Cookbooks with 'healthy' recipes?

13 years ago

What constitutes "healthy cooking" varies for each of us. For our family, it would be primarily dishes that are low in saturated fat and calories but appetite-satisfying.

IÂm curious about what are your favorite go-to cookbooks for your personal tastes and definition of "healthy cooking".

My top two are Mollie KatzenÂs Vegetable Heaven and The Eating Well Rush Hour Cookbook. IÂve made many recipes from both of them multiple times and posted some of them here in the Cooking Forum too.

Vegetable Heaven is a vegetarian (but not vegan) cookbook with some of the best bean and grain recipes IÂve ever tasted. The Introduction of the book recounting how her cooking had evolved since The Moosewood Cookbook really changed my definition of what constituted a meal. IMO, the weakest part of the book is the dessert chapter and after trying a couple, I didnÂt make any others.

The Rush Hour Cookbook (subtitled Healthy Meals for Busy Cooks) has the recipes for complete dinner menus and nutritional information on each recipe. The meals use few processed foods and are separated by season to take advantage of fresh produce generally available at that time of year. Just about every recipe IÂve made fits our tastes and includes ingredients we like.

What are your favorites?

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Comments (9)

grainlady_ks
13 years ago
-Better Homes and Gardens NEW DIETER'S COOK BOOK

More than 400 recipes, lots of full-color photographs (one for every recipe). Clearly defined as: low-fat, low- or no-cholesterol, low- or no-sodium. Includes a two-week menu plan AND recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. REAL FOOD, you'll really love to make and eat.

-THE SPLENDID GRAIN - by Rebecca Wood
Not only a great cookbook, but a great resource for grain cookery.

-NATURAL MEALS IN MINUTES
-COUNTRY BEANS
both by Rita Bingham

-COOKING WITH COCONUT FLOUR
by Bruce Fife, N.D.
Low-carb, gluten-free alternative to wheat.

-FRESH FLAVOR FAST
An Everyday FOOD book from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living
Easy-to-find ingredients, quick & easy, whole foods; elegant meals without an "elegant" price...

-Grainlady
beth4
13 years ago
I have lots of Weight Watchers' cookbooks, and really enjoy cooking out of them. I even entertain using the recipes...they are that good. The notion of "healthy" or low fat/low calorie cooking has really evolved over the last 10+ years!
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RECIPE: healthy granola bar recipe please
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Here's one from the low Glycemic Index Recipe Book: GRANOLA BARS - Makes 16 bars 1 1/3 cups wholewheat flour sweetener - equivalent to 1/3 cup sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 cup wheat bran 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp salt (optional) 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 1 cup apricots - finely chopped 1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce 1/2 cup apple juice 3 low-cholesterol (omega 3) eggs 2 tsp vegetable oil 1. Line a shallow 8 x 12 inch baking dish with parchment paper. 2. Mix the flour, sweetener, baking powder, bran and spices in a large bowl. Stir in the oats, apricots and sunflower seeds. 3. Mix the applesauce, apple juice, eggs and oil, and add to the flour mixture. 4. Pour into the baking dish and spread evenly. 5. Bake at 400F for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool and cut into bars. Source: The Glycemic Index Diet - The Easy, Healthy Way to Permanent Weight Loss. Rick Gallop 2002 My Comments: I haven't yet made these but will be doing so in the next weeks. I use granulated white fructose in place of white sugar as it is rated as low GI. I have made several of Rick Gallop's recipes and find them to be very good, helping me lose 25 lbs in 3 months. ********************************* Here's his recipe for Granola Cereal: GI GRANOLA 1 1/2 cups (7 oz) jumbo porridge oats 1 x 40 oz pack of dried apple rings, chopped OR 2/3 cup (3 oz) dried cranberries or 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) unsalted sunflower seeds 1/3 cup (2 oz) sesame seeds 1/3 cup (2 1/2 oz) chopped almonds 1/4 cup (2 oz) ground flaxseeds or linseeds 1 TBS ground cinnamon 2 teasp grated orange zest 1/2 teasp sea salt 1 large egg white 1 TBS vegetable oil 1 TBS clear honey 2 teasp frozen orange juice concentrate 1 teasp vanilla essence 1. Preheat the oven to 375F (190C). Mix together in a large bowl the oats, apple, sunflower seeds,sesame seeds, almonds, flaxseeds or linseeds,cinnamon, orange zest and salt. 2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg white, oil, honey, orange juice concentrate and vanilla essence. Pour this into the oat mixture and toss until thoroughly coated. Turn out onto a shallow baking tray lined with nonstick parchment and spread evenly. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, turning the mixture once with a spatula halfway through baking time, or until mixture is golden brown. Store in an airtight container for 2 days at room temperature or freeze for up to one month. Source: Adapted from Rick Gallop's GI Diet Green-Light Cookbook My Comments: I still haven't made this yet as we don't see dried cranberries or frozen orange juice concentrate here but I hope to make substitutes. My friend Lynne made this with dried cranberries she brought back from England. She says it's delicious! *PS January 2007 .....I just found some dried cranberries in a supermarket so will be trying this soon with fresh orange juice. SharonCb
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Cookbook and Go To Recipe(s)
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Good recipes are where you find them. :) Most of my mentions below (which I won't edit out in case they're of interest to anyone) are for baking and the cooking ones are for a specific method or flavor. I realized in thinking about this, that most of my cooking is what I learned at home. Another great learning experience, however, was cooking through a bunch of recipes that I was editing, and needed to photograph, for a newsletter. Many were things I wouldn't have otherwise made, most were decent to good, if not great, and inviting people to lunch, regularly, to eat the results made for great socializing. Think Julie and Julia, without the drama. :) So I'd suggest you go through the books you have and make every recipe that has ingredients you like and see what you get. :) I don't make a lot of recipes from cookbooks, but I will use them as guides. I have dozens, and like to read through them for inspiration. When I was trying to raise my game with braises, which I love because they're inexpensive and you just throw everything in a pot, I made a few from All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens. The duck legs with sour cherries is worth the price of the book. :) But it's a lot of doing stuff for a braise, and I haven't made it again. Recently, I was given Plenty by Yoram Ottolenghi and it's fabulous, but I haven't made anything from it yet. I also use recipes from the 'net. I like finding ones that have a lot of comments. That's better than lab testing! I have many baking specific cookbooks and couldn't find a good recipe for plain chocolate cake. I wanted it to make cake with an 8-year-old, so I wanted a plain old cake, and not a mix. I could have invented a chocolate pound cake, but I finally found this on Add A Pinch blog. It really is that good, and we made it (twice) without the secret ingredient (espresso powder), and it was still that good (I used Valrhona cocoa). The best bundt cake recipe I ever made was also from a blog, which is gone now. It had a perfect crumb and was truly delicious. My most popular cake is a pumpkin chocolate marble bundt from Sunset magazine. The linked fig pie is also a big hit. The Black Family Reunion Cookbook from the NCNW (which is a from the store, bound volume) is another favorite, with all kinds of different recipes for cornpone and corn muffins, my favorite Passover green vegetable kugel is from a local congregation cookbook, and the "family" matzah ball recipe originated with one put out by the local Hadassah. When I make bread pudding, I refer to the recipe in It's All American Food by David Rosengarten, but I don't make precisely that. I do make the arroz con pollo as directed (more or less--it's my mother's recipe (her book, that is) and I think there are some changes she's made over the years) from The Spice Cookbook by Stuckey, Day and Spier from the 1960's. What I'm trying to say is having a favorite recipe from whatever source, is normal. Don't think of it as underutilizing your cookbooks. Think of it as cherishing the best they have to offer. :)
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thanks lynnalexandra. Sorry for the confusion on the cookbook. It is the whole cookbook and not just one or two recipes!!! Although it could be a hoax going around the net and I don't know about that either. But the recipes do sound like him (I used to watch him on tv all the time but can't seem to catch him anymore) There was a note on the inside of the "internet" cookbook that said this: Jamie Oliver's new cook book for free! How good is this..... Cook book = Â£20 Ingredients = Â£10 Getting sacked for "accidentally" releasing the book to the entire planet before it even hits the shelves = PRICELESS! It seems that someone at Jamie Oliver's publishing company sent a word document version of his 2nd book to one of their mates this morning. Unfortunately for the poor sap who sent the word document, it is now flying around the web at a rate of knots. So print what you like AND please spare a thought for the poor bugger that originally sent it, while enjoying the food you make from the recipes!!! The deal of the day - Jamie Oliver's latest cook book. RRP Â£20 at most participating book stores. Yours for nothing! Enjoy & Pass it on!! I just have a guilty feeling about passing something on like that. I should have read it before I offered. If someone can make me get rid of the guilty feeling for the "poor sap".... I'd pass it on!!! It's also good reading, if you know Jamie and how he speaks.
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RECIPE: heart healthy(low salt) & diabetic recipes
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Have you tried the EnerG products? They are at health food stores and some grocery stores carry them. There is a product called EnerG Baking Soda (no salt), EnerG egg Replacer (no fat, cholesterol and 5 mg. sodium). I also use Fetherweight baking powder (no salt). My Dad is on a low salt diet (500 mg./day) because he has heart and kidney failure. His problems were started from diabetes. The Dr. told him to make his own bread. Some sandwich buns have almost 500 mg. of sodium. You cannot buy any prepackaged foods, everything must be homemade.
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centralcacyclist
13 years ago
I love Pierre Franey's "Low Calorie Gourmet." I have several "spa food" type cookbooks, too, but haven't used them much.
Islay_Corbel
13 years ago
Mediterranean Harvest by Martha Rose Shulman. It's a vegetarian book and it's so good that DD and I each have a copy. DD is a veggie but we're not, just the recipes are SO good. She really understands mediterranean cooking, but hugely reduces quantities of olive oil etc. to make an already healthy diet even better.
eileenlaunonen
13 years ago
My favorite is Cooking Light...they release a cookbook once a year with the best of there magazine....most recipes Ive tried are very good and very flavorful. Good Luck
annie1992
13 years ago
My definition of healthy cooking isn't just low fat or low calorie, I want to use fresh ingredients, not a lot of salt or preservatives or chemical "enhancers" and not too much sugar except for special occasions. And then there's the difference between good fats and bad fats.

Anyway, I like Cooking Light, I like Eating Well and they both have good websites. I've gotten a few decent recipes from Prevention on line too.

I have a "Healthy Heart Cookbook" by the American Medical Association that's pretty good, and I have a Moosewood cookbook. I found I have to watch the vegetarian cookbooks, they don't use meat but they use a lot of oils, fats and creams sometimes.

Annie
Ideefixe
13 years ago
Deborah Madison. I'm not a vegetarian, and I'm not really fussed about lite, low-fat, low-salt, etc., but I think she's got great recipes that appeal to just about everyone, no matter what their food preferences/health requirements are. And they're not very complicated, which is a plus. Some of her ingredients might be a little hard to find, but if I don't have red quinoa, I can easily substitute something else.

Here is a link that might be useful: Deborah Madison at Amazon
cookebook
13 years ago
Ellie Krieger has a cookbook out with healthy recipes. I can't remember the name but it's her latest one. I've made several things from it, which, to me, is a sign it's a good cookbook.
ruthanna_gw
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for your replies. I checked on line and our library has many of the ones you listed so I'll be gradually checking them out over the summer.

Sometimes, I get a cookbook home and it seems like there's a half cup or more of butter in just about every recipe.

Cookbooks with 'healthy' recipes?

Comments (9)

grainlady_ks

beth4

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Cookbooks with 'healthy' recipes?

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