Welcome to Healthy Recipes, where you will find hundreds of delicious, healthy, wholesome recipes made from real food.

What you won’t find here are atrocities such as “diet coke cake”; anything made with Cool Whip; or any other recipe that attempts to reduce calories and fat by using artificial chemicals instead of real, honest food.

In other words, my goal is not just to make low-cal or low-fat recipes. In fact that’s not my goal at all. My goal is to make recipes that use real food and avoid artificial ingredients as much as possible. Yes, I would choose heavy cream over Cool Whip any day.

What *do* I use in my recipes? I started with lots of whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit, olive oil, low fat dairy, lean meats and fish. More recently, after much reading on the subject, I am leaning towards a fairly low-carb, high-protein diet that’s high in good fats. You can read more about my definition of healthy cooking in my FAQ section.

Whatever I do, I completely avoid trans fats, artificial coloring, flavor enhancers and preservatives.

What else? Oh, sugar. I think we use sugar way too liberally these days, because it’s so cheap. But there’s growing evidence that sugar is toxic to our bodies, and one of our urgent goals should be to reduce its consumption. So I’m experimenting, and the more I experiment, the more I realize how overly sweet most modern baked goods are, and how delightful they are even with just half the sugar called for in many recipes.

I wasn’t always as wary as I am now of processed, sugary, artificial foods. But back in 2010, during a routine checkup, we found out that my husband’s blood sugar levels were elevated. He was only slightly overweight, but he carried the excess weight around his abdomen – the kind of fat that’s linked not just to heart disease, but also to insulin resistance, elevated blood sugar, and – eventually – diabetes.

Shedding a few pounds and exercising had improved the situation somewhat, but not enough. So we started reading on the subject, and the more we read, the more we became convinced that we needed to fundamentally change the way we were eating by adding more veggies, fruit, whole grains and healthy fats to our diet, and reducing our consumption of sugar, white flour and processed foods.

We still expect our food to be delicious, and I still love cooking, and especially baking. When searching for recipes to make, I have become accustomed to automatically tweaking recipes so that they work with our new lifestyle. I started writing down and taking photos of my healthified recipes, and posting them on a private blog for our family’s use, when a family member who liked what she saw asked me one day, “Why not turn this into a public blog? I’m sure lots of people would find it useful.” That’s how Healthy Recipes was born.

I’m Vered DeLeeuw, a blogger, a foodie and a mom. I’m excited that you’re here! If you still have questions, try browsing the FAQ section. If you need to contact me, please use the form below. Bon Appétit!