Nutritious and Delicious Challenge: We Have 2 Winners!

After having reviewed and read through quite a few books, I’ve arrived at (drumroll, please) the conclusion of the Nutritious and Delicious Challenge.  I have found two cookbooks who have each inspired me.  One has inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and enjoy the healthiest I have ever eaten, while retaining the flavor and convenience.  The other is simply what I’ve been looking for.  Not just a cookbook, but a lifestyle.  Healthy, delicious, organic, appealing, and fresh.

OK, OK, I’ll get to the point.  The first one I was talking about is Cathe Olson’s excellent little book Simply Natural Baby Food.  It certainly lives up to its name — it’s a no-frills, no pictures or distractions kind of basic book.  Cathe Olson is the first person I’ve met in the literary sense whose very nutritious recipes with a couple of novel ingredients (for me at least) like sea vegetables, nutritional yeast flakes and miso, are also easy to make and yummy! She refuses to compromise on flavor and all her recipes are simple and super healthy.  She packs a lot of information into such a slim book: 150 recipes! The recipes are by and large vegetarian.

At first I was a little reluctant to incorporate the ingredients she lists such as sea vegetables like kombu and kelp (I know, I know, but bear with me) but you know what?  Her idea is very simple and doesn’t involve a great learning curve when preparing these new ingredients. When you find them at your natural foods store, just crumble them, combine them and put in a salt shaker and shake, shake shake for your health. Anybody can do that and be healthier in return.

In contrast, I thought Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family was too much on the obscure ingredients and all-vegetarian side for my taste. My husband wouldn’t settle for a whole cookbook like that. I had to sell it. It looked and felt harder. It remains an excellent resource and I would heartily recommend it to vegetarians and anybody who is serious about adding new grains and more healthful ingredients to their family’s diet — and has the time and patience to learn about them.

Back to Simply Natural Baby Food. I like that kelp granules or powder is a substitute for sodium, as most of us get too much anyway.  Particularly helpful for babies (immature kidneys to process too much salt/sodium) and people with high blood pressure.  I’ve tried a number of the recipes, and each come out great and the instructions are so well written.  I like the tidbits she adds too.  The book is divided into beginner, intermediate, older baby and toddler foods.  What I like about this little gem is the fact that her older baby and toddler recipes are recipes the whole family can enjoy.

One potential problem for the less adventurous: although she lists detailed information about some obscure ingredients for some in the front of the book, some people just can’t make themselves haul to a natural foods store and take the time to search for arame, wakame and hijiki.  If you’re that type of person, just omit these ingredients and substitute sea salt or regular table salt for the kelp. No reason to throw out the baby with the bath water.  Now, if you’re a hard-core carnivore and want to feed your baby and toddler mostly meats and are only buying one book, I recommend passing on this one. For most people however, this book is a wonderful introduction to a healthier diet.

I can’t say enough about this book.  Did I mention this book was affordable too? Next time, I will discuss the other winner.