Introducing Five on Friday. To wrap up the week, I am going to throw out five nutrition or health facts or five foods, product finds or recipe links, or maybe a combination of all of the above, that I am loving from the week gone by.
Today I am going to start with some recipe inspiration. Today’s Five on Friday are the top 5 places I look, when I need to come up with something new and delicious, or I want to know how to make something traditional that I have never made before.
1. Chef Sueson Vess
I have her cookbook and I have used it so much that it falls open at my favourite recipe pages. Sueson is a master of taking old favourites, removing the bad guys, making them healthy, and making sure they are delicious and usually very simple. Her recipes are my go-to for midweek meals, comfort foods and – this is a big one – holiday recipes. I couldn’t navigate Christmas or Easter without her, especially when extended family are involved. My hubby loves her recipes because they include all his childhood favourites. Her Cranberry Sauce is out of this world, we also love her Roast Turkey, Oven Baked Chicken Nuggets, Red Velvet Cupcakes and her Lentil Salad. She posts recipes on her website: www.specialeats.com and her book is available there as well. Sueson has Coeliac Disease, a son on the autistic spectrum and a husband who is a fussy eater, so whatever you’ve got going on at home, she’s got you covered.
2. Nom Nom Paleo.
Another who’s recipes I can count on for flavour and deliciousness. Michelle is a died-in-the-wool foodie, who transitioned to paleo due to health reasons, and transferred her discerning palate accordingly. She has an iPad app, a website and a gorgeous cookbook that doubles as a coffee-table book in my house. She does a brilliant round-up of lunch box meals for children on her website, for the moms out there. Her website is here: www.nomnompaleo.com and her book is available on Amazon. My tried and true favourites from her are Cracklin’ Chicken, Magic Mushroom Powder (much more innocent than it sounds) and Kalua Pork.
3.Hemsley & Hemsley.
These two sisters are relatively new kids on the block, but they have become very popular very quickly. They take old-fashioned food and cooking traditions and put a fun new spin on them. They have lots of recipes on their website www.hemsleyandhemsley.com , and their cookbook is available from Amazon. Their recipes are all gluten, dairy and refined sugar free and their food photography is gorgeous, which is very helpful when looking for meal inspiration! My favourite recipe from them so far is Sausage and Cider Casserole, but everything I have tried has been very good indeed.
4. Paleo Comfort Foods.
This was one of the first paleo cookbooks I ever bought, and it’s still in regular rotation. I have used this book for recipes for parties with great success, as well as just being some of my favourites for cooking at home. They really nailed the concept of food being delicious and full of flavour to the extent that it doesn’t really seem overly healthy – just good food. My personal favourites here are the Grilled Chicken breasts (sounds too simple, but they taught me how to cook chicken breast so it’s so juicy on the inside and not tough, I use this as a base for about a thousand other things), Stuffed Peppers, Chimichurri Sauce, Fish Tacos and Coleslaw. I have this book on my kindle, so I am never without these recipes when travelling as well. The authors are Julie and Charles Mayfield. Available on Amazon.
5. Pinterest!
I love Pinterest so much. It’s very visual and and it has a huge collection of recipes from thousands of sources all over the world. I save my favourites to a couple of boards and then when I am meal planning, I browse through all the things I’ve saved for later and am inspired to try new, fun things. See my Pinterest boards for Healthy Eating here, Breakfasts here and the Autoimmune Diet here.
Have a fun, healthy weekend everyone!
Robyn Puglia
Robyn is a Clinical Nutritionist with a specialised interest in the Functional Medicine approach to health. Robyn is very involved with the field of Coeliac Disease, Gluten-Reactive Disorders and Autoimmune Disease. Her passion for the healing power of food, has led her to work with complex cases, involving multiple diagnoses, and chronic health issues such as ME, auto-immune diseases and fibromyalgia. She also has a passion for working with the growing tide of chronic, lifestyle mediated illness; diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, and runs a lifestyle intervention clinic for these issues. Robyn works with patients to nutritionally support their bodies, so that they can heal. She has successfully helped many people around the world improve their health and increase their quality of life. Robyn sees clients in London, Tokyo and New York, and has a virtual practice that allows her to work with people all over the world.
