Hemsley Hemsley, The Art of Eating Well: a new way to cook

HEMSLEYHEMSLEY_book_reveal.web_.jpg-6703When it comes to cooking I am always suspicious of two things.

1. A sweet snack/pudding that is offered up as “healthy” – as in my mind the two do not go together. If something is sweet and covered in chocolate, it’s to be enjoyed without any feeling other than pleasure. We women spend too much time attaching negative thoughts to food and need to remember it is one of the great joys in life.

And 2. Thin professional cooks – and I don’t mean slim, I’m talking super skinny model like proportions – as surely one of the qualifications for being a really good cook is being a little bit greedy – or is again is that just me?

So when one of the lovely people in my studio offered me a “healthy” home made Bounty bar last week, I have to admit I was gearing myself up for one of those ‘take a tiny nibble and declare it delicious, only to deposit it in the bin as soon as she’d gone, situations. “There’s no sugar in it but its totally delicious” she said, “its from my new favourite cook book.”

It was delicious, in fact more delicious than an actual Bounty bar, so I decided to investigate Hemsley Hemsley, The Art of Eating Well.

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As we all know sugar is the new root of all evil and fat is back. Personally, I am naturally inclined towards towards eating only ingredients my grandmother would have recognised (with a few odd vegetables she may not have been able to get hold of in Fife) so sugar, apart from the odd chocolate bar in moments of stress, has never been an issue. My daughter however is heavily addicted to sugary drinks and sweet snacks in a way that worries me. She is also a vegetarian and loves to try out new recipes, so when I discovered The Art of Eating Well, contains 150 recipes which are free from grain, gluten, refined sugar and high starch, I decided to buy it as a way to motivate her to ‘move away from the sugar’.

Hemsley Hemsley are two sisters Jasmine and Melissa, who if I’m honest look like the sort of Notting Hill Yummy mummies who terrify me. They are gorgeous (Jasmine is an ex model), super skinny and depending on how you look at it, either an inspiration or not entirely genuine. But despite my earlier confessions I think they are genuine and their food does have the potential to inspire readers to think about food in a new way and avoid sugary and processed foods.

Check out the book and their website which has a new recipe every day and I’ll let you know how it goes in our house!!

 

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