I think my husband and I have a small addiction to cook books. Remember my healthy cook book roundup? Every time we enter a book store or thrift store or go to a yard sale we head right over to the books and search for new cook books. My husband will no doubt gravitate towards ethnic cuisine and dessert books. I like cook books for vegetarians, crock pot enthusiasts, and of course … those who like more traditional and nourishing foods. Two new books that found their way into our homes (via their respective publishers) and now have a permanent spot on our shelves are highlighted below.
The Real Food Diet – This book is not like your traditional “diet” books that are out there on the market. Instead of asking you to count calories it implores you to count nutrients and do the “food math”. In the info chapters at the beginning you will find information about real versus fake food, a list of the top 30 nutrient dense foods, and what frankenfoods to avoid… aka the white stuff, pasteurized dairy, conventional meats and eggs, artificial sweeteners, etc. I have really enjoyed this cookbook because it REALLY meshes with my own ideas about food. It is part nourishing foods and part raw foods and although it does have meaty recipes it also has plenty without. I LOVE the fact that it highlights nutrient dense plant foods because frankly some nourishing foods enthusiasts harp on liver, liver, liver all the time. That is just nasty if you ask me.
This book also gives us a ton of recipes that don’t use grains. The Grainless Granola? Yum! The gluten free Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes? Yum! Each recipe has little symbols next it that symbolize the value in each recipe… aka Quick Recipes, Raw Food Recipes, Kids Favorites, Feeling Sick Foods, Low Energy Foods, Post Workout, and Inflammation. All the recipes I have made thus far were quite good and this book covers all the basics of a REAL food diet. It is one darn excellent cookbook. The only criticism I have is cosmetic and more about how the book was published rather than written. I LOVE the spiral bound pages because you lay the book open flat but the pages in this particular book stuck to each other… a LOT.
The Homesteader’s Kitchen – This book is also very much about real foods/nourishing foods but it has a distinct homestead and local foods movement feel to it. It concentrates on comfort foods made with local ingredients – from farm to table. I am hugely into the local foods movement so I really enjoyed this book as well. It has plenty of the basic recipes like Vegetable Soup but also some more exotic ideas like the Samurai Breakfast.. which I thought was awesome. This book also has meat recipes but they are not in the majority, which is nice for me and the book has a specific section for vegetarians. Another bonus is that is has instructions for making basic foods like your own yogurt, cheese, creme fraiche, sourdough starter, tortillas, and the like. It is an all around great book for the basics of local foods eating and farm fresh goodness with a very modern twist. It is in part something your grandmother would have had on her bookshelf and in part something brand new. It is mesh of old and new ideas and cooking and definitely a keeper.
