seeing a connection here?) and have a variety of minerals and vitamins including potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and more. I dare you to not like asparagus after making it the way I like it 😉

5. Coconut water

coconut water is a healthy food and packed with electrolytes

 Having lived in Asia my whole life, I was surrounded by fresh coconuts and enjoyed their delicious flesh and coconut water almost daily. Since moving first to England, and then to the US, I have been pretty disappointed in many of the commercial brands of coconut water … they do not taste like fresh coconut juice! I always order a coconut if I see it on a restaurant menu. Finally after endless searching, I found a bottled coconut water that has my seal of approval; Harmless Harvest coconut water! It tastes JUST like the real thing. Some of their waters are pink, which I would love some more explanation about, as I have never had a fresh coconut with pink coconut water … Anyway, coconut water is fabulous because it has a bunch of vitamins and minerals, and is great to have if you are craving something sweet. Have it in moderation though, as it is fairly high in sugar.

 [Tweet “5 Healthy Foods I am Loving! Have you tried them?”]

 

Let’s see, today I have had 3 out of the 5 foods I just posted, haha! Oh, I truly am a creature of habit. I love my healthy lifestyle, and I love these healthy foods. What are your favorite 5 healthy foods?

Honestly yours,
Alice xx

Friday Fare, Health

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

June 6, 2014

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Hiiii. I am so sorry I missed last week’s Friday Fare 🙁 I swear, I have so many delicious and healthy recipes to share with you all but I have been travelling a lottt recently and two situations occur:

a) I make a delicious and healthy meal but have nowhere I can photograph it (good lighting and scenery is everythaaang people) or b) I have a perfect place to take photos but I am really busy and do not have time to make anything special. Oh blogger dilemmas, man.

Anyway, a few nights ago I was really craving oatmeal and somehow managed to be quite creative and come up with overnight kombucha chia oats with matcha green tea yogurt … AND photograph it!! I probably should have done something to make the photos a little nicer (’tis a bit plain) but alas, I did not.

The idea for soaking the oats in kombucha came to me because I actually had a bottle of Synergy’s cherry chia kombucha chilling in the fridge (pun .. hehe). I had nooo idea how the combo of cherry flavored kombucha, chia seeds and rolled oats would take, but I decided to take the risk and I am really glad I did. It was delicioussss. Now, the matcha green tea yogurt idea came about because I bought some matcha green tea powder at Safeway the other day despite it being kind of expensive.

But seriously, matcha green tea powder is so bloody hard to find and I really could not be bothered to drive to Japan Town (HATE driving in downtown San Francisco) and the good Asian supermarket nearest me is still kinda far … so yeah anyway, tangent. Since I had the powder I thought it would be fun to make a flavored yogurt which was also delicious, although I did have to lightly sweeten it with liquid stevia. And the toppings seemed self-evident because they are all awesome, delicious and healthy.

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Okay, so now that you have the full-blown history of how I thought of this recipe (hope I didn’t bore you all!!) let’s get to making it!

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt Recipe

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

Alice Williams
A perfectly invigorating blend of kombucha chia soaked oats with fat fighting green tea yogurt
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats I used Bob's Red Mill brand
  • 1/2 a bottle of Synergy's Cherry Chia Kombucha
  • 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder
  • 1 cup of full fat plain yogurt - don't fear fat ... or a fat-free version, but check to make sure it doesn't have any extra added sugar as most fat-free versions are really high in sugar
  • 1/2 cup of blueberries
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish honey
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish pumpkin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 1 teaspoon or more if you wish slivered almonds

Instructions
 

  • 1. The night before you plan on eating this meal, put your rolled oats and the cherry chia kombucha into a mason jar (or anything that will be sealed) in the fridge overnight to soak.
  • 2. Now that your oats are ready and soaked, let the fun begin! To make the matcha green tea yogurt layer, simply get a bowl and put your yogurt, matcha green tea powder, and liquid stevia in a bowl and use an electric whisk to blend it all up (you can use a normal whisk too). Once the yogurt is ready, dollop it on top of your oats.
  • 3. Now layer the blueberries on top of the yogurt layer, followed by the honey, shredded coconut, pumpkin seeds, and slivered almonds.
  • 4. Voila! A really easy, delicious AND healthy breakfast which can be taken on the go or enjoyed at home. I like having mine with a cup of tea, green tea of course 😉
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

How else can I enjoy Overnight Oats?

Overnight chia oats with kombucha are so versatile and can be altered in so many delicious and simple ways. Another variation involved using greek yogurt (I like Fage) instead of normal yogurt, strawberries and Dang coconut chips, mmm.

Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt
Overnight Kombucha Chia Oats with Matcha Green Tea Yogurt

I hope you all enjoyed this week’s edition of Friday Fare. If you make this, please share a photo with me and hashtag it #fridayfare if you upload your re-creation on Instagram or Twitter!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

May 16, 2014

Okay so I just want to start off by apologizing in advance as the photo’s are not the prettiest But seriously, how pretty can oatmeal really be? Hehe, I tried my best but just be assured that this slow cooker oatmeal TASTES amazing!

So what is this week’s edition of Friday Fare? … Slow cooker oatmeal!

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

My boyfriend bought me a slow cooker a few weeks back and I am literally obsessed with it. It has made meal prep and meals in general so much easier. I mean seriously, all you do is add your ingredients (plus chopping stuff if you need too, which can take a while actually as slow Alice found out) into the slow cooker, set it to low or high, and then leave it for several hours. And voila! Delicious food in mass quantities, mmmmm.

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Told you the photo’s wouldn’t be fantastic 🙁 SO delicious though

I discovered the idea of slow cooker oatmeal while just searching the web trying to look for alternatives to overnight oats. I really like overnight oats but it’s cold .. and I really like a warm and comforting breakfast. Slow cooker oatmeal presented a lovely way to have a warm and delicious breakfast with minimal effort involved! I like my oatmeal really creamy and rich so I used unsweetened almond and coconut milk as my liquid, but feel free to substitute half for water if you want a less rich oatmeal.

This meal is full of protein and complex carbohydrates and is extremely filling and should keep you feeling full for a good three to four hours.

 

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Alice Williams
Creamy slow cooker oatmeal; all the taste with none of the effort.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings 2

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup dry steel cut oats
  • 2 and 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk or sub for any milk you like
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

  • 1. Put all ingredients into your slow cooker
  • 2. Set slow cooker to 'LOW' setting and let the oats cook for 4 hours
  • 3. Eat! You can add anything to these oats (after they are cooked though, I added fruit into the slow cooker and each time it turned out nasty). Some idea's are fresh fruit, honey, natural peanut butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, nuts .. the world is your oyster!
Slow Cooker Oatmeal

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Friday Fare. Now there is no excuse to not eat breakfast since you can make it ahead of time and then just leave them in the slow cooker with the setting set to ‘WARM’ 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice