I love the changes of season as they seem to bring a change of menu, especially with the vegetables. Get proactive and keep meals exciting by cooking the same items differently. For example, I still love salads but a nice change to keep me warm is steaming, roasting or grilling my vegetables.
The vegetables in season are currently broccoli, broccolini, brussels sprouts, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, garlic, ginger, herbs, kumara, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsnips, pumpkin, potatoes, radish, rhubarb, salad greens, silver beet, spinach, spring onions, sprouted beans and seeds, swede, tomatoes, watercress and yams. These are all great to make healthy soups, stews, roasts or casseroles and provide fantastic nutrients to keep your immune system strong.

However, this is not the time to hide your body under several layers of clothing and forget about it! Keep up the great routine that you have got into over summer.
Here are some tips to keep you looking great.

1. Keep up the exercise- Embrace the weather and if you don’t like exercising in the dark, join a gym or do your workout on your lunch break or in your home (even if you   have to get out the old aerobics videos).

2. Be aware of portion sizes, especially with heavier foods like casseroles and stews.

3. Increase your daily fruit and vegetable intake to 7-9 servings for higher Vitamin C and antioxidant levels to boost the immune system. Avoid feeling down with getting sick. For something different and warming, try steaming or stewing your fruit and if you still like your salads you can put warmed butternut, kumara or left over grilled vegetables through it. A handy tip is putting left over veges into the blender and make into soup for the next day. See new recipes on the website www.lifespark.co.nz

4. Keep up the water intake, herbal teas are a tasty warm way to keep you hydrated. This is important for the immunes system too.

Recipe: Warm fruits with lite custard or low fat yoghurt.

• 1 apple and 2 feijoas per serve.
• Skin apple and dice in 1-2cm pieces, same with feijoas.
• Put into a small dish and add sprinkle ½ tsp cinnamon over the top.
• Place plastic wrap or a side plate on top of bowl and put in microwave for 1 minute on high. (Alternatively you make a large batch on the stove and just add a little water and let the fruit simmer for around 10mins).

Once you have your steamed fruit ready to go, add a couple of tablespoons of low fat yoghurt or lite custard to serve. This recipe is great to put on your porridge, have as afternoon pick me up or an after dinner treat. Alternatively you can also sprinkle over chopped nuts and shredded coconut instead of yoghurt!