I can remember the day when Nadia Lim won Masterchef – the deciding food challenge was a giant macron tower that looked so amazing! Even though this wasn’t exactly a ‘health food’ challenge, I knew a dietitian winning could only mean good things. Since then Nadia has been a knowledgeable advocate for healthy yet delicious food and a balanced approach to living well. I’ve not been disappointed with her recipes, so I was excited to check out her new Fresh Start cook book.
This cook book comes with a bit of a difference. It is a recipe book, but it’s also a weight loss book. Nadia provides advice for healthy eating, and shares 12 steps for health and wellbeing. There is also a section at the back of the book on exercise, written by Nadia’s friend and personal trainer Michael McCormack. From this, you can create your own exercise programme without the need for special equipment.
Nadia’s food philosophy is around a “nude food” approach which focuses on wholefood basics, without fuss and inflexible food rules on what you shouldn’t eat. There’s no fads or misinformation, simply sensible nutrition advice with plenty of delicious food.
Nadia says:
..I’m not going to prescribe you a strict diet or set of food rules to follow, my focus has always been making healthy eating as simple, easy and delicious as possible.
Nadia mentions she isn’t a fan of calorie counting, although all the recipes do have calorie and macronutrient counts. She’s more of an advocate for paying attention to food groups and portion sizes and there is some information on the book on this.
For me, I was more interested in the recipe side of the book and there is plenty of recipe inspiration, with over 100 recipes.
The recipe section is divided into breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as a section of delicious desserts and sweet treats. All the recipes are beautifully photographed and there are so many fresh ideas, I have the feeling that my breakfasts and lunches in particular are going to be looking particularly exciting over the next few weeks!
A number of the recipes are inspired by Asian flavours, as well as other ethnic dishes such as Mexican. None of the recipes are too fussy and are made with ingredients most of us would have in our pantry, as well some herbs and spices.
First on my list to make are the following:
Lemongrass chicken skewers with mango salad
Spicy Jamaican jerk chicken
Spanish meatballs, beans and cauliflower parsley mash
And for a sweet treat:
Lemon coconut slice
Chocolate berry fudge brownies.
I’ll let you know how I get on over on my Facebook page 🙂
You can buy the cookbook online here – it’s currently on special for $35.99. It’s also available at all good bookstores.
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