Fighting fit again - I hope!

Wow, you have no idea how good it feels to be able to eat again - and now I am finding it hard to stop!  Weeks without even seeing the foods I loved, then another two weeks of being able to look at them but not eat them was torture.  So now I am making up for lost time.  And on top of that tomorrow I fly out to Poznan, Poland to race in the FISA World Masters Rowing Championships - so I have been needing to build myself up for the last few days (or is that an excuse I just gave myself?!) - no food is safe!

Interestingly, although I work with food all day, people  constantly suggest that I must hate having to cook for myself when I get home each night?  It intrigues me that they may think I would pick up a ready-meal, or maybe , horror of horrors, a take-away.  Why would I do that when I love great food, care what I put into my body and most of all, find cooking the best way to relax at the end of the day?  Creating something from simple ingredients that looks and tastes amazing and then having the pleasure of eating it, cannot be beaten in my book.

And nothing could be simpler than placing halves of peaches in an ovenproof dish, sprinkling them with crumbled Amaretti biscuits, honey and dots of butter, then cooking for 15-18 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt of creme fraiche - absolutely yummy.

I always recommend a diet that is 80% good and 20% naughty, so here is the good bit -

Butter Bean and Broccoli Salad


Serves 2


250g sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped + 1 tbsp of the oil
pinch chilli flakes
seasoning
100g broccoli, cut into florets and steamed 
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
1 x 400g butter beans, drained
1 roasted red pepper, cut into strips
sprig thyme, leaves only, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp olive oil


1.  Place the sweet potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, oil and chilli flakes into a roasting tin and cook for 15 minutes at 200C, until the sweet potato is soft.
2.  Place the remaining ingredients into a large bowl, pour in the sweet potatoes and all the lovely juices,  mix well and serve.