#1 – A Simplicious Challenge: Cooking 306 Recipes

I love cookbooks. I own nearly 80 of them (including around 25 eBooks) – and I would own a lot more if I gave into every whim and desire I had to buy them. I also have a large collection of food magazines. But despite my fondness, or perhaps because of it, I have a bad habit of cooking only a handful of recipes from each book – returning to the same, familiar and appealing ones, while ignoring the recipes I think I won’t like.

Because of this, I’ve always fancied the idea of doing a Julie and Julia style challenge: to deliberately cook every single recipe in a cookbook. If ever a book was worthy of this challenge, I reckon Simplicious by Sarah Wilson is the one, with a whopping 306 recipes.

As soon I as started flicking through this book, the idea of doing this challenge started to grow on me. I was a bit worried I would do my usual: go straight to the gummy lollies and chocolate cardamom tarts, and never look back to the veggie-packed salads and meaty stews. Ultimately though, it wasn’t just the appealing recipes that encouraged me to consider this challenge. Continue reading →

Down the rabbit hole

The problem with healthy food, is that once you know, the deeper you go. The deeper you go, the more you know, and then there’s no going back.

My mother was recently diagnosed with diabetes. This resulted in a huge lifestyle change for her, a foodie, now facing life without chocolate, white bread, fried foods, potato chips, and soft cheese. She underwent this change completely and wholeheartedly.

As a fellow foodie, I felt gutted for her. So commenced my mission to source and create delicious diabetes-friendly treats. This was initially about replacing refined sugar, high-fructose foods and white flour with healthier alternatives. As I have also had issues stabilising my blood sugar, I started to incorporate some of these changes into the family diet.

As I spent more time googling and reading, into the wholefood rabbit-hole I went: Fructose, sucrose, glucose; gluten, grains and simple carbohydrates; protein and nourishing fats. Onwards to coconuts, (bad) vegetable oils, fermented foods, real butter (yay!), activating nuts and seeds, salt minerals, and bone broth. The importance of buying organic. Inevitably, ethics and the environment appeared: the obliteration of rainforests and wildlife in the name of palm oil; the food labelling industry and advertising; the treatment of animals and sustainability of seafood.

Once learned, it could not be un-learned. Consuming became all-consuming. It has also been rewarding. I am like one of those people who gets fit for the first time and then wants everyone to exercise. Or who gets into a relationship and then starts trying to set up all their friends. Dare I say, I feel nourished; and eating well has been a saving grace in these first sleep-deprived months of having a newborn son.