Be good to your body. You’re the one who has to live in it. Convenience foods aren’t designed to keep you alive in the long term. We now know these products make you fat and ill. Erm, what’s convenient about that? As Bill Murray observed, whoever snuck the ‘s’ into fast food is a clever little bastard.
The month of January has a peculiar Pavlovian effect on us homo sapiens. Counting calories becomes an acceptable form of penance, like compulsively listening to Liveline. It’s pointless! Hear me out. Nine calories from fat will make you feel fuller for longer. It’s that tickety boo feeling you get from avocado on toast, that makes you feel like a supped-up Pokemon, right? But nine calories from sugar will be burned up much quicker, and have you snacking straight away like an Angry Bird on acid. Discovering the difference between feeling like a superhero, or a demented cartoon character, was a pretty special moment for my bod.
Choosing food on the basis of only calorie intake is about as useful as choosing your life partner on how quickly they can cycle. It might come in handy, on a very special occasion. But for day-to-day well being both physically and emotionally, it’s pretty much useless. Am I making much sense?
I reckon a healthy diet is not about restriction – it’s about inclusion. When you start including loads of new flavours and wholefoods into your kitchen, your health will start to look after itself without the coercion of a draconian diet. Yes, you might lose a few pounds on a calorie-controlled diet – but most of that will be personality. So let’s start recruiting kickass ingredients to rock your kitchen in 2017.
Chestnut Waffles
1 cup chestnut flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of flaky sea salt
1 scoop protein powder or oat bran or wheatgerm (entirely optional)
2 & ¼ cups plant-powered milk such as oat’s milk
1/2 cup apple puree
4 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil or butter, melted
Good squeeze of lemon
Combine all the dry ingredients into one bowl. Whisk the wet ingredients into a separate bowl. Now add the first to the second, belting out any lumps from the mixture. Leave overnight in the fridge. Alternatively, you can fire ahead straight away but the flours do benefit from a little settling.
Pour ½ cup’s worth (around 125ml) in the centre of your preheated waffle maker. Cook according to your manufacturers guidelines, but preferably on the low side. This is usually 2 minutes on my Sage waffle maker, until the machine beeps.
These waffles are amazing with a poached egg, or sandwiched together with almond butter.
In other news…. I got to talk Michael Fassbender, Michelle Obama, tweezer fetishes and former fiancés to NYC’s Newswhistle. Very groovy! You can read the interview here.
