Rachel Kelly
The author, wife, mother and mental health campaigner is a busy woman. But she makes good food and health high priorities, “Food can be your friend and a key part of your tool-kit to stay calm and well. It’s not just fuel, but can be truly medicinal,” says Kelly, who has battled depression and anxiety.
The book you co-wrote with Alice Mackintosh, The
Happy Kitchen: Good Mood Food, has recipes and meal plans and offers support. Can you explain its “feeling fragile” recipes? When I feel wobbly, or just tired from work, cooking something complicated is beyond me. So each chapter has one of these recipes, which are usually a case of assembling some ingredients from the cupboard rather than proper cooking.
How would you describe your diet? It’s mainly healthy and balanced – I eat a varied diet and seek out new ingredients. I don’t always manage the balance, but tomorrow is another day. Whatever stumbling blocks I encounter may prove to be stepping stones.
What did you have for breakfast today? Poached eggs, avocado, spinach leaves, rye toast, kombucha and a cappuccino.
What did you have for lunch? Snapper in vegetable broth with potatoes, tomato salad and darkchocolate brazil brownies. I’m touring, so eating in restaurants and hotels mainly, but I stayed the weekend with a friend and we made the brownies. What’s your favourite evening meal? Our omega-3 kedgeree. It makes a great supper and you can have leftovers for breakfast. It makes family cooking easy.
What do you snack on? A variety of fruit, nuts and kefir, which I love. I also like nut butters with oatcakes or I whip up a green smoothie.
What happens when you dine at other people’s houses? They tease me for having become such a foodie when I used to serve only fish pie. They also wonder if I’m really the chef behind some of my new dishes and say it’s my daughters who’ve cooked them.
What nutrition advice have you found most helpful or annoying? Helpful: you can make eight or more food decisions a day; if one is of the less-healthy sort, you can make up for it with your next decision. Annoying: clean eating. I don’t like the term, as it implies some eating is
dirty.