EatingWell Magazine has long been in the vanguard of publications devoted to healthy, tasty, life-affirming diets. In Comfort foods Made Healthy, they have trained their eyes on our favorite comfort foods, and refreshed them for more enjoyment.
EatingWell aims to transform the American kitchen. The surprising taste of foods enlivened by bright flavors rather than artery-clogging ingredients requires a makeover, and makeover is the key word. These dedicated professionals use their skills and talents to transform our foods and our kitchens while retaining the comfort we derive from classic dishes. They toss away items such as the perpetually used canned soups, and they make substitutions, such as non-fat milk thickened with flour for whole milk, or fresh vegetable sauces for butter loaded cream sauce. Dishes that once were fried and loaded with fat head to the oven for reduced calories and reduced artery-clogging fats.
To change the kitchen, first we must alter the way we think about food. With changed cooking habits, the renewed recipes will fall easily into a cook's repertoire. The book begins with ten principles for healthy cooking (not so hard, after all), makeover secrets to apply to your own recipes, how to shop at the market (we must buy the right ingredients), and how to stock the healthy pantry. Establishing this mindset, they follow that with a discussion of tools, a pattern for healthy living and menus for every occasion.
Then there are recipes, and they are for the foods we have never relinquished despite the nagging thought that there were obvious health issues. But now the word comfort takes on a new meaning as the overlay of guilt is gone. Among the favorite foods in these book crammed with 150 recipes, there are remakes for boneless, buffalo wings and pepperoni pizza, shepherds pie, onion rings, twice-baked potatoes, old-fashioned apple pie, and pumpkin pie. Holidays are merrier with these recipes and the editors completed a thanksgiving meal to create herb-roasted turkey and pan gravy in cooperation with Nell Newman who brought healthy organic foods to her father, Paul Newman, and created her own line of organic foods. An old-fashioned recipe for Chicken & Dumplings is rich with vegetables for less calories and added vitamins while a Catfish Amandine is made over with heart-friendly olive oil rather than butter. Try a Grilled Eggplant Parmesan Salad and enjoy the fact that grilling makes eggplant taste even better and eliminates that huge amount of oil that eggplant soaks up.
The book is rich with advice, and it is given easily in sidebars titled "Makeover Tip." Personal stories, some from the famous, are throughout the book and will inspire the reader. There are suggested menus, a list of ingredient resources, and a very thoughtful index, not only to the recipes, but also to the makeover tips. There are color photos throughout. Eat healthy, eat happy.
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