To Die For Easy Recipes

Bonjour,

“I want to get healthier and lose some weight but where do I start?” is certainly one of the questions I am the most frequently asked. Whatever your level of nutrition knowledge, your willingness or willpower,the time and money you want to invest in your health, my answer is always the same: cook! Yes, c.o.o.k. Whether you use easy recipes or highly sophisticated celebrity chefs’ recipes, cook at home as much as you can. Start now!

It is the ONLY way to know exactly what you put into your body. I know it hurts: most (99%) of restaurants (high-end ones included – I’m horrified each time I ask chefs a few questions about how they cook their food), take-away shops (delicatessen or fine ones included) and all prepared meals bought in supermarkets contain what you have to watch if you’re serious about your health: very bad oils, way too much sugar, way too much salt… not to mention nasty food additives such as artificial colourants, artificial sweeteners, flavour enhancers, preservatives – on that note, the Chemical Maze app is ideal if you want to track and know everything about the impact of food additives (and cosmetic additives) on your health.

Overwhelmed by the idea of cooking? I get you. I was just like you years ago and many of my clients feel the same when I start coaching them. The good news is that there are many ways to help you get started:

• if you’re an absolute beginner, I recommend to do a cooking workshop: in 3 hours you can learn the basics. Yes, 3 hours are enough, I promise. I did it.
• Cooking books can also be very useful, but choose carefully. As you know I’m a fan of Jamie Oliver’s fight for good food and I am one of Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassadors. His 30-minute and 15-minute meals cookbooks are the best: who doesn’t want to be able to cook a whole meal in 15 minutes?

Part of the solution is to start with super simple and delicious recipes, so today I wanted to share with you 3 of my favourite super easy -and a little bit naughty- recipes.

Easy Recipe #1: home-made Nutella paste (yes, I know… so good!)

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  Easy Recipe #1: home-made Nutella paste (my favourite)

  Time: Prep time: 10 minutes – Cooking time: 2 minutes

• Ingredients: for 700g of paste : 200g of 70% min dark chocolate (everything about dark chocolate benefits here), 100g of milk chocolate, 25cl creme fraiche, 150g of hazelnut butter (from health food stores or make it yourself: simply put 150g of hazelnuts in your blender: done!), 2 tbsp of hazelnut oil. You can change the proportions depending of your personal taste – I like to use more dark chocolate and more hazelnut butter.
• Directions: cut your dark and milk chocolate in very small pieces and mix. Put the creme fraiche and the hazelnut butter and eat in a pan on low to moderate heat. Pour over the chocolate and mix. If pieces of chocolate are not all melt, put on moderate heat until you get a beautiful paste. Add the hazelnut oil. Put in a glass jar and let it cool down.

I used to love Nutella too… Not anymore!

Much better and healthier than what usually goes into the Nutella paste (see photo!).

Easy Recipe #2: yoghurt bread with lemon and dill

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  Easy Recipe #2: yoghurt bread

  Time: Prep time: 20 minutes – Resting time: 80 minutes – Cooking time: 30 minutes

• Ingredients: for a 750g bread: 500g bread flour, 2 packs of powder yeast, 1 tbsp sea natural salt, 30g finely chopped dill, lemon zest (organic), one fullcream yoghurt, 25cl organic fullcream milk and -if you have some- 2 tbsp dill seeds or fennel seeds.
• Directions: mix flour, yeast, salt, dill, lemon zest, seeds. In a sauce pan, mix yoghurt with milk and heat on moderate heat. Add this warm (not hot!) liquid (yoghurt and milk) into the flour. Mix the dough for 10 minutes at least. Cover the dough with a napkin until it doubles in volume (at least 30 minutes). Give the shape you want to the dough and place it on an oiled (with olive oil) baking tray. Cover with a napkin again and leave it rest for another 35 minutes (its volume will keep on growing). Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees with a dish full of water in it. Make a few blade strokes on the dough and place it in the oven for 30 minutes.

Easy Recipe #3: fig-raspberry-cinnamon jam

Easy Recipe #3: fig-raspberry jam

This jam has much less sugar than any other jams you can buy in supermarkets; however the amount of sugar is still high so please enjoy with moderation.

• Time: Prep time: 12 minutes – Resting time: one night – Cooking time: 16 minutes
• Ingredients: for 3 jars of 500g: 700g figs (at their peak at the moment in you live in the Southern hemisphere), 300g raspberries, one cinnamon stick, one lemon juice, 500 to 700g of sugar.
• Directions: rinse the figs and get rid of their hard tips. Cut in small pieces. Rince the raspberries and mix them with the figs. Break the cinnamon stick and mix with the fruits. Pour the lemon juice and sugar. Soak overnight: the fruits will now be mixed with a beautiful sirup. Mix again with a spoon, drain over a sauce pan and heat the sirup until boiling. After 10 minutes of boiling, put a drop of sirup in a glass of cold water. If the drop doesn’t dissolve, add the fruits. If it dilutes into the water, keep on boiling the sirup before adding the fruits. As soon as the sirup and fruits start boiling again, mix the jam with a wooden spoon for 6 minutes. Remove the foam and put the jam into the glass jars.

So now… Ready? Go! Try at least one and let me know what you, your friends, partners or kids think!

Have a fantastic week.

Yves