Recipe inspiration from my favourite cookbooks

After my ‘Raaahhh! LIFESTYLE CHANGE!’ post earlier this week – well done if you read that lengthy one – I wanted to focus a bit on something I’ve claimed as my new mantra: it’s not what you can’t have, it’s what you can have.

You see, when you’re trying to be healthy, it’s easy to think about all the things you can’t eat, and often that’s dooming you before you’ve begun. If you’re eating salad and wishing you had chips, then you’re never going to stop thinking about those chips. So my new strategy is to plan meals that are healthy, nutritious and most importantly – delicious. Because if I’m not excited about what I’m eating, then I won’t want to eat it.

My top tip is having a recipe inspiration session. Haul out all those cookbooks and spend an evening going through them and noting down everything you want to try. I got a huge stack of them at Christmas, and most of them are on the healthy side, but after my original flick-through I’ve put them away and made nothing. After making my list of recipes to try though, I’m really excited to work my way through it, and have already started with Jamie Oliver’s tacos and kiwi salsa recipe (my take on that is coming up soon).


Here are a few of my must-cooks...

JAMIE'S EVERYDAY SUPER FOOD



The new Jamie Oliver cookbook, Every Day Super Food is great – I want to make almost everything. I love that he’s focused on eating well (with no faddiness – hello sugar, carbs and oil) with big punchy flavours and unusual recipes.

Fish tacos & kiwi salsa

Asian crispy beef

Skinny carbonara

Turmeric chicken

Asian stir fried veg & omelette

Veg sandwich

Bombay chicken

Veggie burgers

Squash Dhal with fried egg

Squash laksa bake

Squash lasagne

Black bean feijoda

Chicken squash cacciatore

Steak & tabbouleh

A MODERN WAY TO COOK BY ANNA JONES



I adore Anna Jones’s books, especially her first one, A Modern Way To Eat. The follow up, A Modern Way To Cook, is still good, but not quite as ‘I want to make the entire book!’ as the first one. All her recipes are vegetarian, but it took me a while to notice, as I was so fixated on the flavours. Also, no crazy ingredients – my bugbear in recipe books. I don’t have time to hike to Mongolia for that rare spice you mentioned!

Herb omelette

Sweet potato and quinoa bowls

Pepper & white bean quesadillas

Plantain, avocado, black bean bowl

Halloumi & harissa rice bowl

Carrot & chickpea pancakes

Black bean & corn fritters

Butternut & leek hash

Sweet potato chilli

Roast lime feta & greens burrito

Avocado barley bowl

Sweet potato bake

Buddha bowls

Turkish flatbreads

Squash & spinach feta pie

Coconut, lime & tamarind curry

SIMPLY NIGELLA



I love Nigella, but her new book, Simply Nigella, and TV show did feel like she was jumping on the clean-eating bandwagon because everyone else was, not because it’s her chosen direction. And to be honest, we love Nigella for delicious, indulgent recipes – we don’t want her to change. There are a few recipes in her book that I like the sound of though…

Cauliflower & cashew curry

Thai turkey meatballs

Sweet potato mac'n'cheese

Indian shepherds pie

Chicken Cosima

Chicken & wild rice

Chicken shawarma

Beef bourbon chilli

Pork bao buns

Moroccan chicken stew

GIZZI'S HEALTHY APPETITE



I have two Gizzi Erskine books, including her latest one, Gizzi's Healthy Appetite, and they seem to be focused on balancing healthy eating with indulgent eating. Gizzi’s recipes are often a bit more effort than the other chefs I’ve mentioned, but sometimes it’s great to push the boat out and experiment on a Saturday night, isn’t it?

Lamb shawarma

Carnitas

Pulled Chipotle chicken with pink pickled onions
Thai chicken fried rice

Green mole

Green chile

Some of my other favourite healthy cookbooks are Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, The Hairy Dieters, Cook Yourself Thin and the Leon ones – all can be picked up for cheap in charity shops or discount bookshops though as they’ve been out for a while.