4 Tips to make Homemade Smoothies & Juices

By Rachel Grunwell

Food fuels how you think, feel and perform. I’m always inspiring wellness coaching clients to fuel their body like it’s a Ferrari.

I create healthy recipes for brands, businesses and magazine pages. I’ve created recipes for New World, Lewis Road Creamery, 1838 Honey, and more. My book Balance boasts 30 nourishing recipes I had published in Good magazine too – some of which are pictured below. You can buy Balance via the link HERE

I always start my day with a juice or smoothie that’s full of real, wholefood ingredients. Here are some tips to making your own juices or smoothies:

  1. Simple is best. Don’t load up your drink with too many ingredients otherwise it can taste like swamp water.
  2. Think of the hero ingredient and build your smoothie or juice around that. ie what goes with pineapple? Obviously not milk as it would curdle. yuck. However, soda water, or coconut water can be a great base to a refreshing pineapple drink.
  3. If a recipe requires milk then choose the one you like to add. My smoothies are made with a variety of milks including real full-fat cows milk to oak milk or even cashew milk or almond milks. Use a variety of milk for different nutrients and flavours.
  4. Put a bit of avocado in your green smoothie. It tastes delicious! It’s great for your skin and thickens up your smoothie too. Yum! If you use avo in smoothies then you can store the avo in the freezer in chunks and use when you want.

Be Body Fit ‘Recipe’

By Rachel Grunwell (wellness coach)

The hardest part of starting a wellness journey is choosing to start. It’s the part where you decide to jump and commit to doing something.

This takes courage.

It also starts with self-love. You have to care about yourself, know that you matter and know that you deserve to take time out to nourish your body, mind and soul.

I do wellness coaching for people who want to work on either how they move, eat, sleep or manage stress. Sometimes people come to me with one goal, but end up realising that they’d like to work on some other things along the way. I can help anyone work on their nutrition, weight management, achieve a run goal or start a weight-lifting programme, to working on ways to manage stress or get more zzzzzzz at night.

Whatever part of your wellness you wish to work on… starting is everything. Choose any aspect and work on one small step at a time. One step builds over time and elevates your health.

Here are some ideas to start!

  1. Be body fit. ie move your body in a way that resonates with you that you enjoy and love. It could be walking with a friend at lunchtime, going for bike rides with your kids, attending a gym, running, swimming, dancing… whatever you like. Just move. It strengthens your bones, muscles and is healthy for your mind too. It helps you feel happy and alive and is a foundation for your mental health. If you have trouble sleeping… then this can be helpful for this too.
  2. Restrict your feeding window (time restricted eating, or also known as intermittent fasting) is a weight management strategy that’s worth giving a go. It could be as simple as finishing eating by 7pm at night and then not eating again until 7am the next day. You may not realise it, but you could be eating for 16-18 hours of the day and this trap of grazing non-stop is an easy trap to fall into. This strategy can stop us from over fuelling on too many calories.
  3. Not eating by the clock is another idea. We are not robots and programmed to be hungry at the exact time every day. Eat if you are hungry. If you aren’t then maybe wait a bit longer. For example, if I have had a big breakfast out with friends then I might not be hungry again until 1pm-ish. So I check in on how I feel and I’m guided by a more mindful-eating approach.
  4. Cut fruit juice. Drink water instead and the good news is this is free. Water is also free of sugar. There can be so many calories hidden in those soft drinks which give us a high, then a low.
  5. Move your body 150 minutes weekly. Get your heart rate up. Yes, I’m finishing with another movement idea because I’m so passionate about getting people moving. It helps us to look good, but importantly feel good. Ideally do this in nature if you can where you can soak up the sights and escape your never-ending to-do list!
  6. Lastly here’s a recipe for that smoothie pictured.
Add into a blender: 1 cup of milk of your choice, 1 banana (skin removed, of course), 1 scoop of protein powder (I use Clean Lean Protein by NuZest which is vegan and contains no nasties). Use the code INSPIRED to get 20% discount via nuzest.co.nz. 1 cup of strawberries (I use frozen Pams berries from my supermarket!)

Blitz this in your blender and then pour into a glass to enjoy! #ad #brandpartner #nuzest

Nut-Butter Smoothie

By Rachel Grunwell

AD/ Here’s a great post-run smoothie recipe. It’s full of real wholefoods goodness that will refuel you well after your run training prep for the @rotoruamarathon event on September 17. If you haven’t got your entry yet… there’s still time. Join me.

Post-run Nut Butter Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana (remove skin). Make sure you use a very ripe banana and this will give the sweet taste. No need to add sugary syrup.

1 cup of milk of your choice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon of nut butter of your choice (I use either peanut butter, cashew butter, or almond butter)

1 teaspoon tahini (if you don’t have this at home then you can skip this ingredient out, no problem)

Optional ingredient: 1 scoop of your fave protein powder.

Method

Place everything in a blender and combine. Pour into a glass and savour! #runtrain #runcoach #rotoruamarathon #brandpartner

Real-food frappé – Rainbow of Goodness Recipe for Good Magazine

Rach’s Remedy

AD/ If the thought of drinking apple cider vinegar neat makes your lips pucker, then try this elixir which helps to stimulate digestion, packs a nutritional punch, and is delicious! Warning: You’ll feel seriously virtuous after knocking this baby back…

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon CoralTree Organics Apple Cider Vinegar 1 large orange (skin removed)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (skin removed and grated) 1/2 cup fresh turmeric

(or use 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder instead) 3 grinds of black pepper
1 cup coconut water (or use plain water instead) 1 teaspoon manuka honey

Method:

Place all ingredients into a blender and blitz into a juice. Pour into a glass and savour!

To make a grown-up version, add a shot of gin and rename it a “Coral Reefy”! 

Rachel Grunwell is a wellness expert and author of the book Balance: Food, Health and Happiness, as well as a healthy recipe creator for Good magazine. She has been taking apple cider vinegar daily for years as one of her wellbeing rituals and as part of her philosophy to live life more in balance.

3-Layer Wholefoods Caramel Slice

AD/The slice is full of wholefoods and the star ingredients are raw cashews and brown rice syrup from Bin Inn Stonefields.

Feel free to improvise on the ingredients. I love it when my followers tell me they reckon it tastes better with a tweak!

Layer 1

3 tablespoons coconut oil (melted)

1/3 cup rice malt syrup

2 cups of raw cashews 

Teaspoon of cinnamon 

Grind of salt

Put the ingredients into a blender and combine. Tip: Put the ingredients into the blender in this order so the liquid ingredients are on the bottom which helps with blending. Then put this mixture into a lined tin. Pop it into the freezer while you do the next layer.

Layer 2

250ml of coconut cream

1/3 cup rice malt syrup

¾ coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup cacao butter, melted (if it is in small pieces then don’t worry about melting it as it will melt into the mixture quickly and blend, no problem)

2 tablespoons tahini

Grind of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

1 cup raw cashews

2.5 cups of dates, pips removed (soften these in water 5 mins prior if they are not medjool dates and from a supermarket packet. Ps both taste good!

Place the liquid ingredients into the blender first – and then add the rest. Blitz until combined. Pour this onto the first layer and then pop into the freezer while you do the next layer.

Layer 3

¼ cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

¼ cup maple syrup 

9 tablespoons water

100g cacao butter, melted

Grind of salt

¾  cup raw cashews

Mix in the blender and then pour this onto the slice. Pop it back into the freezer and then bring it out a few minutes before you want to serve it (so it’s a little easier to cut).

·     This recipe was sponsored by Bin Inn Stonefields 

Recipe by Rachel Grunwell: Wellness expert + speaker, author of the book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness, healthy recipe creator for Good Magazine, and proud ambassador for Bin Inn (stores nationwide that sell wholefoods, organics, and specialty foods like keto, dairy-free and allergen-free products etc).

Lemon Cheesecake in a Jar – made using an Instant Pot!

By Rachel Grunwell

(AD) The lemon layer in this dessert is so zingy and yum and it’s made quickly and easily in an Instant Pot – using the pressure cooking function. Meanwhile, I use the Instant Pot’s dehydrate function to make the lemon garnish too.

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer:

½ cup raw almonds

½ cup coconut

5 dates

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Middle Layer:

1 cup lemon juice fresh

3 eggs (separate egg whites from egg yolkes)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

4 tbsp butter (at room temp)

Top layers

½ cup plain unsweetened yoghurt

Whipped cream

Optional garnish – slices of fresh lemon. Mint leaves.

Method: Place all the bottom layer ingredients into a blender (I use a Vitamix) and blend. Place this evenly in the bottom of two jars.

Then to make the Middle layer…

  1. Whisk egg whites until fluffy. Set aside.
  2. Place egg yolks, sugar, butter, lemon zest and juice in another bowl and mix until smooth.
  3. Add the egg whites and fold into the mixture.
  4. Place this into a heat protected glass bowl, cover with foil.
  5. Place a trivet in the Instant Pot and add 1 ½ cups of water.
  6. Put the glass container on the trivet and close the lid until it locks shut.
  7. Cook for 7 minutes on high pressure.
  8. When finished, wait for a natural pressure release.
  9. Take it out and let it cool.
  10. Next add this middle layer mixture to the jars as high up in the jar as you like this intensely lemony zingy layer.

For the next layer, add 1 cup of the middle layer and a cup of yoghurt together and mix. Once blended, add this layer to the jar next.

For the top, whip some cream and spoon it on top.
Garnish

Slice lemon and put it in the Instant Pot. Dehydrate it for 8 hours. Pick fresh mint from the garden if you have it and this adds that wow factor if you want it. Alternatively, dehydrate some raspberries – the mix of lemon and raspberries is AMAZING. Good luck in not eating all the raspberries. They taste incredible and rich in flavour when dehydrated. They’re such an amazing snack all on their own.

This recipe was kindly sponsored by Instant Pot. Buy one now on Kitchen Nook – and if you sign up to their mailing list you can get 15% off your first purchase!

#sponsoredpost #instantpot #nzrecipe

Rachel Grunwell is a recipe creator, wellness coach, yoga + meditation teacher and author of the book Balance: Food, health _+ Happiness.

Raw Caramel Choc Slice

(AD) This caramel slice is mouth-watering amazing! Better still, it’s full of whole food ingredients that are good for you! Here’s the recipe. If you make this, please let me know what you think! x x

Raw Caramel Choc Slice  

Ingredients:

Base layer:

¼ cup coconut oil (melt this if it isn’t in a liquid form)

¼ cup rice malt syrup (alternatively you can use maple syrup)

½ cup raw cashews

½ cup oats

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Three grinds of sea salt

Optional: Include 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder of your choice if you want an extra protein boost in this recipe.

Caramel layer

1 cup coconut cream

1 cup dates

½ teaspoon cinnamon 

½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder

3 grinds of sea salt

Top layer

½ block of dark chocolate (to keep the recipe vegan, just choose a dark vegan chocolate instead)

Method:

Base layer 

Line a square tin with baking paper. The first ingredients to go into the Vitamix include the melted coconut oil and rice malt syrup (this is so it blends easily). Next put in the cashews, oats, cinnamon and salt. Then add the protein powder if you want to include that. Blend in the Vitamix until smooth and then put the mixture in to the lined tin. Place this into the freezer to chill for a short time while you make the next layer.

Caramel layer:

Place the coconut cream into the Vitamix first so it blends well. Next place the dates, cinnamon, vanilla bean powder, and sea salt into the blender and blend this until it’s creamy and smooth. This layer tastes so good it’s easy to eat this directly from the spoon! But resist the temptation to do that and put this layer immediately on top of the base layer. Put this back into the freezer for a short while when doing the next layer.

Top layer:

Put a big pan on the stove full of 2cm of water and boil. Then place a glass bowl into the centre and next place the chocolate in this bowl. The water heats the chocolate without burning it. This is called a bain-marie. When the chocolate is melted, spoon it out on top of the caramel layer. This hardens quite quickly, and I’d recommend getting a large knife at this point to cut it into slabs or squares before the chocolate fully hardens and can be harder to cut. Now put the cut-up slice into a plastic box and into the freezer. Pull out a piece of the slice whenever you feel like one!

Hack 1: Buy the broken-up pieces of cashews at your local bulk buy store. They are so much cheaper! The nuts are going to be blitzed in the Vitamix anyway and so it makes sense to save cents here! Actually, you can save a lot of dollars.I got a 1kg bag of cashew pieces for $15.50 (more than enough for this recipe and with lots of leftovers. While a 1kg bag of whole cashews cost over $10 more – at $25.80.

Hack 2: Keep leftover nuts in the freezer. They last a lot longer and keep their freshness better. 

This post was kindly sponsored by Vitamix. To buy one of these epic machines, get them through Kitchen Nook #sponsoredpost #vitamixnz

Rachel is a wellness speaker and the author of Balance: Food, Health + Happiness

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Beef Curry – made in an Instant Pot Duo Crisp pressure cooker

(AD) The Instant Pot’s pressure cooker function is epic – it’s such a time-saver. This curry only takes 35-minutes to cook using the pressure cooker function – and the meat is mouth-watering tender and delicious. When I cook this recipe on the stove it takes an hour – so almost twice as long to get the meat tender – and I have to keep an eye on it, and stir it occasionally. The other great thing about using this pressure cooker is that I can switch on the timer and walk away. It switches itself off when it’s done and then the curry stays hot in the pressure cook and it’s ready to eat for later. Enjoy this recipe!

Beef Curry

Ingredients:

750g rump steak (remove the fat and slice thinly)

2 tbsp oil

2 onions (skin removed, diced)

5 garlic cloves (outer layer removed, diced)

1 tsp each of turmeric, coriander, cumin and cayenne powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1 large red chilli (cut and de-seed and chop the green top off and slice up)

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (use a knife to remove the outer layer of the ginger and then dice this up)

5 bay leaves

2 cups coconut milk

Beef stock (make it by mixing 250mls water with 3 teaspoons beef stock powder)

2 tbsp lemongrass paste

2 tbsp soy sauce1 tbsp brown sugar

Zest from 1 lime

½ tsp black pepper

Juice squeezed from 1 lime

fresh coriander to garnish

1 cup long white rice (the Duo Crisp also replaces a rice cooker. Cook the rice in two cups of water)

Method: Place the oil, onions and garlic in the inner pot. Press the sauté function and cook for three minutes. Keep stirring. Add the spices, chilli, and ginger and stir for a minute more. Now place this in a blender (I use a Vitamix) and add 1 cup of coconut milk) and blitz it so it combines to make the curry paste.

Add this now to the pressure cooker inner pot, and then add the rest of the coconut milk, the beef stock, lemongrass paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, lime zest, and black pepper.

Meanwhile, on a clean chopping board, trim the fat off the meat and cut this into small strips and add to the curry liquid in the pot. Lock the pressure cooker lid next on top (ensure quick release button is set to seal position). Push the pressure cooker button on high for 35-minutes and then press start. Leave it to cook and walk away and come back when you like later. Open the lid and add the lime juice and stir. Serve onto plates, garnish with coriander, serve with white rice and a glass of water (or wine). Now savour!

This recipe was #sponsored by Instant Pot. If you are interested in buying one then check out this link HERE

Recipe by Rachel Grunwell: Wellness expert, wellness speaker, and author of the book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness

Instant Pot Crispy Chicken Burgers in 14-Minutes

(AD) Go in the draw to win a Duo Crisp Instant Pot over on my Instagram or Facebook pages!

This is a fast, healthy way to make crispy chicken burgers – cooked in the air fryer of my Duo Crisp Instant Pot cooker, which by the way has almost a dozen appliances in this one machine. So it’s a space-saving machine given it has all those appliance applications at my finger tips. You can pressure cook, sauté, slow cook, steam, roast, bake, broil, dehydrate or air fry for example.

Here’s a recipe to air fry and make crispy chicken burgers.

Ingredients

5 chicken thighs, boneless

2 eggs

½ cup flour (use rice flour if you want the recipe to be gluten-free, otherwise normal flour is all good)

½ teaspoon cayenne spice

A grind each of salt and pepper

½ cup breadcrumbs

Olive Oil spray

5 fresh burger buns

Sliced tomatoes

Gherkins

Sliced cheese

Lettuce

Sliced avocado

Tomato sauce

  1. Season your chicken thighs first. Get bowls and fill them each with the flour, cayenne, salt and pepper, the second bowl with the eggs (whisked with a fork), and a third bowl for the bread crumbs. Coat each thigh with flour mixture, then the egg mixture and then the bread crumbs.
  2. Pour ½ cup of water into your Instant Pot. Add the steamer basket and place crumbed chicken pieces inside this (use the rack if you want to do another layer). Spray the pieces of meat on each side with the oil to coat them.
  3. Close the lid and press air fry and set the cook time for 14-minutes. Walk away and let the machine do the work!
  4. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the ingredients you want in your burgers. I’ve mentioned above the things I love in mine.
  5. Assemble your burger, eat and enjoy!
  • This post was #sponsored by Instant Pot. Buy an Instant Pot from your local Harvey Norman store in NZ.

Blog by Rachel Grunwell: Wellness coach, author of the book Balance: Food, Health + Happiness & recipe creator for Good magazine.