It’s nuts! Add a little more crunch to your life with these 12 ideas

Nuts are an incredibly healthy all-natural snack which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, unsaturated fat (heart-healthy fat), L-arginine (which improves the strength and elasticity of artery walls), plant sterols (which helps lower cholesterol and is often used as a health additive) and fibre. Not only are they nutritionally dense, but they also harbour slow burning energy which staves off hunger pangs and can actually aid in weight loss, despite their high calorie content.

As long as you don’t over-do it, you’ll be changing your diet for the better and improving your overall health by incorporating more of them into your diet. It really is quite ridiculous how beneficial nuts are, so we hope to encourage you with these sneak-them-in ideas that cover every meal time.

1) Make your own almond milk

2) Add a handful of hazelnut to your morning cereal, or pecans to hot oatmeal

3) Pulverise almonds to thicken banana smoothies. Here’s a recipe we love:

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 2 tablespoons oats
• 1 tablespoons pulverised almonds (or almond meal)
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 tablespoons of all natural greek yoghurt
• Dash of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon honey

Method:

1. Place the banana, oats, almond meal, milk, greek yogurt, cinnamon, honey and about 1 1/2 tablespoons walnuts in the blender. Blend until completely smooth.
2. Pour the smoothie into a jar and garnish with crushed walnuts and a few banana slices.

4) Pulverise almonds, hazel nuts or walnuts (or a mix of the three)

Have them with ground chia seeds in kefir as their own breakfast. See our very own recipe here.

5) Add pine nuts to your broccoli or brussels sprouts, and almonds to your green beans

6) Take a handful or two in a zip lock baggie whenever you’re out for the day, and pop them into your loved ones pack lunches!

7) Add them to your salads

Don’t make your own salads? Just take them out of your bag and sprinkle them over the salad at work or in the restaurant. You’ll feel fuller for longer and the salad will have a far more interesting texture.

8) Use hazelnuts and almonds to replace croutons in salads or soup

9) Add powdered nuts in soups and casseroles as thickening agents

10) Add nuts to fruit or other desserts

Chopped bananas with clove honey, sprinkled with sliced almonds and walnuts, and topped with a dash of powdered cinnamon is an exquisite and healthy dessert.

11) Bake 100% flour-free bread using almonds and walnuts

We’ve got the best recipe for that, exclusively here at The School of Natural Health Sciences. See that recipe here.

12) Get festive and start roasting!

Amongst all our favouritism for almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, let’s not forget the all-mighty chestnut! With Christmas fast approaching, it’s time for the fire places to be burning and the chestnuts to be roasting. If you’ve never had the pleasure of cooking chestnuts before, it simply must be done! Here’s how:

Fresh chestnuts must always be cooked before use and never eaten raw, due to their tannic acid content. First, you need to remove the chestnuts from their skins by either boiling or roasting them. When doing so, make a small incision in the skin or you’ll get a shocking racket and possibly shrapnel as they explode. However, keeping just one incision-free is an easy method of knowing when the rest of them are ready. As soon as the untouched chestnut pops, they’re done cooking. Once cooked, peel off the tough shell and the papery thin skin underneath.

Note: Peel the nuts whilst hot (it’s impossible to peel a cold chestnut!) to ensure the complete removal of the inner brown furry skin, called the ‘tan’, which is bitter.