To those of you who follow the world of lifestyle blogging or Youtube, you’ll likely know the next author we’re about to talk about.
Niomi Smart, who has made a very successful career out of blogging and filming her passions, be it fashion, beauty or cooking!
She has it all really; great taste, interesting opinions and videos and genuinely rather inspirational.
One read/watch you’ll want to convert to a plan based diet, exercise regularly… just generally change for the better.
Niomi promotes healthy eating with regular exercise as well as very informative videos on her tried and tested beauty regimes and products. Recently she even made a video for the cruelty free products on the market.
We have been dying to get our grips on this book since its announcement - watching her ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos and posts just made us all the more excited!
Right, let’s talk about Eat Smart, shall we?
The first thing we loved about the book was the beautiful feel to it, if people tell you they don’t judge a book by its cover, they’re most certainly lying. We’re all naturally drawn to a book by the exterior. Thick pages, neutral - pastel colours and refreshing font. The photos are all stunning and with an art-deco and bohemian yet still rustic vibe. The photos of the edible things look scrumptious, of course.
The first few pages explain how Niomi transitioned to her diet, her inspirations, a short biography and even her exercise routine.
Another thing we haven’t seen before that we adored was the list of different ingredients and their properties, pros and what they can be added to/used for. For example: we didn’t know that garlic was a diamond for fighting off infections and raw cacao (yep…chocolate) is fantastic for its antioxidant levels (and the zinc, iron, calcium - we could go on)!
Next is cupboard, fresh and equipment staples. We will be purchasing some pink Himalayan salt on our next visit to Waitrose!
The actual recipes themselves are split up into breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides & snacks, desserts and drinks.
Now, every recipe genuinely looks delightful, but to put off writing a book of our own, reviewing each delicious recipe, we’ve picked our favourite from each section!
Breakfast – Olive and Sundried Tomato, Muffins!
Something we’ve never heard of, savoury muffins! They look mouth-watering. Plus, not tied down to just breakfast!
Also there’s nothing bad in them - no sugar, no additives just yummy, healthy ingredients.
Lunch – Chinese Cauliflower rice with Pak Choy.
Such a simple twist on a favourite of ours. Also, grated cauliflower- what an initiative alternative to rice.
Dinner – Nut Wellington
That’s one of the biggest temptations to break the healthy eating and certainly the vegan/vegetarian diet, the wonderfully succulent meats displayed on the Christmas dinner table.
Niomi has created a phenomenal alternative to a Beef Wellington. Many of us here are veggies so we’ll certainly be trying this out in a few months!
Snacks – Pea and mint hummus
We’ve heard of chilli and beetroot hummus but never pea and mint! We can’t wait to make this one to dip with our celery sticks and perhaps even her root crisp recipe.
Dessert – Carrot cake loaf and lemon ‘cream cheese’
We’re suckers for carrot cake in general, but a healthy vegan alternative which tastes even better than the full fat thing, pass the fork please?
For those who prefer a banana loaf, there’s also a recipe for that on the opposite page!
Drinks – Pre workout | Antioxidant energy-boost smoothie
Niomi includes two options for a pre and post workout drink.
Our favourite so far is the pre-workout energy-boost: Oats, blueberries, cacao, almond milk and bananas. Gimmie!
Lastly, Niomi cleverly incorporates a ‘What I eat in the week’ double page; showing what she eats on a non-work out weekday and weekend and workout days. Such a great idea and example.
An index is closely followed by some wonderful acknowledgments.
Overall such a fantastic cook book, very long too, packed with recipes, so you certainly get your moneys worth! The book is healthy tips and advice galore! Genuinely an incredible read for those who want to improve their lifestyle. One of the best cook books on the market, as well as the fantastic, Vegetarian Marwadi Cuisine by Namrata Jain.
We highly recommend it!
Niomi is also currently on tour, but, there are still some tickets left! Click on the location below to get tickets:
Whole Foods: Wed 21 September 2016 18:30 – 20:30
WHSmith Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Sep 2016, 11:00
Waterstones, Newcastle Friday 23rd September 17:30
Glasgow Waterstones, Saturday 24th September 16:00
*Disclaimer*
All opinions in this review are our own honest ones. We have tried and tested many of the recipes in the book and genuinely loved them.
A big thank you to Harper Collins for sending us a copy of the book along with the press release. We’re very excited to cook more recipes! Eat Smart is currently propped up on our kitchen table.
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