Anyone who knows me will know that I am a huge fan of 100 Days of Real Food, a beautiful blog by Lisa Leake about cutting out refined and highly processed foods from your diet. I have been following Lisa’s blog for years now and it has been a huge inspiration to me in my own personal life as well as here on the blog.
100 Days of Real Food started after Lisa felt impressed to cut out all highly processed and refined foods from her families diet. Together her family made a pledged to only eat ‘real food’ (what I call clean food) for 100 days. The blog has gained HUGE popularity and now lucky for us, we get to hold her journey in our hands in this brilliant book.
As a 100 days of real food fan I was excited to read this book and as one of Lisa’s Cookbook Ambassadors I was eager to see how the book would relate to life here in the UK. I have to say, it did not disappoint me at all. The information and advice shared in this book confirmed to me everything I believe about the food I choose to eat. (I even learned something new about the best supermarket milk to buy – Non Homogenized, which you can get from Waitrose/Ocado – Duchy Organic Full Cream Milk. My boys are loving it!).
During the first half of the book, Lisa holds your hand and walks you through the basics:
- What is Real Food?
- Shopping for Real Food
- Making Changes
- Getting you family on board
- Food Budget Tips and Meal Plans
And then it goes straight into the recipe section of the book which is categorised into:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Snacks and Appetizers
- Salads and Sides
- Simple Dinners
- Special Treats
- Homemade Staples
Photos used with permission. Photo Credit: Carrie Vitt
The information in this book applies to anyone, whether you live in America, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales. We can all learn from the experiences and information that Lisa shares. For those of you who do not live in America, there are a handful of pages where Lisa explains food labels specific to popular food items that are purchased in America. It doesn’t matter that we cannot buy those specific foods here in the UK because you can apply the principles she teaches to decipher any food labels from the examples she so clearly gives.
I am happy to report that all 100 of the recipes can be made with ingredients that we can purchase here in the UK too, with either the exact ingredients or some equivalent substitutions like using mixed spice instead of pumpkin spice or sourcing out clean sausages/bacon like some of the ones from Laverstoke Park Farm. We do use different names for a few ingredients too, for example baking soda is our bicarbonate of soda, cilantro is coriander, eggplant is an aubergine etc. If you come across an ingredient that you are unsure of, just Google it or come and ask me. The recipes are also measured in cups so if you don’t already have cup measurements at home, it would be worth popping to your local supermarket or searching amazon to get some like these ones here if you are planning on buying this book (which I highly recommend) because it will make cooking these recipes so much easier.
Lisa allowed me to share one of the recipes from her cookbook with you and I was so excited about this one. What a beauty! This is her Cinnamon-Raisin Quick Bread and it is quite possibly one of the tastiest things I have eaten in a long time. I did convert the recipe into grams for you but have misplaced the paper I wrote it on…. (That about sums up the week I have had!) but I will update it when I find it so that you can make it whether you have cup measurements or not.
This is just one the amazing recipes you will find in this book. It is so easy to make and is such a tasty treat. I really do love this book, I would recommend it to anyone. My copy lives on my bedside table and I love flicking through it before bed. The pictures are beautiful and I feel happier when I read it.
You can grab yourself a copy of 100 Days of Real Food from Amazon here: 100 Days of Real Food but for your chance to WIN a FREE copy of it then simply answer the following question by commenting below.
THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO LUCY KELLY, CHELSY HILL & CHRISANDCHARLOTTE KLAPF. YOU HAVE EACH WON A COPY OF 100 DAYS OF REAL FOOD.
- What are (or have been) the biggest challenges or obstacles that hold you back from cutting out refined and highly processed foods? Basically, what stops you from Eating Clean?
This giveaway will close at Midnight on Sunday 1 March 2015 and a winner will be announced on Monday 2nd March 2015 right here on the blog and on Facebook. The winner will be chosen at random. Good Luck!
This is not a paid book review. All opinions are my own.
Cinnamon-Raisin Quick Bread
By Published:
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Prep:
- Cook:
- Ready In:
This recipe was created by Lisa Leake of 100 Days of Read Food.
Ingredients
- 1 stick Butter melted (I do remember this was 113g)
- 1 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour (Plain Wholemeal Flour)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt I used 1/4 teaspoon
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce You can make your own apple puree or use baby food jars/pouches
- 1/3 Cup Pure Maple Syrup
- 3/4 Cup Raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160*C. Grease a loaf pan with butter and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Using a fork, mix in the eggs, applesauce, melted butter and maple syrup until well combined, taking care not to overmix. Gently fold in the raisins.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. (Mine took 40 minutes in my oven).
- Carefully remove from pan and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
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