Читать книгу The Secret Ingredient: Family Cookbook - Sally Bee - Страница 14

I have a fabulous system in my home that I wholeheartedly recommend. At the time of writing this book my children are 14, 11 and 9 years respectively. Once a month each of them is responsible for cooking the whole family a meal. The choice is entirely theirs and they have to research the recipes, write out the shopping list, prepare, cook and serve the meal. It’s great fun, and they really enjoy planning for it. If they need help, they can shout, but they usually read the recipe carefully and want to surprise us all with the meal. This not only teaches them the lifelong enjoyable skill of cooking, it also gives them an amount of control of what they want to eat. I am usually pleasantly surprised as they often pick a really healthy dish, without any input from me and will explain to me what the healthy ingredients will do for me! I love this… it’s obviously what I do to them at every mealtime! ‘Isn’t this butternut squash soup delicious boys? This will give you loads of energy for kung-fu tonight, and Lela, this will make your skin beautiful!’

The Secret Ingredient Family Cookbook will help you, at a glance, feed your family the healthiest food possible.

You’ll see that many of my savoury dishes begin with onion, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. This is because this little tasty combination is a great health giver. It is proven that when heated together these three ingredients help to lower blood cholesterol.

I have included a few recipes that include red meat, but not too many. Try to keep red meat to once or twice a week as this gives you the protein you need but won’t overload you with the wrong kinds of fat. Always cut off all visible fat from any meat and try to buy quality. If you can’t afford good-quality meat that can have its source traced, then miss it out all together and add more pulses, beans or rice.

I always get lots of requests for vegetarian food, there are vegetarian dishes dotted throughout the book and many other recipes that can omit the meat. So please take time, if you are vegetarian, to take a good look through.

You’ll also notice a great chapter called Sally’s Saturday night fake-away. We all love the convenience and excitement of take-away food but sadly it is often among the unhealthiest food you can eat. I hope my dishes will tempt you to fake it with your own healthy versions.

I don’t list the calories contained in my recipes as this isn’t the top priority when feeding a family. As long as all ingredients are fresh and as natural as possible, and a balance of dishes are eaten, this is a sustainable healthy diet for a family.

I prefer to count calories on the way out rather than the way in – in other words, go for a walk after dinner if you are able.