Bowled Over
For busy parents, mealtime can be a scramble. In her new cookbook Build-a-Bowl (Storey, 2018), Nicki Sizemore, food blogger (fromscratchfast.com) and mother of two, shares her formula of balanced one-bowl meals that can be made in an hour or less. All of Sizemore’s 77 fuss-free recipes start with a grain base—think brown rice, millet, quinoa, sorghum, buckwheat and barley—and are customizable to suit different tastes and dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan. From Millet Muesli to Double-Broccoli Power Bowls and Crunchy Vietnamese-Inspired Chicken and Rice Salad, there are options for every meal of the day.
Fight Food Waste
It’s a hard statistic to swallow: 40 percent of food—about 133 billion pounds—goes uneaten in the United States every year. To fight back, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has set a nationwide goal to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030. In Cooking with Scraps (Workman, 2018), Food52 writer Lindsay-Jean Hard explains how to do your part to achieve this goal by turning ingredients such as stems, peels and other scraps into 80 delicious, inspired recipes. Use a cheese rind in Brothy Beans with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Rind and carrot tops in Carrot Top Pesto Tartlets. The book also includes tips and techniques to repurpose “trash” into culinary treasures.
Super Superfoods
In Nutritious Delicious (America’s Test Kitchen, 2018), the editors at America’s Test Kitchen TV show have compiled 125 recipes packed with healthful, flavorful superfoods. Each recipe includes a detailed description and explanation of cooking tips and nutritional benefits of various ingredients, plus mouthwatering photos. The editors have also compiled a handy section of 50 superfoods to turbocharge your everyday cooking. Choose from Frittata with Broccoli and Turmeric (rich in phytonutrients), Raw Beet and Carrot Noodle Salad (packed with antioxidants), Swiss Chard Enchiladas (loaded with vitamins A, C, E and K) and Butternut Squash Polenta (full of fiber).
Serve With Sauce
Most people don’t have the energy to cook a healthy dinner from scratch every night. Author and chef Elisabeth Bailey knows this well. In her latest book, The Make-Ahead Sauce Solution (Storey, 2018), she offers 61 freezer-friendly sauces to “flavor bomb” basic ingredients into delicious creations. Bailey’s system is to make sauces on the weekend, and then store them in the fridge or freezer until ready to use on basic staples. Try Eggplant Ragu on a sandwich or pasta; Creamy Chipotle on rice or shrimp; or Hot Orange on tofu, chicken or beef.
Visit livenaturallymagazine.com for recipes from each of these books, including Crunchy Vietnamese-Inspired Chicken and Rice Salad, Brothy Beans with Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Rind, Frittata with Broccoli and Turmeric, and Eggplant Ragu.