Madeleine Shaw - Ready, Steady, Glow: Fast, Fresh Food Designed for Real Life

contents This book was written to make healthy eating a breeze, to do away with the myth that nourishing your body takes time and work. With Ready, Steady, Glow you can live healthily, on the go. Youll find cooking my recipes quicker than ordering a pizza! I understand that life is a balancing act. Like a lot of you, I work long hours during the week and get home late in the evening. I dont want to slave away at the hob for hours. All I want is a quick, easy and tasty meal before I slip into my pyjamas and head to bed! But when the weekend comes, I cherish those two precious days.

Its my opportunity to focus on me, to relax, to catch up with loved ones and to indulge in food that I dont have time to make during the week. Thats why I have written Ready, Steady, Glow; its a book of two halves Fast Weeks and Slow Weekends a book that reflects how we eat now. I received such wonderful feedback from my first book, Get the Glow, and it makes my heart sing that you all enjoy cooking my food. Many of you reported that being time-poor during the week got in the way of eating healthily, so Im here to help. In Part One: Fast, all the recipes can be made in less than 30 minutes, so there is no excuse for ordering a takeaway or picking up a ready-meal on the way home! To make your life even easier, in this section youll notice that all the recipes feature a clock in the margin that denotes exactly how long it takes to make each one, so you really can eat healthily in a matter of minutes. In Part Two: Slow, youll find recipes that are still easy to make but require a little more time to cook.

You can indulge yourself with a slow roast or lazy brunch, and de-stress while you bake a delicious cake. This is also your opportunity to prep for the week ahead, giving you the best chance of keeping on the right track on busy days. Youll also find tips on how to eat healthily while out and about, how to motivate yourself to stay on this path and how to banish overeating. Ive also included my 15-minute full-body yoga routine to set you up for the day ahead. As ever, all my recipes are sugar-and wheat-free, this being the way I transformed my own body and health. I was 18 and living in Australia when I developed painful IBS.

I sought the help of specialists and doctors, but it was while working in a health-food caf on Bondi Beach that I discovered the transformational power of eating wholesome, proper foods. My IBS disappeared, my energy levels skyrocketed and my skin started to glow. It was then that I decided to dedicate my life to health and nutrition, and to spreading the wellness word. I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, began writing a blog and started to work with others on overhauling their health and bodies. Im often asked if my programme results in weight loss. The answer is Yes, you will see results.

But Im not interested in being a weight-loss guru, and neither do I advocate counting calories. I want you to love food, and to love your body. I want to make healthy living simple and easy so you can make it a way of life. So Ready... Steady... Glow! Lets go...

Madeleine Ready, Steady, Glow is a cookbook designed for real life. It reflects how we eat now; it caters for our busy schedules as well those precious moments when we have the luxury of enough time to spend making something really indulgent. And, above all, every recipe is simple, easy to put together and full of wholesome ingredients that will nourish your beautiful body. The recipes that follow are divided into two sections: fast and slow. The fast recipes can be made in less than 30 minutes, meaning theyre perfect for the busy weekdays when all you want is a wholesome dinner on the table, pronto, so you can curl up on the sofa to watch your favourite box set. Of course, life shouldnt just be about speed; we need to take care of ourselves and make time to relax, destress and unwind in among the rushing around.

Thats what the weekends are for, and theres no better way to slow down than by hitting your local shops or farmers market, choosing which ingredients to buy, and savouring food that takes a little longer to prepare. These are the recipes contained in the slow section of this book. This is food that can be enjoyed on your own or with friends and family. But this doesnt mean these recipes are complicated they are still easy to prepare and contain ingredients you can find in your local supermarket. I know that the pressures and stresses of everyday life can get in the way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I dont believe in quick-fix diets theyre always doomed to fail but a bit of preparation and some simple shortcuts can go a long way to keeping you on the right track.

Heres my advice on how to plan your week ahead. saturday Saturday mornings are my me time; having spent so much of my week rushing around for work and catching up with other people, I make sure that nothing and no one intrudes on these precious few hours at the weekend. First up, I run through my 15-minute yoga routine (see , along with the fresh produce youll need to prep your meals for the week ahead (but remember to multiply the quantities if you are planning to batch-cook any dishes!). List in hand, I hop on my bike and head for my local farmers market. Its great to meet the producers, sample food that is grown locally and buy fresh ingredients that I can rely on. I know that shopping this way can be more expensive than going to the supermarket, but if you plan well youll find you have less waste and therefore more money to spare.

How many times have you been lured in by a multi-buy off er, only to have that courgette languish until its limp at the bottom of the fridge but you didnt get round to using it? Most Saturday afternoons I do absolutely nothing. And I mean nothing. Its total bliss. Ask yourself, when was the last time you took time to rest? To curl up on the sofa, read, or lie in bed? If the answer is yesterday, good on ya, but most of us fill every waking hour with an activity, lunch date, housework... Busy has become the social norm. So I want you to take back your weekend and give yourself at least an hour of rest.

This doesnt mean a walk or anything active; it means an hour to chill. I love to grab a notebook and scribble down my thoughts or draw. It doesnt matter what you do, it just needs to feel calming. Often we feel uneasy about being still; we grab our phones, or check our emails or social media. Learning to be mindful is the best way to banish stress so make time to do this just as you would an important meeting. On a Saturday night I tend to either head to a dinner at a friends house or host one myself.

Getting asked over for a dinner party is wonderful I get to eat delicious food without having to do the washing up! But when I began this wellness journey, being invited out to eat did make me worry about undoing all the good work Id put in. Im pretty lucky now that most people try to cook healthily when I come over, but early on I just had to be honest and explain what I was trying to achieve with my food choices. My advice is to give your friends a little warning beforehand, or perhaps offer to take a dish with you. Remember, if you dont ask, you dont get: if theyre true friends theyll support what youre doing. I know that it isnt always possible to influence what someone else cooks for you, and its probably not the best approach when you meet the in-laws for the first time! In this situation youve just got to relax: one naughty meal wont hurt. Instead of feeling guilty, why not take inspiration from what youve been served and try to recreate a clean version of it at home later? If youre hosting, youre sorted.