What this nutritionist is eating
A peek at my personal meal list this week and how I put it together...
I’m back from Ibiza. As you’ll have seen in the last post, I was there for some work-related stuff, then took a proper week off (hard to do in these days with technology attached to us). Anyway I did it! Now back refreshed, and fired up.
On the food front there is one topic I feel the need to get out of the way here. (Put the kettle on - this is a longer post than usual, and sent out earlier in the week).
When I tell people I’m a nutritional therapist, the usual response, is: “Oh, so you write diet plans.”
I don’t.
In my experience they don’t fit real life, too inflexible, and set you up for failure. They also don’t give you practice on how to curate your eating for yourself - which is the skill to hone for the long term.
I mean, who wants to live by rigid 7-day diet/meal plans?
Eg Monday this, Tuesday that, Wednesday, this that and the other etc. Then you are tired or bored, don’t feel like cooking whatever holier than thou dish is on the diet plan, and reach for the Deliveroo app.
So using myself as an example, I'll share with you how I plan my eating week - as flexibly as possible - and the key to it is THE PLANNING, having tasty meals to look forward to, and working with gut health principles (which impact all areas of our health).
I’m going to share what’s going on in my head as I’m doing it.
Here goes…(this is for 2 people this week)…
Step 1 – brainstorm meals.
Ask my husband what he fancies eating this week. He usually says he can’t think of anything!
Ask myself what I feel like.
Can’t think of anything either.
Go to bookshelves and pick out half a dozen cookbooks and start flicking. Drawl over pictures of different world foods – eg Sichuan, Indian, Middle Eastern, Spanish, Italian, Greek…start getting excited.
Then write a list of 5 or 6 main meals that take my fancy. These are usually ones I have cooked before and know won’t take long or be too complicated to make.
The reason I plan about 5 or 6 main meals (not 7) is because some days we will eat leftovers or be out.
I then write a list of lighter meals plus fruit for the fruit bowl (seeing it reminds me to eat it), and snacks. Again this isn’t for 7 days, because I eat some small meals when I’m out and about.
This is this week’s list.
Step 2 – shop
I go online – this week Waitrose. If you live in other parts of the world and are reading this, you may be lucky enough to have decent supermarket, small shops or market near you and can visit in person.
I live in east London, not near a big supermarket with wide choice, and don’t have a car. Though as you’ll see I top up the weekly shop with more specialist items from nearby smaller shops when I’m out and about on foot or bike.
I sit with the cookery books spread out, as I order the ingredients and check my kitchen cupboard to see what I already have and don’t need to get in.
I also refer to an app called Bring. This is super useful. I write staple foods on it throughout the week as they run out and add them to my online order.
Press order, get delivery and put in fridge, freezer and cupboards.
Step 3 – cook what excites me each day
I consult the food list which is now sellotaped to my kitchen wall and decide what to cook and eat depending on how I feel each day. I have a lot of flexibility and can eat what I’m feeling like – energy wise and taste wise.
As you look at my list can you see the gut health principles I’m working to?
In a nutshell this is what I’m thinking as I’m choosing the dishes to cook…
Variety and colour – herbs, spices, vegetables and fruit take care of this. Lots of different grains and pulses. Different colours bring plant chemical polyphenols and the different textures deliver loads of different types of fibre - all extremely healthful and life-extending! Plus give you great skin - as they are anti-inflammatory.
Protein – as we age, many of us lose 1kg (around 2 pounds) of muscle per decade after 40+. So whether male or female after that age, start thinking about getting protein into every meal to build/retain lean muscle. eg we need protein food the size of the palm of your hand each meal to help counteract the sag! Beans, pulses, nuts, seeds, eggs, tofu, cheese, meat, fish all count. The beans, pulses, cheeses if raw, nuts and seeds, all help our gut bugs thrive too.
Live food – eg miso, kefir, an unpasteurised cheese – these contain friendly microbes to plant in the gut and influence our overall health – a bit here and there does the trick. This week I’ll be making kefir shots with berries from the freezer. Other weeks I use kimchi for the live bacteria and to add taste to meals (see below re forth coming Zoom tutorial and upcoming recipe on that).
Deliciousness and natural foods!! To get on my food list a dish has to be tasty and have unprocessed ingredients. Life is too short to eat plain and boring or Frankenstein food our bodies don’t know how to handle. Plus, our guts hate monotony,
A few final thoughts…
What’s the time investment?
90 minutes a week.
About 45 minutes of that is the cookbook flicking and writing the meal list, the other 45 minutes is the online shopping.
It’s a work in progress trying to avoid ultra-processed foods…
Eg I needed coconut milk for the soup I’m making but the ones online all had emulsifiers and thickeners in them. In the end I ordered some fresh chopped coconut from Waitrose which I’ll try and grate. No idea if that will work, worth a try. I’ve recently started buying Ombar dark chocolate as treats because I love the taste, and it doesn’t’ contain unhealthy emulsifiers like many others.
Supermarkets don’t meet all my needs…
I buy good-quality bread with natural ingredients from one of the many good quality east London sourdough bakeries which I’m lucky to have nearby – eg Pophams, Quince, Dusty Knuckle, Pavilion, Fabrique, E5. Is there a sourdough bakery near you, or somewhere you could source from and freeze?
For my meal list I didn’t order the asparagus, new potatoes, or salmon (probably the simplest and most special meal of the week). I’ll get those at Broadway Market on Saturday where I can choose more local, avoid plastic and buy close to the eating event so they are fresh.
I have a Spanish white wine Albariño at home in the fridge waiting to go with it. (I learnt about this at one of Fiona Beckett’s fun and informative Zoom wine sessions. Check out her Substack Eat This Drink That Live Well, so much to learn there). I try to drink less, better quality and slow, usually with food these days.
You can eat really well without counting anything
Following my Zoe experience I’m wary about tests or counting or micro managing food - whether it be number of plants or levels of carbs per week, protein per meal, and definitely never calories. It can damage a relationship with food and trigger anxiety.
So I work with the principles above in the back of my head and what foods appeal to me enjoyment wise and fill me up.
Cookery books – if you don’t already, start a collection. Get real books you can have on the countertop and let fat splash all over. If you have ever tried cooking from an app, you’ll know what I mean. Physical cookbooks are a lifelong investment in our health and wellbeing. See links below for where the recipes on my list this week came from.
My friend the rice cooker - best cost-per-wear ever!
You may notice from my list I’m cooking different types of grains – eg red rice, black rice, bulgar wheat. Some weeks I cook freekeh in it too.
Rotating around grains feeds lots of different beneficial bacteria in the gut which can improve our immune system and energise us.
Cooking them in a rice cooker makes them light, fluffy and delicious (like in a restaurant) and takes all the pain out of making them. (You put the grains in with water or stock/broth), switch on a button, and walk off and come back when ready and beeping, If I make too much I freeze one-person portions which I defrost and add to a sautéed onion and heat up when needed next time.
Conclusion…
If you love eating and want to nourish yourself well, I hope this article helps inspire you to get more into planning and cookery books. Plus have fun in the process. Because if you enjoy doing something you are likely to keep it going for the long term and reap all the health benefits that come with that.
BTW please keep reading for recipe book ideas, details of our next Zoom meet up date for paid subscribers, and a short poll.
COOKERY BOOK LINKS (I have included Amazon affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if you order one).
Black pepper tofu p44 - Plenty by Ottolenghi (simple easy recipe - I usually only put 2 teaspoons of black pepper in, not 5 tablespoons as the recipe says - surely that is a typo? Talking from overdose experience.)
Confit tandoori chickpeas p105 - Ottolenghi’s OTK Shelf (this takes literally 5 minutes to make - you put all ingredients in a casserole dish and bake in the oven for 90 mins. You don’t even have to cut up the garlic - you throw them in whole to roast in their skin).
Gong bao chicken with cashew nuts p182 - The Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop (I make this with cashews instead of the suggested peanuts as they taste better and are more nutritious). I went to west China a few years ago and crave the flavours. You can get a lot of the ingredients these days, such as the Sichuan peppers and potato starch in Asian supermarkets - including online ones. Beats any takeaway out there - and more healthy. I use extra virgin olive oil - even in Chinese cooking, for the polyphenols - and extra nutrients. Taste-wise you wouldn’t know.
Shakshuka p66 - Jerusalem by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. (I cook a lot of Ottolenghi because it ticks my gut health principle boxes. I often simplify long-windedness if I spot it. In this case I don’t add the extra yolks suggested).
Asparagus, new potatoes and grilled salmon by me. (I’m cooking this my own way, because asparagus is in season. I simply snap off the hard ends, blanche the asparagus for a minute or two in boiling water. I boil the potatoes till al dente and grill the salmon for about 10 mins (till the skin is crispy). I will probably serve with some melted butter and chopped dill scattered on top of the 3 ingredients, and a bit of sea salt and ground pepper. The simpler the better. (Won’t have with miso after all).
Lentil, tomato, coconut soup p52 - Ottolenghi Simple.
If you decide to have only one Ottolenghi cookbook in your life, buy this one.
I cook so much from it - eg
the coconut-crusted fish fingers
the blueberry, almond and lemon cake
the asparagus with almonds, capers, and dill
tender stem broccoli with soy sauce, garlic, and peanuts
roast cabbage with tarragon and pecorino
beetroot with yoghurt and preserved lemon (I buy ready-cooked ones)
shepherd’s pie with butterbean crust - bit wintry but great if you have a load of people to feed
roast chicken with preserved lemon
seeded chicken schnitzel
roasted trout with tomato and orange and barberries, I’ve done so many times (even Waitrose stocks barberries now)
Scrambled harissa tofu (which I’m making this week) and I serve with a handful of washed rocket instead of the long-winded avocado and cucumber salad.
I hope that has got your tastebuds going!
THIS MONTH’S MEET-UP - Zoom Kimchi demo
SAVE THE DATE Saturday 27 April 3pm British time
I will send the invite out to paid subscribers with the joining link nearer the time from a platform called Luma. Look out for Luma (or check spam).
If you’d like to be included in invitations to these events, and aren’t a paid subscriber yet, join up and come along.
By popular request I’ll be showing you how to make kimchi, which is known as an “entry level” (ie super easy) fermented food.
Unlike sauerkraut which I always think of as a winter food, kimchi is light and tangy for summer.
It takes minutes to make and just 3 days to ferment and start eating.
If you like it and get in the habit of making it, it will save you a fortune on probiotic pills/liquids etc or ready-made ones and deliver you lots of live bacteria as well as polyphenols, fibre, and a delicious tangy flavour too.
AND FINALLY
How about influencing what day of the week this weekly Substack hits your inbox?
So happy to hear that was useful … need to share more like this with food inspiration. X
Good morning 🌸 re-reading your article….. love love love it, thank you so much inspiration 🤩🌞🍽️