Dieting Deliciously With Marie Blanchard

Marie Blanchard shares her favorite mouth-watering recipes so that her readers can cook slimming meals without feeling deprived. Her book features 25 antioxidant-rich and guilt-free meals for any time of the day. In addition, the Dieting Deliciously showcases how to cook with healthier ingredients than those contained in traditional “fattening” meals. Here’s how it went when I went on to ask her some questions about her book.

Hi Marie. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Sure! I was born in Haiti came to the United States in 1998. I started cooking at a very young age; my mom taught me how to cook without measuring anything when I was 9. Cooking at a young age was seen as a very valuable skill in my culture.

Fast forward to a couple years ago, and I decided to get in the fitness industry to change my lifestyle. I was in my late twenties and I could see the effects of my metabolism beginning to slow down. As a result, I started training, eating healthier. Eventually, I began entering body building competitions. I was winning most of the shows and took my career to a whole other level, where I gained sponsorships and completely changed my lifestyle. From living a healthier lifestyle, I had to sacrifice a lot of the food I used to eat at home and going out. I thought instead of just eating greens and meat, why not use flavor without a lot of sodium or elements that promote fun tastes? That’s how I had the idea of coming out with a cookbook.

That’s wonderful! Can u tell me a little bit about the writing process for Dieting Deliciously?

I wanted to write a dieting book that had a lot of images since many people these days seem to prefer visuals. I was the photographer for my own book since I wanted to have complete control over what the readers saw so they could understand my directions. I also just wanted to create something that people could follow easily.

What general feedback you’ve gotten on the book?

Readers have told me over and over that everything looks absolutely delicious and wonderful! These recipes are actually shadows of foods that we mostly crave, like the frittata. I do things like using low-sodium turkey bacon, onions, spinach, pepper, tons of elements that are naturally delicious without a lot of sodium to recreate that particular recipe.

What is your personal favorite recipe in Dieting Deliciously?

I LOVE the gluten-free protein donut vanilla glaze ---- check it out! The glaze is mouth-watering and absolutely loaded with protein. My second favorite is gluten free cauliflower flower pizza. It tastes great because I added all the spices in the flour itself. The great thing about these recipes is that you can get all the ingredients from the book at a Whole Foods or other general health store.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to write a cookbook?

Enjoy it because it’s absolute time-consuming as it takes a lot of work and research. Although I had wanted to write a cookbook my whole life, I didn’t think it would be so complicated. Like I said, I managed all of the photography myself. My advice to would-be cookbook writers would be to have a small team helping you because it’s a lot of work to do it alone.

Marie’s ultimate goal regarding writing Dieting Deliciously is for others to understand that you can maintain fitness and a healthy lifestyle while still enjoying the foods you naturally crave. All her recipes are organic, gluten-free, dairy free, and unprocessed and still have an emphasis on flavor. You will find recipes on protein donuts, sloppy joes, sweet potato waffles and so much more!