I had the opportunity to catch up with Australia’s leading celebrity chef and international bestselling author, Teresa Cutter. Here’s what she had to say about how we can all achieve wellness and live a balanced life.
1). Can you tell us about your background?
I’m a classically trained chef of over 20 years, nutritionist and fitness trainer and founder of The Healthy Chef. My aim is to get people cooking, living, and eating healthier.
My philosophy has always been to keep my food as simple, pure and natural as possible and to focus on whole foods that you cook yourself.
My recipes and functional food products have been designed for people who love food and who have made a conscious decision to maximize their health and wellbeing.
I believe that to be sustainable, a healthy diet must also be a delicious one. I focus on utilizing natural whole foods in my recipes and develop quality products that will promote optimum health and wellbeing.
2). How are your products different from all of the others out there?
We start with the highest quality raw ingredients, no by-products, just pure whole foods. All of our products are cold processed to preserve protein structure, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Purity is key, and all our products are free from chemicals, preservatives, fillers, artificial sweeteners, gums, sugar, vegetable oils, GMOs, and soy.
Just as a chef gathers fresh vegetables from hier garden, I like to source all the ingredients I use for my products and have a hands on approach in the creation of each product I make. An example would be my Artisan European Style Drinking Chocolate. It was a year in the making as I searched the world for the best ingredients. The result was the design of two Purely Delicious Naked Drinking Chocolates a Mylk and a Dark Artisan blend.
All our products are suitable for the whole family as well as those with digestive issues such as lactose intolerance. They are ideal for improving skin and digestive health, a strong immune system, better sports performance, quicker recovery and healthy detox, as well as sustained weight loss and overall wellbeing. PLUS they taste delicious!
3). What are some of your favorite summer recipes?
I have lots of awesome summer recipes! Some of my favorite’s are: - Super food Muesli
- Raw Super food Salad With Pineapple, Almonds + Turmeric Dressing
- Strawberries + Crème Smoothie
- Zucchini Linguini With Spinach + Basil Pesto
4). What are some ways Americans can incorporate healthy cooking into their diets?
KEEP IT SIMPLE. That’s my secret to cooking healthy every day!
I live by the motto: Buy fresh – keep it simple – make it yourself. During the week, I don’t really want to spend hours working away in the kitchen. I want to eat healthy simple meals that I can easily make after I come home from work.When I cook, the flavor comes from fresh seasonal whole foods such as vegetables, spices and herbs as well as the cooking process I use. I love clean, pure fresh flavors.
Cooking to me is about the essence of the ingredients that will nourish your body and be lovingly prepared – nothing too fancy. I never skimp on and always hunt down the best unrefined and natural ingredients that best suits my cooking and health needs.
Like most Americans, I want quick healthy delicious meals that make me feel great and don’t take hours in the kitchen. I make the effort to cook simple healthy meals at home to nourish my body and you feel so much better in doing so….your body will thank you for it.
Here are my top tips:
1. Don’t make it complicated
The common excuse for people not cooking is that they don’t have the time, but the best recipes are often the easiest to make.
2. Shop Smart
Buy seasonal locally grown fruit and vegetables, as they are nutritionally better for your health and less expensive. Shop at farmer markets or whenin supermarkets, shop around the outside for the fresh produce. Read back labels – just because the box says it’s healthy or low fat, that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
3. Eat fruit and veggies at every meal.
Rethink your plate and how you serve food. Make fruit and veggies the main component of each meal then compliment with protein. Summer is the best time to enjoy lots of leafy salads and steamed garden vegetables topped with cold pressed olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
It doesn’t need to be fancy. If you’re time poor, you could even have a few bags of frozen veggies in the freezer so you can cook them up quicker than you would a take away pizza.
4. Substitute ingredients
Make healthy substitutes to your favorite ingredients such as using Greek Style natural yogurt in place of the sweetened variety and substitute all your white staples and sugary cereals for the whole food vegetable variety. The small changes you make to your ingredients now will have a huge impact to your health in the future.
5). How can we add more exercise into our daily routines?
With everyone so busy nowadays, it can be difficult to add exercise into our daily living regiment. It takes discipline and time to be able to fit it into our hectic lifestyles.
For me, I have found my life is crazy busy and every day. I just need to take that meeting with myself and have some time out at least for 1 hour a day. A power walk in the morning or a pilates class is a great start to the day.
If you’re busy, then make sure you get lots of incidental exercise throughout the day. I wear a pedometer most days so I can keep track on my steps and movement. If I can get over 10,000 steps per day I’m happy and if I get to 20,000 I’m over the moon.
I suggest trying to get out and move as much as possible. We all know we should try to take the stairs instead of the elevator or walk as much as we can, but we can do more. It doesn’t matter what you do – just make sure you’re moving your body and you are having fun doing it !
6). What else do you have in the pipeline for the next 6 months?
I’m excited about launching my new cook book called “Purely Delicious” in the United States. It’s the ultimate healthy cookbook that’s packed with my favorite recipes and beautiful images. The book should be out in autumn and will be available through our online Store on Thehealthychef.com. I’m also in the process of developing a few new functional food products and teas from my brand The Healthy Chef. I’m hands on with everything I do – I think it’s the control freak in me so things take a little more time, but the end result is well worth it.
