Customer Reviews

Healthy Foods : An Irreverent Guide to Understanding Nutrition and Feeding Your Family Well

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have tried many of the recipes in this book and have yet to find a dud. The pistou soup is warm and filling; the rubber chicken is easy to prepare, delicious, and frugal; and I have never made an easier or tastier pizza crust than the Kneadless Pizza Dough. Even my picky family has raved over everything I've prepared from this book. Leanne's style is unpretentious and her advice is practical. I had to get over the need to have exact measurements (she occasionally refers to using a 'blob' or a 'little bit', basically relying on you to adjust for your own tastes). It is well worth the time to read the first chapters about general nutrition, written in an easily understandable form and chock full of important advice. Her chapters on food allergies and eating disorders could be lifesavers. This cookbook has quickly become the most favored one on my shelf, and I'm sure I'll have to get another one eventually because this one will be tattered and covered with food stains. It's that good.

"Quality nutrition can only come from quality food. Quality food is defined as less processed, more natural, more basic foods-like fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. Easy stuff to get at the market. There are however, concerns that we are necessarily, having to deal with in this 21st century." ~Leanne Ely

Need a recipe for Pesto or want to learn to make healthier French Fries? How did mom make those mashed potatoes anyway?

Well, Leanne Ely has the answers and had created a cute cookbook filled with over 100 family-approved recipes.

If your kids are hungry for pizza and there isn't a frozen pizza in sight, you might enjoy making the Pizza Muffins. If you keep a bottle of spaghetti sauce around, some mozzarella cheese, various toppings and mixed grain English muffins in the kitchen, you will have an easy-to-prepare snack.

The first thing I noticed in this cookbook was an ingredient called "sucanat." If you are wondering what this is, well, I was too. I found the answer on pg. 51, where the author also lists, kamut flour, carob and whole wheat pastry flour. I was then sent to the glossary for explanations.

The glossary is not where you'd expect it to be, it is on page 59. Ok, so it is that natural cane sugar I've seen in health food stores! All the other ingredients seemed pretty normal to me, still, you might want to find a health food store in your area or most grocery stores seem to have an isle of natural foods. If you want to shop online, there is a resource section at the back of the book.

The basic recipe sections:

Breakfast in Bread and Other Comforts
Soup & Salad Bar
Life in the Fast Food Lane
The Main Thing
Dips, Snacks & Tricks
Just Desserts

Some of the recipes include: Buttermilk Cornbread, Mega Manic Muffin Mix, Lentil Soup, Tabbouleh, Mama's Mashed Potatoes, Quinoa Pilaf, Shepherd's Pie, Roasted Garlic, Pizza, Hummus and Mexican Chicken Salad. Want to try something sweet? Try the Apple Cake or Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Some of the highlights of this cookbook include the short essays on food at the start of the book. Leanne Ely explains why writing this book became essential for the health of her family and how you can also change your food and change your life.

Leanne believes we all know what works best for our bodies. She has been a victim of the experts who have given her ideal diets to follow. Finally, she decided to just follow the "guru" within. She explains the basics of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

Then, she delves into the dangers lurking in our regular grocery store shelves. After reading chapter three, organic foods will start looking pretty darn good to you. Do you have a child who has allergies or want to teach "manners to the not so mannerly." I recently read that the top food allergies are nuts, shellfish/seafood, milk, wheat, eggs, a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, yeast and soya protein. So even "healthy" foods might not be healthy for everyone. It is really tricky. Before she gets into the recipe section, she also explains basic tools and how to stock the pantry.

Before you hand your very young child a peanut butter cookie, consider their age. Peanut butter should not be fed to children younger than 3 years old. It is almost as difficult to avoid peanut butter as it is to avoid cottonseed oil. It seems to be in everything. Even chocolate can have traces of peanuts as can soy protein bars, etc, etc. In fact, by avoiding cottonseed oil, palm kernel oils and peanut butter, you might notice your skin clearing up if you didn't realize you had an allergy to begin with. We all live and learn.

If some of the health information intrigues you, you might also want to read: The Metabolic Plan by Stephen Cherniske. It takes health to new levels! A must-read! It has become more and more obvious to me that to live a long and healthy life, you need to read a lot of books!

Choosing a healthy lifestyle seems to be key and it is really this huge puzzle you have to figure out on your own. You find some pieces in books and some pieces are the result of your own experience with food. Leanne Ely gives quite a few great suggestions on how to not only improve the health of your family, she also gives a basic overview of nutrition so you can feed your family well. There are a few puzzle pieces in this book, pieces I have never seen in any other cookbook.

Leanne's "irreverent" style is cute and you will learn a ton about nutrition and I'm even thinking about using "sucanat" in some of my own recipes.

~The Rebecca Review

You want to serve your family a nutritious meal but the children only want burgers and fries. Your son drowns everything on his plate in ketchup and your daughter gets chronic stomachaches. They eat too much or absolutely nothing. What in the world do you do? Leanne Ely, C.N.C., nutritionist, had problems feeding her children and was determined to find out how to help them and herself.

"Healthy Foods" is filled with easy to digest information on nutrition that suites the needs of children as well as adults. She doesn't try to sell you on a new diet or product that doesn't work. Instead, she provides clear facts along with her own opinions and observations, which are clearly labeled as such. She provides lots of useful links to websites with dietary information for further research. In her playful way, she also provides tips to get your kids to try new foods. How about cutting up food and letting your child pick up the pieces with toothpicks?

Mrs. Ely has come up with over 100 family tested recipes to choose from. These recipes are designed to be un-intimidating and good for you. Everything from snacks to breakfast, lunch, and dinner are covered. Recipes are very simply and use easy to find ingredients, though you may need to go to a health or natural food store for some. Some may take offense to the occasional use of processed foods used here and there but they are kept to a minimum and they are the more health conscious varieties.

I don't have children but I do want to eat right. I also have days were I don't want to cook anything too adventurous. I was impressed with the quality of the information she provided and in the way it was presented. Her guidelines are just that, "guide" lines. You need to make the necessary adjustments to suite your family's lifestyle and needs.

It was fun picking out recipes to try, especially since many recipes had funny titles such as Not Your Mama's Tuna Casserole, Poor Tater Supper, and Pumpkin Mumkins. I found several recipes I was already familiar with and others with a new twist. Recipes are easily adaptable to what you have on hand and geared towards experimentation. "Fast and Furious Chicken and Rice" has been transformed numerous times depending on my refrigerator's contents. I've substituted cooked ground chicken for chicken breasts and put taco cheese on top. On one occasion I added frozen vegetables and a couple of shots of Tabasco.

One of my favorite breakfasts, especially now that the weather's warming up, has become her "Smoothie Patrol". It beats a Slim-Fast shake any day, and I can make any flavor I want. If you have kids, here's one they'll never guess is good for them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cookbook and will refer to it many times. I have already suggested it to several friends at work who have small children that are problem eaters. If I had to force myself to find a problem it would be that occasionally there is a recipe that is too tame for my taste buds. Here and there I would add a dash of spice to punch it up a bit.

I think that regardless of age, this cookbook would find a good home in anyone's kitchen. From college students to those more mature in age, this is a very useable cookbook indeed.

This is by far the best cookbook I own, and it has become my "cooking bible." Ever since getting married 3 years ago, and learning to cook, I have bought cookbook after cookbook trying to find a few that fit my healthy lifestyle, yet don't go overboard with the nutritional jargon. As a Registered Nurse with a bachelors of science degree, I have much knowledge in the area of nutrition and how important healthy eating is to one's energy levels, disease prevention, etc. I was constantly disappointed with cookbooks that only provided one or two interesting recipes. This cookbook has it all...from great-tasting food (REALLY tasty recipes) to excellent and interesting nutrition information that anyone can adapt to their lifestyle. This week I made the chocolate Mama's PMS cake, Apricot oatbran muffins, Enchilasagna, smoothies, broccoli soup and they were all fabulous. I literally went through my cookbook collection and donated almost all my other cookbooks to the library. I've also adapted Leanne's suggestion to use whole wheat pastry flour in place of white flour and Sucanat (evaporated cane juice) instead of white sugar, and of incorporating more protein into meals (in addition to complex carbs). This book has changed my life and given me more energy. By the way, my husband loves the food from this book, too (we don't have kids yet).

I love this cookbook and I just got it. All the recipes are not only healthy but things you would actually cook for your family. I just made the Double Duty Chicken and it couldn't have been easier or more delicious. The hamburger soup is also great for a quick dinner that your kids will actually eat. The recipes are all real simple with not too many ingredients. Don't you hate when you find a recipe you like and it has 20 ingredients in it and takes 2 hours to make? Well, none of those in here! Great cookbook if you're trying to cook healthy meals for your family.

Kudos to the author for writing this book. Avoiding "bad" foods does not always result in a nutritious diet. In this book, basic nutrition is followed by nutritious - and mainstream - recipes. What would have been useful is a section describing how to increase the nutritional content of existing recipes without changing their essense. But there is good content in this book. One surprise - the author also takes a hardline with firm tofu: forget it. It was truly liberating. Instead of obsessing with incorporating tofu into our diet, I decided to have more fun with other nutritious foods that we like better. And this book is intended to be fun and is targeted to parents. There are few better gifts to give children than a nutritious diet and an understanding of nutrition.

After buying Ely's Saving Dinner, which gives menus for 32 weeks of healthy dinners, I wished that I had some recipes from her for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, too. This book provides all those things.
There are breads, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cereals, smoothies, pancakes and more for daily and special occasion breakfasts. There are delicious soups and salads for lunches, cookies and cakes and dips for snacks, and tasty dinner dishes, too.
There is also plenty of useful information about healthy eating and cooking. The whole book is fun to read.
Every recipe I have tried has been very good. Since they are very casually written, they might be a little confusing for the absolute tyro, or a little nerve-wracking for those who like precision in the kitchen, but most moms should have no trouble.

I have to say, I am a cookbook freak. I love buying cookbooks but normally find one good keeper and feel the money I spent was a waste. Not so with this one. I have 3 boys ages 9, 7, and 3. For the past 3 weeks, we have eaten a new dinner *every night* from this cookbook alone. There's not one person in our family of five who has not liked these recipes. They are easy, fast, delicious, and frugal. I was on a quest for health but on a budget and this book fit the requirements. I will buy this book for every person I can and will buy every cookbook Leanne puts out there. Thank you Leanne!!!!!!!!

This actually isn't just a cookbook. It includes so much information, not just recipes. I love Leanne Ely's humor and wit so much. The recipes are terrific... my family has loved everything I have cooked so far. I highly highly highly recommend!

Healthy Foods promotes a common-sense approach to healthy eating. Author Leanne Ely, frustrated with her doctors' responses to her daughter's recurring ear infections, went on a one-woman crusade to make her daughter well. In the process she discovered her daughter 's milk allergy, learned how diet affects the body, become a certified nutrition consultant, and improved the health of her entire family.

Not just another book promoting the low-fat lifestyle, the latest high-protein fad, or the diet du jour, Healthy Foods shows how to control your family's health through responsible nutrition with little effort. Ely focuses on the fact that each person's body is unique, therefore, nutritional requirements are unique, too. She promotes balance and encourages us to learn to understand what is best for our own body.

The nutritional section of the book begins with a discussion of protein, carbohydrates and fats and the roles each play in our bodies. A chapter on food quality shows how to avoid the chemicals and additives that plague our kitchens these days. The section on child obesity and allergies is very enlightening.

The third section of the book, Making Mealtime Manageable, takes us into the dining room and kitchen with clever tips to get kids to eat (like the on-a-stick trick), dinner manners, kitchen tools and pantry staples.

The rest of the book is comprised of family-friendly recipes. The Breakfast chapter offers muffins, pancakes and smoothies loaded with nutritional power. Life in the Fast Food Lane shares quick and easy alternatives to the drive-through window. The Main Thing takes classic favorites, such as meatloaf, and adds a healthy spin. Even the Desserts chapter includes goodies that pack a big nutritional bang for the caloric buck. Other chapters include Soups, Salads, Dips and Snacks.

The entire book is peppered with interesting and informative sidebars, such as Lunch Box Tricks, Ode to Garlic, A Tidbit on Tofu, and Snack Attacks.

Although a few of the ingredients may be unfamiliar to some readers (for example, sucanat, evaporated sugar cane juice; and quinoa, a whole grain), Ely provides a Glossary of New Terms to explain them, a Resources section to help you find them, and familiar recipes in which to use them.

Healthy Foods promotes real food for real life and is a must-read for anyone concerned with the health of their family.