Posts tagged with ‘Snacks’

Healthy pregnancy snack: Banana cake!

Looking for a yummy healthy snack? This banana and nut cake recipe will provide an energy boost as well as being a tasty addition to your healthy pregnancy diet!

Whilst arguably cake is not a mainstay of a healthy pregnancy diet, nevertheless we like to include a few treats! This one includes bananas – which are an ideal food for pregnant women and added walnuts, which are full of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.
Whilst it’s very delicious and easy to make, you would need to eat half the cake to have the nutritional benefits of one banana, so we don’t actually recommend this as one of your five a day!

Ingredients

100g butter
175g soft brown sugar
2 medium eggs
1 lemon zest
150g raisins or sultanas
150g of chopped walnuts
2 ripe bananas mashed (you need about 400g so adjust if the bananas are very small or very big!)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
300g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons milk

Method

1. Grease a loaf tin and line with baking parchment.
2. Cream butter and sugar together. This is easier if the butter is at room temperature or very slightly softened before you start.
3. Add the eggs and beat well into the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
4. Add the lemon zest, bananas and lemon juice and mix well.
5. Stir in the raisins and chopped walnuts.
6. Sift flour and baking powder together, add to the mixture and stir until combined.
7. Add as much of the milk as necessary to make a soft, gloopy consistency.
8. Pour into the tin and bake for 60 minutes in an oven preheated at 180°C until golden brown. Test with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked through.

FittaTip:
Delicious served warm with butter and a cup of tea! Walnuts are our favourite but Brazil nuts work equally well – or a mixture of both!

You’ll go bananas for this supportive activewear!

Look good and feel good in this stylish and supportive maternity activewear – perfect!

Healthy pregnancy diet: festive nibbles

Looking for a festive treat to fit your healthy pregnancy diet? These nut balls look good, taste amazing and packed with essential parental nutrients!

These little ‘figgy puddings’ perfect for a boost when your energy is flagging over the festive season. Crammed with energy giving dried fruits and nuts they taste delicious and make a guilt-free treat when you’re trying to maintain a healthy pregnancy diet. We gave them a little gold spray for a festive touch – or roll them in icing sugar for a dusting of snow!

And if you’re fitting in a Christmas visit to the gym, they’ll be perfect before your pregnancy workout and good to keep in your gym bag to refuel after pregnancy exercise. The coconut oil is easily processed into energy and is good for blood cholesterol; the Brazil nuts are a fantastic source of essential selenium and the figs are packed with essential fibre, minerals and natural energy boosting sugars. A festive snack that’s perfect as part of your fit pregnancy diet!

Ingredients

1 cup of Brazil Nuts
½ cup of desiccated unsweetened coconut
1 cup of soft dried figs (check to remove any stalks)
½ cup of dried chopped cranberries
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1 dessertspoon of agave syrup
½ teaspoon of sea salt
Additional tablespoon of desiccated coconut and a tablespoon full of cocoa powder for dusting

Method

1. Process the Brazil nuts and coconut in a food processor until finely ground. Add all the other ingredients, except for the cranberries, and process until thoroughly mixed into a thick paste.
2. Add the cranberries and mix thoroughly.
3. Scoop out heaped teaspoonfuls of paste and roll between your hands to form firm, walnut sized balls. Roll the balls in desiccated coconut and dust with icing sugar or use a gold confectionary spray (or both!).
4. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and chill in the fridge before serving.
5. Store a jar of balls on the mantlepiece and as eat as required!

FittaTipOne: Use dates instead of figs and ½ cup of ground almonds instead of the coconut.

FittaTipTwo: Give an energy gift! A pretty jar or a small box filled with FittaMamma Energy Baubles is a healthy pregnancy substitute for chocolates!

Delicious treat (sorted) Fuel your work out!

Regular exercise benefits you AND your baby. Treat yourself to some fab maternity fitwear

Healthy pregnancy treat: fruit lolly

Want a healthy treat for your pregnancy diet? Try these yummy fruit ice lollies – they’re packed with prenatal vitamins and make a delicious snack for summer!

These fun fruity lollipops are cool and refreshing on a warm summers day. They’re a guilt free treat when you’re managing a fit pregnancy and perfect for toddlers and children too! They are simply a mix of fruit and juices frozen in lolly moulds … chilled prenatal vitamins for a healthy pregnancy.

Let us know your favourite combos!

Strawberry & Orange!
Half fill a mould with orange juice and freeze.
Blend strawberries and water melon and add to the mould with a few strawberry slices around the sides for decoration. Pop back in the freezer until frozen.

Grape & Berry!
Half fill a mould with red grape juice and freeze.
Add a handful of blueberries and top up the mould with apple juice. Pop back in the freezer until frozen.

Tropical lolly!
Half fill a mould with pineapple juice and freeze.
Blend a few slices of banana with some orange juice, add in a few crushed chunks of pineapple and top up the mould, with a few pineapple slices arranged around the sides. Pop back in the freezer until frozen.

Apple & Kiwi!
Half fill a mould with apple juice and freeze.
Arrange slices of kiwi fruit around the sides and fill the remaining space with a mixture of crushed kiwi fruit and tropical fruit juice. Pop back in the freezer until frozen.

Sweat with style

Look amazing in award-winning, stylish and supportive maternity activewear

Energy boosting healthy pregnancy snack

Check out these granola bars, an easy addition to your healthy pregnancy diet, filled with prenatal vitamins and best of all… they are delicious!

A tasty sweet treat that will give you a real energy boost. This recipe contains a generous helping of linseed (also known as flaxseed) which is a fantastic source of Omega 3!

Ingredients

40g light muscovado sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
140g butter
250g rolled oats
75g jumbo raisins
85g walnut pieces (or any other of your favourite nuts, roughly chopped)
25g linseeds
25g sesame seeds
25g dried cranberries
50g ready to eat dried apricots, chopped

Method

1. Heat oven to 160 degrees centigrade. Gently heat the sugar, golden syrup and butter in a pan until the sugar and bitter have both melted. Pound the linseed with a pestle and mortar to release the oils. Stir the oats, raisins, sesame seeds and linseed in to the pan
2. Add the apricots, cranberries and nuts and stir until everything is evenly coated with butter mix
3. Spoon the mix into a tray bake approx. 23 x 23cm. Press the mix down well and smooth with the back of a metal spoon. Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown (i.e. a little more for added crunch) and leave to cool completely before cutting in to 16 bars with a sharp knife.

These are a great source of iron, anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids; all so valuable to help you keep you bursting with energy throughout your pregnancy. Recipe kindly provided by www.bellenutrition.co.uk
Tested, photographed and eaten by www.fittamamma.com. Yum!

Sweat with style

Look amazing in award-winning, stylish and supportive maternity activewear

Healthy pregnancy snack: Banana muffins!

Want a healthy snack that’s also a treat?! These banana and walnut muffins will give you an energy hit as well as being a yummy edition your pregnancy diet!

We loved Anita Bean’s Muffins – they’re full of bananas (so much goodness for your pregnancy diet!) and walnuts (lots of lovely Omega-3, also essential for nutrition in pregnancy). Super easy, these muffins only take a few minutes to prepare – happy baking Mammas!

Ingredients

2 large ripe bananas
85g (3oz) soft brown sugar
50g (2oz) butter
1 egg
125 ml (4fl oz) milk
200g(7 oz) self-raising flour
50g(2 oz) chopped walnuts
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cases.
Mash the bananas and mix with the softened butter and the sugar. Beat in the egg and milk. Fold in the flour, walnuts and nutmeg.
Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes until firm to the touch and golden brown.

Fitta Tip
Banana muffins make a great mid-morning snack and are ideal for re-fuelling after your pregnancy workout.
For more information about Food for Fitness read our book review!

Buns in the oven?  Time for a workout!

Regular exercise benefits you AND your baby. Shop now for gorgeous, supportive maternity fitnesswear

Healthy pregnancy snack: Blueberry muffins!

These blueberry muffins are perfect for an energy boost and packed with prenatal vitamins!

Blueberries are a healthy pregnancy superfood, packed with Vitamin C, folate, calcium and other nutrients for pregnant women – they also contain potassium which is essential for blood pressure control. Team them with walnuts in these delicious muffins and you’ll be boosting your Omega-3 too – good for you and your baby! Another of Anita Bean’s fab recipes from Food for Fitness.

Ingredients

125g (8oz) self-raising flour
50g (2oz) melted butter
50g (2oz) soft brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 ml (7fl oz) milk
125g (4oz) fresh (or frozen) blueberries
50g (2oz) finely chopped walnuts

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cases
3. Mix together the flour and sugar. In a separate bowl beat together the melted butter, egg, vanilla and milk. Pour into the flour mixture and mix well.
4. Fold in the blueberries and walnuts.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases.
6. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until firm to the touch and light brown in colour.

FittaTip

Use 4 oz of wholemeal flour and 4oz of self-raising flour for added fibre – another essential for a healthy pregnancy!

Cook with love. Sweat with style

You’ll look amazing in this stylish and supportive maternity activewear

Healthy pregnancy snack energy booster

This recipe is a perfect addition to your pregnancy diet, it includes lots essential prenatal vitamins and minerals to make it an ideal healthy snack!

If you’re exercising when pregnant it’s important to stay fuelled. Sometimes it’s easier to have a handy, nutritious and healthy pregnancy snack that will provide lots of essential vitamins, folate and fibre that you can eat when you feel hungry… wherever you are!

A good trail mix will contain a mixture of nuts, seeds and fruit and you can mix and match to suit your preference and what you have available in your food cupboard. Keep in mind the different nutritional benefits of the fruit, nuts and seeds, go easy on dried fruits that contain extra sugar and add a small handful of dark chocolate chips as a treat.
Snacking on trail mix is a much better way to help you maintain a normal weight gain during pregnancy than munching on crisps or biscuits!

Our favourite FittaMamma healthy pregnancy trail mix includes:

• ½ cup of Almonds – full of protein, fibre and Vitamin E
• ½ cup of Walnuts – a good source of omega-3
• ½ cup of Mixed Sunflower Seeds and Pumpkin Seeds – lots of fibre, folate and valuable unsaturated fats (or use a seed mix
• with sesame and other seeds as well)
• ½ cup of Raisins or Sultanas – a source of iron, potassium and fibre
• ½ cup of Dried Apricots chopped – a sweet treat with beneficial amounts of iron, potassium, selenium and Vitamin A
• ½ cup of Dried Cranberries – these can contain large amounts of added sugar so look for low-sugar fruit
• Other good additions you might like to include are:
• Goji berries – are a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins and beta-carotene
• A few Dark Chocolate Chips – dark chocolate can help reduce blood pressure and contains ingredients to lift your mood
• Add a spoonful of bee pollen as well – it’s a real superfood!

Simply mix all the ingredients together and store in an air tight container.

Fuel your pregnant runs ….and keep your bump supported too

Feel good and look good in supportive maternity fitwear …shop now!

Healthy pregnancy diet sweet treat!

A chocolate treat to sweeten your pregnancy diet! This recipe uses beetroot to include pregnancy nutrition essential’s vitamin E, omega 3 and folic acid!

Whilst chocolate cake might not be high on our list of ‘go to’ foods for optimum pregnancy nutrition, from time to time everyone deserves a treat – and we’ve found a recipe that is significantly healthier than your average chocolate cake… With ground almonds instead of flour it has extra fibre and Vitamin E; butter has been replaced by healthy olive oil (extra Omega 3) whilst the addition of beetroot not only makes it deliciously moist and adds the rich colour, they are also a good source of folic acid. Whilst you’ll be tempted to go for an extra slice, you would have to eat quite a lot of the cake to get your RDA of folic acid from the beetroot – but it’s good to know that this is a treat that (sort of) contributes to your healthy pregnancy diet!

Ingredients

85g dark chocolate
3 medium eggs
300g brown sugar
200 ml olive oil
300g cooked beetroots
1tbsp vanilla essence)
30g cocoa powder
200g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Cream cheese icing

200g Cream Cheese
1 cup icing sugar
Juice of half an orange

Method

• To cook the beetroots, wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water. Bring pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft (approx. 30 minutes though this depends on their size). When cooked, run the beets under cold water in the sink and rub off the skins. Mash the beetroots – you could blend if you prefer but it’s nice to leave a few chunks.
• Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl, cover with cling film and microwave on low for approximately 1 minute until chocolate has just melted. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil.
• Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture and mix well. Sift together the ground almonds, baking powder and cocoa and add to the mixture.
• Fold just until everything is combined without over mixing. Spread a teaspoon of oil over the surface of a 10-inch cake pan. Sprinkle with flour and tap out the excess. We used mini loaf tins for novelty value! Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in an oven pre-heated to 180C for approx. 50 minutes.
• Test by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake – if it comes out clean the cake is ready. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the pan. Mix the icing ingredients together until smooth and spread over the cake

Delicious treat (sorted) Maternity activewear (sorted)!

Regular exercise benefits you AND your baby. Treat yourself to some fab maternity activewear

Tasty muffins healthy pregnancy snack!

Need a healthy pregnancy snack or breakfast to go? This muffin recipe is a delicious and easy addition to your healthy pregnancy diet, with added bran for extra prenatal nutrients.

A happy healthy pregnancy has to include some treats! Our quick apple and bran muffins have got lots of fruit and fibre and are a great option for breakfast or mid morning snack!

Ingredients

Makes: 12 small muffins or 8 big muffins

50g (2oz) bran flakes cereal
160g (5.5oz) self raising flour
55g (2oz) soft dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
285ml (10 fl.oz) apple juice
55g (2oz) butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 apples – peeled and grated
Handful of sultanas

Method

• Preheat oven to 190C / Gas mark 5.
• Grease muffin tin, or line with paper cups.
• In a mixing bowl, combine bran flakes, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir in apple juice, butter, vanilla, and apple.
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.
• Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes and leave too cool and then enjoy!

Sweat with style

You’ll look amazing in this stylish and supportive maternity activewear