My all time favourite website for finding any recipe your culinary heart desires is www.epicurious.com
Meanwhile, here are a few simple and easy ideas you can use every day that will boost your immunity and energy and keep you at optimum health levels. During our Workshops we take all of these ideas and use them for every condition.

It’s so easy to change old, time consuming, expensive, unhealthy habits!!

Organising your kitchen - some tips from The Muse

The best way, I've decided, to write this column is to use my own kitchen as an example. In my workshops, I can open the fridge for people to see and then we actually throw things together to munch on in our break. Ever since my kitchen was organised, I can't remember going in there seeming like a chore. Now, when I cook, it's only to supplement what's already made up in the fridge or pantry. I spend about 20 minutes a day in the kitchen from start to finish for a main meal. I have a huge variety of foods to choose from for the entire week, including guests who know not to expect complicated meals when they come over!

People actually look forward to the simplicity of a tomato salad at my place. How many different ways can you prepare tomatoes in a salad? Countless. And what's wrong with sitting down to a luscious red moist garden tomato, onion, olive, oregano salad drizzled with olive oil and lemon while breaking warm fresh Pide bread with a friend, child or lover?

We need to change our definitions about what is quality food and return to basics. Simple sensations and simple pleasures from nature, in my opinion, cannot be surpassed in quality. For me, food is not just something you pour down your throat to satiate hunger pangs. It's a whole philosophy beginning with a cephalic response when you see the food, the desire to eat (salivating), the process of preparation and cooking with love, eating food made with love, sharing that same food-love with others and knowing that the essence of life will be circulating within you and nourishing you. What can be more healing and self- nurturing?

But I digress so back to organising! First, have the right equipment. This would be implements that retain most of the foods' nutrients during the cooking process. For example a juicer, rice steamer, clay oven pot, wok and vegie steamer. Get a whole stack of medium sized plastic containers. These you will use to store BASICS in the fridge. BASICS are the ingredients that take time to prepare by soaking overnight or boiling such as Grains, Legumes and Pulses. These BASICS you will use as the basis of your meals. The Secret? Spend a few hours a week boiling, soaking and steaming the BASIC ingredients ready for the following week. Make medium sized amounts so they won't spoil and there is always a variety. Be creative and enjoy. Freeze whatever you have left over for days you have 'no cooking time at all'. Which reminds me - my freezer is practically empty except for some homemade pizza dough, bread, homemade frozen fruit yoghurt, fresh pasta and some tuna cutlets, salmon and sardines. Fish doesn't take long to cook and I prefer it nutritionally to meat.

This is what I have in my fridge at the moment, labelled and ready to go: Cooked and rinsed lentils, cooked and rinsed brown rice, cooked and rinsed wholemeal pasta, cooked and rinsed burghul, some lightly steamed vegies (broccoli, baby potatoes, carrot and pumpkin), cooked and rinsed great northern beans. There's also a variety of seasonal fresh raw vegies like spinach, zucchini and cucumbers. There is yoghurt in my fridge, avocadoes, cheese, miso paste, tofu, flaxseed oil, homemade red curry paste, homemade pesto, organic milk and juice, often lemon or orange freshly squeezed and enough to last for two days.

I also have tomatoes which I have easily grown in my garden bed along with all my herbs, but I don't store them in the fridge. Like eggs, they are tastier at room temperature. I also have all sorts of seasonal fruits in a large bowl on my kitchen bench where everyone can see and reach. Healthy seeing encourages healthy eating.
Hope you're not bored and are making notes because we are about to move over to my pantry. Inside: oats, homemade toasted muesli, stone-ground flours, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts, couscous, tamari sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, garlic, ginger, a large variety of spices and preservative free breads and buns from my local bakery.
On days I'm not busy, I will make a meal or a soup from scratch. On days I am busy I simply open the fridge and choose a BASIC. I’ll quickly chop and sauté vegies add my sauces and spices and then add the BASIC.

Always whip up a salad to eat with your meal. Have fruit for Dessert. There is nothing more refreshing than a cool rockmelon or mango an hour after dinner!
Meanwhile, here is a really easy way to make your own muesli exactly how you like it. Remember to store your muesli in an airtight container or you might have to have breakfast through a straw!

Muesli

• 300 ml of boiling water
• 200 ml of sunflower oil
• 300 ml clear honey
• a few drops vanilla essence or as strong as you like
• 450 g (about a packet) of plain rolled oats
• 75 g sesame seeds
• 50 g wheat germ
• 100 g shredded coconut
• 200 g of a mix of your favourite nuts, eg hazelnuts, walnuts or almonds
• 200 g of your favourite dried fruits, eg raisins, apricot, apple (diced)

Mix together the water, oil, honey and vanilla.
Mix everything else together in a bowl except for the dried fruits. Slowly add the liquids to the dry mix stirring all the time so that everything gets coated. I find it best when I use my hands. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees, then reduce to 140 degrees and bake for about one and a half hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until it's all golden and crisp. Cool thoroughly and then add the fruit.

Miso soup with bean curd

Miso soup is an oldie, true, but so nutritious for you it's an immune booster in a bowl. Try my version, after soaking the mushrooms it takes 10 minutes.

• One square piece of Kelp (anti bacterial and blood detoxifier)
• 3 cups Dashi (seaweed or fish stock)
• Dried black mushroom caps, soaked for 25 minutes
• 1/2 cup red miso (soybean paste - phytoestrogen)
• 1/2 square of firm bean curd diced( protein )
• Spring onions and watercress chopped coarsely

Score the kelp on one side to release its flavour. Add it to the stock in a saucepan and heat to just before boiling point. Shred the mushroom caps and add to the stock. Whisk the miso with a little of the stock so that it will mix evenly when added to the soup. Simmer for a few minutes. Add the bean curd and greens, warm through and serve immediately.

Tofu Mayonaise

• 200g silken tofu
• 4 tblspns veg oil
• 4 tbsplns white miso
• 1 tblspn white sesame seeds toasted
• 2 tblspns lemon juice
• 2 tblspns rice vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Blend together until smooth
Keeps in a container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Delicious and protein rich can be used as a dressing for salads or as a sauce for vegies. Substitute red miso for a stronger flavour.

Pineapple Cream

• 1 x 400g fresh pineapple and its juices
• 1 pack silken tofu
• 55g honey

Blend all ingredients together
Put into desert bowls and chill well
(Mango or Strawberries can be used instead of the pineapple)

Tzatziki – medicine in a bowl

• 300g plain natural organic yoghurt
• ½ Lebanese cucumber grated and squeezed of it’s juices
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• Mint or dill chopped
• 1 tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil

Mix together and serve with pita bread and salads. Always have Tzatziki on your table at dinnertime. It is a bowl of antifungal and antibacterial properties as well as cultivating a friendly gut environment.