Dr. Zak’s – High Protein Pasta

We here at The Amazing Blog  strive to eat healthy foods but as you know that is easier said than done. We find that sometimes we have to cut out a few of our favourite pasta dishes just to stay on track, but we may have found a healthier alternative thanks to Dr. Zak's and their High Protein Pasta.  Dr. Zak’s and his team have crafted products that are low-carb and high in protein without having to sacrifice flavour!

Given that Dr. Zaks himself is a doctor and body building champion and his partner Denise Chester specialises in nutrition, it is no surprise that these products  are high in nutritional value to support the athlete in you or simply a healthier lifestyle. Dr. Zak pasta has 50g of protein in every 100g serving with 50% fewer carbohydrates than other pastas. The products offered contain Pea Protein Isolate – a vegetable protein source – so the pasta is vegetarian friendly! Pea Protein Isolate is absorbed by the digestive system slower than other protein sources, which helps keep you fuller longer - this kept me from all the unnecessary snacking that tends to happen throughout the day.  It also delivers all eight essential amino acids to your body. All of Dr. Zak’s products are 100% non-genetically modified with no artificial colours, preservations or additives.

I used Dr. Zak’s pasta for dinner with green beans, tuna, pesto and pine nuts to create Amazing PR's easy and delicious (if I say so myself)  pasta that I just had to share. Preparation is simple, if I made it so can you!  The pasta was very light so I did not feel over-stuffed after eating dinner but I did feel full for the rest of the night. To get cooking, find your Dr. Zak’s High Protein Pasta online here or in-store for only £4.99

Tuna Pesto Pasta Recipe:

• Bring a pan of water to boil and add the pasta
• Simmer for 8-10 minutes, drain and set aside
• Add olive oil to pan and sautee pesto with tuna, green beans and pine nuts
• Mix in pasta and add peper to taste
• Enjoy!

Yu! - Jus Fruit Chews

Anytime we get in food samples to try out, there is an excitement that fills the air; we lose all manners and turn into children ready to devour our favourite sweets. With the these samples in particular, I was easily fooled into thinking it was a sweet and not a healthy fruit snack, better yet it tasted fresh off the tree. We here at The Amazing Blog love to find snacks that are just as delicious as they are healthy for us so when we heard about the Yu! brand, we just had to share them with you!

 The Yu! Jus Fruit bite-sized chews are made of 100% real fruit and are all under 90 calories per pouch! (Our bodies thank Yu!) They come in five delectable flavours like Blackcurrant, Blueberry, Cherry, Strawberry, and Mango, which was the office favourite. The Yu! brand offers a variety of healthy products that include dried fruit pieces, yogurt-dipped fruit bars and granola-style treats all loaded with 100% real fruit, giving you all the benefits and flavours of fruit while on-the-go. These fruit pieces are great for a quick snack, cereal topping, or even for baking.

The Yu! company got its start when mates, Philip O'Connor and John Toomey got the idea to create snacks that would appeal to children and adults alike, by sneaking in a full serving of fruit into these yummy snacks. So trying to fool your children into eating their fruits just got a bit easier for all you parents out there. The company also makes it a priority to stay away from those artificial ‘nasties’  like sugars, colourings and preservatives. Yu! is currently allowing fans of the snacks to vote online and  have a say in the next flavour to be offered by the company. Personally, I am rooting for Pomegranate but let’s see how that plays out. If you want to get your hands on these amazing snacks, the Yu! products are easily available in-store (in the home baking aisle, next to the dried fruit) or online at your local Tesco. And since the doctor recommends having your five a day, why not knock one out with these tasty snacks!

Cook Like A Man

Movember has officially passed its halfway point so if you were wondering why lots of men have considerably large amounts of facial hair at the moment, it’s all to raise awareness for men’s health.  In fact, I am growing my own moustache and beard this month, much to the delight of the girls in the office. As a tribute to this creative, money-raising month, The Amazing Blog has a very male orientated book to introduce you to, the Cook Like a Man recipe book published by Boxtree for £9.99.

This book is inspired by everything traditional, i.e by a time when microwaves didn’t exist. Yes, believe it or not we loved cooking our meals from scratch using real hearty ingredients, none of that preservative malarkey. Entirely natural produce, you grow it you cook it. Cook Like a Man emphasises the importance of what’s in your diet and all the meals are specifically tailored to make sure you are getting everything you need from you meal to better your health. Something that sets this book ahead from your average cookbook is the list of essential tools as you start the book. Seeing as it includes a Blow Torch and Meat Thermometer, it’s pretty telling that a group of very serious, food loving men wrote this book.

If you are looking to become more adventurous with your cooking then this book will be perfect for you, it’s also a great Christmas present if you're stuck for ideas. With recipes like Rabbit with Snails and Chocolate, or Pigeon Terrine, you have to be quite brave but if you’re up for getting stuck in then you will definitely expose your taste buds to a whole new flavour filled experience. For those of you who really want to go back to basics and cook from scratch then a slight advantage would be living in the countryside. The photography throughout the book is done brilliantly and incorporates some subtle male humour, giving it a bit of personality. Everything in this book is done well, from the layout to the serving suggestions. We are excited to try the variety of recipes, especially at Christmas when big family meals become a regular occurrence and we want to impress with beautiful cuisine.

To support Movember and get your imagination flaring in the kitchen, then you can purchase this book on Amazon.

You Aren't What You Eat: Fed Up With Gastroculture - Steven Poole

At The Amazing Blog HQ we live for cooking books. We are just amazed by the way the steps of a recipe are presented to us: quite performance-like. Give us books on sandwiches, on how to cook the perfect hot dog, on the now in vogue raw food, on cheesecakes… the titles and subjects seem to be endless; and if you ask us, if it’s wrapped and signed by a celebrity chef, even better. Marketing suckers? Check. The world seems to be obsessed by food, where it comes from, where to buy it, how to cook it –and most weirdly of all– how to eat it. Our local supermarkets' aisles are also full chef-owned brands offering us easy and balanced ready-made meals; all so we get that 'this tasted sophisticated and expensive' kind of feeling after eating it...

In 'You Aren't What You Eat', Steven Poole writes about this overwhelming ‘food era’ we’re living in where “food bibles” tell you what you have to eat and some nutritionists also claim that having a good diet can even beat cancer. Poole stands back and looks at this scenario with clever humour and criticism; and it's quite eye opening.

Although we really do care about what we eat and try to do so as healthily as possible; we sometimes find it hard to put our feet on the ground and simply enjoy the pleasure of eating. So frankly let’s all be less snobbish about it and go back to basics!

You can purchase Steven Poole’s ‘You Aren’t What You Eat’ from Amazon.

The Beauty Detox Solution

Here at The Amazing Blog we firmly disagree with faddy celeb style diets. We know that eating one type of food for two weeks while standing on one leg is never going to give us a healthy body. If anything, it has been proven that these crash diets lead to you gaining more weight in the long run despite losing a few pounds initially.

We know that a healthy lifestyle, including eating the right foods and regular exercise, is the only way to beat your body blues. So we were very pleased when we came across Kimberly Snyder’s book The Beauty Detox Solution, a diet that is not a fad, but a way of rewriting your lifestyle habits and getting you eating food that is good for you.

We really liked that the first part of this book explained how our bodies really work, and why silly diets do not do any favours for our health. Did you know that just like primates we are designed to live off a diet consisting of mainly plant based foods? Kimberly then explains that we should be eating lots of Alkaline Rich Foods, in order to maintain optimum health.

The next section is our favourite part. It explains what types of things we should eat to keep us looking beautiful. There is a great list of all the types of food that have wonderful beauty boosting properties, and I have to say we have stocked up our cupboards!

The final section is dedicated to the healthy living plan consisting of three distinct phases Blossoming Beauty, Radiant Beauty, and Pure Beauty, the first of which is designed to cleanse your body of the bad things you have eaten, and to introduce healthier alternatives that have health and beauty boosting ingredients.

The book contains a whole host of delicious recipes specifically designed for each phase of the programme so Kimberly really makes these diet changes easy for you. These changes are not a calorie restricted diet, but instead are based on the principle that if you eat the right foods, at the right times, in the right order you help out your body’s digestion and in turn you can lose weight. This is the perfect solution for anyone looking to get healthier and look after their bodies, and this plan is even being followed by celebrities such as Drew Barrymore!

If you are interested in revamping your diet and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, then this book should really be on your bookshelf. Kimbery Snyder’s book, The Beauty Detox Solution is available on Amazon for £7.00, and you can find out more information and articles about her beauty detox on her website.