shop swap Archives - Susan Deans

My Top 3 Quick and Easy Recipes

01.02.2016 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

I dropped the ball…

Have you ever had a week where you just can’t seem to get it together? You have your lists and you know what you want to do, but when you try you just can’t seem to concentrate because your brain is so full of other stuff! That was me last week, so I want to say I am sorry for not having this blog post to you on Friday morning like I usually do.

One of my goals this year is consistency, so making sure I get the weekly Shop Swap to you is important to me, if you have taken the time to join my community, I want you to know that I appreciate it. Now the kids are back at school (insert happy dance) I’ll have more time, which means better planning and lots more great stuff to share with you. Yay!!

You spoke and I listened, and what I heard was that you wanted some recipes. Here are my top three most requested recipes.

Slow Cooked Beans – let’s swap out tinned baked beans that are full of additives, thickeners and sugar and do some home cooking.

Protein Packed Muesli Bars – homemade breakfast on the run.

Quick and Easy Frittata –this is so versatile, I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it’s great as a lunchbox snack too.

Now, I would love to hear from you! Have you tried any of these recipes? If so, how did it turn out? Leave me a comment below, or you can come and join the conversation over on my Facebook page

Want to know more about how to gain more energy, lose weight or just feel better? Then come and join in the conversation in my private Facebook group. We are all about Food, Mindset, Connection and Support. We are waiting to welcome you!

Did you enjoy this post? Share it with a friend.

Until next time. Happy swapping!

How to Choose Healthier Bread – 5 Top Tips

08.01.2016 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

Oh how I love the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven and what is better than fresh bread with lashings of butter? But not all breads are created equal. I used to eat a lot of bread, until I started cleaning up my diet. And I gave up eating wheat years ago after reading a book called Wheat Belly, which immediately made me feel so much better.

As a family we don’t eat any wheat but we didn’t give up bread altogether, we just swapped to a healthier option. As a nation I believe we eat way too much bread, and if we just cut down the amount we consume, it would make a big difference to our health. This swap is all about giving you some healthier swaps for bread. Basically, quality bread that contains wholegrains (other than wheat) and no preservatives or additives.

Buying bread in a supermarket is a bit of a minefield as there is so much of it there, but it’s mostly not any good. It can be confusing when you are standing looking at all the shelves of bread. There are so many buzz words like wholegrain, stone ground and gluten free and all claiming to be the “healthy” choice. So here are my top 5 things to look out for when you want quality bread:

Choose bread that is made from 100% wholegrain spelt, kamut or rye, or if this isn’t available, choose bread that isn’t made solely from wheat.
Always choose wholegrain over any white bread, and look and feel the actual bread, light a fluffy usually means not much nutritional value.
Make sure the bread doesn’t contain any preservatives or additives as they can damage our health more than the bread itself (*Calcium propionate – 282)
Choose sourdough where possible as it is easier to digest.
Stay away from Gluten free bread from the supermarket.

*Calcium propionate or 282 is used in bread as a mould inhibitor. Some side effects can include irritability, asthma, migraine, fatigue, aggression. www.thechemicalmaze.com

In the swaps below, I have given you some brands to try.

Regular Bread

My top bread swaps:

King Henry’s Bakehouse 100% Rye Bread – available in all supermarkets and easy to come by.

Ancient Grains Wholegrain Spelt or Kamut – my family’s favourite, but only available from health stores and specialist grocers.

Healthy Bake Wholemeal Spelt Organic Sourdough – available from health food stores.

Wraps are a good way of cutting down total bread consumption and my favourite is Mountain Bread 100% Spelt. Mountain Bread has a number of other varieties which contain some wheat and other grains, like rice, corn, oat, chia. They’re available from some supermarkets, health food stores and direct from the baker online.

http://www.mountainbread.com.au/breads/spelt/product-detail.aspx

Another brand of wrap available at the supermarket is MEB superfoods.

Fruit Loaves

Although they are delicious, fruit loaves contain preservatives, sugar, colours and additives – so not good for you at all.

Swap for:

Ancient Grains Fruit Loaf or Apple Scrolls

http://www.foodiesorganic.com.au/order-online/bread/rye-apricot-fruit-loaf-680g-ancient-grains/

Gluten Bree Bread

Nearly all gluten free bread on the supermarket shelf is full of starches, thickeners, colours, sugar and preservatives. But the good news (especially for anyone who is gluten intolerant) is you can get some really good ones. You will need to go to your local health food or specialty store to get them, however if you don’t want to run around the shops you can sit at home and order them online and have them delivered (I like this option)

My top GF bread swaps:

Zehender Bread

http://gfbakehouse.com.au/our-products/

Naturis

http://www.naturis.com.au/

Dovedale Multiseed Chia bread

https://glutenfreeshop.com.au/dovedale-multiseed-chia-bread-620g.html

No Go List

I haven’t found a healthier alternative so I recommend you stay away from:

Cheese and bacon rolls 🙁
English muffins & crumpets 🙁

Take Home Message

Although wheat bread is a large part of most people’s diet, it’s quite easy to swap it for a healthier more nutritious alternative.

You may find it takes a bit of time to find what suits you, but the list above is a great place to start.

Now I would love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below or join the Shop Swap community on Facebook.

Happy swapping

5 Healthy Alternatives to Soft Drink

31.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

Christmas is over and we are heading into New Year and a lot of people are starting to think about New Year’s resolutions. I personally do not make New Year’s resolutions, because I find they are fleeting and I never stick to them. I like to set goals around how I want to feel and I find that most women I speak with want to start to feel healthier, lose weight, and have more energy. One way of achieving this is to cut down on sugar and especially sugary drinks like sports drinks, energy drinks and soft drinks.

Too many sugary drinks can lead to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, also, sugar is highly addictive.

Just by swapping out one can of soft drink you are cutting out around 9 teaspoons of sugar, not to mention all the other additives, colours and chemicals.

So what can you have instead I hear you cry? Well, you could just start drinking plain water all the time, which is what I do, but there are times when I feel like something fizzy and a little “fancy” and here are my 5 favourite alternatives for you to try.

1. Sparkling mineral/soda water

This is one of my favourites and super simple. I use my SodaStream to make the plain soda and then I add slices of lemon or lime. If I have friends over or I’m making it for more than myself I fill a jug with soda water then add chopped fruit, like orange, lemon, strawberries, some sprigs of mint and let it infuse. You can pretty much use any fruit in season.

2. Herbal Tea

You can try mint, apple, liquorice root, cranberry, or pomegranate. There are so many to choose from, and all you have to do is brew the tea, let it cool and add soda/sparkling mineral water to it. I like to make the brew extra strong, so when you add the water it’s not too weak. Get creative with the flavours.

3. Kombucha

Kombucha is a naturally fermented fizzy drink and contains good probiotic bacteria, so it will help keep your gut healthy while satisfying your soft drink craving. It comes in all different flavours, but I love anything with ginger in it. You can find it in some IGA stores and most health food stores. I usually drink half Kombucha and half mineral water.

4. Coconut water

Coconut water is a great base for any drink. You can drink it plain or you can add fizzy water, or fresh juice; pineapple juice goes great with coconut water. The best is of course fresh from a young coconut, but not really practical. Buy only plain 100% coconut water and add your own flavour. Coconut water is high in potassium which can help with hydration in the hot weather.

5. Freshly juiced vegetables and fruit

Freshly squeezed vegetables and fruit can be a healthy option and you will get all the vitamins and minerals as well. Just a word of caution, fruit juice is the sugar from the fruit, so try and have more vegetables than fruit. To make it fizzy just add half juice and half soda/mineral water.

Well that’s my list for you, I really hope you found it helpful. It can be tough giving up soft drinks but it is definitely worth the effort.

Now I would love to hear from you! Have you tried any of these recipes or have you come up with something yourself that you love? Leave me a comment below or join the Shop Swap community on Facebook

Happy swapping

Sue

Swaps for Salad Dressings & Sauces

17.12.2015 by Susan Deans // Leave a Comment

A salad can be boring without a dressing and a burger just wouldn’t be complete without sauce and mustard, right?

I have always loved flavour in my food and growing up we had a great variety of foods. Then I went overseas when I was 20 and visited many countries where I experienced so many different types of foods: some with amazing flavours, others not so good. No matter where I went there was always some type of local sauce, relish or dressing, which I had to try.

Fast forward to 2015 and I still love lots of flavour in my food; and I especially enjoy salads. But, to be honest, salad leaves on a plate are boring without a dressing. A delicious tasting dressing can turn an ordinary salad into something pretty special, but finding one that is nutritious and doesn’t contain unhealthy vegetable oils, thickeners and colours is almost impossible. After discovering what was in all the store bought dressings, I decided I would be better off making my own.

But this is a shop swap, isn’t it? Well, yes that’s true and the aim is to swap from an unhealthy item to a healthier alternative with minimal fuss, but I don’t believe any of the dressings you buy in the supermarket are anywhere near healthy.

There are some you can buy at health food stores, but I want to make all the swaps accessible to everyone, and all the ingredients available at the supermarket. So, before you start telling yourself it’s too hard and takes too long, let’s just take a moment. You can do this, and the reason I know is because I felt the same way when I first started. I am going to show you the ingredients you need to make a simple dressing, and you can get them from the supermarket.

The oil you use is very important, but I will be doing a whole blog post on oils later, so for now these are my Shop Swaps for salad dressings.

Simple Salad Dressing – cold pressed oil & lemon juice
Creamy Yoghurt dressing
Sweet mustard dressing
Basil Pesto dressing – just by adding some olive oil and a little water to some basil pesto it instantly becomes a dressing!

You’ll find the recipes and instructions in the Healthy Salad Dressings post.

Next on the Shop Swap list are sauces and jellies.

Before you ask: no, I am not going to ask you to make your own, but I will say that although I have found better options, tomato sauce/ketchup and jellies all contain quite a lot of sugar. I believe that condiments are not meant to be eaten all the time and only in very small amounts to accompany a meal. So in saying that, if you are like me and only have them occasionally, then that’s ok. The ones I have chosen have no preservatives, colours or MSG.

The following are my top Shop Swaps

Tomato Ketchup

Coles brand tomato sauce has no preservatives, colours or flavours, but does contain sugar.

Cranberry Sauce

Woolworths Select cranberry sauce

Ocean Spray jellied Cranberry sauce and whole Cranberry sauce

Mustards

MasterFoods Dijon mustard

Macro Organic Wholegrain mustard