The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes

Product Information

Ogston, cofounder with her husband of Gem's Wholesome Kitchen, debuts with a guide that is intended to give a holistic approach to cooking. In particular, Ogston aims to help readers focus on self-through through food. The personable introduction includes a guide to pantry staples as well as a pantry cleanse that goes beyond food to philosophy. Recipes are uniquely organized into chapters, such as Restore, with meals including calming miso pasta and overnight oats, along with a section called Rebalance, featuring dishes like smoky stuffed eggplants and creamy sweet potato soup. Home cooks will enjoy the variety of meals, from breakfasts to mains to desserts. The photographs are colorful, bright, and beautifully displayed making even the humblest dish become mouthwatering. Interspersed throughout are sections on lifestyle intended to help readers embark on a self-care path. The index thoroughly covers the recipes, ingredients, and lifestyle sections. VERDICT This approachable book will appeal to self-care enthusiasts, vegan cooks, and many readers looking to start practicing a healthier lifestyle. —Dawn Lowe-Wincentsen, Oregon Inst. of Technology, Portland It’s no secret we love a frittata. It’s a vehicle for leftovers, a sneaky way to eat your greens, a lazy person’s quiche. So who knew you could make a frittata sans eggs? Gemma Ogston did, and she’s showing us how with this vegan quinoa breakfast frittata from The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes. This is where her passion for mood foods really began, but cooking has always been a big part of Gemma’s life. Growing up in a big family, as the youngest of five, everyone had chores to do around the house, so Gemma’s mum taught her to cook.

Invest in some new bedding. It doesn’t need to cost a fortune—you can get some on sale—but it really makes a difference. While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in another large saucepan set over a medium heat. Fry the onion and garlic for 2 minutes, until starting to soften. First make the mash. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add all the potatoes and a pinch of sea salt and cook for 20 minutes, until soft.Feeling the effects of an especially indulgent festive period? Us too. And with the new year – and indeed, the new decade – just beginning, there’s never been a better time to think about restoring the balance. The gut plays a vital role in our health,” Ogston writes, “by helping control digestion and assisting our immune system. There is also a lot of recent research showing that our gut health has a direct link to our emotions and mood. To help support the growth of healthy bacteria,” she continues, “we need to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fermented foods.” The best part? A batch will keep up to three months when frozen, so you can always have some close at hand. Spread it out evenly and top with the mash. Run a fork through the mash and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the edges of the mash are crispy.

I grew up the youngest of five kids, with not much money, and was cooking for my family from the age of eight. Later, I was always the one at parties cooking at midnight. I did a degree in addiction counselling and a good way of encouraging people to turn up was by offering free food. Again, I found myself in the kitchen because no one else wanted to cook and people were often more relaxed around food.Unusual to have a cookbook as a goodreads book. But this one had a lot of interesting information on wellbeing, including restore, rebalance, reflect and renew and I read it from cover to cover. The recipes look simple and tasty. The Self-Care Cookbook (Picture: Supplied) The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes by Gemma Ogston When we are stressed or have a million things going around our minds, it can be hard to drop off to sleep. Or maybe you can get to sleep without much of a problem but find yourself wide awake a couple of hours later staring at the ceiling. . . . Of course, if there’s something specific worrying you and keeping you awake, then the best solution is to try and resolve that issue once and for all. But in the meantime, or if that’s just not possible right now, try these simple steps for achieving a deeply restful night’s sleep so you wake up feeling rejuvenated. But the ultimate act of self-care is, of course, listening to your body and what it needs. “It’s alright to have a bit of chocolate cake if that’s what you want!” Gemma notes. “It’s about giving yourself permission to do that, rather than getting sad about it, and beating yourself up.” Whether you’re an annual adopter or this is your first attempt, it can be daunting to ditch the meat in favour of a more planet-friendly diet.

This is exactly why she wanted the recipes in her book to be both physically and mentally nourishing. She avoids using phrases like ‘guilt-free’ and tells me it’s more about taking care over the food you’re eating, and making it a pleasurable experience. Chef Gemma Ogston once worked as an addiction counsellor, but now runs the plant-based business Gem’s Wholesome Kitchen from Brighton. Her second book will be published by Penguin in September This first chapter is all about retreating into yourself for a little while, slowing the pace down so that you can gather your energies together again. I’ve included sections on how to get more rest into your days, with ideas and recipes to calm the nerves and reduce anxiety, and to aid properly peaceful sleep. I’ve also shared an easy restorative mindfulness exercise, which you can even practice while you are preparing a delicious meal for yourself! The chapter closes with one of my favorite sections in the book—Cozy. Whether it’s a sleep-in on the weekend or snuggling down into the sofa after a long day, I believe getting cozy is essential to our well-being. It should be a MUST in your self-care routine.While this is a beautiful little (literally) book, it offers nothing new on the self-care front. The recipes look interesting, but not enough to entice me to finish the book. Don’t worry if you’re not getting as many hours each night as you think you should, but do take a look at ways you can introduce more moments of rest into your daily life and at improving the quality of the sleep that you do get. Maybe set aside one night a week to go to bed early or let yourself nap in the afternoon on the weekend if you’re tired. Even just slowing things down a notch or two as you go about your day, allowing yourself to pause for a quiet moment or making the time to do absolutely nothing for a few hours every so often so you can relax and unwind will help you feel all the more rested. Stir the tamari, thyme and parsley through the pulses mixture and spoon it into a large pie dish (remove the bay leaves if you can find them!). Eating well is a vital part of good health, and yet so many of us are not fuelling our bodies in the right way. Presented in 4 parts: Recovery, Replenish; Staying Well and Supercharge, with a wellness toolkit, this beautiful book outlines how to harness the power of plant-based eating to recover from illness, and create a strong foundation of long-term health. Not until my husband and I were struggling to have kids. After having five late miscarriages over the period of five years, I examined my diet. I wasn’t brought up on a vegetarian diet, but I soon discovered how a plant-based wholefood diet can reduce inflammation and improve mental health. I started feeling more positive when going through a really difficult time.