Butternut Squash is in Season! It is One of My Favourite Veg and with Good Reason!

It has high cancer-fighting antioxidants, is chock full of vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, C, E and B1, 3, 6 and 9... plus magnesium, potassium and manganese. Wow! Lasagna is one of the great comfort foods of the Autumn/Winter season and you can simply make it healthier without losing any taste. Swap regular lasagna pasta sheets for thinly sliced butternut squash. It’ll have the same delicious cheesy sauce, but still be low carb and gluten free! Here's my Butternut Squash Lasagne Recipe, I do hope you enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS:

300g Tomato sauce (if you want to make your own, check out the recipe below. For speed, you could opt for a herby passata, from supermarkets) 400g thinly sliced butternut squash (buy this ready-done from supermarkets or use a mandolin to slice your own) 1tbsp ghee or extra virgin olive oil 700g minced meat (beef or pork) 1 tsp dried oregano ½ tsp sea salt or pink Himalayan salt A few generous grinds of black pepper 500g ricotta cheese 2 large eggs 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped 230g grated mozzarella 45g grated parmesan

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. If you’re cutting the butternut squash yourself, use a mandolin to cut to about 1/4cm thick. Put the oil  or ghee in a large non-stick pan and add the minced meat, cooking for 5-7 mins, stirring frequently. Add half the tomato sauce (recipe below) and all of the dried oregano. Season with half the salt and pepper.  Next make the cheesy ricotta layer by mixing the ricotta, eggs, and chopped fresh herbs. Season with the remaining salt and another grind of pepper.  Spread the rest of the tomato sauce on the bottom of your dish (choose one about 26 x 7cms). Than add a layer of butternut squash (you’ll have three butternut squash layers in total).  Take half of the mince mixture and spread on top, followed by half the ricotta mix on top of that.  Add a second butternut squash layer followed by the remaining mince and the remaining ricotta mix. Top with the last later of butternut squash then add the grated mozzarella followed by the parmesan cheese.  Cover your dish with foil and bake in the oven for 45 mins.  Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 mins until golden brown.

For The Tomato Sauce:

This sauce can be frozen if you make it in batches and keeps well in the fridge for up to a week. It’s a great base for sauces of all kinds.

INGREDIENTS:

150g chopped tomatoes (fresh or tinned) A handful of fresh basil 2 cloves of garlic 1 shallot or small white onion 60g tomato paste 60ml olive oil A generous pinch of salt A good grind of black pepper

METHOD:

Roughly chop the onions and garlic then add to a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. Whizz to a smooth consistency.

WHAT DOES A NUTRITIONIST DO EXACTLY? Most people get – on a conceptual level at least – that they should probably eat a bit better than they do, they should probably move more and take the time for more ‘me time’ to live a long and happy life. ‘Life’ seems to get in the way of achieving that. Many of us are juggling jobs and the complexities of modern relationships, leaving little time to dedicate to the business of ‘being healthy’. Convenience often wins. It’s not that that’s wrong per se, but here’s the thing: all the time we are not eating or moving or living as well as we know to do, we are silently getting sicker. That may actually be going-to-hospital sick or it may just mean having health niggles that bother us greatly but that we have learned to cope with. I’m talking here about things like IBS or other tummy troubles, PMT, arthritis, stress or anxiety, haywire hormones, or possibly weight that has crept on over the years and you can’t seem to shift it, no matter what you try. What I want to share with you today is that the food you eat matters more than you can possibly imagine. And that, in many cases, simply by making changes to your diet, the symptoms of some of these conditions can be improved so markedly that there is a really profound shift in how you experience life. WHAT IS NUTRITIONAL THERAPY? Nutritional therapy used to be referred to dismissively as ‘alternative medicine’. It’s only now that the science of what to eat is getting the recognition it deserves and is being actively promoted by a small number of well-known and recently enlightened medical doctors, like Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Dr Michael Mosely. Essentially, nutritional therapists apply the latest hypotheses and research in nutrition and health sciences to you and your symptoms and they come up with a diet, lifestyle and (sometimes) supplement plan to support those needs. They might bring in some coaching to help you put the ideas into practice in a meaningful way or break through whatever barriers have held you back in the past. PERSONAL SERVICE It’s a very personal approach. You might hear practitioners talk about people being ‘biochemically unique’. That means that there isn’t a single way of eating that is right for everyone. Sandra might have PMS and you want to lose weight, for example. Sandra might have a history of antibiotic use, while you had your appendix out when you were 14. Sandra might have an intolerance to dairy, while you hate strawberries. I could go on, but you can imagine the thousands of different permutations here. And the fact is that your DNA, previous medical history, and any current symptoms as well as what you like and don’t like, not to mention your personal circumstances are all important when a nutritionist creates a plan for you. It is personalised just for you. That takes both time and skill. You could download something from the internet – if you knew what you were looking for – but it is not the same. A nutrition practitioner may also work with supplements targeted to a specific condition or your own health goal. This can be a minefield – potentially dangerous and inevitably costly – if you don’t know what you’re doing. WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE SEE A NUTRITIONIST IF THE RESULTS ARE SO GOOD? It’s unfortunate that so many people don’t understand what a huge effect a personalised food and lifestyle programme can have on the symptoms they have or how they experience their life. Newspapers are full of soundbites about the latest foods, but they don’t really join the dots, and it’s difficult to see what might be possible for you. The vast majority of doctors – even those being trained today – have next to no current knowledge or practical experience of what their patients should be eating or how they might integrate the theory into their lives. They live in a world, by and large, where the solution presented during your 10-minute session lies in a prescription. Some – like Chatterjee – are taking on training in something much bigger called Functional Medicine. This is a framework for considering that the symptoms you are experiencing are a result of imbalances in your body and, rather than treat the specific symptoms themselves, nutrition professionals try to understand the root cause of the problem and base their programme around that. If you think about it: nearly all medications merely suppress symptoms. Only very few are an actual cure – antibiotics come to mind here. The exclusively pharmacological approach conventional medicine so often employs does nothing to uncover the root causes. Metformin lowers blood glucose – but why is it high in the first place? Statins lower cholesterol – but why is it elevated? Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) numb pain – but why are you in pain? These are the questions nutrition professionals will ask before embarking on a quest to find out to then be able to address the root cause. WHAT HAPPENS IN A NUTRITION CONSULTATION WITH ME? Your first consultation will last up to 90 minutes. You will have been asked to complete and send back a nutritional therapy questionnaire before you visit. During the session, we’ll go into your medical history, your health goals and any other challenges you’re facing, what you generally eat, what you like to eat, what you hate to eat and how you have to eat (on the bus, in a rush at your desk, and so on). There’s no judgement and anything you share with me is kept in confidence. Nutritional therapy sessions are usually sold in programmes that run over 6 weeks. This is because it is rarely helpful for anyone to leave without the knowledge that they have at least 4 sessions in place to help them implement the programme, make changes at a pace that suits them, and to deal with any challenges or questions that come up along the way. WHAT IF I ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO DO? Knowing what you should be doing is only part of the problem if you are unhappy with an aspect of your health. Staying motivated is the hardest part of any plan. The single best way to stay in the zone is to have a buddy or coach who can give you a nudge or call you out if you start to go off piste. I’d say this is the single biggest thing that makes the difference between reaching your goal and actually staying there. That’s where health coaching comes in. It keeps you accountable will ensure all that good work doesn’t go to waste. When someone enquires to see me, the first thing we do is arrange a free call to go over their options and goals and find out what they want to get out of the programme. I give them a few things to go away and work on and then we pick the right programme for them, on their terms. Call me to book a free call, find out what I can do for you and your life and get some top tips now to start the process of a health, happy new you Georgina Graham DipION, CNHC 07765 869670 george@cotswoldbetterhealth.co.uk ​