Katina's Nutritional Coaching Corner: Cookbooks and Recipes!

By Katina Sayers

10 Best Healthy Cookbooks of 2018                                     

Source: Mind Body Green

• Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food by Nik Sharma
• The Noma Guide to Fermentation by Rene Redzepi & David Zilber
• Inspiralized & Beyond by Ali Maffucci
• Sweet Laurel by Laurel Gallucci & Claire Thomas
• A Couple Cooks: Pretty Simple Cooking by Alex & Sonja Overhiser
• What’s Gaby Cooking: Everyday California Food by Gaby Galkin
• Eat Happy: 30-Minute Feelgood Food by Melissa Hemsley
• Unicorn Food by Kat Odell
• Ketotarian by Will Cole
• Eat What You Love by Danielle Walker  **Katina’s Top Pick
• Ottolenghi Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi

Eating on the Run: Serving Up Slow Cooker Meals

The return of the colder temperatures signals a time to return to the kitchen and cook hardier foods that warm our bodies on long winter nights in CNY. The slow cooker (or crock pot) is an ideal way to cook large batch meals that don’t take a lot of effort. There are endless possibilities because just about anything you can make on the stove top or in the oven can be modified to cook in the crock pot. If you struggle every evening with the question, “What’s for dinner?” then this might just be the solution to that age-old question.

Get to know your crock pot by becoming familiar with the settings. Most crock pots have two or three settings. In general, the low setting will cook meals in 6-10 hours and the high setting will cook meals in 4-5 hours. Use the setting that fits your needs. Low temperature cooking will tenderize less-expensive cuts of meat which makes many crock pot meals easy on the budget. Another bonus is crock pots also use less energy than ovens. Preparation time is minimal because once the ingredients are added together, there’s very little else you needs done, just “fix it and forget about it!” Most people use the crock pot to make soups, stews, and casseroles. Start out with the basics and as you get comfortable, test your skills. For easy clean-up, spray the inside of the cooker with a non-stick cooking spray before using. Do not store or reheat leftovers in the slow cooker.  Store leftovers in shallow containers and reheat food in the microwave, oven, or stove top. Cook once and eat two or three times! Bon appetit!

Recipe: Seeds of Power Bars                                                 

Source: Power Hungry: The Ultimate Energy Bar Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes or quick- cooking rolled oats
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup millet or hemp hearts
• 1/4 cup chia seeds or poppy seeds
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 3/4 cup plain nondairy milk or low- fat dairy milk
• 3/4 cup uncooked multigrain hot cereal
• 3/4 cup natural, unsweetened sunflower seed butter or tahini
• 1/2 cup agave nectar or honey
• 1 tablespoon finely grated orange or lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup dried cherries or dried cranberries, roughly chopped

Instructions:

1. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Spread the quinoa flakes, sesame seeds, and millet on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 6 to 8 minutes, shaking halfway through, until golden and fragrant. Transfer to a large bowl; stir in the chia seeds and flaxseed meal.
4. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cereal; cover and let stand for 2 minutes. Add the sunflower seed butter, agave nectar, orange zest, and salt. Cook and stir the mixture over low heat for 7 minutes, until thickened and all of the liquid is absorbed.
5. Immediately add the cereal mixture and the cherries to the quinoa mixture, mixing with a spatula until coated.
6. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Place a large piece of parchment paper, wax paper, or plastic wrap (coated with nonstick cooking spray) atop the bar mixture and use it to spread, flatten, and very firmly compact the mixture evenly in the pan. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until firmly set.
7. Using the liner, lift the mixture from the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 20 bars.

Bar Storage:

Tightly wrap the bars individually in plastic wrap.

• Room Temperature: 2 days
• Refrigerator: 1 week
• Freezer: 3 months in airtight container; thaw 1 hour

Bar Variations:

Sesame Cashew Bars
Prepare as directed, but replace the millet and chia seeds with 1/2 cup finely chopped raw cashews and replace the sunflower seed butter with an equal amount of natural, unsweetened cashew butter. Replace the orange zest with 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and add 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger along with the salt.

Sunflower-Fig Bars
Prepare as directed, but replace the sesame seeds, millet, and chia seeds with 3/4 cup raw sunflower seeds. Use lemon zest, not orange zest.