goats cheese, beetroot and puy lentil salad.

with today’s advertising it can be confusing as to which foods are actually good for you. add that together with the limited time in our busy schedules, i find that people tend to under eat during both breakfast and/or lunch.  which leads the body to go into starvation mode, resulting in us grabbing sweet readily available treats to keep us going.

i basically ignore things marked light, diet, healthy and instead rely on producing rounded meals from scratch, that way i know exactly what my body is getting and can make sure its getting enough of the right stuff.

stay away from microwave ready meals, tin soups and fruit juices, as most are packed with far too much sugar and salt.

breakfast and lunch need to be treated as complete meals in themselves, not little snacks. on a sunday think a head to the week,  and if life is busy, prep your lunches and freeze.

for fat loss:

1. distribute proteins, carbohydrates and fats throughout the day at each meal, not just the evening meal.
2. choose whole grains and fresh vegetables over refined grains and simple sugars.
3. schedule no fewer than four and as many as six meals a day, this helps to control hunger, minimize blood-sugar fluctuation and increase energy levels throughout the day
4. avoid empty calories and high processed foods, which contain many calories and do little to provide satiety
5. drink a lot of water at least 8-12 cups per day.

for lean body mass gain

1. keep in mind the post workout window opportunity. ingestion of protein and carbohydrate within 90 minutes of a workout will increase recovery and protein synthesis and maximizing gains.
2. do not neglect the importance of carbohydrates and fats. It takes more than protein to increase lean body mass. 

with this information in mind here is a great rounded salad to add to your life for lunch.

ingredients

1. 400g raw beetroot
2. 2 tbsp olive oil
3. 240g puy lentils
4. pinch of sea salt
5. 40g rocket
6. 120g goats cheese
7. 40g hazelnuts

dressing

1. 40g sun-dried tomatoes
2. 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
3. 1 clove of garlic
4. 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
5. 8 sprigs of mint
6. 1 tbsp honey
7. 50ml olive oil
8. 50ml rapeseed oil

directions

1. preheat the oven to 180*c
2. remove and discard stems and leave from beetroot. rub the beetroot with the 2 tbsp of olive oil. wrap the oiled beetroot in foil and roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3. rinse and drain lentils. put the rinsed lentils in a saucepan and cover with 3x their volume of water and a pinch of salt. bring to the boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes. drain and leave to cool.
4. place the hazelnuts into a small roasting tin,  and pop into the already heated oven for 8 minutes. the temperature remains at 180*c
5. remove the beetroot from the oven. after allowing the beetroot to cool for 15 minutes, remove skin. dice the beetroot into 1 cm cubes.
6. remove roasted hazelnuts from the oven and roasting tin, leave to cool
7. to make the lentil dressing, crush the clove of garlic into a food processor along with the sun-dried tomatoes, mustard, vinegar, honey, olive oil, rapeseed oli. remove mint leaves from their stems and add to the food processor mix. blend the dressing ingredients together for 30seconds.
8. stir the dressing into the cooled lentils.
9. in a large salad bowl place the rocket, dressed lentil, beetroot, sliced goats cheese and cooled toasted hazelnuts.
10. enjoy as its ready to serve.