Penguin Books Australia

I truly believe anyone can be a great cook as long as they have the will to do it. When I was a wee lass at Perth High School I remember making cheese flan in Home Economics. The funny thing was, I hadn't even tasted the flan because at the time I detested the idea of eating cheese. But somehow I had been so passionate about my recipe that my cookery teacher gave me top marks, because my heart and mind had been in the right place.

My younger brother David had different views about my culinary skills, however, and when we were growing up he spent the entire time complaining to Mum and Dad that I couldn't even toast bread properly. OK, it's true that for some reason my toast always came out pitch-black like coal . . . Anyway, David always used to say that I'd burn the house down one day – a statement I took to be completely ludicrous . . . until that fateful rainy day when I was 17 and had just received my letter of acceptance into Edinburgh University. I was feeling really excited and preoccupied (as you get with such things) – and, of course, the bread was toasting away in the toaster – when, all of a sudden, the smell of burning wheat seemed to be permeating my bedroom.

I quickly darted into the kitchen, to be greeted by what looked like a scene from The Towering Inferno. My toast had caught fire and the flames had spread to the counter tops and walls. I was terrified – not just at the thought of burning down our family home, but at what my dad would say. Then, right on cue, David burst on the scene and quickly and efficiently proceeded to extinguish the fire with buckets of water and heavy wet towels.

So I am no Michelin-star chef – I am just a mother who wants the best for her family, and a holistic nutritionist who wants the best health and purest food for you. I just happen to have developed lots of healthy, fun and easy recipes over the years as part of my job. The bottom line is that it makes no difference whether you're a cordon bleu protege or a toast-burning pyromaniac: my recipes are quick to prepare – many only take a few minutes – and they're dead simple. If I can make them, anyone can!

Writing these recipes for you and making them readily available was something that was very important to me, because I understand first-hand how essential support like this can be to achieve wellness and a fit body. When I was twenty-something, I lived in Spain and survived on a diet of Spanish eclairs, paella, chocolate and sangrias. When I got back to Britain I was chubby, had spots all over my face and felt constantly tired, listless and demotivated. A special diet could be my answer, I thought. A simple food plan. So for eight weeks I ate almost nothing but pork luncheon meats – or, to be precise, three slices of thin ham on two pieces of white bread. And I ate that for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. As you can imagine, I felt and looked terrible. Over time, my unhealthy eating habits continued to play havoc with my body, energy levels and general wellbeing. It was this degeneration in my health that was the key motivating factor in my embarking on a new healthy lifestyle, and a diet of living foods.

When I finally turned my life and health around through natural nutrition and good food, I realized that (a) healthy recipes can be easy to prepare; (b) healthy meals can be quick, exciting and fun; (c) you can make food taste great even without any experience or training; and (d) healthy food can make you feel and look well, because you really are what you eat. All you need is the desire and the will to feel and be well.

The recipes in this book are easy, colourful and utterly delicious, and I really hope you love them as much as I do. But they're really just the beginning. Once you've got to grips with them, I'd like you to feel empowered to experiment, using them as a basis for creating other tasty dishes of your own. All my recipes have the ability to enhance your health and wellbeing for a far happier, healthier, energized, fitter and sexier you. And best of all, they won't ever make you fat, which means you can eat as much as you like with them. So it's time to get cooking to your heart's (and tummy's) content.