I have a confession to make: I've just had a week’s worth of atrocious diet. I had takeaway doner kebab – twice. With cheesy chips. Ice cream twice a day. Burgers with bacon and fries. Takeaway pizza. Loaded nachos. All with a pint or two of beer.
I realise it isn’t really the pits of unhealthy diet but considering I normally avoid eating rubbish, this was rather excessive. What explains it and excuses me to a certain extent is the fact that it was a mad activity week with mountain hikes and hill walks every day. I would never recommend a junk diet, but I didn’t put on a pound during this week thanks to being so active. Just shows – if you must have a junk food binge, you’ve got to burn a lot of calories in return.
How to recover? There is no real need for any special detox: like after alcohol overindulgence, our liver will do the job of getting rid of toxins perfectly well. All the special supplements and ‘detoxing’ potions are money spinners of wellness industry. What we need to do to help the organ is eat less, eat lighter, eat more balanced meals.
So I’m going to make up for my lapse by eating plants with some healthy protein on the side. And could I have picked a better season for that? I could not possibly: plenty of absolutely gorgeous produce around.
I picked up some ears of the ripest sweetcorn from my local fruit and veg market last Friday. Can’t wait to cream it and have with home grown tomatoes, which recent sunny weather has been a blessing to. Next in line will be chicken with corn and feta, one of my favourite combos.
The figs in season now are Turkish Bursas, the biggest and sweetest variety. Those will go with tomatoes too in the tomato and fig salad and I’ll bake them with blue cheese if there are any left.
Dover soles are fat and slightly less expensive in autumn so I – and you – can treat ourselves to a grilled Dover sole with capers at the weekend. Healthy. Delicious. And served with new season beetroot salad.
I’m planning on cooking some plant or meat stuffed vegetables too: tomatoes with herby-cheesy filling, courgettes with minced lamb and peppers with meat left over from my braised pork roast (did you know that lean pork can be as healthy as chicken?).
Does all that mean there’s no sweet this week? There definitely is: after all I didn’t gorge on cakes last week (only ice cream, hehe). Joking aside, sweets in moderation, especially homemade, won't do any harm. I suggest almond cake with raspberries (the late crop is now in season) or orange and cacao sour cream cake if it sounds more tempting. Though oranges are not in season. But at least they are shipped not air freighted. Your decision, your carbon footprint anyway!
So that’s me on the wagon, hope you cook and eat healthy and deliciously too!