Hi and welcome to the Gratitude Personal Health Coaching webpage.

Gratitude is a private health studio situated in quiet, natural surroundings at Roches Beach, near Lauderdale in Tasmania. We offer one on one coaching to assist you in reaching your fitness and wellness potential.

Here you will find resources and information on health and wellness topics.

For copyright reasons, some of this material will be available to clients only, and will be password protected. If you are an existing client and would like a password (or if you have lost your password) please email me at Raelene@GratitudeHealth.com.au

Scroll down this page to see a summary of the latest postings, or browse the pages and categories above. 

You can access my calendar which shows an overview of scheduled activites and events by clicking here.  Further details of these events are posted under “Events” above.

Thank you for allowing me to share in your health and wellness journey, I hope you are inspired by the information you find here.

Yours in health,

Raelene Callaway.

 Please note:  this is NOT gluten free, due to the wheat based vinegar in the Tabasco sauce!  Replace this with minced chilli if required.

This is a high protein dish, with the almond and sesame seed sauce.

SPANISH CHICKEN MOLE

 2 tablespoons coconut oil,
  16 chicken pieces (approx) 
  1 cup finely chopped onion
  1 cup finely chopped green capsicum 
  3  cloves garlic, minced
  1/2 cup slivered almonds
  1/2 cup raisins 
  3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
  1 - 1.5  cups chicken stock
  2 small tins chopped tomatoes 
  6 teaspoons Raw Cacao powder (or grated unsweetened chocolate) 
  2 - 3 teaspoons hot (pepper) sauce (eg Tabasco or Piri Piri)  

  2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
  3 teaspoon ground allspice

  Organic (preferably Celtic) sea salt to taste.

Gently fry chicken in oil until browned. Place chicken into slow cooker. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan, and saute onion, green pepper and garlic until soft.  Place into slow cooker with the chicken.

Using a food processor, blender or mortar & pestle, grind almonds, raisins, toasted sesame seeds (carefully toast in a dry frypan on medium heat for a couple of mins, stirring and watching closely until golden brown) and RAW Cacao powder (not cocoa!) to form a paste.  Add salt, cinnamon and allspice, more stock and one tin of tomatoes and process to make a sauce.  Add to slow cooker and stir through the chicken and onion mixture.  Pour the other tin of tomatoes over the top.
 

Cook on low for 4 -5 hours until chicken is tender and has broken down somewhat.  Serve with rice and corn, or polenta and greens.

Notes:

Stay tuned for some photos which will show the sauce, and the dish halfway through cooking.  I couldn’t stop to take an after shot - the hoards were starving!

If you dont have a slow cooker, you can cook in the covered frying pan if you have one large enough , simmering for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken is tender.

About halfway through cooking, I was concerned that the chicken was just going to be some wierd dish of chicken in chocolate sauce!  Don’t worry - let it keep cooking, the flavours develop  beautifully.  Adjust the spices and hot sauce to your taste. 

Next time I will leave out the browning of the chicken and sauteing the onion, garlic and capsicum.  What I love about the slow cooker is that I usually can throw ingredients in and they don’t need browning, which did take me considerable time given the quantities here.

Feel free to halve this recipe if your appetites are smaller, you don’t want leftovers (why wouldn’t you?) or if your slow cooker or frying pan is smaller than mine.

Serves 8 (enough for leftovers - and it is even better the next day)

STEAK AND KIDNEY

1.5 - 2 Kg diced steak and kidney (get your butcher to prepare this)

1 - 2 cups mushrooms (optional)

3 - 4 onions, roughly chopped into big chunks

2 tb buckwheat or rice  flour

1/2 cup water

Organic sea salt to taste (approx 2 -3 teaspoons)

Cracked black pepper to taste

Add the meat(s) and onion (and mushrooms if using) to the slow cooker.   Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.  Sprinkle flour, salt and pepper over the top and mix again.    Pour in 1/2 cup water and place the lid on the cooker.  Cook for 1 hour on high plus 3 - 4 hours on low (depending on the size of the beef chunks).   Serve with some brown rice and steamed veg.

This dish is perfect for protein types who thrive on offal meats such as kidney due to their high content of purines (a type of protein).

Once upon a time (way back when) I would have served this with dumplings…and yes I do miss them!  So if anyone knows any good recipes for gluten free dumplings I would be very grateful!  Stay tuned and I will post a recipe for gluten free yorkshire puddings which are an interesting substitute, and definitely worth a go.

Thai Chicken Curry (Wheat Free)

6 chicken breasts

6 kafir lime leaves (optional)

1 can coconut milk (protein types can use coconut cream)

6 - 8 spring onions, including green tops

2-3 stalks lemongrass, trimmed & chopped finely (food processor)

6 - 8 cloves garlic

2 tb fresh ginger, chopped

2-3 tb fish sauce

1 - 2 tb tamari or 1/2 t organic sea salt

3 tb organic peanut butter (optional)

3 tb date syrup / 2 tb palm sugar or rapadura

1 tb curry powder

1 t chilli flakes or 1 - 2 small red chilli’s

1 t ground coriander

1 t ground cumin

2 t turmeric

1/4 t white pepper

Place all ingredients except chicken and lime leaves into a food processor or blender, and process until smooth.

Chop the chicked into large pieces.  Pour sauce over chicken.  Marinate in fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Cook in preheated oven (180 deg), covered for 30 - 35 mins or until cooked. 

Alternatively cook in slow cooker approx 3 - 5 hours on low.  I have cooked this very slowly in slow cooker without marinating first and it was still beautiful.

Serve with chopped coriander, greens and brown rice.

Lemongrass Beef

1 Tb coconut oil

2 - 4 lemongrass stalks (I love lemongrass so I use 4), chopped finely

2 - 4 cloves garlic, crushed

1.5 kg beef mince

4 tb lime juice

1 - 2 tb palm sugar

t tb fish sauce

2 small red chilli’s, chopped

cos lettuce leaves to serve

1/2 - 1 cup coriander leaves, chopped

Slow Cooker:

Turn on slow cooker, heat the coconut oil.  Place the rest of the ingredients in slow cooker, cook on low for 2 - 3 hours depending on cooker.  As it starts to cook, make sure you break up the lumps as you go.

Stovetop:

Heat the coconut oil in a frypan on high heat.  Add garlic, lemongrass and beef and cook until browned, breaking up the lumps as it cooks.  Add lime, fish sauce, sugar (you can replace with stevia), and chilli and cook for 2 mins.

Fill lettuce leaves with the mince and top generously with coriander.  Serve with asian greens and brown rice.   Beautiful!

NB: A food processor fitted with the slicing disc works really well to chop the lemongrass (remember to remove the outer tough layers and the ends)