BIOGRAPHY

 Rashida Ebrahim, a former primary school teacher who qualified at Hewat Teachers Training College (now known as college of Cape Town) has always been passionate about writing, baking and cooking. Exposure within Cosmetic Sales to Teaching and Office Support only served to strengthen her skills and innate investigative abilities. Blending in to the stresses and strains of the corporate world and being ruled by survival within three provinces, forcing her to shelve her passions for a while.

Her passion for writing, cooking and baking was revived in the last two years when she was blessed with solitude and time to reflect and discover her purpose in life. At the same time she began reading
and researching healthy eating and was inspired by ‘Thibinabiwi’ and two of Dr. Keeka’s books; ‘Fruits that heal’ and ‘Natural Remedies”.  In her quest to consolidate and sort out the myriads of recipes she gathered since the age of 9, she began creating her own and customising part of her collection. She started researching various types of healthy and wholesome eating. This inspired her to invent and re-invent her recipe collection and sought to align it with wholesome ingredients.  She began categorising them, testing and taking photographs of her inventions, eventually forming her own personal recipe book. This triggered the idea to share her recipes and research and thus ‘wholesome eats’ was born.  

  DESCRIPTION OF BOOK – “WHOLESOME EATS”

  ‘wholesome eats’ is a  one stop information cookbook that encourages us to cook nutritious foods using fruits and vegetables. It has all the necessary information to run an organised kitchen.

It emphasises on eating wholesomely and in a balanced manner, based on Islamic principles; a concept that existed 1400 years ago. 

It teaches us about making better choices regarding cookware and cooking oils, wiser choices when eating out, time-saving tips, some amazing fruits and vegetables, and how to eat wholesomely on a budget. 

Instruction charts such as measurement charts (including cake pan sizes), conversion charts, a comprehensive substitution chart, an example of a weekly menu, and even a seasonal chart on SA fresh produce are useful guides that may be referred to.

‘wholesome eats’ encourages us to relish guilt-free in naturally nutritious fruits and vegetables that surround us in abundance. 

So to answer the mass question, ‘Why another cookbook?’:

Her struggle to find a recipe book with all the essential information required to run an organised kitchen and create dishes incorporating fruits and vegetables furthered her desire to share this with people in the form of a recipe book. So readers should find ‘wholesome eats’ a one-stop information cookbook.

She wanted her recipe book not too large and cumbersome, easy to handle, with a flexible cover, comprehensive in information content, yet summarised enough to withhold interest and serve as a
stepping stone to increase awareness that eating wholesomely was practised 1400 years ago.

Since she always favoured fruits and vegetables above meats, poultry and fish, a kind of domino effect resulted with the contents of her book. The idea of incorporating fruits and vegetables in
all the recipes, in alignment with the Islamic principles of wholesome eating, ended up as the continuous theme of her book. 

She sought a moderate take on ‘health ‘and since we strive to do everything in moderation in Islam, she concludes that eating according to Islamic etiquettes is a more wholesome, realistic concept.

Newly weds and novices in the kitchen should welcome this recipe book because of all the instruction charts such as measurement charts (including cake pan sizes), conversion charts, substitution chart (made it as comprehensive as possible), example of a weekly menu, glossary and even a seasonal
chart on SA fresh produce. The seasonal chart guides you to purchase fruits in season and to avoid buying those that are out of season. The seasonal chart also helps us to plan menus and make recipes according to availability of fresh produce. WE can even index our own recipe books according to this chart.

InshAllah may it inspire you and instil in you, the desire to eat wholesomely in a moderate and guilt-free manner. To conclude, “dreams are no good unless you realise them’, therefore, “what has
worth is worth waiting for”.

Contact information:  Cell number: 076 360 2076, 

e-mail address: rashida1203@gmail.com