Whether you are vegetarian, vegan or just love a great vegetable-based dish to break up the meat-and-3-veg approach of usual...I totally recommend Amy Chaplin's
At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen (Jacqui Small Books). The photography is amazing - you will want to make everything. Well, ok, you'll want someone to make it as long as you can eat it.
From sweet corn frittata (mouth-wateringly good) to salads that will not leave you feeling deprived or undernourished in the slightest. Plus, there's a guide to what to stock your pantry with to be prepared for adventuring into wholefood recipes full of flavour and nutrients. This isn't a fad diet. While some of the recipes are going to tick the paleo or gluten free boxes, they are not designed to appease any particular dietary needs.
The beauty of embracing wholefoods is to choose good quality, seasonal produce (whatever fruit/veg/legumes/fish/poultry and meat) are available fresh and local rather than pre-packaged, pre-prepared foods. The less that happens to your food between coming from the ground, the plant or the creature and to your plate makes it more "Whole".
If this means you can't eat avocadoes and bananas every one of the 365 days of the year because they're just not growing 365 days of the year close to you, you'll adapt and find new foods to embrace and prepare! Take the challenge.
Here's one of my favourites. Looks fabulous. Tastes incredible.
BEETROOT CHICKPEA CAKES WITH TZATZIKI
MAKES 12 CAKES
SERVES 4
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,
plus more for brushing cakes and tray
520 g (1 lb 3 oz/3. cups) cooked chickpeas (see
page 68),
or 2 425-g (15-oz) cans chickpeas, drained and
rinsed well
2 red onions, finely diced
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
2 red beetroot (340 g/12 oz), grated on largest
hole of a box grater
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
30 g (1 oz/. cup) chopped dill
Freshly ground black pepper
Tzatziki to serve (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas Mark 5. Line a baking
tray with
baking parchment, lightly brush with olive oil and
set aside.
Place chickpeas in a bowl and crush with a potato
masher; set
aside. (Don’t mash the
chickpeas completely. The mixture should be
somewhat chunky.)
Warm olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat.
Add onions
and saute for 5 minutes or until browning. Add garlic
and salt and
cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in grated beetroot
and continue
cooking for another 6 to 8 minutes or until beetroot
are cooked. Add
balsamic vinegar and remove from heat. Add to mashed
chickpeas along
with chopped dill and mix well to combine. Season to
taste with salt
and pepper.
Divide mixture into 12 and shape into 12 cakes. Place
on prepared
tray and brush top and sides of each cake with olive
oil. Bake for
15 minutes, rotate tray and continue baking for
another 15 minutes or
until brown on the bottom. Remove from oven; allow to
cool for
5 minutes before serving.
To serve, slide a thin spatula under each cake and
flip onto plate so
bottom side is up. Top with tzatziki or
serve it on the side.
TZATZIKI
Tzatziki is a fantastic Greek
yogurt dip or side dish
made with cucumbers, dill,
garlic and olive oil. The first
time I ate it was on a trip
to Greece with my best
friend, Guinevere, many years
ago. The tzatziki we
had was served with cooked
beetroot and beetroot greens,
and the simple and extremely
tasty combination has
stuck with me ever since. Don’t save it just for these cakes;
tzatziki is delicious served
with roasted vegetables,
simple grains and crunchy
summer salads.
MAKES 480 ML (16 FL OZ/2 CUPS)
1 large (225-g/8-oz) Middle Eastern cucumber (or
a regular cucumber, peeled and deseeded)
360 ml (12 fl oz/1. cups) whole-milk Greek
yogurt or Labneh (page 215)
10 g (. oz/. cup) chopped dill
2 garlic cloves, crushed
. teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,
plus more for drizzling
Freshly ground black pepper
Grate cucumber on the largest hole of a box
grater, place in a sieve and squeeze out juice with
your hands. Drink or discard juice and add
cucumber to a medium bowl along with yogurt,
dill, garlic, salt, olive oil and a pinch of black
pepper. Stir to combine, season to taste and serve
drizzled with olive oil. Store any leftovers in an
airtight
container in the fridge for up to three days.
Recipe and image from At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen (Jacqui Small Books) $39.99 available now in all good bookstores and online.
The beauty of makeup is you can transform - take on a role that is more confident, more daring, more adventurous than you feel. 
super small rings that merely glinted under lights were super chic. If you're not ready for the real thing, I recommend a faux septum piercing. I got mine
Depending on whether you're gothic pale or Naomi Campbell, your nude colours will fall within a spectrum of flattering shades. Go for peachy (NYX Lipstick in Snow Cap) through rose beige (Pops Explosif) and make a subtle statement with the NYX Love In Rio eyeshadow kit of three shimmery beige/brown options. Skip the eyeliner and emphasise the lashline with Over The Taupe eyeshadow. Blush is mandatory - hit the apple of your cheeks and trace up to the outer corners of your eyes. With a subtle brushstroke - we're not going for a warpaint look.
