Cooking from scratch

I am constantly telling clients that the only true way of knowing what is going into your body is to make everything from scratch, preferably using the best ingredients you can find.
Not only will you know what is going into your body, you can also be in total control of how balanced your diet is - tweaking things in recipes to increase your protein intake or reduce carbs for example, depending on what you are trying to achieve.
You may think it's easy for me to preach this, as it's my job and I do it all the time, but really it's just common sense, not only for your health but also for your budget - buying prepared food costs more too!
And even though it's my job, it doesn't always go according to plan!  This gorgeous looking vegan chocolate ice-cream tasted very odd (I was trying to be clever by using delicious coconut oil in ice-cream), so instead I melted it down and used it as a rich chocolate sauce.  So playing with food and experimenting is a great way of learning.
And cooking from scratch doesn't just apply to healthy main meals - these amazing coconut bars (Bounty lookalikes!) are very easy to make and taste one hundred times better that the shop bought ones - plus they are much lower in sugar and salt and higher in protein and fibre - a great reason to eat a few more!

Coconut Bars

Makes 18

175 g coconut oil

200g block creamed coconut, roughly chopped

2 tbsp honey

1 lime (or lemon)

175g desiccated coconut

200 g dark chocolate (85% cocoa), roughly chopped

·          - Base line a 20cm square tin.

·          - Place the coconut oil, creamed coconut and honey in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until fully melted.

·          - Finely grate the rind of the lime and stir this into the bowl along with a tbsp of lime-juice and the desiccated coconut.  Mix together well.

·          - Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.

·          - Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

·          - Remove the tin from the fridge and turn out the coconut block.  Cut into 18 bars, place these on a sheet of baking paper on a cooling rack and place in the freezer while you melt the chocolate.

·          -Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, until completely melted.

      - Using two forks, toss the bars in the melted chocolate and then leave on the greaseproof paper to set.

-    - Place in an air-tight container to store.