Healthy, home-cooked food by no means has to be boring. Nicola Halloran is your average 20- something with a high pressure job that demands her absolute attention Monday–Friday; she understands the pressures of trying to stick to a healthy lifestyle while also not alienating yourself from social situations, particularly when spending time with friends and family.

Wanting to learn to cook quick and healthy recipes for herself, she started the award-winning The Wonky Spatula blog in 2014. Now with a large following on social media and regular appearances on Ireland AM, her aim is to show that you can have it all when it comes to finding a balance. With The Wonky Spatula, her first cookbook, she demonstrates how to cook healthy and live happy through well-balanced, delicious food. It is packed full of recipes from grab-and-go breakfasts and the perfect salad, right through to showstopper desserts.

Built on an understanding of what it’s like to be time poor, many of the recipes will have food on the table in less than 30 minutes. Nicola’s mantra centres on the fact that there is no such thing as a bad cook, merely bad instructions; this is why all of her recipes are clear and easy to follow. Good food does not have to be all about fancy techniques and equipment – with the right ingredients and flavour combinations simplicity wins. Plus, if you do find yourself unsure of any of the terms within the book the glossary and howto section have you covered. Fully illustrated throughout, the purpose of The Wonky Spatula: Cook Healthy, Live Happy is to show readers how to prepare easy, healthy meals while allowing flexibility for foods that may be seen as ‘bad’.

Food is there to be enjoyed and savoured, and Nicola gives the reader the tools to find the perfect balance, leaving them feeling energised, healthy and ready to take on anything that life throws at them. Nicola Halloran is a trained chef with a diploma in nutrition. With a background in advertising and PR, she is the author of the award-winning blog The Wonky Spatula.

She is a regular guest chef on Ireland AM and regularly features in Irish media, including in Stellar, Her.ie, LovinDublin, Irish Country Magazine, the Sunday Business Post, Life magazine, the Irish Examiner, RTE Food, Taste magazine, thetaste.ie, FM104, Newstalk and TheJournal.ie. She has over 50,000 followers across her social media platforms, with Instagram being her primary channel.