Sometimes you come across a blog that instantly captures your attention and Sonia’s blog The Healthy Foodie is just one such blog. I love her recipes and her witty way of writing around those recipes and I think her photos are amazing too as you will see below! You’ll have to come and take a look for yourself as it’s one of the blogs I always go to first whenever I have time to browse through my backlog of things to read online! I was thrilled when she agreed to write a little something for Beetroot and Halloumi Junglefrog Cooking and below you can read all about it! And can I just say that I’m very flattered about all the words she wrote about me! Blushing behind the computer now!

Giving it over to Sonia now!

When I heard that Simone, who happens to be one of my most favorite bloggers and photographer extraordinaire, not only had decided to take a little walk down the healthy path, but had also decided to start blogging about her experience, I was ecstatic.

After spending all this time drooling over pretty much every single picture that she’s ever posted, I was finally gonna get to actually give her recipes a try! Big yay!

Now can  you imagine my excitement when she asked me if I would consider writing a little piece to be featured on this new baby of hers? I just couldn’t believe it! Me? Making an appearance on one of Simone’s sites? No way!

I have to admit that I am extremely humbled to have my photography being featured in such close proximity to hers. You see, Simone would be one of the foodographers that I look up to the most:  her pictures are always so amazing, so mouth watering, so perfect in every possible way. For me to be posting my work here, where her work resides, is an unbelievably humbling experience.

I thank you very much, Simone, for letting me expose my “beginner level art” in your top notch professional gallery.

Whoa, but wait a minute. How very rude of me. Here I am, jabbering away, while most of you don’t have the slightest idea who I am…

Well, my name is Sonia, I’m a 38 year old French Canadian from Québec (Canada), single mother of 2 fully grown kids, who’s recently turned her life around and decided to embrace embrace a healthier approach to living.

Now, if someone had told me, not even 5 years ago, that I would be sitting here today writing these very words, I’d have probably called them crazy.

The thing is, back then, my life was nothing like what it is today.

• You see, I used to smoke… A LOT!
• And drink… way too much!
• Food? OH YEAH! I did lots of that too, of course. And my choices in that field were not always the greatest, really…
• As for exercise… Well, that word was not even part of my dictionary!

I eventually had enough of all this and decided that things had to change.

Of course, I quit smoking, quit drinking and eventually, over time, started eating better and exercising. I became totally enthralled by this healthier lifestyle, and to help me stay on track while perhaps inspiring others to follow in my tracks, I eventually created a blog: The Healthy Foodie.

There, I share on a regular basis, thoughts and recipes that I find sit well with my perception of what healthy living can be.

For health, I think, is a very personal concept, really.

In fact, I believe that there are probably as many descriptions of the word as there are people using it. What I consider healthy might be totally unhealthy, to you, and what is healthy to you might be total junk to your neighbour…

Where do I stand?

I personally tend to adhere more to the principles of “clean eating”. This, to me, is a form of health that is totally unrestrictive and super fun and easy to follow.

Quite simply, it implies eating food that is as close as possible to what nature intended. Choose whole, natural foods and try to avoid everything that’s highly processed or refined.

Just remember… Food does not grow in a box! Reach for fresh produce, lean cuts of meat and whole, unrefined grains.

Also, try and include a form of lean protein, complex carbs and healthy fat in every one of your meals. Oh, and be careful not to drink your calories! Opt for water or herbal tea instead of sugar laden fruit juices or sodas!

Last but not least, being healthy implies that you stay active! Keeping your body moving is the best way to rev up your metabolism and get those calories working for you, instead of against you!

I guess, in the end, healthy is what you make it.

And to me, salads such as this one just SCREAM healthy.

Want more healthy recipe ideas? Head on over to The Healthy Foodie

And here is a sample of a few recipes you can expect to find…

1.    Creamy Avocado Pasta
2. Heavenly Healthy Matcha Green Tea Cake
3. Almond Joy Chocolate Spread
4. Chicken Goat Cheese Pizza
5. Lean mean Green Pea and Cucumber Salad
6. Crispy baked Chicken Tenders
7. Home made spelt pasta and Healthy Fettucine Alfredo
8. Ratatouille Pizza
9. Pear, Blackberry and Blue Cheese salad

Grilled asparagus with grilled haloumi and mustard dressing

I can’t believe what is happening with the weather at the moment. The temperatures are rising to summer levels and beyond. It’s been 26C almost the entire week, which is weird if you think that it is only April! Now I am not complaining but I am totally in summer mood and I know this will most likely not last long enough to give us a summer that is this good. Nature is slightly confused too with dandelions blooming two weeks before their time (which was great for my photoshoot as you can see… )and I am sure this will eventually have an effect on crops and prices of veggies and fruit at some point.

I think we had a similar warm spring last year or the year before and the end result was that we had rain for the biggest part of the summer. I even heard on the news that apparently we are currently the warmest country in Europe! Now how weird is that??

But let me not forget to wish you all a wonderful Easter!! I don’t think there have been many Easters in the last centuries where we could actually have a barbecue or lounge on the beach! Haha… I am sure that will be source for talk in the years to come too. In the meantime this is perfect as we are entertaining some friends tonight and we’re making a wonderful roast lamb with a new potatoesalad with capers and mashed peas with mint. The starters we have done before; first off it will be this lovely little salad with smoked salmon and then followed by scallops wrapped in prosciutto. And for dessert we have Jamie’s fabulous mascarpone berry cream.

Now that sounds like a great meal right? I am a little anxious about the lamb as we are not that familiar with cooking large pieces of meat, but I think we’ll be ok…. I will share the results with you if they are any good (and also if they’re not..lol)

But now on to the dish I am sharing with you today; a beautiful little salad with asparagus and grilled haloumi. It’s brilliant in flavor and the mustard dressing fits perfectly. It’s asparagus season and if you love asparagus this is the dish for you. It’s quick and the saltiness of the halloumi works well with the asparagus. It would be great as a small starter or it works well as a lunch on a hot summer (or spring) day as I did this week. Enjoy!