I suspect that some of you will have been put off potatoes because of the recent fashion for carbohydrate-free diets. However, please understand that your body needs a little carbohydrate every day and it’s much better to get it from a high-fibre food like a potato than a low-fibre starchy food like bread or pasta.
Eggs also have an unfairly bad reputation. They contain cholesterol, and so it is often thought that people who have high blood cholesterol should not eat eggs. Actually, the cholesterol in an egg is not absorbed into the blood stream. Each yolk contains around 5g of fat (about 8 per cent of the daily amount we should have), of which only 1.5g is saturated (i.e. bad for you). Although they should not be eaten every day, they are a good source of protein and contain more than a dozen vitamins and minerals, including iron, zinc, phosphorus, folate, riboflavin, vitamins A, D, E and B12. So you can see that from a nourishment point of view an egg packs quite a punch! I’d call that healthy eating, wouldn’t you?
I have included some of my favourite family recipes, such as lasagne, shepherd’s pie and even egg and chips (see pages 95,99 and 41)! Take a closer look and you’ll see that even these recipes contain only a little olive oil and are packed with nutrients from the high vegetable content. For most people, nutrition is an art and not a science. We all wish to eat well and be healthy and my recipes will help you achieve just that. I want you and your family to enjoy a healthy diet as much as my family and I do.
Enjoy!
p.s. The oven temperatures in this book are for a conventional oven. If you are using a fan oven, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
carrot and butternut squash soup
everyday *
This soup is so quick and easy to make and is wonderfully good for you. It will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.
serves 4
1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and deseeded
freshly ground black pepper
850ml/1½ pints/3¾ cups chicken or vegetable stock
2–3 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves picked
handful of chopped fresh parsley or coriander (cilantro)
1 Sweat the onion and garlic in the olive oil over a medium heat in a large, lidded pan for about 7 minutes, or until soft.
2 Chop the carrots and butternut squash into 1.5cm/⅝in cubes and add to the pan. Season with black pepper and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften.
3 Pour in the stock, add the thyme leaves and parsley or coriander (cilantro) and bring to the boil. Now turn down the heat a little, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4 Finally, use a hand blender or liquidizer to purée the soup. Reheat and serve.
courgette and pea soup
everyday
An easy-to-make soup that is packed with beta-carotene, vitamin C and folate. Tastes good too!
1 Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan over a moderate heat. Add the courgettes (zucchini) and onion and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften.
2 Pour in the stock, then bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
3 Add the peas to the soup and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
4 Blend the soup in a liquidizer or blender and stir in the basil.
5 Reheat, season to taste with black pepper and serve immediately.
serves 6
dash of olive oil
4 small courgettes (zucchini), chopped into small pieces
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
900ml/1½ pints/3½ cups chicken stock
225g/8oz/2 cups fresh or frozen peas
25g/1oz fresh basil, torn
freshly ground black pepper
exercise - the secret ingredient
I know we’d all like to take a magic pill that will make us healthier and help us to lose weight. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that pill could also reverse our heart disease, stop us from getting cancer, help us look younger, and actually make our whole lives happier, easier and longer?
Well, there is something that will do all of the above, but it is not in the form of a tablet. You don’t even need to get it on prescription. And it is not so secret after all, although many people seem to have problems realizing how easy it is to do and how fast the benefits will come.
The Secret Ingredient is simply increased physical activity. There’s nothing like it, and there’s nothing that will replace it!
I’m not necessarily talking about joining a gym or getting into pink and purple Lycra, leg warmers and ‘feeling the burn’, but I do practise what I preach and I call it ‘active living’.
When I first came out of hospital after my heart attacks, all I could manage were a few steps to and from my front gate. I couldn’t manage the short walk to pick my son up from school like the other mums, so I had to be inventive to keep up appearances. I would spend all day getting ready. I’d have a shower - then sleep for an hour. Dry my hair - exhausting work - then sleep for two hours. Add a bit of lippy - another nap and it’d be time to go.
I’d get a lift around the corner to the school and would then settle myself on the school bench before all the parents arrived, and when they did, I would smile and wave as if everything were completely normal. I did catch a few looks, as if to say, ‘I thought she was meant to be ill; she looks OK to me!’ I would then manage to stand up to greet my little man as he ran out of school, and give him the big hug that he’d been waiting for. Luckily, he was happy to be walked home by a friend; he didn’t seem too bothered that I didn’t actually walk him home, only that I was there to see him when he first came out of the school door. I would then sit back down on my ‘life-saving’ bench and wait for all the other parents to go before I’d catch my lift back home again.
baby step by baby step
Each time I did this little journey, I was left completely exhausted. Add to this challenge that I also had a nine-month-old baby girl and a very active two-year-old at home. For obvious reasons, I had to have a full-time nanny for a while to do all the physical stuff, but I even found talking to my little ones incredibly tiring. However, because I had started to push myself, baby