30-04-2023 | Healthy meals
Ingredients:
- 50g baby spinach
- 50g of quinoa
- ½ apple
- 100g of chicken meat
- ½ tomato
- 50g of feta cheese
- 20g of nuts
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- malic acid
- balsamic cream
Procedure:
Step 1 – Put the quinoa in a deep bowl to boil in 100 ml. water. After the water with the quinoa boils, reduce the temperature and cover the pot. Let it boil for 15 minutes.
Step 2 – On a heated pan with a little oil, add the meat cut into small cubes and season it. Fry for 10-15 minutes.
Step 3 – Put malic acid and honey in a deep bowl. Mix them well until they get a homogeneous mixture.
Step 4 – Add the spinach and stir well into the sauce.
Step 5 – Add sliced tomato and feta cheese on it.
Step 5 – Once the quinoa and meat are ready, add them over the cheese.
Step 6 – Cut the apple into slices and put them on top.
Step 7 – Pour over the balsamic cream and add crushed walnuts and cranberries.
25-04-2023 | Research and results
Have a look at part of the productive atmosphere of our workshop on healthy lifestyles held at SOU Jane Sandanski Bitola. Many thanks to all participants and their interest in creating healthy habits!
20-04-2023 | Healthy meals
Ingredients:
- 1 small baby pumpkin
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ½ onion
- 2 tablespoons of curry
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 box (400 ml) of coconut milk
- 500ml vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 50g roasted pumpkin seeds
Procedure:
Step 1 – In a heated pot with oil, add the garlic and onion and fry for 2 minutes.
Step 2 – Add the previously diced pumpkin and season with salt, pepper, curry and cinnamon. Fry for 4-5 minutes with occasional stirring.
Step 3 – Add the broth, coconut milk and honey.
Step 4 – Once it boils, reduce to medium heat, cover and let it cook for 15-20 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.
Step 5 – Using a hand blender, blend the ingredients until you get a puree-like mixture.
Step 6 – Continue cooking on medium heat for a few more minutes.
Step 7 – Serve with the roasted pumpkin seeds.
22-03-2023 | Healthy meals
Ingredients:
For donuts:
- 100g of wheat flour
- 100g oat flour
- 30g of almond flour
- 4 dates
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon of honey
Dressing:
- 150 g of blueberries
- 200g of Greek yogurt
Procedure:
Step 1 – Put all the ingredients for the donuts in a blender or multi-purpose blender and blend until you get a dough-like mixture.
Step 2 – Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes in order for all the ingredients to combine well.
Step 3 – Form donuts from the mixture (you should get about 6 donuts with these amounts).
Step 4 – Boil the donuts in boiling water for 5 minutes.
Step 5 – Put the donuts in a pan with very little heated oil to fry for 3 minutes on both sides.
Step 6 – Place the blueberries in the pan with the donuts so that they also fry and release their liquids so that they can be absorbed by the donuts themselves.
Step 7 – Pull the pan off the heated surface and pour in the Greek yogurt, mix well until the donuts look coated in the topping.
16-03-2023 | Tips for better sleep
One of the most important, most beneficial activity that helps restore our body functions is the simple act of sleep. Matthew Walker PhD – one of the leading scientists on sleep in the world outlines the importance of sleep in his book “Why We Sleep?” and his famous TED talk, and his science and research brought him to create easy, simple, and evidence-based tips and tricks for easier falling asleep and better overall sleep.
These tricks will help you if you have troubles falling asleep or keep uninterrupted sleep, however, even for those heavy sleepers out there, these tips and tricks can come in handy if you are ever faced with a sleepless night.
The first six of the twelve tips, also found in his book are as follows:
- Stick to a sleep schedule. In other articles on this website, we talked about the circadian rhythm. It seems difficult, especially on a weekend when we like to sleep in – however, going to sleep and waking up at the same time allows our bodies to enjoy this restful activity even more, and feel the real benefits of falling asleep and waking up faster.
- Do not exercise late at night. Especially cardio exercises. When we do any physical activity our blood pressure gets higher, and our brain chemistry changes. Although beneficial during the day, the excitement the brain finds itself in makes it harder to fall asleep. So – keep the exercise schedule at an earlier time of day.
- Avoid caffeine and nicotine. Although caffeine after 4pm is bad for the brain’s ability to fall asleep, caffeine and nicotine in general may cause trouble when falling asleep. Both serving as stimulants to the brain, keep away from these substances for healthy sleep habits. Plus – apart from being addictive, nicotine carries many health risks.
- Lay off the alcohol, especially before bed. You will often hear people talking about alcohol making them sleepy. While there is truth in this, having an alcoholic beverage robs you from the depth of the very beneficial REM stage (discussed in another article), and tends to keep you in the lighter stages of sleep.
- Avoid heavy and large meals at night, including drinking beverages. Large meals make it more difficult to fall asleep, and many beverages can make you urinate more frequently which accounts for waking up often during the night.
- Be smart when taking medicines. A lot of prescription medications for blood pressure, cough, allergy medications and the like have the ability to disrupt your sleep. Talk to your healthcare provider about accommodating the times to take these medicines so they are not taken close to or immediately before bed.
Goran Stevanovski MD, MA
