Berry crumbles for breakfast: the healthy recipes in this cookbook are easy to swallow

Ozzie nutritionist Jessica Sepel was in South Africa recently to launch her new cookbook, 'Living the Healthy Life'. We caught up with her at the Vitality HealthyFood Studio in Sandton, Joburg

"Growing up, there was never white bread in our house," said the gorgeous, confident Sepel proudly, crossing her long tanned legs. "Sweets and sodas were a treat, even back then.

"Healthy balanced home cooking was my foundation. My mother was a brilliant cook and taught me how to cook."

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Yet even with this excellent foundation, Sepel admitted to having had a toxic relationship with food. "I think it started with puberty around the time we emigrated from South Africa to Australia. I became a chronic fad dieter and my life became a numbers game - controlled by the numbers on the scale.

"It was when I studied a bachelor of health and I learnt about the body and food groups that I realised what I had been doing to myself," she said. "I was poisoning my body."

Sepel was in South Africa to launch her second book, Living the Healthy Life . Among a plethora of health books to hit the bookshelves recently, Sepel's is a personal guide filled with many words of encouragement (some of them a bit on the twee side), advice, a step-by-step plan to changing one's eating habits, a nd some great recipes .

And if Sepel is anything to go by, it works.

TRY SEPEL'S RECIPES FOR BERRY BREAKFAST CRUMBLES

Serves: 2

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

500ml (2 cups) mixed berries, fresh or frozen

5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Crumble:

45ml (3 tbsp) organic or gluten-free oats

15ml (1 tbsp) crushed walnuts

15ml (1 tbsp) desiccated coconut

15ml (1 tbsp) virgin organic coconut oil, melted

5ml (1 tsp) raw honey or maple syrup

2.5ml (½ tsp) ground cinnamon

A pinch of grated nutmeg

To serve:

Generous dollop of Greek-style yoghurt

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).

2) Combine the berries and cinnamon in a small baking dish or two ramekins.

3) To make the crumble topping, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the berries.

4) Bake the breakfast crumble for 10-15 minutes or until golden. Serve with yoghurt.

This recipe was extracted from 'Living the Healthy Life' by Jessica Sepel.