Beet Hummus

When we pass through peri-menopause we have two options of how we approach our health and the discombobulating symptoms that we are feeling from this natural hormonal change.

1. We can fall into a victim mindset and bypass the learning that comes for the experience by jumping straight onto the HRT train delaying our inevitable transition into peri-menopause or worse, suffering and complaining for up to 10 years because we buy into the story that this is what it means to be a woman…that we suffer from our own bodies and hormones. Not a happy place to be.

2. We can begin to take greater care of ourselves, to nourish ourselves deeply with dense nutrition and listen to our bodies and learn from our symptoms to discover exactly what our minds and bodies are needing during this time of hormonal change.

The joy of an empowered approach to peri-menopause is that the path is paved with delicious health promoting recipes that build health for the next chapter and supports our bodies as we metamorphosis into strong and vibrant women with energy, excitement and robust health striding into the next chapter.

If I had to pick one recipe that supports midlife health in a myriad of ways it would be this gorgeous scarlet bowl of Beet Hummus.

Beets are rich in betalains that support stage 2 of the detoxification process in the liver. Our livers are our greatest ally in managing fluctuating hormones as it deconjugates and binds excess hormone ready to leave the body.

The liver also needs a fibre rich diet to function effectively as the body wants to detox daily when we poop leaving us free of circulating hormones that cause our night-time sweats, daily hot flashes and weight gain.

Fibre is the midlife womans’ best friend helping her to balance hormones, protecting heart health and supporting digestive health.

Chickpeas are fibre rich and packed with the B group of vitamins for energy and plant-based protein.
Chickpeas and sesame seeds found in tahini also contain phytoestrogens that trickle feed our bodies a safe plant-based mimic for estrogen. This benign estrogen helps us to get our mojo back and feel like our juicy hormone is balanced in our bodies.

So much gorgeousness here. The colour, a burst of flavour and the dense nutrition supporting our midlife bodies.

Besides it’s gorgeous colour the secret beauty of this dish is that it only takes 10 minutes to make and sits in the fridge ready to add a nutrient dense, liver loving snack or lunch option to your day at any moment.

 Ingredients

3 medium/ 1 large beet
1½ cups (15-oz can) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
3 cloves garlic 
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
½ lemon, juiced
¼ tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp tahini (optional)

Instructions

I have made this dish with both cooked and raw beets.
I have cooked beets in the oven with a little salt and pepper. I have thrown chunks of raw beet into the blender. I have bought a vacuum sealed pack of cooked beets from Costco. The hummus always tastes great.

Throw all of the ingredients into a blender and blend on high until the hummus is smooth and whipped.
Season to your taste.

Serve with gluten free crackers or chips.

Savoury Breakfast Muffins

What if peri-menopausal/midlife weight gain and the ubiquitous midlife muffin top has nothing to do with calories and instead is a symptom of dis-regulated metabolic hormones?

What if we did not need to lose weight to make ourselves healthy but that our bodies will naturally release excess pounds from around our middle and maintain our ideal body weight WHEN we are fully healthy?

In my one-on-one coaching practice and in my 12 week program, I spend a disproportionate amount of time encouraging women aged 40+ to eat MORE; more nutrition and more nutrient dense whole foods so that their bodies can release the weight they are sick and tired of carrying.

This recipe for Savoury Breakfast Muffins is a perfect example of building dense nutrition into your day and eating MORE health promoting food so that your body can achieve the all round, mental and physical health you working towards.

Let me explain:

As we pass through midlife and the hormonal stage called peri-menopause, we are enter into a crazy hormonal dance as a result of the depletion of estrogen and progesterone from our bodies as our ovaries finally work towards getting the rest they deserve.

In a nutshell we drop out of our regular hormonal cycle we have come to know so well for decades and enter an unpredictable hormonal pattern that creates hormone based symptoms throughout our bodies.It is discombobulating.

In this hormonally turbulent stage as we lose estrogen, it is very easy for our bodies to become dominated by our stress hormone cortisol.

Cortisol increases our appetite, causes cravings for sugar and carbs and robs us of our sleep at night. Cortisol triggers our fight or flight response, sending glucose into the bloodstream, releasing insulin and causing the liver to lay fat down around our middle. The classic middle aged muffin top.

The truth is that as much as we may have cursed our menstrual cycle over the years, the presence of estrogen in our bodies is important for many areas of our health.

One of roles of estrogen is to increase our insulin sensitivity throughout the years after our puberty making every cell in our bodies more effective at handling excess sugar in the blood stream.

As estrogen depletes, so does this protection and just as a result of being peri-menopausal we slide gently towards insulin resistance, a state of pre-diabetes purely as a result of being a midlife women.

Don’t panic! We can manage this metabolic change in our bodies with the food we eat and when we eat it.

If you were ever going to take your health seriously and make changes to your habits to build a nourishing routine and lifestyle, peri-menopause would be that time.

Both of these recipes are gluten free and contain eggs to boost the protein content.

These are recipes to riff off.

Add in seeds that you love, add the vegetables that you have in your refrigerator or frozen and on hand. Use the recipe as a guide and make them your own.

…and here is my favourite way to serve these muffins in a completely satiating, blood sugar balancing breakfast. Additional protein; and a gorgeous piece of grilled salmon or left over chicken would work perfectly here, and additional healthy, satiating fats in the form of avocado. Don’t forget the hot sauce!

Sweet Potato Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients

Olive oil to prepare the muffin pan
Parchment paper
600g or sweet potatoes or 1/2 a butternut squash grated
4 spring/onions finely chopped
1-2 red chillies finely chopped
6 large free-range eggs beaten
3 tbsp cottage cheese
250g/ 11/4 cups corn meal
11/2tsp baking powder
50g/ 1/4 cup parmesan cheese finely grated
!/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C
Prepare a muffin pan by coating the wells with olive oil or lining each well with parchment paper
Put the corn meal, baking powder, parmesan cheese, sunflower seeds and poppy seeds into a large bowl and mix to combine
Add the spring onions, chillies and sweet potatoes or butternut squash and mix thoroughly
in a separate bowl add the cottage cheese and eggs and mix to combine thoroughly
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined
Place the mixture into the oiled muffin tray and bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked through and fragrant
Place on a cooling rack until the muffins reach room temperature and can be frozen

Savoury Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients

8oz Organic Chicken Breakfast Sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups of baby spinach or 1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
1 cup vegetable (Frozen sweetcorn, diced red pepper, diced Zucchini
I small apple diced
3 green/spring onions finely chopped
2 cups corn meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
6 tbsp organic butter melted/hemp oil/olive oil or pumpkin seed oil
1 cup buttermilk or coconut milk and 2 tbsp lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup sharp cheese grated

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 375F/190C
Remove the casing from the sausages and cook on a medium heat in a small frying pan with olive oil until cooked through.
Add the spinach/parsley and vegetables for the last minute to cook through
Prepare a muffin pan by coating the wells with olive oil or lining each well with parchment paper
Put the corn meal, baking powder salt and pepper and cheese into a large bowl and mix to combine
in a separate bowl whisk together the butter milk and eggs add the melted butter or oil of choice
Grate the cheese and dice the apple and finely slice the green onion and combine with the flour mix
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined
Add the sausage and vegetables and stir for a minute longer to combine to a veg rich savoury batter
Place the mixture into the oiled muffin tray filling the wells generously and bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked through and fragrant
Place on a cooling rack until the muffins reach room temperature and can be frozen

Nut and Seed Mix

I am all about baby steps. Simple switches in the food we eat everyday so that as you move through ypour daily routine, you automatically build dense nutrition into the food you consume. Not a diet overhaul, not an overwhelming change everything situation but a simple switcheroo.

One of my recommendations for decreasing the hidden sugar in your diet and to boost the nutrition you eat daily is to JUST EAT WHOLE FOODS!

Ditching cookies, muffins, cakes, candy and energy bars is a good place to start.

I advise many of my clients to create a mix of health promoting dark chocolate drops, whole nuts and seeds to keep in the refrigerator and to turn to when they are looking for a snack.

Dark chocolate is low in sugar and rich in antioxidants, iron and the relaxation mineral magnesium. Dark chocolate has also been shown to boost brain serotonin levels in clinical trail...we really do feel happier when we eat chocolate!

Whole nuts and seeds provide our bodies with heart healthy fats, vitamin E which helps to reduce hot flashes and minerals such as selenium and magnesium which support a healthy thyroid gland and are required by the body as a cofactor for a myriad of small biochemical reactions.

Sugar is removed from the diet when we switch to eating these foods raw, whole and individually rather than smooshed together in a processed, grain based bar by SUGAR!

Ingredients

Find a medium sized recycled jar to hold your mix.
Add Brazil nuts...selenium ++, macadamia nuts, heart and brain healthy walnuts, vitamin E rich almonds, Zinc rich raw pumpkin seeds, pecans, pistachios and sunflower seeds.
Add organic, dark chocolate chips or chunks
For me the dark chocolate feels like a treat or celebration, it elevates a mundane nut mix to something special. It nurtures me.
Add goji berries for vitamin C or sugar free cranberries for a burst of fruitiness.

Keep refrigerated so that the healthy fats in the nuts do not go rancid and the jar is not on the counter as a permanent temptation 

Ditch the Oreo cookie and reach for a handful of your mix when your energy is low or pack into a small container to carry with you for when you have a busy day.

Nutrition is the first line of self- care baby ❤️