SCHOOL HOLIDAY SPECIAL. Packed Cookbook + The Real Food for Kids Cookbook and we will throw in an Old school Kitchen Apron (while stocks last) $50 use the code localspickup to organise a pick up from us in Glenorchy or $10 to post anywhere is AUS.

I was hesitant to call this a ‘back to school special’ or ‘school holiday special’, I am trying to undo the image that people have of my booked Packed that it is a ‘school lunch box’ book, BUT it will be a bloody brilliant addition to the kitchen as School goes back, why I wrote the book to help people cook more!! it does have some handy recipes for lunch boxes but the book contains lots of recipes for on the go meals for anyone that wants to cook more and eat less ultra processed crap. The book is suitable for EVERYONE!! It has actually been nearly retired people who have loved the book the most. I think I may have even inspired my retired father in law to ditch the weet bix he has eaten for years in favour of the overnight oats i took along to a Christmas breakfast.

I  have spent the last 25 years cooking and promoting healthy regional food, trying my best to destroy the myth created by the packet food industry that cooking is hard, expensive and time consuming. This promotion is important now more than ever, while we are all now taking more personal responsibility for our role in the pandemic by improving our gut health and Immune fitness by eating well. Packed is a full colour recipe and food photography book full of  new nutrient dense recipes for on the go lifestyles. We use the recipes from my books all the time, why i created the books to help other people cook more.

Eating is one of life’s simple pleasures, so I believe even if I am eating from a container in the carpark while waiting at her kids sport, I wants it to be delicious and enjoyable, and to feel good and well-nourished after eating it. Not revolting, ripped off and hungry again in 10 minutes like I do when eating fast food! It amazes me when people think fast food is cheap and healthy expensive. It costs me around $90 just to get some sandwiches/pies and drinks while on a recent trip for lunch! WOW the prices these days who could afford that often?! for $90 spent on a family meal i would prefer steaks topped with prawns and a fancy salad, with change for $90!

Packed cook book was created so I could share what I have learnt over many years of being a chef, and most recently being a busy mum of three very active children.  I have never allowed this to be an excuse to not find time to cook nutritious meals. Beside the fact that it would cost a fortune to feed my family on takeaways – the cost on their health is just something I am not willing to compromise on.

Always keep in mind that we are brainwashed by the commercial food industry with their powerful marketing into believing that cooking is time consuming and hard – and I am here to tell you it is not! When those people in the big offices that are creating their products are deciding their next marketing strategy, your health is not considered at all in their plans.

PACKED book contains over 80 nutrient dense recipes, not just to fill kids lunchboxes, although it will be a handy lunch box resource but for café level delicious meals ideas for on-the-go lifestyles. The book also contains how to prepare the food in a busy life and WHY we should prioritise eating well, exploring the costs to your wallet, health and the planet. Such as:

Cost for your wallet

Cooking your food is always the most economical choice. I prefer
to spend my money on the fun activities my kids do that keep them active, which then circles back to them having exercise that they enjoy. Some people believe that takeaway food is cheap but for a meal to feed my family at a takeaway shop, it costs $60-$120,  I can buy a lot of veggies and meat with that! Not to mention that it has little nutritional value so it is just a waste. An example in the book is a delicious honey mustard prawn salad that takes about 5 minutes to prepare and works out the same cost as a ham and cheese sandwich purchased from a take -away shop, what would you prefer??

Cost for your health

There are endless amounts of research you can find on the effects of not eating well. We know it contributes to obesity, heart disease, depression, anxiety, cancer and more. You can find the information easily yourself. It is pretty confronting
to sadly see that pharmaceutical companies currently define lifestyle illnesses as “growth industries” worth investing in. Even the cancer council website has information about ultra-processed food being linked to cancer.

Cost for the planet

20% of food that is purchased will never be eaten? It is just thrown away. All that time, energy and resources that went into making that food – all gone. 60% of the Australian diet is discretionary foods, foods that provide little or no nutrition or are even health negative. Isn’t that just a ridiculous waste too? The waste of producing food we do not need or that is health negative. I sometimes can’t believe there is not more outrage over this. Just think of your own fridge and pantry – how much goes to waste? With better organisation with your meals, not only will your health benefit, but so will the planet.

I have plenty of professional experience behind me and I am very well qualified to be pursuing a career in Cookbook publishing. My recipes work, I  was the head chef at The Astor grill and T42 in Hobart and had stints in 5 star hotels and resorts including Bedarra and Hayman islands before moving to the Tasman Peninsula nearly 20 years ago to run my own restaurant, The Mussel Boys, which was once described as one of the best country eateries in the state by leading food critics. I always cooked with regional produce in my restaurant,   including oysters and mussels from nearby farms, venison, quail and wallaby farmed or hunted locally and fresh fish from local fisherman along with veggies fruits and more. It wasn’t until I had my own children and was attending children’s playgroups and was working in the local primary school launch into learning pre-kinder cooking class that she saw first-hand the prevalence and normality of packet plastic food fed to children. Plastic packaged foods is not only creating disease in the children but bad for the environment too. And I witnessed the lack of basic cooking skills.  parents were surprisingly shocked at how easy basic recipes were to make. I firmly believes that it is a lie sold to us through the packet food industry that cooking is hard and overly time consuming, and children will not eat well. The inspiration for my first book The Real Food for Kids Cookbook was all the recipes I cooked with the 0-4 year old children in the program at the launch into learning. I then when on to produce Seafood Everyday after hearing many people did not eat the recommended for good health, few serves of seafood each week as they believed Seafood was expensive and difficult to cook. I then produced The Tasmania Pantry cookbook and The Tasmania Pantry 2 cookbook. I  have assisted many others to self-publish books. My own books have been awarded 7 national and international cookbook awards.