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Frog Hollow thoughts on Mindful Eating

April 10, 2018 by Charlotte Markham

Hands up if you’ve ever staved off hunger pangs by grabbing something on the go, that might not have been the most nutritious choice.

It’s easy to select foods that might satisfy an empty tummy initially, but give it half an hour, and the hunger pangs are back with a big belly rumble! Indeed, if you’ve read my story, you’ll know that Frog Hollow Super Snacks was born, because I’d become disenchanted that while following a well-known weight-loss programme, I’d been encouraged to choose fat-free and diet foods, that contained artificial sweeteners and additives. I felt that these weren’t filling me with energy and in fact, were doing me harm. That could have been my first light bulb moment when it came to mindful eating.

Eating should, of course, be pleasurable, it should satisfy your senses, and you certainly shouldn’t feel guilty for consuming the foods you enjoy… But it’s also wise to eat with purpose and consideration. The purpose is to nourish yourself and your body. The consideration comes from being aware of where your food comes from, and how it affects your body, and the world around you. Some experts even advocate that mindful eating is the non-diet that gets results.

Here are five simple tips to help you get started with mindful eating:

  • Just Eat – When you’re sitting down for your meal, make sure that’s all you’re doing. Don’t read the paper or watch the television. Just enjoy your good food.
  • Take your time – Chew, chew and chew some more. Take time to satisfy the senses and enjoy the texture and taste of your food.
  • Don’t always listen to Mother – Did your parents or grandparents, drill into you the importance of a clean plate? So many of us were raised to finish our meals; it’s become a habit. So the next time you get to F for full, just stop! I’m not advocating that you waste your food, but reach for the Tupperware and package up the leftovers for another meal.
  • The three Ns – My favourite tip for mindful eating is borrowed from Karen Lee at The Sensitive Foodie Kitchen. The next time you choose to snack, ask yourself these three questions… Is it natural? Is it normal? And, is it necessary?
  • It’s not all about the food – At Frog Hollow we’re proud to be #planetfriendly, and we encourage you to think about what you buy and how you reuse and recycle packaging. We use recyclable, biodegradable packaging and avoid plastic wherever we can. To reduce packaging, we offer a refill option on the glass jars filled with our energy bites. We’re also proud to support the work of The Final Straw Solent. A group of people from all walks of life, who have come together as a community to minimise the amount of plastic entering our local seas. If you’d like to be more mindful of packaging and single-use plastic, check out their website HERE. Or why not join the Ferry Boat Inn Beach Clean Up, this coming weekend. I’ll see you there!

All Frog Hollow Super Snacks are nutrient-rich and free from gluten, dairy and refined sugar! So you can be sure that you’re choosing nourishment when you snack with us! Shop HERE.

 

Filed Under: Healthy lifestyle, Ideas and Inspiration, Nutrition, Planet Friendly

How to survive Easter without chocolate!

March 20, 2018 by Charlotte Markham

Easter is fast approaching and with it comes the overwhelming temptation to succumb to sugar-laden sweets and unethical palm oil filled chocolate treats. But there is good news! You can enjoy treats that treat you (and your family) well. If you’d like to know how to survive Easter without chocolate, then read on!

Raw Blueberry & Lemon Mousse CakeLet them eat cake – An Easter get together with family or friends definitely calls for cake. So why not serve up a superfood cake. At Frog Hollow all our cakes are sweetened naturally, they are gluten and dairy free and offer a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and good fats leaving you and your guests feeling light and energetic. These nutrient-rich delights will serve as the perfect centrepiece for your Easter table. Order yours HERE.

Pick and Mix Energy BitesEat a rainbow – Isn’t it funny how those tiny jewel-like eggs catch the eye of your little darlings, faster than you can say “Don’t eat them all at once!”? We all know that eating the rainbow is important, but a foil-wrapped rainbow doesn’t count! Our energy bites aren’t just colourful, (because they’re chock-full of the goodness of fruit and veg) they’re also power packed snacks that will give your kiddies the vitality to get up and go-go-go! Treat the whole family with our largest Pick & Mix Jar; you get sixty bites in ten delicious flavours. Order yours HERE.

Eat chocolate… That’s good for you! – Sometimes in life there is only one solution… And that is chocolate! But don’t just settle for any old chocolate, be discerning in your selection! At Frog Hollow our Raw Cacao Truffles are naturally delicious. Not just because of the things they don’t contain… Like all Frog Hollow products, they are free from gluten, refined sugar and dairy; but also because they’re full of the good stuff. It all starts with our super-hero ingredient Raw Cacao, we add nuts, seeds, berries, natural butters, spices and lots of love to the mix; and something quite magical happens… Order yours HERE.


Chocolate-Free Treasure Hunt for your Easter Bunnies


It’s become a tradition in many households to have an Easter Egg Hunt, but if you’re trying to avoid too much chocolate here’s an alternative treasure hunt, that inspires creativity too, it’s a #winwin situation for your Easter Bunnies.

  • Buy several packs of coloured pencils and Easter-themed colouring books.
  • Hide the individual coloured pencils around the garden or house.
  • Give each of the children attending your treasure hunt an empty pencil box, and send them on their way to fill it up with the correct colour combination.
  • When they return with their full pencil box, reward them with a colouring book.
  • While the little ones are busy getting creative, reward yourself with a cuppa and a slice of superfood cake!

 

 

Filed Under: Energy Bites, Ideas and Inspiration, Raw Cacao Truffles, Superfood Cakes

We’re going bananas for baking at Frog Hollow!

February 22, 2018 by Charlotte Markham

I believe baking is a skill that can never be underrated, and I’ve always encouraged Olivia to join me in the kitchen. Baking teaches children so much more than how to create delicious treats… Following a recipe helps to teach maths, science and reading. Time in the kitchen will also equip your wee ones with important life skills; like patience, how to follow directions and the knowledge that hard work is generally followed with reward. Most importantly of all, baking with your family helps to make fabulous memories of spoon licking fun times!

February is a fabulous month for getting busy in the kitchen! Not only is the whole of February recognised as Bake for Family Fun Month, it’s also Banana Bread Day on the 23rd February! To help you celebrate these two most auspicious occasions, I’ve developed a new recipe for Healthy Vegan Banana Bread! Why not give it a go?

Healthy Vegan Banana Bread

  • 2 ½ large bananas – mashed
  • ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 Chia egg – 1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil – melted
  • 4 medjool dates – pitted, chopped small
  • 55g coconut blossom nectar
  • 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp Himalayan pink rock salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 180 ml unsweetened almond milk
  • 137g ground almonds
  • 200g gluten-free flour blend – (Doves)
  • 112g gluten-free oats
  • 50g walnuts- chopped roughly

METHOD:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 9×5 inch loaf tin with silicone paper.
  2. Place the mashed banana in a large bowl, add all the ingredients and mix together well. Spoon into the lined tin.
  3. Bake for 50 mins – 1 hour. When it is ready, it should feel firm and have a light brown crunchy golden top.
  4. Turn out onto a cooling rack and when cold cut into slices.
  5. This is delicious served lightly toasted with nut butter and raspberry chia jam. Chia Jam recipe can be found here.

Filed Under: Recipes

Should schools be nut free zones?

February 1, 2018 by Charlotte Markham


It’s no secret that food-allergies have over recent years become more prevailant; and according to the NHS website there are a couple of reasons for this:

  • One theory behind the increase is that a typical child’s diet has changed considerably over the last three to four decades.
  • Another is that children are increasingly growing up in “germ-free” environments. This sometimes results in their immune systems not receiving sufficient early exposure to the germs needed to develop properly. This is known as the hygiene hypothesis.

Sadly this rise in food allergies, specifically nut allergies, has led to many schools becoming nut-free zones. Whilst, as a parent, I can sympathise with others who may have children with severe allergies, I also can’t help but feel that a blanket ban on nuts is a severe cop out by schools. Indeed, I believe that we could be making the whole situation worse by cutting out an entirely healthy and nutritious food group from a school culinary curriculum.

Allergy UK has a whole list of resources for schools, and I quote from the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Position Paper included within the resources (view it here), which states;

The goals in school are to create a network of support and a self-sustaining environment of awareness that reduces the likelihood of reactions and enables staff to recognize and treat emergencies. The ideal approach is for schools to develop a formal policy, with the aim of achieving these goals, which is informed by the available expertise.
It doesn’t mention banning the nut forever!
Don’t dis the humble nut!
I think that nuts get a bad rap at school, they don’t deserve to be expelled. They are made out to be the bad guys, but in fact they are packed full of protein, fibre and essential heart-healthy fats, with a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals. A 30 gram serving of non-salted mixed nuts is a power-packed snack that will give you heaps of energy. That’s why you’ll find nuts or nut butters as an ingredient in almost every flavour of Frog Hollow Energy Bites.
What makes me even angrier is some of the food choices that are included in our children’s school diets on an everyday basis. Why remove a perfectly natural, healthy food group in its entirety, and yet allow over processed, sugar-laden foods instead? Is this really going to help our children in the long run? Or could schools be doing more to allow the humble nut to join in the fun, by educating their staff and pupils around food allergies?
Top Nut BananaHow to fight back…
If your child doesn’t suffer from a nut allergy, but attends a school that is a nut free zone, be sure you include nuts in their afternoon snack, they’re the perfect option to keep them going until dinner time. I always take a few energy bites with me when I collect Olivia from school. She’s always hungry when she comes out and two or three bites are all she needs to fill the gap between school pick-up and supper!

Buy Yours Here!

Filed Under: Energy Bites, Healthy lifestyle, Hero Ingredients, Nutrition

The importance of showing yourself some love…

January 25, 2018 by Charlotte Markham

Valentine’s day is just around the corner… At the time of writing, just three weeks away! But this year I’m encouraging you to think a little differently and shower yourself with LOVE!

At Christmas time I had a bit of a wake up call… Having worked like a demon up until the big day, with various fairs and shows on the agenda, and still juggling family and personal commitments; I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the fact that come Christmas morning I was laid up in bed with a nasty flu-like virus, that lingered long into the New Year!

It was miserable for me, and miserable for my family, especially Olivia, who’s at the age when Christmas excitement reaches its peak! I’ve had a good talk to myself, as have my friends and family, and I tell you this, not because I want you to feel sorry for me, but because I encourage you to always show yourself love!

The best thing about this Valentine’s Day philosophy, is that nobody is excluded from celebrating the occasion, rejoice singletons and spend some time on yourself this February!

Here are 5 ways to shower yourself with LOVE on Valentine’s Day.

  • Write yourself a love poem – (It doesn’t have to rhyme!) It’s all too easy to criticise oneself. So take this opportunity to write a note to yourself that celebrates the things you love about you, your life and your achievements!
  • Enjoy some time out – If, (like me prior to Christmas), you struggle to take time out for yourself, putting family and work first, now is the time to start. And not just for Valentine’s Day! Remember you’ll be no good to any of the people that depend on you, if you don’t take care of yourself. Start with just fifteen minutes a day, and build on that!
  • Take yourself on a date – Think about what your perfect date would be, then take yourself on it! Who needs to wait to be asked?
  • Make someone smile – Celebrate love by gifting somebody a smile. It could be a friend, a family member or a complete stranger. Often it only takes a kind gesture or kind words to make someone’s day. Paying it forward is sure to give you the warm fuzzies, it’s like enveloping yourself in hugs!
  • Raspberry RocketNourish yourself – Feeding yourself well is a great way to show yourself the love you deserve. The old adage, you are what you eat, rings true. If you eat rubbish, you tend to feel like rubbish. Frog Hollow Super Snacks are perfect treats for health conscious foodies. Shop yours HERE!

 

Filed Under: Ideas and Inspiration

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Westbourne, West Sussex, PO10 8SP

From the Blog

Frog Hollow thoughts on Mindful Eating

Frog Hollow thoughts on Mindful Eating

Hands up if you've ever staved off hunger pangs by grabbing something on the go, that might not have been the most nutritious choice. It's easy to select foods that might satisfy an empty tummy … [Read More...]

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Good for you – Good for the planet

We don’t just care about your health we care about this beautiful planet too, so we use recyclable, biodegradable packaging and avoid plastic wherever we can. To reduce packaging we offer a refill option with our energy bites. We also encourage you to reuse your black truffle box. Fill it with a gift for somebody else, keep your treasures safe or give it to your little ones to get crafty with!

#planetfriendly #froghollow

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