At Home in the Yoga Kitchen with Marlien Wright...

Yet another fantastic second hand find and just in time for the new year!!!

Now...

Let me make myself clear from the start.

I don’t do deprivation diets.

I like food.

There I said it. Surely I’d be crazy not to?

And while others enthuse on the latest diet craze, I’m often left thinking to myself, You might as well lock me up and throw away the key! But superfoods….

Now that’s something I can get on board with! I love my body and I’m only too happy to oblige when it comes to keeping it happy. In fact, as someone who often struggles with chronic fatigue, eating well is something of an imperative if I’m to make it through my day without lagging behind.

So an A-Z list of essential vitamins and minerals and the foods to find them in can only be met with a resounding Yes from me! (And if, like me, you’re too lazy to go back and consult the A-Z’s, each recipe lists the health benefits detailing the goodness to be found in the key ingredients and why our bodies crave them, making healthy eating easy as wink.)

Beyond this, The Yoga Kitchen is yet another win with my desire to live a life less dependent on meat and animal products. While I’m making no claims to going stone cold vegan, I’ve been pondering the nature (and the ethics) of what we eat ever since I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals all those years ago.

So it’s time I put this pondering into practice with some new habits. Among these is the inclusion of more fish in my diet (being sure to check the SASSI list while I’m at it!) and organically sourced meat, to be eaten in smaller quantities (sometimes as little more than an added flavour as I’m want to do with anchovies or chorizo) and with a certain mindfulness, using all parts of the animal and the bones to make a nourishing broth.

So a cookbook of this design is a godsend with only a a small section entitled ‘Flexitarian Food’ making provisions for meat, and the vast majority being either vegan or vegetarian friendly.

From a bevy of colourful ‘Buddha bowls’, recipes for nut and seed butters, to the how-to on introducing probiotic-rich cultured vegetables into the kitchen, this book is nothing short of comprehensive.

A certified nutritional therapy coach and yoga and Pilates instructor, Marlien Wright promises a series of recipes and helpful pointers as “a celebration of nourishing wholefoods,” sure to “boost your immune system and enable you to reclaim the inherent power to heal yourselves of diet-related issues, thus forging healthy new habits.”

I’ll take a side order of that, thanks.

From a quinoa breakfast fit for a king with The Full ‘Hippie’ to her Za’atar Salad (ideal for the aubergine lover like myself) to Mackerel Fishcakes with Tangy Slaw, I have to admit, I can’t wait to get stuck into the kitchen and geared up for tasting!

Here’s to a new year of healthier habits and a happier body.

It’s time to reboot, and there’s no time like the present. After all, if I may borrow from L’Oreal (Oh dear! Still...), we really are worth it.

Still Life with Vegetables by Svetlana Vorobyeva