In any case, while I enjoyed the wines at the time, I noticed their effect the next day, waking feeling slightly foggy headed. I certainly didn't miss that.
Before I started this body overhaul journey and this column I'd have written a couple of wine columns about Ake Ake's The Wild Rose and Pinot Grigio (they were both delicious, by the way!).
At the beginning of this journey I didn't think I'd ditch wine for good. And I will have the odd one now and then when the occasion calls for it, but here I am, six weeks in and I'm quite happy with having the odd gin with sparkling water and lemon.
Perhaps I need to look for someone to take over my Dani's Drops wine column. Any takers!?
My eating plan continues to focus on high fat, reasonably high protein and low carb.
I've started researching different recipes and stumbled upon a recipe for sunflower seed butter.
I'd tried Ceres Organics pumpkin seed butter (tasty, if a slightly bitter aftertaste) so I was keen to try to make my own seed butter.
With a slight intolerance to some nuts, this is a good alternative for me to have on a piece of paleo toast now and just a teaspoon of it from the jar if I'm feeling a bit peckish mid morning or afternoon (though that's rare given the high fat, high protein intake keeps me fuller for longer).
I also came across a recipe from our sister publication Bite for seed crackers. They are super easy to make and they go brilliantly with blue cheese. Try out the recipes below and feel free to mix them up to suit your tastes.
You could substitute other seeds or nuts in the butter, ditto the crackers.
The eating and exercise plan is paying off. I tried those size 12 Max jeans on last weekend. They're snug, but I can do the button up! Bring on the next six weeks!
- Sonja Gardiner is a Hamilton nutritionist on a mission to bring health, wholeness and happiness back into people's lives. For more information see www.sonjagardiner.com.
Sunflower seed butter
Ingredients:
2 cups sunflower seeds
coconut oil
salt, to taste
honey, to taste (optional)
Method:
-Dry roast the seeds in a frying pan on a low-medium heat. They can burn quickly so keep stirring them and don't leave them unattended.
-When they've cooled down a bit, pour the seeds into a food processor. Blitz them up until they're a fine crumb. -Add a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil and blitz again. You may need more coconut oil - add as much as you need to reach the consistency you want. I prefer mine on the chunky and dry side so I added about 3 tablespoons of oil.
-Add a dash of salt to taste and if you want it to be a little bit sweet, half to 1 teaspoon of honey should do it.
Seed crackers (gluten and dairy free)
It is important to include chia and/or flax seeds because they are what break down and bind everything together.
I found my mixture was a tad sloppy so I added about 1/4 cup of ground linseed to the mixture. The size of the tray I used meant my mixture wasn't flattened as thin as it could be so in order to ensure the crackers were dried out enough I turned the oven down and left them in for an extra 10 minutes.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup linseed / flaxseed
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
Flaky sea salt, to sprinkle
Method:
-Heat oven to 170C.
-Place all the seeds and the salt in a bowl, pour in water and mix to combine.
-Leave for 15 minutes for the chia and flax seeds to soften and bind everything together.
-Tip on to a baking paper-lined oven tray and spread out as thin as possible (around 4mm thick) and sprinkle with some flaky sea salt. Bake for 30 minutes.
-Remove from the oven and slice into crackers, then return to the oven to cook for another 20-30 minutes until crisp and golden.
-Remove to a rack to cool then store in an airtight container.
