Baked Mushroom

Ingredients:
12 medium swiss brown mushrooms
A cup of Italian parsley
Lemon zest from half a lemon
Drizzle of vincotto (or balsamic vinegar)

Clean the mushrooms –including the stalks – with a damp cloth.  Remove stalks and roughly chop.  Combine with chopped parsley and lemon zest, parmesan (optional) and a slug of olive oil. Pulse until it’s rough. Throw the mushroom stalks in.
Season the mushrooms and drizzle with some vincotto (or balsamic vinegar). Distribute the mixture evenly over the mushrooms and bake at 180 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until golden.

Berry Smoothie

Berries are a ripper source of antioxidants, helping to prevent free radical damage throughout the body. Free radical damage is often a cause of dry, wrinkly skin. I must say, this smoothie goes down an absolute treat!

Ingredients:
1 handful of blueberries
1 handful of black berries
1 handful of raspberries
2 cups of almond milk (contains essential fatty acids which feeds our skin)
1 tablespoon of LSA (this is a combination of linseeds, sunflower seeds and almonds. Found in the refrigerator section at your local supermarket or health store)
1 teaspoon of spirulina powder
1 teaspoon of raw honey or agave syrup, if you like the added sweetness (optional)

Method: Simply put ingredients into a food processor and whizz it up for about 30 seconds. Pour into a glass and you’re ready to go!

Banana Buckwheat Pancakes

An absolute favourite, these are energy-rich and a delicious weekend treat!

Ingredients:
2 cups of buckwheat flour
2 bananas, chopped
Handful of pistachios
A sprinkling of shredded coconut
1 egg (free-range if possible)
1-2 cups water (depending on your preferred consistency)
Pinch of cinnamon
The inside scraping from half a vanilla bean
1 tablespoon of Agave syrup

Mix up the buckwheat flour, eggs and water until you’ve got a pancake-like consistency. Start with 1 cup of water and add a little as you stir until you’re happy with the level of thickness.

Add two chopped bananas to the mixture, a handful of pistachio nuts, a hefty pinch of cinnamon and the inside of half a vanilla bean.

I like to cook these pancakes in extra virgin coconut oil: it’s a saturated fat which means it doesn’t go rancid in the heat, plus it’s great for our skin, hair, nails and it even helps to balance out intestinal flora for gut health.

Heat your fry pan then pour mixture in. The pancakes can be made to any size. When bubbles appear on surface of the pancake, they’re ready to be flipped over. Top with fresh macadamias, a few slithers of banana and a drizzle of agave.

Green Beans Sesame

Ingredients:
200 grams of green beans
Sesame seeds
Sesame Oil

Top and tail the beans. Place in half a saucepan of boiling water. Rest beans in a bowl of cold water to retain colour and crispness. Drain beans, and use a small knife to split lengthwise. Arrange in a bundle on a plate and sprinkle with lightly roasted sesame seeds. Finish with a drizzle of sesame seed oil for flavour.

Buy ‘Inspiring Ingredients’ here

We all like to eat out, but some cuisines are healthier than others. So here’s the list of goodies when it comes to all the foodie options! On this same note, my clients always say they always put weight on when they travel. It’s actually easy to eat healthy for any cuisine type; it’s just about making smart choices.

Watch Lola on Network Ten “The Circle”:

ITALIAN
• Righto, so when I say Italian you think carbs, carbs and more carbs. And sure it can be all about pizza, pasta, garlic bread, risotto and tiramisu. And if that’s all you’re ordering then yes, it’s going to be a carby meal.
• But here’s how to make it healthy; go back to basics. Traditional Italian food can be healthy, and in fact it really is. It uses real and simple ingredients. And at most meals a fresh garden salad is always on the side.
• So when it comes to Italian food; go for traditional dishes which are made with simple ingredients, and always get a side salad to aid digestion of a potentially heavy meal.
• This is a Mediterranean diet too, so a great source of monounsaturated fats (olive oil) to promote heart health.

Nutritious Italian dishes
• Chicken Cacciatore; protein and veggies. Clean, lean dish, full of flavour and will make you feel fuller for longer.
• Minestrone Soup; a great way to cram in loads of nutritional value.
• Polenta; comes from corn, much easier to digest, great if you’re allergic to wheat and gluten
• Pizza and Pasta; try wholemeal or spelt bases. Hold on the cheese and go for a good Napolitano sauce which is naturally high in lycopene and prevents cardiovascular disease.

JAPANESE
• The Japanese diet is seen as one of the healthier options. You may have heard of the macrobiotic diet, it stems from traditional Japanese food. It’s all about brown rice, fermented soy beans, fish. Plus seaweed speeds your metabolism right up, which is great if you want to lose a few extra kilos. It also helps to prevent free radical damage caused by radiation, so load up on the seaweed, we need more of it!

Nutritious Japanese
• Sushi; when you can try brown rice sushi as it has a lower GI which means less sugar content, great for weight loss, sustained energy levels and fuller for longer.
• Good choices: Miso soup great because the miso paste is a fermented soy product, great for gut flora. Helps your immune system and keeps your gut health. Great winter warmer drink / soup.

WESTERN
• This is where it’s very easy to fall off the wagon, it’s our Western diets that seem to be mega portion sizes and often foods are seriously processed like there’s no tomorrow, so this means the nutritional content is low.

Keeping Western Nutritious
• My best trick with Western food is think “fresh is best”; keep it simple: protein (beef, chicken, fish, eggs) and salad or veggies.
• It’s how you flavour them and your combinations that makes them a winner dish.
• Try adding spices, garlic, onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil.. these flavours help enhance the tastiness of the dish without taking away the health benefits.

MEXICAN
• Mexican food often gets a bad rap, but if done well it’s jam packed full of goodies! Think beans and legumes for fibre and veggo protein, thing tomato and chilies for lycopene which is a potent antioxidant for cardiovascular health.
• And my favo, the good old avo for brain and skin health.

Nutritious Mexican
• My tip, try not to go too mental on the dips with corn chips before your main meal, this is for two reasons, one you get way too full and end up over eating, two but cutting back on the corn chips you’d be cutting the calories of that meal in half! Or try blue corn chips, they have more antioxidants!
• Avoid cheese, bread, processed.
• Good choices: Chilli con carne, or tortilla salad (with grilled chicken).

Mum’s Quinoa Salad

It seems like it was just last week that we were celebrating Chrissy and now it’s Easter! Don’t think that Easter is a time you have to fall off the wagon if you’re trying to stay healthy, try adding more salads into your Easter meals to help balance out all the chocolate eating! Food is all about nourishment and celebration, Easter is a time when we can enjoy the celebration side of sweet things. Enjoy the extra chocolately treats, it only happens once a year! And let’s face it… there is some very good chocolate out there – if you haven’t done it already, try raw chocolate. Found in most health food stores!

Throughout this series “LOLA’S MATES” I’ll be cooking and chatting to people who inspire me, and mum is one inspiring lady! She’s always been into health and would send me to school with a health pack consisting of dried apricots and almonds. Sometime’s even her own spirulina protein balls! Mum shows us her Quinoa salad recipe… and for those who haven’t made quinoa, how to cook it!

Recipe:

1 cup mixed quinoa (red white and black)
10 basil leaves, torn
6 kumatoes (or cherry tomatoes), quartered
1 handful of baby spinach
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
ginger, grated
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook quinoa just like you’d cook rice. So it’s one cup of quinoa to two cups of water and bring to the boil. Will get to 3 times its size and you’ll see little tails pop off. Toss with the olive oil and cool to room temperature. Toss quinoa with the rest of the ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste. Makes 2 meal serving, or 4-5 side servings. Scale as desired. Serve at room temperature or cold. Enjoy!

Chrissie & Jane with Lola: Debunking Diet Myths

Lola was invited to Melbourne’s brand new breakfast show Chrissie & Jane on MIX 101.1.

Is sugar really that addictive? What are the worst dieting myths out there? Check out a whole morning of fun with Chrissie Swan and Jane Hall.

Chrissie & Jane – Part 1

Chrissie & Jane – Part 2

Summertime Berry Picking

Every year it’s a bit of a tradition to go Berry picking in my family. Over the years we’ve always teamed up with another family, “The Smith’s” and in this video you’ll see Mills – she’s from the “Smith Family” – and we’ve been berry picking every Chrissy together since I can remember. This past Christmas I wanted to show you exactly what we get up to.

The really cool thing is that we’re following our dreams and Mills is part of her very own production company called “Farmwalker Films”. They’re Melbourne-based and create a truckload of magical stuff, including this, so check them out at http://farmwalker.com/

In the mean time, enjoy this little taste of Summertime berry picking! And if you haven’t done it before, try it! Trust me you’ll love it. And that’s the secret to success in anything, doing what you love.

Gluten Free

What exactly is Gluten Free? Coeliac disease? Wheat free? How do you know if any of this applies to you? What are the signs?

Lola Berry was on 3AWs The Weekend Break and explains it all for us…

Listen here