Izelle Hoffman Demonstrates How to Prepare Smart Food

It’s important to do a little thinking before eating and drinking. Research strongly indicates that leading a balanced lifestyle, including making smart choices in terms of what is taken in (consumed), and exercising regularly can have a positive effect not only a person’s well-being, but also reduce individual cancer risk.

Making smart choices in terms of food can however, feel overwhelming with all the options available, and leave you with a sense of not knowing where to begin to make positive changes, let alone how to combine these ingredients into easy to make meals. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Izelle Hoffman, author of ‘Mindful Eating’, who is showing us just how to achieve this with her recipe book.

Izelle is SA’s newest rising star in the culinary industry and can now be seen as the lifestyle chef on one of SA’s largest television breakfast shows, ‘Die Groot Ontbyt’, as well as on the Home Channel’s Health programme called ‘Real Health’ and her cooking inserts called ‘Better Choices’.

What sets Izelle apart is her passion to change perceptions about food and her desire to educate people about eating the right foods in order to improve health and wellness. Through sharing her recipes she encourages people to rethink what ingredients they put into their bodies and demonstrates that living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean that a person’s diet needs to be boring and restricted, especially whereas vegetables are concerned.

‘Mindful Eating’ is comprised of recipes for energising breakfasts; quick weekday meals; sweet baked goods; family favourites / classics all with a healthy Izelle-approved twist, such as the recipe Izelle has generously offered to share here from ‘Mindful Eating’, to offer a small taste of her wonderful collection of 78 recipes.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C on thermo-fan and spray a 20 x30 cm ovenproof dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place the chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients except the eggs and mint and process on high for 3–5 minutes, scraping down the sides, until the mixture is smooth and well blended. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can pulp the chickpeas with a blender, add the rest of the ingredients and beat with an electric beater for 2 minutes on high speed.)
3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl until light and fluffy, then add to the chickpea mixture and beat for another 30 seconds to mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and bake for 10 minutes.
5. To make the sauce, spray a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Add all of the ingredients and cook over medium heat until the almond butter starts to melt. The sauce will get a glazed look and have a slightly toasted nutty flavour.
6. After 10 minutes, remove the pudding from the oven, pour over the sauce and bake for another 10–15 minutes. When done, the edges of the pudding will be crispy and firm to the touch, while the centre will remain moist and soft.
7. Serve warm dusted with cacao powder and garnished with fresh mint.

If you’re excited about this recipe and can’t wait to try out some more, we’ve got great news. Over the following two weeks, two more of Izelle’s recipes from ‘Mindful Eating’ will be shared on Facebook: CANSA The Cancer Association of South Africa and Twitter: @CANSA, so watch these platforms closely.

But if you’re really clever you’ll want to get all of her recipes for yourself, and you’ll be supporting CANSA in the process. All the thinking has be done for you, all you have to do is cook and enjoy…