Siobhan Wightman - Slimming Eats: Healthy, delicious recipes – 100+ under 500 calories

Food that makes you feel good www.yellowkitebooks.co.uk First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Yellow Kite An imprint of Hodder & Stoughton An Hachette UK company Copyright Siobhan Wightman 2021 Photography copyright Haarala Hamilton 2021 The right of Siobhan Wightman to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN 978 1 529 377415 eBook ISBN 978 1 529 377422 Associate Publisher: Lauren Whelan Project Editor: Isabel Gonzalez-Prendergast Designer: Nathan Burton Photography: Liz & Max Haarala Hamilton Food Stylists: Rosie Reynolds & Aya Nishimura Props Stylist: Jen Kay Senior Production Controller: Diana Talyanina Colour origination by Alta Image London Printed and bound in Germany by Mohn Media Hodder & Stoughton policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Yellow Kite Hodder & Stoughton Ltd Carmelite House 50 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DZ www.yellowkitebooks.co.uk www.hodder.co.uk Notes The information and references contained herein are for informational purposes only.

They are designed to support, not replace, any ongoing medical advice given by a healthcare professional and should not be construed as the giving of medical advice nor relied upon as a basis for any decision or action. Readers should consult their doctor before altering their diet, particularly if they are on a set diet prescribed by their doctor or dietician. The calorie count for each recipe is an estimate only and may vary depending on the brand of ingredients used, and due to the natural biological variations in the composition of foods such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. It does not include the nutritional content of garnishes or any optional accompaniments recommended for taste/serving in the ingredients list Hello and welcome to my debut cookbook! Im Siobhan, the founder of Slimming Eats, a blog I created back in 2009 as a place to record my own weight-loss journey and share what I was cooking in the process. I never for one minute imagined what it would become. For me, it was just a visual diary of my journey, an outlet to keep me accountable and document my recipes as I went along but gradually people started to comment on my posts, and then leave messages saying they had made one of my recipes and loved it, or they would share how much weight they had lost using them.

Over the years the blog has empowered so many people to take control of their weight loss and healthy living lifestyle, and it has become an inspiring community. The support has been amazing, and in turn, the Slimming Eats community has helped me stay motivated through the ups and downs of life. Fast-forward to where were at now: over 8 million people visited the Slimming Eats website in 2020 and as of summer 2021, I have 1.5 million followers across my socials, which still completely astounds me! It has definitely become a full-time job I dont have a team of people working behind the scenes and it is very busy, but it brings me a huge amount of happiness each day. I develop, test, cook, edit and photograph every single one of the recipes on my website and the technical stuff is managed by my amazing husband, Gavin without him and his knowledge I think it would have become too much a long time ago. As well as creating all the content I run my Facebook group, where I give my readers tips, encouragement and advice. I love the friendly, supportive environment it has become, and the fact that members have been able to get to know me, not just some faceless person behind the scenes; they understand all the thought and process that goes into all my creations and I cant thank them enough for the fantastic support they give me in return.

Its so rewarding to watch the progress my readers make from following my recipes, and to see the pictures they share of the dishes they cook from Slimming Eats. I had originally wanted to keep my website as the only source of my recipes and accessible to everyone. Truthfully, I am a bit of an introvert, and Im quite shy too, so putting myself out there on social media can sometimes have its downsides. It is one of the main reasons I have declined doing a cookbook for so long, and let me tell you Ive turned down many offers. Then along came the lovely Lauren at Yellow Kite and she didnt give up on me, constantly checking in, but not harassing me and hoping Id change my mind. After years of my readers begging me to write a book every day, and with almost 1,000 recipes available on my website, I began to feel that now is the right time, so I said, OK, lets do it! My family and friends are huge supporters of what I do and my childrens biggest dream, or so they keep telling me, is to see Mummys cookbook on the shelf at the bookshop, so I couldnt let them down.

So by request, here it is. I have crafted 100 new recipes, and Ive also included a selection of my most loved favourites from the website, so there is something for everyone, old fans and new. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have enjoyed creating it. It has been a labour of love, but a lot of fun much of the food in these pages is inspired by dishes I have enjoyed locally, and by the fail-safe meals I have cooked for my family, as well as taking inspiration from my readers by looking at what they cook most from the blog. A Love for Cooking Real Food I dont call myself an experienced chef by any means, Im just a home cook who loves experimenting with ingredients and flavours. Im not trained professionally, so I still find it rather surreal that so many people tell me how much they love my recipes.

I take inspiration from the countries Ive visited and lived in. I was born in London, but Ive lived in Ireland, Kent, the Midlands and now Canada, and being close to the US gives me great travel opportunities. I also became accustomed to different cuisines from a very young age because of my dads occupation, which was working with ventilation in restaurants and takeaways, along with designing and building wok cookers used in Chinese cuisine. He used to drag me to jobs with him and I could see dishes being made in the kitchens. You will find these influences in the recipes on my website and in this book, with Chinese-, Indian-, Mexican- and Thai-inspired recipes, to name just a few. My passion for cooking comes from seeing my mother cook from scratch and learning basic skills from her.