Mindful Eating contains 78 recipes to cook your way to better health. Written by Izelle Hoffman who is a lifestyle chef, she believes that it is the quality of the food we put into our bodies that counts. And I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.
Mindful Eating
Izelle Hoffman is on a mission to change perceptions about food and to increase awareness of the benefits of eating the right foods and choosing a life of health and wellness. Did you know, for instance, that the humble sweet potato contains anti-inflammatory properties and regulates blood sugar levels? And that raw honey isn’t simply a sweetener – it has antifungal and antiviral properties as well?In Mindful Eating, Izelle encourages you to rethink what you put in your body in a fun, healthy way, and demonstrates that living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean that your diet needs to be boring and restricted, especially where vegetables are concerned. By sharing her recipes for energising breakfasts, quick weekday meals, sweet baked goodies, classics with a healthy (Izelle-approved) twist and family favourites, among others, Izelle aims to help you take back control of your wellbeing.Packed with delicious, nutritious and deceptively simple recipes, Mindful Eating is more than a cookbook; it is an inspirational and motivational guide to leading a healthy lifestyle through good eating.
Chapters are divided into:
- For the win: breakfast of champions
- Motivation Monday
- I love me
- You only live once
- Throwback Thursday
- Thank goodness it’s Friday!
- For the love of family

Recipes that caught my eye:
- Chocolate flaxseed flapjacks (p22)
- Rosemary almond bread (p33)
- Carrot cake breakfast biscuits (p37)
- Antipasti-style hake fillets (p51)
- Sweet potato chocolate brownies (p81)
- Guilt-free chocolate cake (p86)
- Sundried tomato, butterbean and sweet potato cups (p111)
- Sticky BBQ chicken wings (p124)
- Asian style chicken (p150)
- Lemon and garlic glazed chicken thighs with peas (p161)
My impressions:
I really liked the handwritten notes for the recipes and what they were good for. A quick flip through the book will leave you with an impression that all the recipes are ‘brown’. I notice this as it always makes me think twice about making something as photographing brown food is not easy. The photographs in the book were mostly really good, using props for colour.
What I made:
The first recipe I tried was the carrot cake breakfast biscuits. But, there was no ways I could roll these as the mixture was too wet. I decided to bake them as muffins and for the first time I did not trust my thermometer. So, the tops burnt a bit. And the mixture inside did not firm up. I loathe wasting ingredients so I decided not to make the icing using almond butter which is expensive. I made it with peanut butter, but only to hide the burnt bits. The sundried tomato, butterbean and sweet potato cups were more successful albeit lacking in seasoning. When I share the recipe I shall adjust for that.

Publishing information:
Disclosure: I was sent the book to review by Penguin Random House South Africa. I was not required to write a positive review. This post is in line with my blogging policy.
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime April 15:
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- 2019 – Apple Cake
- 2015 – Low Carb Is Lekker
- 2012 – Food Quiz Number 70 For A Friday
- 2011 – Cranberry And Oat Slices
- 2010 – Scallop, Pea And Bacon Pasta
Love the sweet potato cups, what a great idea..
they were a great snack 🙂
It’s not very encouraging that the first recipe you tried was a dud!
I googled “mindful eating books” and found that that title has been used in some variation on something over 20 books in the last decade or so, and the term is pretty widely used. I guess this author is a little late to the party!
be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
It happens often with local recipe books!
Really like the peanut butter icing Tandy. Looks like an intriguing book. Without pictures, I am a hopeless cook.
I used the rest of the icing as a topping for my matzah 🙂
Yes brown food is so hard to photograph but so delicious to eat. Those sweet potato cups look really good! 😀
that is so true!