Friends on Friday - Are you a pumpkin TART?

Image ep creative

My beautiful friend Anne, (one half) of Ennis Perry Creative is so creative she created these delicious pumpkin tarts herself! I’ve always loved Anne’s style and the way she makes things look beautiful. When I first meet her, many moons ago it was her small handmade fashion label 'Luce handmade', which caught my eye, but now she’s concentrating on bigger things.

Through shared partnership, the studio of Ennis Perry Creative has built a reputation for creating unique and beautiful work, designs that give real emotion to brands - watch this space. They have recently completed the beautiful eBook 'A Nourishing Kitchen', which contains 42 fantastic wholefood recipes from Amy Crawford at The Holistic Ingredient.

Image ep creative

But enough bragging of how she makes things beautiful, she also makes food taste delicious – these Pumpkin tarts are a must try. They’re delicious as a snack, lunch or dinner and pumpkins are in season now so snap one up at your next Farmers Market and make them this weekend.

Ingredients

1 Cup Plain Flour

1/2 Cup Besan Flour

1/2 Cup of blended nuts & seeds -Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds & walnuts

1/2 Cup Water

1/3 Cup Olive Oil or Coconut Oil

1/2 Pumpkin

4 Free Range Eggs

1/2 Cup Parmesan

1 Tablespoon of Coconut Cream

Celtic Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper

Tomato Sliced

Base Ingredients

1 Cup Plain Flour

1/2 Cup Besan Flour

1/2 Cup of blended nuts & seeds

1/2 Cup Water

1/3 Cup Olive Oil or Coconut Oil

Instructions for base

Mix dry ingredients together add water and oil

Grease tins with butter

Press into tart dish or tin, as thin as you can without any holes

Blind bake for 10mins at 180°

Image ep creative

Filling Ingredients

1/2 Pumpkin cut into small pieces

4 Eggs

1/2 Cup Parmesan

1 Tablespoon of Coconut Cream

Celtic Salt and Ground Black Pepper

Tomato Sliced

Instructions for filling

Cut pumpkin into small pieces and remove all seeds

Boil or steam pumpkin until soft

Once pumpkin is soft blend until a puree

Add all ingredients together in a bowl and mix

Divide amongst dishes and top with a tomato slice

Sprinkle with a little extra parmesan

Bake for 10-15mins at 180° or until firm

Image ep creative

Serve warm with a Salad on the side – absolutely perfect

Let us know if you try them out, instagram it and tag us too. You can follow Ennis Perry Creative here and while you're at it follow Love Your Health here.

Want to make a baby? My top tips on how

Fertility and pre-conception care is something close to my heart.  I love babies, I love new life, and I love assisting and educating people about healthy, smart, correct choices to make the best possible baby they can.

I’ve recently spent time at a massive Fertility Intensive Conference in Sydney. As the name suggests it was intense – four full days of current research, data, up to date information on how to assist couples with pre-conception care, fertility, pregnancy and IVF.

Some people may think ‘isn’t it easy’? You do the horizontal hump and wahlaa’. For some, yes but for many it’s not that easy. Often as Naturopaths we see people after they’ve been trying for a while, some people have already started the IVF process without success, some are older and have time concerns. We would love to be people’s first port of call when planning a pregnancy – naturopaths have lots of knowledge and expertise to assist with making babies.

If the thought has crossed your mind about starting a family, then the best way is to start a four-month preconception plan. Four months I hear you groan, yes four months is the time it takes for new healthy sperm to generate and oocytes (eggs) to mature. And did you know, the time the egg and sperm first meet it makes the genetic make-up of your baby and it’s offspring for the next 3 generations! True. Then, that embryo relies on its own cellular nutrients for the first 9 weeks before the placenta starts feeding the fetus nutrients from the mum! Why not give your bub the best possible start in life?

My Top Tips on achieving Healthy Fertility

Cleanse - Completing a detox prior to starting gives you the best possible chance of conceiving. A cleanse supports both partners to ensure viable fertility; health of the egg, sperm and the uterus.

• Improve reproductive function
• Liver function
• GIT function
• Sperm; shape, motility, quality and quantity - it's the smallest cell in our bodies and therefore the most vulnerable
• Eggs; assists with healthy egg maturity
• Makes the uterus all soft and ready for implantation and 9 months of incubation

Diet – Foods should be fresh and organically grown, don’t overcook foods, stop using microwaves, eat seasonally. Basically ‘don’t eat anything your great grandma wouldn’t recognize as food'.

A diet full of:

• Protein – 4 serves a day; organic meats, seeds, nuts, ocean fish
• Healthy fats – fats balance hormones
• Dairy – good quality, full fat. Remove Soy; it’s highly synthesized, processed and is an endocrine disrupter!
• Beverages – remove alcohol & coffee, drink filtered water, stress relief teas

Lifestyle - there are many lifestyle choices that impact fertility, here are some for you to think about

• Weight –loose those extra kilos, you certainly don’t want to be shedding them whilst pregnant, those fat stores will be carrying harmful pollutants that will just hang around in your body & bloodstream!
• Avoid chemical exposure, detergents and cleaning products. We are surrounded by these nasties! Radiation - begin being mindful of carrying mobile phones on your body and stop using them as an alarm, even turn off your Wi-Fi at night! Stop smoking.
• Stress relief – continue to have fun while planning and making your baby, this is a happy time, take those weekends away and enjoy each other.

Here’s to a new ADVENTURE

2013 has begun - Happy New Year Everyone.

I’m personally excited about this year, I can feel it is going to be BIG, I already have big commitments in the first four months; conferences, overseas trips, weekends away with my girlfriends, and a wedding! I am buuuusy but taking it all in my stride.

I love this time of year, a time of new beginnings, a time to set achievable goals and a time to implement a plan of change.

Most people want to lose weight or make more money but unless you set a goal on how to achieve this it’ll never work and by February you’ve forgotten what resolutions you even thought of!

The New Year is a great opportunity to let a professional help you achieve your goals and help change your lifestyle, health, diet and thought processes. As an holistic Naturopath and Nutritionist, we are qualified to help you balance your MIND, BODY and SOUL. I can help you.

Make this year different.

Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.

Instead of proclaiming to stop things, quit things and never doing things again be positive in your resolutions and contribute to change by setting goals and using a professional health facilitator to assist you.

Here are some simple tricks and tips for you:

• Want to eat healthier? Increase your intake of wholefoods, eat more leafy green vegetables instead of beating yourself up about eating cakes and desserts.
• Fill up on full fat products including coconut oil, fish, meat, seeds and nuts it will prevent you craving the sweet stuff
• Try making homemade meals and salads instead of buying your lunch.
• Eat smaller portions instead of going on difficult and unforgiving diets. Chew your food and enjoy eating, don’t watch TV or work on your computer taste the flavour of your food
• Double your current amount of exercise, if you already attend one class up it to two!
• Try a new sport; yoga, swimming or even BarreBody.
• Walk more and my favourite is BREATHE.

Enjoy resting and spending time with loved ones this will help you achieve your work life balance, be kind to yourself and enjoy your new year.