Food to go: Multi-tasking food blogger Sinéad Delahunty cooks up a storm
By Joyce Fegan
An athlete, a physiotherapist and a thriving food blog means Sinéad Delahunty is perfectly placed to talk about the importance of good nutrition in fuelling her life.
The Tipperary native grew up on a farm and on a diet of home-cooked foods. It was only after college, while she was transitioning to life as a working professional, balancing life on the road commuting to country and club training, that the importance of a good diet really hit home.
“Leaving college life became a little sedentary because I was in the car a lot, driving for work and for county and club football training, so it was easy to just stop at the petrol station. I could see how I was getting lured into the marketing trap,” says Sinéad.
This transition was the impetus for her to be more organised with her nutrition and it was also the starting point for her award-winning food blog Delalicious.
She was “always cooking”, so it made sense to take pictures of her creations and to write about them online.
“My brother wore me down with encouragement to start a blog, and I thought: ‘Sure who’d be reading it’,”she recalls.
At the start I didn’t put much thought into it but now I have to plan for the blog and I work off a content calendar. I do all my own styling and all images are taken on my phone. I do this because I love it.
“I think I can help other people feel confident in the kitchen, be confident with food.”
She describes her recipes as fool-proof and that she uses “simple ingredients in a creative way”.
“There are three things that I like to impart to people: that cooking is easy, it’s accessible and it can fit your lifestyle.”
Her lifestyle is a particularly busy one, with a full-time job in a Dublin hospital, football training three times a week, gym before work and a successful blog to maintain and cook for.
However, having seen the impact good nutrition has had on her mood, energy and recovery from a match, it is not something she is willing to compromise on, so planning and batch-cooking is key.
“It’s a mix of planning and flexibility. I will always have a few things in my fridge that I can make into something quick, a go-to meal like a frittata, which is a great meal.
Eggs are one of the best sources of natural protein. I have a frittata recipe in the book with turnip, brie, red peppers and spinach. It’s really satiating and great for muscle recovery and muscle development.
She is a strong believer in batch cooking and advises people who are time poor to invest a little time in themselves and their diet “for evenings where you’re wrecked”.
“Create meals like chilli in a batch. At the weekend I will make a pot of soup for the week and some days I’ll put pesto on top of it or seeds or boil up a chicken breast and shred it into it. So each day it’s a bit different, you kind of trick yourself into it.”
Given her tight schedule during the week, she does her grocery shop on Sundays, taking into account what her week is going to be like.
When it comes to preparing her lunches for work, she always does this while dinner is cooking in the evening and then she has it in the fridge ready to go in the morning.
“I work off a schedule. It keeps me focused and stops me getting overwhelmed. It settles me,” she explains.
However, Sinéad is not just referring to her diet, she means her life too.
Her new book contains more than recipes and handy hints on how best to batch cook and freeze food, it also includes her life philosophy.
Something that she has learned through sport is to support herself.
“You have to back yourself, I’ve learned this through not getting picked for teams or making mistakes in work. I’ve learned that when you make a mistake you have two choices: accept it and then learn how to improve,” she says.
“Perfectionism holds people back, it’s about your best effort.”
