Category NutritionAdvice

After hearing a few people saying they weren’t a fan of dates in bliss balls, my thinking cap went on for alternatives.   I love the flavour of pineapple so thought I’d try and make a pineapple flavoured bliss ball.  I called these pineapple lump bliss balls, aptly named after the yummy lolly pineapple lump – just a little more nutritious!

These bliss balls are very simple – only four ingredients, and nothing fancy. There’s no added sugar as pineapple is naturally sweet, and the coconut adds an extra tropical flavour.   Here’s how to make the pineapple lump bliss balls.

 Ingredients:

3/4 cup dried pineapple
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup coconut
80g dark chocolate

Cut the pineapple into fine pieces, and crush the macadamia nuts into small pieces.  I did this with a pestle and mortar but you could crush them in a plastic bag wrapped in tea towels and a rolling pin.  Place the pineapple and nuts in a food processor and blend together for a few minutes.  Add the coconut and continue to process until the mixture becomes dough like.   If it looks a bit wet, add some extra coconut and process again for about 30 seconds.

Squeeze/roll the mixture into balls.  Just so you know – the mixture not super sticky like normal bliss balls, but it still moulds into balls.  Place in the fridge while you melt the chocolate.

Break up the dark chocolate into pieces and place in a microwaveable bowl.  Microwave for 45 seconds, stir, and then heat at 20 second intervals siring well in between each interval.  This is important so you don’t overheat the chocolate. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes max.

Dip the balls in the chocolate and place on baking paper until set.

Enjoy!

Changing mindset, thoughts and behaviours around how we feel about our bodies and our eating behaviours is something I’m really passionate about.  Too many women spend their lives yoyo dieting, fixated on good foods/bad foods and have an unhealthy relationship with food – but it doesn’t have to be this way.

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I was off to a workshop on using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques (CBT) in nutrition.  I’ve learned a little about CBT in the past few years but this workshop was great and has left me wanting more!!

CBT is about helping people to identify unhelpful thinking and behaviours so you can develop ways to change these.  This process helps both support change and maintain change .  It also helps you to get back on track when you fall off the wagon.    Some of these principals worked really well in helping me defeat my own food issues years ago, before I really knew what they were.

I thought I’d share with you today just a small snippet of CBT that we learnt about in the workshop- something practical that you can use every day to help you.

This little snippet is making up “Rationale Cards”.   This involves taking some of those negative, self defeating thoughts you have and changing this to a newer, more positive thought and behaviours.  It’s not about affirmations.  It’s taking skewed beliefs about yourself and re framing them to help with more positive outcomes, and writing these on cards so you can remind yourself to think in a new way.

I often say to my clients that we are real bullies to ourselves, and we need to quieten down the bully in your head and be more of a friend to yourself.  Imagine this – your bestie is trying to lose weight and she goes to have dessert at a BBQ you are both at.  Would you say to her “OMG you are so useless – look at you eating dessert, what a failure, you can’t stick to a plan”.  No you wouldn’t.  (Well I hope you wouldn’t or I don’t want to be your friend!) But yet those are the sorts of things many of us say to ourselves ALL the time.   These thoughts lead to negative behaviours that then further sabotage our efforts  – like comfort or binge eating.

Here’s one thing you can do to help challenge your thinking to create healthier food patterns long term.

Activity – Creating Rationale Cards

Have a think about a situation where you’ve done something you didn’t really want to do – and felt annoyed/bad/sad afterwards.

Have a think about what happened in that situation and what your thoughts and beliefs were – and what the consequences of these thoughts/beliefs were.

Here’s an example:
Situation – I had to work late to finish a project my boss pushed on you at the last minute. My boss doesn’t even say thank you, or acknowledge all the work you’ve done.
Thoughts/beliefs – my project mustn’t have been good enough.  I feel like I’ve failed.  I may as well get some chocolate – that’s my only comfort right now.
Consequences:  Eat block of chocolate.  Feel down and annoyed that I’ve slipped up on my healthy eating patterns.  I feel even more like a failure.

Note it’s NOT the situation that leads to the consequences – it’s your thoughts and beliefs around this situation. 

For you, pick one of those negative beliefs/thoughts you have and ask yourself the following:

– what is the evidence that the thought might not be true?
–  Is there an alternative explanation or another way of thinking?
–  what would I tell a friend in this situation?

What we want then is to write the old thought and a new, constructive thought on some cards that you can keep handy and read regularly.  It does take a bit of time to change these thought patterns so it’s important to remind yourself regularly of a more positive, constructive thought pattern.

 

Here’s some examples, the first one is an extension of the above example:

This is really just a little taster of one CBT technique, but it’s one we all can use.  Keep these cards handy and read each day to help train your brain into new, more helpful thought patterns.  It’s doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen!!

Last week I showed you a sneak peak into what I ate in a day.  As a nutritionist, people are always interested in what you’re eating.   I thought I’d take a photo diary of what I ate this week to share with you. I almost didn’t share this as people can be quite judgemental about others eating styles, but I thought it would be a useful exercise to that I’m not perfect! In fact, I don’t believe in perfection 🙂

I can honestly say I’m not “hiding” anything or not eat anything because I didn’t want to show it on here, I thought I’d be totally honest and give you a snap shot of what I eat.  I guess my philosophy is to eat a wholefoods diet high in plant foods the majority of the time yet still allow those foods I love sometimes.  Some days are healthier than others, but I don’t stress out if I eat something that’s not “healthy” because I don’t think that’s a healthy mindset.  I think if you aim to eat well 90% of the time then you’re doing great.

Soooo hear it is!  I didn’t take pictures of everything – eg hot drinks/water – but in general I’ll have 1-2 coffees a day, a green tea, plus sometimes a tea in the evening.

Day 1 is published here:

Day 2:

Breakfast:  Crunchy peanut butter on vogels toast.  A lazy breakfast, but one of my favourite things!  Mid morning: Green tea + a banana, plus some carrot sticks
Lunch: Left over fish cakes with a big salad – red onion, mixed greens, red capsicum + tomato.  Also had 2 x dried figs.
Afternoon tea:  A handful of “Brain power” mix from Alison’s Pantry – has lots of walnuts, dried kiwi fruit, almonds. Also had some natural yoghurt + 1 kiwifruit.
Dinner: I marinaded some chicken thighs in tandoori paste + natural yoghurt and had that with an Indian brown rice + broccoli and beans.  The rice had garlic, onion, ginger, currants, cashews + spices.

Not pictured, I had two instant coffees and water throughout the day.

Day 3:

Breakfast:  Oats, natural yoghurt, berries, chia seeds + milk. Love this breakfast!
Mid morning: Was on the road for work today in the morning, got a coffee for the road and ate a banana too.
Lunch: Left overs from last night + 2 boiled eggs
Snack: Fruit/nut mix – mindless munched on  this – I bought 80g and ate it all. Whoops.  O well – at least it’s nutrient rich.  Also had some carrot sticks
Dinner:  Tastier than it looks – Mexican corn tortillas with spiced chicken, avocado, salsa, salad and grated cheese.  Had two of these, plus had a few extra pieces of chicken + slice of cheese

Not pictured: Water + a green tea + decaf tea after dinner

Day 4:

Breakfast: Avocado + marmite on vogels + peanut butter on Vogels (ps had some beautiful weather so been eating breakfast outside past couple of days)
Mid morning: 1 wholegrain cracker with hummus + blue cheese, 4 carrot sticks, a few grapes, and 1/2 a banana.  Today was a training day – I actually took a platter for morning tea to the training and I’m glad I did as the other food options were muffins or lamingtons.
Lunch:  Bought lunch at a cafe near our training.  Sandwich was pretty average, was roast beet, salad and beetroot but it was quite dry.
At the training, there were bowls of lollies on the table + chocolate freddos being handed out left right and centre.  I ate 2 fruit bursts and 2 milkshake lollies.  Milkshakes are my fave! Never buy them. Don’t know why I ate the other lollies as I didn’t enjoy them – I think it was just because they were in front of me.  I also ate a freddo frog.
Dinner:  Had cravings for a steak sandwich, so it was Steak sandwich on ciabatta bread.   Had lots of lettuce, onion, schnitzel, avocado, tomato and some cheese.  Also had a beer.  I rarely drink alcohol during the week but there were beers in the fridge and I felt like one.

Not pictured: Ate an orange after dinner.

So day 4 not the most healthiest day, but hey, it happens sometimes for me too.

Day 5:

Breakfast: oats, natural yoghurt, kiwi fruit, berries
Mid morning – latte. Had a busy morning, not really hungry.
Lunch – lettuce, kale, baby spinach, beetroot, grated carrot, avocado, chickpeas, a boiled egg and some feta cheese
Afternoon tea – we had  a farewell at work for one of the nurses.  I didn’t want to be weird at the afternoon tea and take photos of everything I ate, so I took a photo of 1/2 the table (there was more food) – I ate some grapes, a few crackers with hummus, some cheese and a couple of chocolate hearts.
Dinner:  I went to farewell drinks after work too  for the same girl – had 1 glass of cider.  Left about 7.45pm and picked up Thai takeaways on the way home.  Had chicken stir fry and  beef fried rice.

Day 6:

Breakfast: Had two of these – banana on wholegrain toast with chocolate peanut spread underneath.   This was my pre run breakfast
Mid morning: Got home, had a coconut water, then shower, then quick glass of milk + banana for protein + carbs to refuel.  Didn’t have time to eat properly as had to go straight out to get stuff for a birthday lunch.
Not pictured – toast with peanut butter.  Had this before my hockey game at 1pm sort of a pre lunch as knew I’d be eating lunch late after hockey.
Late lunch – Went to mother in laws for birthday – Ham off the bone, salads, rice salad + potato were on the menu.  Also had a little bit of pavlova (bad photo of the pav but was a sneaky photo as didn’t want to draw attention to myself photographing food!).
Dinner: Had a late dinner, but was quite hungry.  Had salmon fillet, baked kumara, veges.  Also had a spoonful of some birthday cake that we got given to bring home.  Was a chocolate coffee sponge.

Day 7:

Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs with avocado on a piece of ciabatta bread
Lunch:  Tomato soup, piece of wholegrain toast.  Snacked on some homemade roasted chickpeas.
Snack: natural yoghurt, kiwifruit and banana with some pumpkin seeds.   Hubby made popcorn so ate a few handfuls of that too.
Dinner:  Made creamy chicken and mushrooms which had leeks and green beans in it.  Was made with chicken stock and a little sour cream.  New recipe – was average.  Ate with roasted pumpkin, broccoli, carrots and some mashed potato.
After dinner:  Had 5 pieces of Whittakers Almond Chocolate (husband bought – I ate hehe)  plus a cup of tea.

Supplements – I take Blackmores Omega 3 supplements a few times a week, and also iron tablets as i’m iron deficient.

So that’s a week in my life of food!  This week it could be totally different. Comparing this to my overall food pattern, I normally eat red meat 2-3 times a week whereas I only had it once this week and day 6 was a bit out of wack due to it being such a full on day and a birthday as well.  I also had training and a farewell which changed usual food options for me.   If you found this post interesting, I often post food photos on my instagram account – so you can check me out there – here’s the link.

White Chocolate Berry Cups by Eat Well NZ

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again – but I really love chocolate!! I’ve always been a fan of white chocolate, but I rarely eat it these days as it’s quite sickly sweet and because it doesn’t contain cocoa you don’t get the antioxidant kick like you do from it’s darker friend.  I bought a big bag of Equa Gold cocoa butter on sale for $10.50 and I’ve been dying to try it out to make some less sweet, all natural white chocolate.  I came up with this idea – white chocolate berry cups

The white chocolate berry cups turned out rather gorgeous –  you bite through the crisp, vanilla white chocolate and get a mouthful of gorgeous tart berry filling and it all melts in your mouth in a delicious flavour explosion.  Bonus is they just use a handful of ingredients and are quick and easy to make too.  Still very much so a treat food, so enjoy occasionally only!

White Chocolate Berry Cups:

Ingredients:

1-2 tablespoons of liquid honey (depending on how sweet you like things)
100g cocoa butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla bean paste

Berry filling:
1/4 cup frozen berries, defrosted (I used boysenberries)
1 tablespoon of chia seeds (use more if you need)

Melt the cocoa butter in a pot over a medium heat, stirring regularly.  Once melted add the honey and the vanilla essence and wisk really well.  Take off the heat.  (Note:You might find that the vanilla clumps together at the bottom, don’t stress just give a quick wisk again and just try and scoop up some of the vanilla bit with each spoon when you fill the cups. )

Next, prepare your berry filling.  Defrost your berries in a pot over a medium heat (or in the microwave).  Add the chia seeds and leave to sit for 5-10 minutes.  The berries should go to a jam like consistency.  If not, add another teaspoon or so of chia seeds and leave to sit again for a few minutes.

While the berry filling is doing it’s thing, fill  mini cupcake cases 1/4 fill with the white chocolate mixture and place in the fridge until set. This doesn’t take too long – 5 minutes or so.

Remove from the fridge and add a blob of the berry filling. Top up with white chocolate filling and leave till set.

This recipe makes around 8 cups but if you want to make more, just double the ingredients.  I like to just make a small amount since they’re a treat food.

Feel free to try other combinations too. I tried some with cranberries and cashews instead of the berry filling and they were yummy.

Nachos are always a crowd pleaser.  But a big pile of mince on top of fried corn chips topped with tonnes of cheese and sour cream does not make a very nutritious meal.  This is a delicious, healthy vegetarian nacho alternative to the greasy favourite.  Personally, I enjoy this far more! It’s perfect for meatless Monday.

I have to say that for a long time I was a bit weary of making dishes with beans/legumes.  But every recipe I’ve made has turned out delicious, and this version of healthy vegetarian nachos is a favourite in my home.  You know when you’re meat loving husband enjoys the vegetarian version better you’re onto a winner.    These healthy vegetarian nachos uses kidney beans and black beans to make a delicious, filling vegetarian chilli.  Serve with sliced avocado or homemade guacamole, salsa and just a small serve of corn chips and you’ve got a nutritious meal that’s a good source of protein, fibre and nutrients.

Did you know that kidney beans are really high in antioxidants?  Yup, kidney beans are a clear superstar when it comes to antioxidants, beating many other vegetables.   They are also a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, folate and thiamine.  Black beans are also a good source of nutrients and antioxidants. The surface coat of the black bean is an excellent source of three anthocyanin flavonoids: delphinidin, petunidin, and malvidin. These three anthocyanins are which gives black beans their colour.

I use organic beans and tomatoes most of the time as they’re still really cheap – under $2.5o a can.

Here’s how:

Healthy Vegetarian Nachos

1 tablespoon of oil
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground chilli
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 can organic black beans
1 can organic kidney beans
2 cans organic canned tomatoes
salt and pepper
jalepeno peppers
fresh coriander (optional)
Avocado
lemon or lime

Method:

In a large fry pan, heat the oil over a medium heat.  Add the garlic, onion, spices and cocoa.  Stir well until the onions soften – around 5-8 minutes.  Rinse and drain the beans and add to the spice mix.  Add the canned tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes until the chilli has thickened and some of the tomato juice has evaporated.  Stir through some jalepenos – use as many or as few as you’d like.  They add some spice and a nice crunch.

Serve with some avocado – sliced or mashed with lemon/lime juice, some fresh corriander and just a handful of corn chips.  Garden of Eatin’ make a yummy organic corn chip – check them out here.

This vegetarian chilli is nice in tortilla wraps with salad and also simply by its self as a nourishing, filling meal.

Homemade nut bars are a breeze to make.  These kind of remind me a bit of the birdseed slice that mum used to make when we were kids – only without all the butter.  Home made nut bars are, in my opinion, better than the supermarket ones I’ve tried.  They’re a little sticky and chewy but still crunchy and delicious.  Plus it’s a no bake recipe so they’re quick to make.

Combining ingredients like fruit, nuts, seeds, oats plus other whole food ingredients to make muesli bars / snack bars  gives you a snack that provides high quality nutrition and the energy you need to fuel your day.

I am totally in love with the bulk bins so I used one of my favourite mixes, Alison’s Pantry Raw Power mix to make these bars.  It’s a great combo of brazil nuts, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts as well as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and buckwheat.  It contains a hint of dried fruit – apricots, dates and goji berries plus coconut.  Plus it’s pretty good value – normally around $1.89 per 100g.

Recipe for homemade nut bars

2 tablespoons of almond butter (you could use also peanut butter)
2.5 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons of honey
1 1/2 cups Raw Power mix, or fruit/nut mix of your choice + 4 tablespoons to press on top
2 heaped teaspoons of psyllium husks

In a medium sized pot over a medium heat, melt the almond butter, coconut oil and honey together and bring to a gentle boil. As soon as the mixture starts to bubble, turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat.  Mix through the raw power mix, then sprinkle over the psyllium husks and stir well.

Press into a small baking dish – mine measures cm by cm.   The extra raw power mix can now be pressed into the top of the mixture.

Cut into squares.  Makes either 9 long squares, or 18 small squares.  These are energy dense snacks, so pick the small squares if you’re fairly inactive during the day.

These homemade nut bars will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge – I like to freeze mine wrapped up in wax paper – then I just pull out before work and have as an afternoon snack.  They do go soft out of the fridge, so best kept cold.

If you look around blogs, Instagram and Facebook of health food bloggers you can get overwhelmed but the number of “superfoods” that people use.  And lots of superfoods add up to super dollars!!

And if you’re on a budget, buying all of these is just out of your reach. Fret not though, while lots of foods get their own hype, there are plenty of “superfoods” that you can include in your diet on a budget.  Remember though, just adding a few superfoods in your diet doesn’t make it healthy – in reality the best thing to aim for is a “super diet” packed full of  nutrient dense foods.

Chia Seeds vs Linseeds

A bag of chia seeds costs around $12 for a 250g bag, whereas it’s just $5 for a 400g bag of ground linseeds. You can buy them whole too which is even cheaper, but to get the best nutrition from linseeds, you need to grind them up otherwise they’ll pass straight through your digestive system with their goodness unabsorbed.

Chia seeds are awesome as they swell to form a gel which is great for thickening smoothies and making yummy chia puddings, but linseeds (also known as flaxseeds) are also a great source of nutrition.

You can add linseeds to your smoothies and stir through your oats as you would chia seeds.

Here’s how linseeds and chia seeds stack up nutritionally.

Canned salmon vs fresh salmon

So fresh salmon is totally delicious and does taste quite different from canned salmon. But if you’re wanting to include more oily fish in your diet and can’t always afford the $36 per kg price tag, then canned salmon can be a great alternative.  If you get the canned salmon with the bones in it (don’t be grossed out just mash it up!) you’re also getting a boost of calcium as well as your omega 3 fats.   100g of Sealord pink Canadian salmon contains 600mg of omega 3 fats. To reduce the risk of heart disease, the Australian Heart Foundation recommends that adults consume about 500 milligrams of omega 3 (marine source) every day, so including canned salmon in your diet provides a significant source.

Green tea

If you’re wanting to build up your antioxidant intake, then green tea is a great low cost way to do it.  Drink it hot, or use it cold. Cold green tea can be used in smoothies instead of coconut water and will give your smoothie a big antioxidant boost.

Bonus is you can buy a box of tea bags for under $4.

Nut butters

Almond butter, cashew butter – they’re both totally delicious and packed full of heart healthy fats but they’re quite a bit more pricey than your humble peanut butter.  Peanut butter has had a bit of a bad wrap when it comes to nutrition, but it’s packed with protein, fibre and B vitamins. Almond butter is higher in calcium and Vitamin E than peanut butter, but you don’t need to feel guilty choosing peanut butter – it still packs it’s own nutritional punch.

Feel free to use peanut butter as an alternative to other nut butters – just choose a peanut butter that contains 100% peanuts.

I have to say that over the past few weeks I’ve been feeling pretty lazy and uninspired in the kitchen – I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been sick, or it’s just a bit of a funk I’m in at the moment but let’s just say we’ve been eating a few free range precooked chickens and chilli bean wraps lately!

In the middle of this uninspired period, Sealord sent me a dinner pack to create some meals with.  This was fantastic as it gave me some healthy, but quick meal ideas that I’ve loved. One thing I made was fish cakes – an old fashioned favourite that are easy on the pocket yet delicious and nutritious.  Using canned salmon is a fantastic low cost way to get more omega 3 fats into your diet – just what we need for healthy heart, skin and brain health.  I used the light chilli flavour for these fish cakes which gave them a lovely flavour – it’s not overly spicy still give the fish cakes a little zing.  Yum!  I totally recommend giving these a go for a lazy weeknight dinner.

Ingredients:

150g tin Sealord Salmon Sensations Light Chilli
1 cup cold mashed potato
1 cup cold mashed kumara
1/2 cup gluten free flour + extra making patties
1 small egg
2 tablespoons chopped corriander
2 tablespoons chopped capsicum
2 spring onions, finely diced

Directions

It’s easy peasy – place all ingredients in a bowl and mix till combined.   If things are a little wet looking, add a touch more flour.

Divide the mixture into patties on a board that’s dusted with flour.

Pan fry until both sides are golden and the fish cakes are heated through.

Serve with salad or steamed vegetables for a nourishing dinner.

Sugar free macaroons

How do you make a delicious sweet treat without sugar?  With Naturals by Equal! I received some samples of Naturals by Equal which is New Zealand’s newest 100% natural sweetener made with stevia and other natural fruit sugars.  It’s a fantastic natural alternative to sugar and it has 97% less calories than the real deal.   I have to admit that I do have a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to baking, so I was interested to see what the Naturals range was like in a recipe.  To test it out I whipped up a batch of these macaroons.

I have to say that these macaroons didn’t disappoint.  Soft, chewy coconut with a crispy shell and a rich dark chocolate bottom – these sugar free macaroons have been a tasty treat that won’t spike your blood sugars.

Sugar Free Macaroons Recipe (Makes 14 biscuits)

12 teaspoons of Naturals stevia granules
2 eggs
1  1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla essence
120g dessicated coconut
30g coconut oil (liquid form)
60g of 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate (I used Lindt as it’s delicious and low sugar too)

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees celcius.

Whisk Naturals sweetener, egg and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the coconut and liquid coconut oil (heat to liquidify if solid) and mix well.  Leave to sit for around 5 minutes so the coconut can soak up some of the liquid.  Line a baking tray with baking paper. Dollop a heaped desert spoon of the macaroon mixture onto the baking tray and with clean fingers pinch into a slightly cone shaped biscuit.  Continue with this until all the mixture is used.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, watching carefully near the end that they don’t burn.  Leave until completely cool.

When the macaroons have cooled, melt the dark chocolate over a very low heat.  Dip the bottom of the biscuits in the chocolate and leave to set.

You can store these biscuits in an air tight container for up to 5 days.  They make a nice healthier option for an easter treat.

Have you tried baking with stevia before?  How did it turn out for you?

Banana Cinnamon Smoothie

Life has been busy, busy, busy – hence the lack of posting lately – sorry!  But one thing I have been doing is experimenting with a bit of the past week or two is some new smoothie flavours.  I’ve been having a smoothie for lunch some days, as I can chuck everything in the smoothie cup, take to work and blend with the blender at work – quick and easy, and I can drink it on the go if I need to as well.

This banana cinnamon smoothie one is one of my favourites I’ve had lately. It’s thick, creamy and smooth and the cinnamon flavour goes nicely with the banana.

Here’s how:

1 large banana
1/4-1/2 cup of ice
1/2 cup natural, unsweetened yoghurt
1 teaspoon natural maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 tablespoon linseeds

Blend together the following ingredients.  You might need to add a splash of water to help your blender along if the mixture is particularly thick.

Nutritionally, here’s the benefits:

This banana cinnamon smoothie provides a good source of potassium which helps maintain normal blood pressure.  The natural yoghurt provides a source of calcium for strong bones, probiotics to maintain a good balance of gut bacteria and protein to help keep you feeling fuller for longer.  Cinnamon isn’t just a yummy flavour – it helps stabilise blood sugar levels too!  Linseeds provide some fibre and also provides a plant based source of omega 3 fatty acids.