Recently I made a post about changing my attitude towards health and fitness, with the focus on food as fuel rather than anything else. Part of this, meant moving away from focusing too much on calories or labelling things as good and bad foods. I wanted to get back to cooking more, using fresh food and fuelling my body with a rainbow of foods. I decided to try out some vegan recipes as a way to really encourage me to cook fresh foods, rather than relying on easier options, that are often full of saturated fat and sugar.
I have known about Deliciously Ella for some time, but never really explored much of the recipes on offer. However, after looking at the website, as well as remembering a delicious curry featured in the Netflix documentary ‘ Down to Earth’, I thought I would give it a go. I found there was a Deliciously Ella App and decided to download it and test it out. You do need to pay, but I think it is such a great price. It’s £9.99 for a year subscription, which is really good value when you look at how much you get from the app.
Of course my main focus was the food inspiration and recipes, but you can also use the app for Meditation, Yoga, Cardio, Pilates, Listen to the Deliciously Ella podcast and play around with other features too! I think for £10 a year, that is fantastic.
Food
The main reason for me to get the app was of course to explore the recipes and nutrition advise offered by Ella and her team. I have wanted to change things up in terms of the food I cook and focusing more on plant based meals. This app has been really fantastic for providing easy, delicious and fun food ideas.
Often I have fallen into bad habits of not having enough time to make things, reaching for a ready made pizza or even just some cereal for dinner. However, I really want to cook more, and of course there will always be times where there really aren’t enough hours in the day, but this app has really helped motivate me. Not only am I motivated to try new recipes but also much more aware about everything I’m fuelling my body with.
So far I have made some soups, curries and also just put a more healthy stamp on any old time favourites I already make. It’s been really fun to explore the app, especially as it is frequently updated with more. One thing I really love about the food section, is that not only can you save your favourite recipes so they are easy to find, you can also meal plan your week and save them all to your planner AND add all the ingredients can then be added to a shopping list. I went shopping using the list and it was fabulous. It adds together any repeat ingredients so there is no buying too much or too little. (For example if two recipes I select required cherry tomatoes, it will add all the tomatoes needed together). You can also manually add items and cross those off as you go.
I’ve used apps before that try to help meal plan, and it was not as good as this at all. To not have to scroll between each recipe or each meal to remember how much you need is just what I need to make shopping fun and simple. I have also loved making meals in advance and putting these in the fridge or freezer. It’s perfect for always having something healthy available, for times you know you will be busy.
Workouts
The app has a great feature for a variety of workouts. It offers Yoga, Barre, Pilates and Cardio. I personally was mainly interested in the yoga, as I like to do my own flows, but sometimes taking part in a class can really help your progress. There are a variety of teachers to choose from, as well as class lengths that suit your needs. I love being able to choose a 10 minute morning flow some days and a long 40 minutes another.
The meditation is also great. As someone still new to meditating and making time to do so, I feel like having a guiding voice is really helpful. Though there are other great apps that help with this, I love that this app includes mediation, especially as the price is cheaper than these mediation apps alone.
Podcast
As someone who adores listening to podcasts, I also love that the app includes the Deliciously Ella podcast too. This saves jumping between other apps and keeps it all neatly together. I have found the podcast really lovely to listen to, not only to educate myself on health, but also from a business perspective and to get to know Ella and Matt more through their stories.
The podcast will usually feature guests that talk about their own health journeys, their businesses, well-being or advice. It’s a very easy listen and extremely informative.
Overall, I am really loving using this app and making it part of my day. I was quite surprised with the food, just how accessible it is. I thought it may be filled with ingredients that you don’t have on hand (and there are a few), but most of them really just feature fresh and colourful ingredients. This app is simple to use, has a beautiful layout, clever features and truly does just try and enhance your life in some small way; with a little guidance or a little wellness practice of your choosing.
Love
