Healthy / Lo-Cal Challenge Ideas
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Several cookbookers have suggested that a suitable target for a future challenge would be something a bit lower calorie / lower fat. I'm curious if we could come up with something which would meet our high Cookbooker standards in this realm - any suggestions? I'm definitely wary of fad diets or books that compromise on flavor by using lots of processed low-cal ingredients.
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This is a good question. And I'm with you on no processed foods or fad diets.
And Zosia had it right when she commented on how healthy the recipes were!
I have the America's Test Kitchen healthy food book, its pretty good but not nearly exciting enough for a challenge. -
I'm not sure how exciting her recipes are, but I've heard Ellie Krieger's name bandied about on the internet (in a positive way) - she's written her own books and has her own tv show, though I'm not familiar with them. I believe she's a proponent of eating everything but in a smart way.
Or perhaps Super Natural Everyday by Heidi Swanson - it seemed to garner quite a bit of attention and positive reviews when it came out last year. Again, I'm not familiar with it, but it sounds interesting. -
I agree with Ellie Krieger. I have Comfort Food Fix and The Food You Crave and the other one is on my wish list. Comfort Food Fix was a James Beard 2012 nonimee. She does use real food and her moto is everything in moderation. The following is from a bio I found online:
The Food You Crave won the 2009 IACP Cookbook award and the esteemed 2009 James Beard Foundation Award for “Best Cookbook with a Healthy Focus." Her next book So Easy: Luscious Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week, also became an instant New York Times bestseller.
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"The food you crave" is already on the bookshelves of 39 cookbookers. I'd not heard of Ellie Krieger - but she does have a nice looking website.
I own Super Natural Everyday, and love it.
I've also been intrigued by the title "Appetite for Reduction" which is a vegan low-fat cookbook. I looked at a library copy a while back. Its on the shelf of 28 cookbookers. -
There's also Martha Rose Schulman. She writes the "Well" recipes--healthy, often vegetarian recipe column in the NY Times. She's also written a couple of cookbooks, among them "Recipes for Health" which is taken from the columns, "Mediterranean Harvest" "Mediterranean Light" "Provencal Light" -- I think her food is terrific, very healthy yet still really good.
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This booklooks interesting, and I love the cover. does anyone have any experience with it? It is called appetite for reduction.
http://www.amazon.com/Appetite-Reduction-Filling-Low-Fat-Recipes/dp/1600940498
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Wester, I agree that many fats have been wrongly vilified, and that probably sugar (and especially high fructose corn syrup) are much much worse that many fats.
Do you have an idea for a healthy cookbook (not focused on low fat, but perhaps on use of healthy fats)?? I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on this. -
My own personal philosophy is to use real fats - butter, olive oil, lard, goose and duck fat (when i can get it) and keep my portions reasonable. I'm also curious to see what the research will show about sugar and refined flours, but remain wary of all research into diet as it has been so often rather iffy science in the recent past. So I haven't given up cookies yet.
That said, I think we could do a challenge that explored some 'healthy' cooking to see if there's quality out there. I imagine that having a focus on more vegetables and a lower caloric density would help avoid some of the low-fat minefield. There's a lot we don't understand yet about nutrition but we can all agree that flavor is the final arbiter of whether you're going to keep using a cookbook.
Heidi Swanson's books, which were mentioned before, are good examples of this. She's a vegetarian but is not afraid of coconut fat, butter and good vegetable oils. Her focus is on flavor and on 'natural' foods - using minimally processed ingredients. I was very impressed with her most recent book. -
Another candidate for a "healthy" cookbook that I think might have broad appeal is the one by Martha Rose Shulman, "The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More from the Popular Feature on NYTimes.com". I have not seen the book, but I have prepared several of her recipes from the New York Times. Unfortunately there are no reviews from this book, and it appears on only one cookbooker's bookshelf.
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Funny you should suggest this book....I borrowed it from the library based on kateq's recommendation above, as well as Super Natural Every Day, and it holds a lot more appeal for me than Heidi Swanson's book.
One of the previous challenges was based on a blog....I don't know why it was chosen instead of a book, but perhaps Andrew would consider a challenge of this nature again. If it's Martha Rose Shulman, all of the recipes could come from her NYT Recipe for Health series. Just a thought...... -
I was amazed to see that there are 26 titles by Ms. Shulman listed on the site. Maybe it could be a challenge based on an author instead of on a book or blog...and I agree with Zosia--I have Heidi Swanson's book, but don't really find all that much in it that appeals to me. Shulman's recipes are great though---she uses real food--olive oil, butter, etc--but focuses on moderation and flavor.
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I just put a hold on two of her titles - it will be interesting to take a look. The reviews on Amazon were pretty good. Have you taken a look yet, Zosia? Kateq - thanks for pointing out this author. I do enjoy her NYT published recipes. Kateq- can you get a copy from a library?
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kateq said:
Maybe it could be a challenge based on an author instead of on a book or blog.
kateq, I like this idea.
QS, I've had a quick look at the recipes and have already chosen quite a few that I'd like to try, but haven't had a chance to really read the book, something I like to do before I actually start cooking. Hopefully this weekend.... -
Sounds like a fun idea. My library has two of Shulman's books. Since my daughter works there I'm asking her to pick them up for me.
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I've been going thru the book and have indexed a few recipes which are also on the web site--so I added links in the book index to the recipe on the NYT website. There are some truly lovely recipes, many of which are quite simple and straightforward. They are what Ms. Shulman describes in her intro--good tasting, healthy food that can, in most cases, be made for a weeknight meal.
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I've got a stack of Shulman cookbooks and use most of them fairly regularly. I like that she doesn't obsess on the low-fat craze, but uses proper ingredients in moderation.
I don't have the Very Best Of Recipes for Health, but it looks interesting. I'd love to do a challenge with her books! Would be an excuse (as if I need one) to pick up a one or two more of her books. -
After spending some time with the book, I'm even more impressed. The recipes are as kateq and kaye 16 describe above and the book itself is informative without being preachy, and the "well-stocked pantry" the author recommends contains common ingredients that are used extensively in the recipes. Each recipe is coded so one can see at a glance if it's vegan, gluten-free, low-cal etc....The book includes recipes for fish, seafood and poultry but unlike the NYT column, doesn't include desserts.
I'm looking forward to cooking from it, whether or not it's chosen for the challenge.
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I've now also looked at the library's copy of Shulman's "The Very Best Of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes and More...". Its a beautiful book, one I would certainly use and want for my library. As @Zosia said, there are vegan recipes, and even a whole chapter of vegetarian main dishes.
I also like the Super Natural Every Day cookbook, but find that many have long ingredient lists. By contrast, the Shulman book looks as if I could easily find recipes that use ingredients that I already have on hand. -
I don't have any Shulman cookbooks but I faithfully read her in the Times and often cook from her recipes -- I think she is a great choice. I have also made a few of Ellie Krieger's recipes and they were well-received in our home. I own, and have tried to get excited about cooking from, Super Natural Every Day -- so far without success.
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They don't have "The Very Best Of Recipes for Health" at my local library but are trying to get it thru interlibrary loan. They only have two of her books there. My daughter checked out "The Best Vegetarian Recipes: From Greens to Grains, from Soups to Salads: 200 Bold Flavored Recipes" for me and I'm loving it. I want to try almost every recipe in it. Now of course I want a copy of my own. The other one she has on hold for me since it was checked out. I'm still cooking from my two Ellie Krieger books and loving them too.
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Sounds like we have a challenge! Seems like if we combine her books and the website we'll have a comprehensive and accessible group to choose from. I'm going camping for most of this coming week but I can set it up when I return and we can get started for the end of July / start of August.
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I was so pleased with the book I borrowed that I have now ordered one of my own, even with many of the recipes being available on line.
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@kateq, which book did you borrow, now ordered?
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"The Very Best Recipes for Health" should be delivered by Tuesday or before...a really good book. I love her pantry list and the details/notes on the recipes. And I have to admit there is something lovely about an actual book in one's hands as opposed to the recipes on the web.
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Kaye16 - I also borrowed this from the library - have not yet cooked anything from it but agree its a spectacular cookbook. The index is particularly well done. I've been to busy to cook (gasp), and now am on vacation - but I look forward to returning and exploring this cookbook.
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My copy is on the way -- yay, another cookbook, just what I need. ;-)
Cleaning up some of the cookbook shelves* in the last weeks, I've found yet more Shulman books tucked away. Looks like she's my most popular cookbook author. I'd have guessed Jaffrey, but it's 12 vs. 6, as registered on Cookbooker now, although no where near all my cookbooks are listed, but there can't be that many more of either hiding.
A nice Cookbooker feature might be to count books by author, something like the Tags page perhaps???
*I clean & dust books on 2-3 shelves each week, working my way around the house. I have a little ceramic dinosaur that sits on and admires the last cleaned shelf so I know where to start again the next week. About the the time I'm all the way around, it's time to start again. (Besides the cleaning part, I also use this time to decide if any books need to be recycled in a somewhat vain effort to reduce the book population in our house and make more shelfspace available for new ones.) -
Just a quick update - obviously I didn't set this up for the start of August. I'm shooting for the end now. Been a very, very busy summer, but things should open up after September gets underway, kids are back in school etc.
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I am glad this was delayed a bit - I, too, have been busy. But I've been collecting her recipes and am looking forward to trying them.
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I am also back now that the kids are in school and I also start to get my head above water. I was afraid I may have missed this challenge and also am looking forward to healthy cooking!
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Just checking in and happy to see this thread. I'm game for a healthy cooking challenge too and will check the library for some of her books.
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I've several recipes that I've been saving for this challenge - I hope it will still be a go. Not that I have time to cook, mind you, but the challenges are always a big motivation for me. How are YOUR gardens/CSA boxes? Early fall is such a great time to cook/eat!
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Thanks for asking, this is my first year with a CSA farm and the Spring season finished in May. Too hot all summer, now the seeds are just planted and the greens, beans and peas are starting to come up. Hopefully no tropical storms to wash it all out. I am happy that the contest is a little delayed as it will be easier for me to cook up a storm when the CSA starts harvesting again. Looking forward to the weekly surprise of a fall CSA basket.
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I'm just checking in to see if the challenge has started. I assumed it had and cooked two recipes from Martha Rose Shulman's The Very Best of Recipes for Health. Oh well, hopefully it will start soon. It seems to be a lovely cookbook!
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I've decided to join Leeka and Zosia, and to start cooking from the next challenge cookbook. So many fruits and vegetables are at their peak now, I don't want to wait any longer.
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Thank you all for the prods - I had to sit and do some programming, and it was easy to put it off with all the hubbub with the start of school (I work at a university as my day job). But now I've done it, and we'll officially start the challenge.
I have posted the challenge in the usual challenge page: http://www.cookbooker.com/challenge.php and set everything up. I also made the start date retroactive to August, to capture some recent reviews you've been making. It's on until the end of October, so get cooking! -
I just love the simplicity of many of these recipes! Thanks, Andrew.
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Thanks, Andrew! I didn't do much cooking over the summer apart from some very simple staples so I look forward to trying lots of great new recipes.
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Same here - I seemed to lose my ability to do complicated things during the summer! Now fall is coming, I'm starting to get the itch to do some new cooking, though. Glad to see I'm not the only one - I felt guilty for not doing fantastic things on the grill or lovely summer salads etc.
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Okay, I have updated my reviews, returned my library books for now and am headed to California for a week! Have fun cooking, I will hope to enjoy a chance to check in and see what everyone is up to!
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PS, Enjoy your visit to CA. Maybe you'll find a cookbook you can't live without while there then you can do more reviews for us to enjoy.
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I really enjoyed participating in this challenge and reading everyone's reviews. Though the recipes weren't particularly difficult/ "challenging" to make, I'm happy to have been introduced to an author that I can rely on for recipes that are easy, tasty and nutritious.
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Great to see the wealth of reviews on this challenge! I'll tally everything up this weekend and announce the winners Sunday most likely. Good stuff, everyone.
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I liked that the Details page for the challenge says:
Is that two or 3 prizes? ;-)3. Available prizes. Two (3) prizes of one (1) cookbook each, to be chosen by the winner from any of Martha Rose Shulman's previous cookbooks regularly available for bookstore purchase (no rare, out of print or specialty copies). -
I'm no mathematician, obviously! Those large numbers confuse me... Let's make it 3 to err on the side of generosity...
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This was a fun challenge! I enjoyed reading everyone's reviews, and having multiple cookbooks and the web site also kept it interesting! Thanks to everyone.
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Ditto!
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