Sophie Tyrrell - Naturally Delicious Snacks & Treats: Over 100 healthy recipes

Welcome to our Squirrel Sisters world, a world of delicious goodness that will satisfy your taste buds as well as your feed your health.

We are beyond excited to bring you our first ever cookbook; filled with our favourite recipes and a few from our family and friends. Its been a dream of ours to publish a recipe book so we are thrilled that its now a reality and can share it with you in these pages.

We are Gracie and Sophie Tyrrell; sisters, besties and creators of Squirrel Sisters, a health and wellness company with a range of 100 per cent natural snack bars.

Our Squirrel Sisters story started in 2013 when we were both living on opposite sides of the world (Sophie in Singapore, Gracie in London). We are incredibly close; with similar interests and a minimal age gap (2 years and 1 week to be exact!) we were inevitably going to be inseparable. We pretty much do everything together and living on opposite sides of the world was a daunting thought, so we decided to start a blog because it was something fun to do together and it was a place to share all of our stories and discoveries. Weve always had a passion for food, health and wellness; weve grown up with health conscious parents (our mum is a yoga teacher) who have always enjoyed good, healthy food. Food has always fascinated us the effect it can have on our bodies, mind and mood is amazing!

Weve always felt that there was a barrier that people often fought (and sometimes failed) to overcome when trying to live healthy lives and make healthy choices. Health too often raises images of great effort and depriving yourself of the things you enjoy, and we want to change that.

We believe that eating healthily is all about balance; we are very normal girls, who love meeting up with friends for a glass of wine (or two) and overindulging in delicious eats at family get-togethers. All of our recipes and products are made with this in mind; we dont believe in restricting what you eat, we believe in fuelling your body with the right foods, that, when combined, together taste amazing!

We want to prove that being healthy doesnt have to be boring, that it can in fact be indulgent and delicious. Thats why Squirrel Sisters was born out of a love of food that made us feel great and most importantly tasted amazing! We decided to name it Squirrel Sisters because it was a nickname that has stuck with us since childhood (squirrel rhymes with our surname, Tyrrell).

As our blog grew we saw an opportunity to turn it into a business (something we had never originally set out to do). We launched our snack bars in November 2015 from the recipe Gracie created for Sophie when living together. Sophie has a gluten-intolerance, so the first bar was designed to give her an indulgent treat.

Our products are made using the highest quality whole ingredients; they are 100 per cent natural, raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, have no added sugar and are suitable for people following a vegan and paleo lifestyle. It took a year to get everything sorted before we could launch our products; we had to find a factory that could replicate what we were making at home on a larger scale and then sort out the business side of everything. Its been a big job but we love it and wouldnt have it any other way. The best part about it is that we get to do it together!

Our love of cooking came from our mum who always made delicious meals when we were growing up (and still does we always have the best meals when we go home for the weekend!) and some of her recipes have found their way into this book, too.

Our taste in food (other than for our bars) is actually quite different. We both like different things, which works well because it means we have always been very experimental with ingredients because one of us will always be able to taste test the others recipes. And so the recipes in this book are a combination of things one or both of us love, some gluten-free, some dairy-free, and so on, but all delicious and designed to help you treat yourself.

Our slogan is Treat Your Health, because we believe that you can have a treat (sweet or savoury) that can be good for you at the same time. Good-quality, well-made, healthy food does not need to be boring or tasteless it can be delicious and indulgent, too!

In this book, we share 70 delicious recipes using ingredients that you can find in your local supermarket. All of our recipes are snack, share or on-the-go sized because we want to make eating good food convenient and simple. They all use great ingredients, with health-properties and deliciousness to boot. The occasional recipe has something a little naughtier because, lets be honest, a little bit of what you fancy does you good, too! Its all about balance.

Our recipes can be enjoyed at any time of day. A little piece of advice that we live by is to make things in advance, so you always have lots of goodies in the fridge or cupboard, ready to eat when the hunger pangs set in.

Breakfast is so important! It gives you the energy you need to tackle the day ahead. And yet, so many people seem to skip breakfast and the main reason for this is lack of time. So, in the Breakfast Time chapter weve included all of our favourite breakfast recipes that can be made in advance (often the night before), so you can grab and go in the morning no more excuses for skipping your first meal of the day!

The On-the-Move chapter is for the busy bees out there. We have a selection of delicious recipes that are perfect for taking on-the-go so you never have to go hungry while out and about.

The best times are spent with others, laughing and making memories. There is no better occasion than sitting round a table with friends and family enjoying delicious food (and wine!). Its one of our favourite things to do, so of course we had to have a chapter on our favourite recipes to enjoy with others in Share the Love.

And last but not least, the Sweet Tooth chapter is for those that have a sweet tooth and like us LOVE treats. We cant express enough how much we believe in balance (weve mentioned it a few times already), so we have filled this chapter with some of our favourite sweet recipes, most of which have a nutritional twist. There are even a few cocktails to try!

Our top tip: preparation is key! Have the right ingredients in your fridge or pantry and prepare things in advance. We love spending our Sundays batch-cooking so we have lots of food prepared for the week ahead.

A NOTE ON INGREDIENTS

We want to make eating well as simple and convenient for you as possible, so, dont worry, we havent included fairy dust and magical unicorns just wholesome ingredients that you can find in your local store or supermarket.