I had no intention of keeping to any kind of healthy eating regime over Christmas. I didn’t necessarily set out to consume my own body weight in chocolate orange (I reservedly only ate two, and no, I didn’t offer a single piece to anyone else)…but with all of the inevitable festive saturated fat fuelled delights on offer I resigned myself to at least a fortnight of “What The hell! it’s the holidays!”

Besides, cooking a gluten, dairy and sugar free roast for 11 would have been far more challenging than your regular turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Or would it? like anything, I think it’s a case of having the experience and thus the knowledge to potentially whip up these nutricious dishes in a jiffy. Or at least have the motivation to try.

I find it difficult to eat healthily in the winter, in summer I enjoy all sorts of salads, stirfrys, stuffed peppers….. anything with avocado (!) yet as soon as I can feel a chill in my bones I crave pasta, pie and mash (the latter specifically made with lashings of salted butter).

In 2014 I found there were three main difficulties in keeping up my “80%” clean eating goal. The availability of a good proportion of the ingredients I required to make certain things, the associated cost of those ingredients and eating out. Regarding the latter, lunch and brunch always seems to be easier with regards cutting out the crap where as with an evening meal, I find I have to ask for too many changes to the dish or choose something entirely uninspiring.

For 2015 I’ve had a re-think on exactly what I want to achieve, clean eating has definitely given me a wealth of ideas and easy healthier “swaps” (I much prefer sweet potato to regular potato for example) and I have seen results, particularly in my over all well being. That double helping of Terry’s was delicious as a one-off treat but I didn’t feel particularly clever the morning after. A chocolate hang-over if you will*

I’m still mid-research with regards being realistic on eating clean clean (there were certain days last year where I would just miss out meals together, particularly lunch, because there wasn’t anything suitable left to eat, and that really can’t be “good” for you!) and I still find lots of the information conflicting (can you really have wine? do you really need to quit sugar entirely? is dairy ok as long as it’s FULL fat?!)

But I’ve made a decent start. And I’m certainly re-motivated to make and bake new tasty healthier recipes. At the weekend I bought a slow cooker and yesterday made my first beef stew! it was a combination of two recipes plus a few changes to suit our particular tastes.

Mabel ate all of her portion.

I consider that a success in itself.

I’m also making a concerted effort to re-look at my The Art of Eating Well by Helmsley and Helmsley book this month and have a bash at making at least some of the more simpler dishes. I’m also very much looking forward to the release of Get The Glow by Madeleine Shaw when it’s released in April.

Did any of you lovely folks manage to “eat clean” over Christmas? Do you have plans to go back to a healthier lifestyle now the festivities are over?

If you would like me to share my beef stew recipe let me know, I did discuss with the girls how it tastes better than it looks (!) and I’m unsure how it would photograph to be honest but I’ll give it a go!

*There was also an entire box of Milk Tray. And a Cadbury’s selection box.