We are all Californians now

With startling originality, TLOML and I have decided to embark on a bit of a health kick. Nothing too crazy, but just a few tweaks to our regular diet. We decided that during the week we're going to eat more lean protein, whole grains and veggies. Our repertoire for that kind of food is somewhat limited, and there are only so many times in the week he wants to eat my Asian salad or I want to eat his stirfry.

So I dashed out in search of a healthy eating cookbook. Don't you just love it when you urgently need to rush to a bookshop?

Now, I didn't want one of those strange Cooking Light type cookbook where all the recipes sound really lardy but strange substitutions are made. Like lasagne with kale instead of pasta sheets, or chicken al fredo where the sauce is made out of almond milk. We want to eat food that happens to be inherently healthy.

And I didn't want a vegetarian cookbook, because we do like to eat meat and fish, and preferably not as a side dish. I lingered a while over Ottolenghi's 'Plenty' but ultimately decided against it for that reason.

So it is that I ended up buying the much derided Gwyneth Paltrow's 'It's All Good'. It's derided for some good reasons, like the dodgy science and ridiculous recipes ('olive oil fried egg'...), and all the pictures of Gwynnie (actually I quite liked those but they are a bit superfluous, I suppose). Still, she has some really good recipes in there. And it's all very Californian too, with plenty of Asian-inspired stuff and a bunch of veggie juices. We have already enjoyed a couple of interesting, tasty, zingy salads, some great Thai chicken burgers, and an excellent fish recipe.

And then there was the kale juice. Fail #1. It was actually chewy. TLOML will not be having that for breakfast again.

And then there was Day 3 of our new lifestyle, when we went to Love & Salt, and ordered a pig's head. Oooops. Fail #2.

We'll start again with renewed enthusiasm and focus on Monday.

Meanwhile, Lady P has been juicing for months. Her nanny blitzes her fresh juice up every day, often including kale or carrots or both. And she has also taken to squeezing orange segments into a cup and drinking it. It's a messy process, but so quintessentially Californian of her that I am all in favour.