I am so into cooking at the moment. I reached a point in the Christmas holidays where I couldn’t take the leftovers and the copious amounts of chocolate anymore and I was so excited to get back into the kitchen again (side note: if you have any sealed leftovers that you’ve yet to open and with a long date on them, then drop them off at a foodbank for your good deed of the day). After the mountains of stodgy food – mmmm mmmm my favourite – I was actually craving something fresh and healthy on a plate and fancied vegetables which is pretty much unheard of for me, so I got down to reading my cookbooks. Now I have a tonne of cookbooks, but there are a few that are tried and tested and whenever I’m not feeling like trawling through my library, these are my five favourite healthy-ish picks that I reach for…
Gizzi Erskine – Gizzi’s Healthy Appetite. Non fussy. Non faddy. Right now this is my favourite book to cook from. Not all the recipes are a 100% clean, but the ingredients are always high-quality and the recipes are a bit more out of my comfort zone than the other cookbooks that I tend to use. I highly recommend the New York-Style Meatballs and Gravy with Courgetti (P.139) which has fast become one of our favourite dinners that we make.
Anna Jones – A Modern Way to Eat. We have quite a few friends that don’t eat much meat these days or are vegetarian and for occasions when they come round for dinner, this is the cookbook that I whip out. It’s one of those reads where you leaf through, get to the end and didn’t even realise it was vegetarian because it completely debunks the whole ‘boring and bland’ veggie myth. A really good one for some filling and wholesome dinners especially.
Ella Woodward – Deliciously Ella. I flick through this one for sweet treat ideas mostly because there’s a lot of baking and snacking covered in this book. It’s also a nice one to get to grips with if you’re just getting into healthy eating because there’s a tonne of information and wordiness in there too. I always return to the pages on how to cook grains (P.26)
Madeleine Shaw – Get the Glow. I feel like this is one of my favourite all rounders. It’s not restrictive in anyway and covers everything from breakfast to lunch and dinner to dessert. It’s all good, clean, healthy eating here and has some good weekday quickie options, as well as some show-stopping feasts for the weekend. I love cooking the Slow Roast Lamb Shank (P.190) when we have family over for dinner.
Women’s Health Magazine. So this obviously isn’t a recipe book per se, but the recipes that are included in each issue are so darn good that I’ve begun to rip out the pages and collate them in a little slippery fish folder. My sister got me a subscription for Christmas and it was one of my favourite gifts. Have a flick through next time you see one and I guarantee you’ll want to pop it in your basket too.
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