Martine Fallon - My Energy Cookbook

DELICIOUS LIFE ENHANCING OFFERINGS WITH ALL MY LOVE

To my daughters, for what they are and what theyll become.

Thank you Hippocrates, the first physician,
for your moral support and for having written,
such a long time ago:
May your food be your medicine.

A little test, just for fun and to check
whether you already are-or still are - smart:
born in 460 BC and passed away in 356 BC.
How old was he when he died?

104! Age has nothing to do with good health. Our ancestors knew how to age gracefully.

An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill

I fell into energy cooking pots 21 years ago already, in what may seem like quite ordinary circumstances. Six months after giving birth to my first daughter, I felt I had lost all my energy. Of course, I had stupidly decided to work right up to the day before I was due (I was running my own clothing business) and wanted to get back to my professional life and my previous life as soon as possible, i.e. eight days after returning triumphantly from the maternity ward. I was in for a surprise

In those (not so wonderful) days, I led a life not unlike that of many other women: I ran all over the place, quite convinced that I absolutely had to lead a double hyperactive life. I felt compelled, although I paid dearly for it, to lead a geisha-like private life (and I have changed my ways since then, but have always loved men and they have never stopped loving me too, so I must have been just scaring myself), a people style social life and an executive womans professional life.

My wellbeing criteria were much more wardrobe than refrigerator centered. The style of my hair mattered more than that of my leeks. My soft top Maseratis profile was more important than that of my convertible spleen.

Totally wasted, I turned to an energy diet, and discovered the austere magic of whole grain rice and steamed fish, the earthy taste of beetroot juice, the sad pleasures of turnips and sliced kohlrabi while drowning my sorrows in baths of anti-acid herbal teas to avoid lusting after prohibited foods.

I then entered a period of doubt, having discovered a new and unhoped for energy. My moods swung between several contradictory states of mind, all the while trying to combine my previous lifestyle, work, home, husband, baby, with my new doubts and hunting down organic zucchini and chicken.

I hadnt understood much. Rather than reconsidering my lifestyle, I decided to use this new-found firepower to bolster my appearance, my need to convince, to seduce and to manage.

And then I had an accident.

Two taxis racing each other on the back roads of Turkey. A second pregnancy barely started.

My face like a squashed marshmallow. All dials back to zero. No more stories I could lull myself with, no more rushing between planes, cocktails and secretaries, help, this was war!

First and for all, start living again with my three year old daughter who had been trapped with me in the car wreck, and then my new unborn child. Seven months as a female greenhouse, a straw stuck between my locked jaws, two blue eyes lost in a disfigured face. Hi Frankenstein!

Resilient at heart -thanks Dad!- I fought back to rebuild myself, me and my face, to reconnect with my daughters, to understand what was happening to me, to put a semblance of order back in my life and to find a second breath.

I then embarked on a voyage of initiation that led me to discover the complexities of energy dieting, and of essential, energy boosting, food. I love eating, and for my own pleasure as well as my familys, Im always looking for byways to follow. I created a new crossbred cooking, delicious and light, antioxidant rich, privileging fruit and vegetables, sauces, fish and quality meat whilst searching amongst divine spices for subtle inspiration to give those natural products that are so good for us a bit of glamour.

Boosted by mad cows and dioxin I embarked on my first cooking lessons with girlfriends around my table, school projects, practical courses where taste buds can chill out. I graduated to my first detox cruises on yachts in Turkey, a good way to convince men that theyre not as fit as they think they are and that their neurons and gonads can fare much better (got to motivate them with their main preoccupations!) if their plates become toxin free. Other diets followed. Other classes too. And here I am in a first book where Ill lay out the essentials needed to get to that energy high which I have been on for a long time and that I would really like to share with you.

Anti-aging and anti-stress, anti-weight and anti-blues, energy pleasure cooking is also a responsible and fair concept, conscious of issues and abuses that our fast-fooding habits can get us into in terms of health, social costs, and a disrupted environment and world. Beyond its immediate effects on our shape, our vitality, our well-being, and the quality of what we could become, what we eat can lead us to privilege one social project rather than another.

I hope I can help you (re)find the necessary frame of mind to create a beautiful and strong life, recover or keep your beauty, your intelligence, your love, your humor and your audacity in the cusp of a reconciled plate. Share the precious in you with those you love. And you can even indulge, now and then, in more or less forbidden food.

But not too fast! In the beginning you risk slipping up, fumbling about, getting frustrated with new machines and unheard of preparations. Dont give up. By going through things again and again and with this first book of so easy recipes - Ive done all the heavy lifting for you - youll soon become a starred, healthy, and (anew or at last) an irresistible chef.

Brussels, January 2016

Why walk if one can dance?

A. van Stappen, d. Jouvence.

ENERGY The word has never been more used.

But never before has it been so lacking: averred or latent depressions, symptomatic or chronic tiredness, allergies and intolerances to different foods, uncomfortable digestion, bloated metabolisms, too much weight and, worst of all, a pervasive lack of oomph and enthusiasm that makes us want to take a nap at the slightest hurdle.

Where on earth has our ancestors strength gone, that allowed them to do so much? They were able, often in difficult circumstances, to go to the end of their personal legend and to react with stamina and creativity, both of which seem to be lacking in our present day lives.

We agree: there is a world of difference between state of non-sickness where we just dont feel in top condition, limp and spiritless, carried away by the slightest vexation and the state of grace where we fear nothing and feel ready, every day and whatever the circumstances, to move mountains. Lets admit that happiness is effectively there, in the development and keeping up of a fundamental energy. But where to find it?