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Eating bread and staying lean typically don’t go hand in hand.

One of the major problems is that most breads are full of very processed and quickly digested flour.

The high carbohydrate content combined with a negligible amount of fibre and you have a blood sugar surge almost guaranteed.

This can be a good thing if you have just smashed or are about to have an intense workout. Otherwise it is more than likely to just add a bit more to your waistline.

No instead of going into a rant about how bad bread can be, I’m going to offer you an alternative that will tick off a lot more boxes nutritionally.

In Craig Ballantyne’s new book, Simple Nutrition, he talks about having flax bread which sounded really good. Flax seeds, flax meal etc is a great source of fibre, omega 3′s and protein so anything that is made with flax as a main ingredient is going to be pretty good for you.

So off I trot to the local supermarket and bakery and then health store and then home empty handed. Turns out getting this wonderful Flax Bread isn’t as easy here in Hobart as it may be up in Toronto. So with a little research and trial and error I came up with the following recipe to make your very own flax meal bread.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Flax Meal
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 2 Teaspoons Stevia
• 5 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1/3 Cup Oil

With regard to the ‘exact’ ingredients you use, obviously the higher the quality, the better the end product will be. This will vary depending on your location and availability of different brands or products.

To start with put the flax meal, baking powder and stevia into a large mixing bowl and combine well. Then in a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. (So you are probably whisking them, but I prefer to be all tough on the eggs and give them a beating!) Add the water and oil to the eggs and give them a quick mix before adding it to the dry ingredients.

Give it all a quick mix together just with the whisk or a wooden spoon. It will go thick pretty quickly so just get it all combined nicely and then pour it into a lined pan. A square or rectangle pan about 25cm or 10 inches will be perfect. You will need to flatten the mix out to the edges with your hand or a spoon but in a pan this size it should be about 2cm thick all around.

Bake for 20 minutes @ 190 degrees, fan forced. The mix should be ‘browning’ on top, risen a little and spring back up when touched.

Just like any bread, this tastes better freshly baked! From this recipe I get 8 slices. So out of the pan I cut it into four even squares. From each square I then slice in half to make two, well, slices! (Hopefully the pics make more sense of this!)

In Craig’s book he recommends toasting and topping with almond butter. This works well, as does peanut butter. Just make sure the topping is somewhat healthy and you aren’t undoing all of your good work! Because it is quite heavy, one slice will be more than enough and I’d recommend having it with a cup of your favourite tea as well.

Enjoy!

I am a creature of habit.

When I find something that works, I tend to use or apply it over and over again.

Why keep looking for something bigger and better when you already have the solution or answer in front of you?

This brings me to my Favourite Anytime Snack.

Favourite meaning tasty, easy, enjoyable.

Anytime meaning to be enjoyed morning, noon or night (without the need to do a massive workout to earn it)

Snack meaning something to fill a void in your stomach without the need for a full meal.

In a moment of clarity I have come up with an insanely easy recipe that is super easy to customise to your liking, takes about 2 minutes to make, is super healthy, and will probably also get rid of those after dinner cravings!

Sounds great!!

I must admit though, I didn’t entirely come up with the idea myself. In fact you may already be doing this, but because there may be even one person reading this post that isn’t, I decided to tell you all.

Basically we are making a flavoured yogurt.

Start with one cup of natural yogurt. Low fat or full fat, you decide. The full fat is typically only about 3-4% anyway.

Add 1/4 cup of your favourite flavoured protein powder and mix in. The best way is to mix it, leave it for 2-5 minutes then mix again.

Add 1/2 cup of your favourite (frozen, thawed or natural) berries.

Mix again and eat!

Quality protein, quality carbs and a quality taste.

You can add 1/4 cup of crushed nuts into the mix for some good fats and extra fibre, or just eat them by themselves afterwards like I do!

My current favourite is banana protein powder and blueberries. I have played with chocolate and vanilla powder, both mixed with strawberries, which is just as good.

I am going to try the coffee protein powder without the berries and see what that tastes like. I’m not sure what coffee and berries would be like, although I have seen some recipes that mix coffee (or mocha) with raspberries. I’ll give that a crack and let you know!

Enough of the tough exercises!

Back to great tasting food already!!

Here’s a quick and easy recipe I have tweaked a little compared to the original recipe you can find on page 74 of the Fat Burning Kitchen ebook.

After bootcamp on Saturday morning we had some samples for people to try.

The taste test was a hit with the only negative feedback being they were a bit dry.

So here is the recipe I used to make this healthy alternative to your normal choc or rum balls.

They have a hit of chocolate flavour, a subtle nutty flavour and are packed with natural, healthy nutrients.

Nutty Energy Snack

• ½ Cup Almond Butter
• ½ Cup Ground Flaxseeds (Flax Meal)
• ½ Cup Tahini (I used unhulled, but it was a bit bitter, so it might be better to use hulled)
• ¼ Cup Chocolate Protein Powder
• ¼ Cup Ground Pumpkin Seeds
• ¼ Cup Real Maple Syrup
• 1 Teaspoon Stevia
• 1 Teaspoon Cacao Powder (Use cocoa if you must, but cacao is 100x better!)

Combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl, or you could probably use a food processor.

Add the smallest bit of water if they are a bit dry, or a bit more flax meal if they are too wet.

Scoop a heaped teaspoon and roll into balls. Then roll them in shredded or dessicated coconut.

Refrigerate.

Eat.

(They go well with a hot drink such as tea!) Feel free to try using different nut butters or protein powder to vary the taste.

Let me know what you think!

PS. If you want to grab a copy of the book this recipe came from, click here. There is heaps of new and interesting info in it (plus some other recipes) and it is covered by an 8 week satisfaction guarantee!

I love my blender! It can make meal times very exciting. Well some times. Other times it can be a disaster, but those recipes don’t end up here!

And when it comes to quick and easy nutrition, it is hard to go past throwing a few ingredients into a blender and churning it for 60 seconds.

Here’s the recipe for the Ultimate Chocolate Peanut Butter Blender Bomb.

• 1 Cup Water
• 3/4 Cup Chocolate Protein Powder
• 1/2 Cup Blueberries
• 1 Tbsp Cacao Nibs
• 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1 Tbsp Peanut Oil

Chuck it all in the blender and give it a blast for about 60 seconds. You might want to give it a few ‘pulses’ at the end to make sure the nibs are fully mixed in.

The above recipe would be perfect for most guys, and you’d almost get two serves for the girls. I will work out the numbers on it and post them ASAP.

Let me know what you think.