Wellbeing: Nana knows best (+recipes)

Wendyl's Recipes for a Cleaner Life.

Eat like your grandmother for a healthy life

There have never been so many choices when it comes to food. In the old days, we had about 10 staples on which we survived. Today, there are hundreds of different salads, fruits, meats, fish, seafood, dairy products and thousands of processed foods. Then there are many different forms, from organic to farm-free, pesticide-free and bog standard "just food". For the past 10 years I've had one simple rule to get me through my daily choices for my family: "Would my grandmother have eaten that?"

I don't need to consult blogs or books or decide which food religion I belong to and what the rules are. I just know that in the 1920s and 1930s my grandmother wouldn't have known what to do with half the processed foods in our supermarkets today.

• The following are recipes from Wendyl's latest book, Wendyl's Recipes for a Cleaner Life, $34.95, available at good bookstores or online at wendyls.co.nz

Lemon/Lime Water

- Makes 4 cups

½ tsp citric acid
4 tsp sugar
Juice of one lime or lemon

Add these ingredients to 1 litre of ice-cold water, then slice up the squeezed lime or lemon and throw in as well. Great for the morning after the night before! It tastes a lot like the flavoured waters you can buy and really quenches your thirst.

Pizza Bread

2 tsp active granulated yeast (not Surebake)

½ tsp sugar

1½ cups warm water

4 large cups high-grade flour

Salt and pepper

1 cup chopped basil or parsley (optional)

4 tbsp olive oil

Extra flour (if required)

Sea salt

1. Put yeast and sugar into warm water and mix. Set aside in a warm place. Sift flour with salt and pepper into a bowl and add basil or parsley if you like. It is just as good without the herbs.

2. When the yeast mixture starts to froth - and only when it froths - mix in olive oil. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix to dough. Add more flour if it's a little sticky. Don't knead.

3. Put in a bowl in a warm place and leave to rise for about an hour or until double the size.

4. Pat out into breads and barbecue or fry. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with lots of sea salt.

Toasted Muesli

- Low-fat version

I have always wanted to eat toasted muesli which isn't laden with oil. This recipe originally had 1½ cups of oil and 1 cup of honey. I have reduced that substantially and replaced it with apple juice, which works well. You only need a little of this muesli to fill you up and it contains nutrients like brazil nuts (one a day keeps you loaded with selenium), goji berries (immune enhancers) and flaxseed or linseed (great fibre and omega 3 sources). If you grind the linseeds first, you get more nutrition from them as they pass through your digestive system.

¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup liquid honey
2 cups good-quality apple juice
1kg wholegrain oats
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup coarsely grated coconut
1 cup coarsely grated brazil nuts
1 cup coarsely grated almonds
1 cup flaxseed (also known as linseed)
2 tsp ginger powder
2 tsp cinnamon powder

1. Mix the olive oil with the liquid honey and apple juice. Place the muesli ingredients in a bowl and coat with the liquid, rubbing it into the oats and nuts with your hands.

2. Put it into a large roasting dish (I need two) and toast in a 100C oven for 1½ hours, stirring frequently until golden brown.

3. Cool, then store in an airtight container.

Extras: Stir in 1 cup sultanas and 1 cup goji berries. You can also used chopped dried apricots or dates. You can buy goji berries at health food stores, supermarkets and Asian supermarkets, where you might find them called wolfberries. They look like red sultanas.