Marc Wellness International Blog

Berry Fruit Icy! 

Ingredients: 

8 Strawberries

6 Raspberries

4 Blackberries

2 tablespoons berry sorbet

1/2 cup crushed ice

1/2 cup water

Mix it together:

Wash all fruit ingredients and cut strawberries in half.

Place all the berry fruits, sorbet, ice and water in the blender

Mix all ingredients till smooth then pour into a cup and enjoy!

*Option: add 1 cup of skim/soy milk to turn into a smoothie

I made this Carrot, Sultana & Walnut Loaf for my mum’s birthday last weekend. And many of my relatives and friends wanted the recipe. So here it is!

2 grated carrots
4 eggs (2 egg whites, 2 whole eggs)
½ cup coconut
½ cup walnuts
½ cup sultanas
½ cup brown sugar
2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
 3 ½ cups wholemeal self raising flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
200ml apple sauce
3 tablespoons macadamia nut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup soy or low fat milk
 

1. Pre heat oven on 180°C and grease loaf tin or line it with baking paper.
2. Grate the carrots, chop up walnuts in half to make a little smaller
3. Mix eggs (2 egg whites and 2 whole eggs), sugar with a mixer and add apple sauce and macadamia oil.
4. Stir in grated carrots, walnuts, sultanas and vanilla.
5. Add and stir in the flour, coconut, baking powder, cinnamon and mix all ingredients together
6. If the mixture looks a little dry add in some milk. The mixture should look like a thick smooth mixture.
7. Pour loaf mixture into the baking tin and place in oven to cook for around 1hour. It may take a little longer if the centre is not cooked within an hour.

Enjoy!

Joey Marc

This recipe is great for cold winter nights! A yummy lentil and vegetable soup. When making soups, I like to throw a lot of different vegetables in the pot but you can choose what you like to add according to your food choices. So here is the recipe, I even took the picture above after I cooked it, so you could check it out! Serves enough for 5 people (Even if you only want to make it for 2 people, I like to make extra so I can freeze it for another nights dinner!) Ingredients:1 cup red lentils,1 cup brown lentils,1 onion or 1 leek (whatever you prefer!), 2 carrots, 2 zucchini, 2 celery sticks,1/4 pumpkin, 2 potatos,1/2 cup peas, 1 Tablespoon mixed herbs, 1 teaspoon fresh dill, 1 bunch english spinach, 1.5L Vegetable Stock, 400g canned whole pealed tomatos, Extra Water (1-2 cups)Variation: If you wanted to have lentil soup that is not just vegetable and lentil then make small changes to the recipe. Such as - instead of using vegetable stock use beef stock, add vegetables like carrot, celery, onion and add bacon bones into the soup for flavour. 7 Simple Steps how to make the soup:

1. Prepare and cut up all the ingredients: cut the pumpkin and potatoes into chunk sized pieces, the carrots and zucchini sliced into circle pieces, the celery and onion or leek into small pieces and divide the spinach in half.
2. Brown the onion or leek in the pot.
3. Add the vegetable stock, lentils, potatoes, pumpkin, mixed herbs and bring to a boil. Let it boil for a few minutes or till the lentils and vegetables start to get soft.
4. Once lentils and vegetables are starting to soften, add the remaining vegetables, peas, carrots, celery, zucchini and add the tin of whole pealed tomato. If the mixture is very thick or there is not enough liquid like a soup, then add some water.
5. Cook on low to medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft.
6. 5 minutes prior to serving add the spinach to the soup. The spinach needs to be added last because it takes only a few minutes to cook.
7. Serve in a soup bowl and add a garnish of dill. 
  Enjoy!  

“Can I please have some ideas for quick family dinners, as I often struggle for meal ideas that are quick and easy?” Karen, Fairfield It is important when making quick family dinners to also ensure they are healthy! Here are a few ideas: - Grilled chicken or fish (with fresh lemon and herbs) served with a mixed salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, avocado - Grilled chicken or fish with cous cous or rice and boiled vegetables or mashed potato - Stir Fry -  (use a spray or some water instead of oil) Chicken Stir fry with green vegetables such as bok choy, zucchini, broccoli and celery, carrots, onion with noodles and oyster sauce - Frozen dinners – pre-make meals then freeze them such as cook spaghetti sauce and freeze it or a pot of soup with vegetables on the weekend and pull it out to defrost for a quick family dinner during the week. - Pizza – buy a pizza base and add your own toppings such as ham, low fat cheese, tomato, spinach - Steamed fish with mashed potato and salad - Omelets with ham, cheese and tomato and salad - Tacos with mince or beans filled with lettuce, avocado, corn, tomato - Grilled chicken with spaghetti - Smoked Salmon and egg salad with crispy herb bread Happy Cooking!  Richard & Joey Marc

Last night it was a little cold in Sydney, feeling just like a winters night and I thought it was the perfect night for a nice hot vegetable soup. I love cooking and whipping up my own receipes and I mixed up a pot of chicken vegetable soup however this time I tried to mix it with a bunch of different green vegetables and thought I’d share it with you to try!

Chicken Vegetable Soup - serves 4 but you can alter the amounts of ingredients to suit you!

Ingredients 

4 chicken drumsticks 

1 celery stick

2 carrots

2 zucchini

2 potato

1 cup peas

1 leek

2 tomatos

1 cup corn kernals

1 cup of mixed beans

1 bundle of broccoli

1/2 bunch of english spinach

1 satchet of continential thick vegetable mix

Water

Here is how I made it!

1. Place chicken in the pot and cover the pot 3/4 full of water and place it on the stove on medium heat. 

2. In the meanwhile cut up the carrots, celery, leek (white part only), zucchini, potato, peas, tomato, add beans and then place it in the  pot.

3. Mix the thick vegetable satchet powder with 1/3 cup of water, stir until it is a smooth liquid and place into pot of soup. Then, cook on medium heat for about 40mins. Check frequently and stir. 

4. In the meanwhile cut up the spinach, broccoli and prepare the corn kernals.  After 40mins or once the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are soft, add the remaining ingredients. The spinach, broccoli and corn - they only need about 5 mins. They are added last as they don’t take long to cook!

Then just before serving you can either remove the chicken legs and serve them seperately or remove the chicken legs, cut the chicken into pieces and mix the pieces of chicken in the soup.

I hope you enjoy my soup recipe. Share with me any of your favourite soups below. I’m always on the look out for a great new soup idea!

Joey Marc