Healthy Made Easy by Luke Hines + Coconut and Blueberry Loaf

Are you ready to make healthy easy again?

Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place!

Luke Hines is a passionate cook and health foodie. Dubbed Australia’s ‘Clean Living Expert’, Luke creates real fuss-free recipes that look and taste amazing. All of Luke’s recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free.

Luke’s latest book, Healthy Made Easy, shows you how healthy food can be incredibly simple to make and taste damn delicious too. Every recipe is filled with sustainable protein, fresh fruit and vegetables that’ll help you thrive and flourish, rather than feel restricted, hungry and bored. Say goodbye to those celery sticks and say hello to over 140 fast and delicious recipes.

The 'Gaytime' Cake

Healthy Made Easy focuses on finding tantalizingly tasty, healthy substitutions for your favourite old-school meals and snacks that’ll help boost your energy and make you feel happier and healthier more than ever before. PSA: this is also how being around Luke makes you feel!

If you’re ready to transform your life, regardless of how busy you are or your kitchen experience (I know, we can’t all cook for a living!), Healthy Made Easy is the book for you. t’s a great gift to your favourite chef in your life! You can find other presents for your favourite chef friends here. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about Luke and his delicious new book, read our interview below! Oh, and don’t forget his Coconut and Blueberry Loaf recipe - it's a real winner.

• Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started?

Having grown up struggling with my weight all throughout my teens, but not being overly sporty, I completed my high school years knowing I had to do something about my health, but what? I fell in love with the gym, but more so, I actually LOVED being in the kitchen! Fast-track 10 years of my life and I become a Personal Trainer with a specific focus on eating clean. Then a little show called My Kitchen Rules changed my life in 2013 and made food my full-time gig. Now, I spend my years writing recipes, sharing my books with the world, and hopefully inspiring others to know that healthy cooking is super easy, fun and really delicious!

• I love your Facebook Live Cooking Videos; they’re always hilarious and everything you make is drool-worthy! What made you start them?

They sort of just accidentally happened! I first started filming videos and them editing them, and this proved time-consuming and I often felt a little unnatural when doing certain parts of the recipe over and over for the perfect shot. I decided I was better live as I was less nervous (go figure) and it actually showcases what cooking is like for everyone else at home. No staged, not faked and anything can happen! I realised people really resonated with the fact that not everything always works out, and thats ok! Its about having fun and simply using real food ingredients!

Surf-Chilled Coconut Ocean Trout

• Do you subscribe to a food or wellness philosophy?

I did spend a period of time where I was fairly strict Paleo, I think energetically at that time I needed the structure that it came with to get my health on track, but asking me now I am more a flexitarian, making sure that life always comes first. What I mean by that is that I try to eat clean, which to me is the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and limit anything that could cause harm or inflammation, but never let the way I eat dictate my adventures in life as experiences should always come first. That means when I am in Italy, it's all about pizza and pasta, mindfully, in moderation! I don’t think we should ever restrict, just do the best you can when possible and in routine, and relax and don’t be hard on yourself if things don’t always go to plan!

• What are your top 3 cooking staples? 

Eggs! Perfect for cakes, oh and breakfast! They are a true superfood in so many ways, and the real versatile hero for the kitchen!

Cauliflower! From rice to a pizza base, these babies are the bomb! What's not to love also about a simple slow roasted cauliflower in coconut oil or ghee! YUM!

Raw Cacao! Perhaps its the magnesium, or maybe she’s born with it, but I am obsessed with raw cacao! Added to my morning coffee, in a healthy raw chocolate slab, or in a delightedly chilli mole mince! Healthy and delicious, what more can you ask for?

• If you could cook a meal for one person(apart from me ha!), who would it be and what would you make?

I’d actually love to cook for Stephen Spielberg! I am a massive movie addict, and I just LOVE his films, especially Jurassic Park, it still holds up today as one of the most magical pieces of cinematic work and it's almost 30 years old!  I'd ask for all the behind the scenes ‘how was that made’ type stuff! Plus, he might cast me in his next movie about a humble chef from Australia being kidnapped by pirates at sea.  

• What are your top tips for people who are trying to live a healthier life?

First and foremost you have to be kind to yourself! Any physical and emotional transformation for the better, requires us to love our selves and be comfortable in the now, so we can let go of stress and allow ourselves to move into our next phase of health. Then, I would say, small, easy, incremental steps each day that add up to long term sustainable change. Progress over a long period of time is better than rushing and burning out.

•  Tell us about Healthy Made Easy?

Healthy Made Easy was born from all the amazing feedback from the book that came before, Eat Clean. Anytime I asked anyone what their favourite thing about Eat Clean was, the answer was the same, EASY but still delicious recipes. I spoke to my publisher and I said, how about we give them more recipes, that are quicker, easier and easier than ever before, in the hope that we could eliminate the stress and time that some people think comes with cooking your own nutritious food. As health authors, we often hear people say that eating well can be costly, confusing and take too long, it's time to turn this myth on its head!

 - What’s your favourite recipe from Healthy Made Easy?

Oh, this is like having to pick a favourite child! Ok, so, I will give you my favourite sweet and my favourite savoury! My favourite savoury is the Bangkok Beef Cheeks due to their delightful curry sauce and use of one of my favourite cuts of meat! And as for dessert, I can’t go past the Easy As Lemon Slice! It is so simple and delicious!

Wow thanks Luke and thank you for the wonderful recipe you are sharing with us today 🙂

Coconut and Blueberry Loaf - Makes 1 loaf 

I love this loaf as a slightly sweeter more decadent start to my day. Inspired by the traditional banana bread, the coconut and blueberries are a wonderful flavour combination. Enjoyed fresh out of the oven or toasted in a pan with some coconut oil until crispy, this is epic when lathered with the coconut frosting and drizzled with honey.

Ingredients: 

• 200g desiccated or shredded coconut, plus a few extra to garnish the top
• 6 free range eggs
• 1 large very ripe banana, mashed
• 1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon fresh vanilla bean
• 1 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, plus a few extra to garnish the top
• Vanilla coconut cream, to top
• 1 tablespoon honey, to drizzle

Directions:

• Get started by preheating your oven to 180 degrees and lining a 450gram loaf or bread tin with baking paper. In a good-quality powerful food processor, blitz the desiccated coconut until it forms a crumbly flour-like consistency. Be mindful not to over-process it, as it will turn into coconut butter.
• Either by hand or using a hand held mixer, beat the eggs, maple syrup and vanilla bean for a few minutes until well combined. Now add in the mashed banana and stir to combine.
• Fold the coconut flour mixture you’ve made into the wet mixture, then gently fold through the frozen blueberries. Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and top the batter with extra blueberries and shredded coconut.
• Bake at 180C for 45 mins. Remove from the oven, turn onto a wire rack if you’ve got one and allow it to cool if you are patient.
• Enjoy it immediately with a generous lather of vanilla coconut frosting and drizzled with honey or your favourite topping. Store in an air-tight container in the pantry or fridge.

Health Tip: This delicious breakfast bread is also great with a slathering of butter or coconut oil. 

Note: Last up to 7 days in fridge.