I need a good cookbook recommendation for healthy athletically minded folks. Any suggestions? Don’t want anything with a food agenda ie., Atkins or Ornish or otherwise, just a good middle of the road easy to read and follow cookbook to make healthy recipes for active fit people. Thanks.
Heres a free start, some ST recipes:
If you make my sweet potato hash, cut the spices in 1/2. I never measure I just eyeball it. I made it with the amounts I put in the recipe and it’s like a blowtorch on your tongue.
I’m not so aware of the ‘healthy’ moniker, because in my mind everything is better with a little more butter. Locally, I love the Wildwood cookbook. Great use of seasonal items and wonderful assortment of flavors. When I’m cooking more bistro-esq, it ususally comes up with some insipring ideas.
In general, the Naked Chef, jamie oilver, has a style that is fundamentally about fresh high quality food and letting it be itself. his recipes are healthy, fundamentally basic (no fancy french techniques, etc), usually quicker (because the food is itself, not made to be something else), and alot of times in its whole form. soups, breads, pastas, sauces, meats, grilling, desserts, etc. he covers the gamet, and it’s a refreshing approach that’s different from the typical overdone stylized chefs that are out there.
Also, I think Caprial and her husband John have a nice easy style about them. In recent years she has a focus of getting into healthier cooking. They are a bit fancier, but still focus on fresh foods.
I need a good cookbook recommendation for healthy athletically minded folks. Any suggestions? Don’t want anything with a food agenda ie., Atkins or Ornish or otherwise, just a good middle of the road easy to read and follow cookbook to make healthy recipes for active fit people. Thanks.
I am a huge fan of Cooking Light. I get the magazine which I like b/c it’s a finite amount of recipes to choose from each month. They also have some good quick dinner recipes which I think take 20 minutes or less to prepare. If you don’t want to subscribe to the magazine you can buy the best of cooking light for any given year.
How healthy are ya lookin’ for?
If I had to have only one cookbook, you know, on a desert island with a full gourmet gas-powered kitchen - it would be this:
It’s the mother of all Italian cookbooks, and certainly the most worn and stained in my kitchen.
Tom Valenti’s “Soup, Stews, and One-pot Meals” – not especially for the low-fat crowd, but heh, it is great food, most of the recipes you make in one-pot, and they are easy enough for a culinary knucklehead like me. And he’s got great tips for the leftovers. Highly recommend it.
How healthy are ya lookin’ for?
Thanks for the clarifier: Not THAT healthy, but not junk food or heavy creamy deserts either. The Classical Italian Cookbook looks great.
Thanks
We like the recipes in The Zone cookbook, but adjust the quantities for additional carbs, protein, and fat when training levels demand more (seldom these days).
More book than cookbook, I like Chris Carmichael’s Food for Fitness. He has some recipes in there, and I especially like the Apple and Orange Chicken.
I’ll second what another poster said about Cooking Light. I also like the Moosewood Restaurant Cookbooks, in all its guises. Some vegetarian stuff, some meat eater stuff, all good and varied.
Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals are often quite healthy believe it or not. Food Network’s web site has a ton of free recipes on their web site including hers. She uses a lot of olive oil and that is about it. Recipes don’t get much simpler than hers and most of them that I have made have been very good, and fast.
there are a few excellent recipe websites.
the first is www.epicurious.com. you can go there and do very complex searches (e.g., i want a main dish whose main ingredient is lentils, but also includes green pepper and does not have onion.) and can also browse. other users can write reviews and make suggestions, which makes the recipes more practical for ‘normal’ people.
the second is http://www.ivu.org/recipes/regions.html
these are all vegetarian recipes (i’m not trying to sell anybody on vegetarianism, but most of the recipes are very healthy) from around the world. you can browse by conutry/region, from Italian to Pakistani to …
My wife Meredith and her dietician friend Catherine Kruppa have written a cookbook titled “Quick and Healthy Recipes for Active People.” It contains recommended healthy grocery list items, breads & muffin recipes, main courses, sides and sauces, and yes, even desserts. All the recipes are EASY to follow using easily acquired ingredients, and include the nutritional analysis of each recipe. Meredith is an ultramarathoner, triathlete, culinary arts minor, PhD student, master’s and women’s triathlon swim coach and an awesome cook and wife. Catherine is the dietician at the Houstonian Health Club in Houston, a new mom, and a marathon runner herself. If you’d like to order one, please e-mail her at meredithbn@yahoo.com. They’re $25.
-Paul Terranova
Austin, TX
I like the “Weight Watchers: New Complete Cookbook.” It lists all the nutritional info for each recipe, has a very diverse recipe selection, (kinda like my mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook, but with less fat and more fresh foods), and is pretty simple to follow.
I’ve made many meals for friends, received a lot of compliments, and no one knew they were eating “healthy.”
- Cheryl
Check out the “Everyday Italian” recipes on FOODTV.com. Over all they are easy to prepare, use simple ingredients, and overall mostly low fat. Love the balsalmic chicken. Lots of pasta as well!!!
I love all the Weight Watchers Cook Books - particularly Take Out Tonight … the Kung Pao Shrimp is incredible as is the Pad Thai - awesome and healthy.
Despite the fact it’s “weight watchers” there is no agenda - it’s reallly about healthy ingredients and portion size, which you can alter at your discretion.
Tri Hard !