The 150 Healthiest Comfort Foods on Earth The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About How to Make Over Your Diet and Lose Weight While Still Enjoying the Foods You Love and Crave

by Bowden, Jonny; Bessinger, Jeannette

• ISBN13: 9781592334827
• ISBN10: 1592334822
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-01
• Publisher: Fair Winds Press

Summary

Comfort food is one of the hottest trends in cooking these days and healthy cooking duo Jonny Bowden, PhD, and Jeannette Bessinger will show readers how to make the foods they love more nutritious and delicious than ever. Readers won#x19;t feel deprived with healthier versions of mac #x18;n cheese, chicken nuggets, pot roast, French fries, and chocolate cake, among others. The two transform traditional comfort food into healthy meals by swapping in healthier, more nutritious ingredients, such as whole grains, adding fresh produce to normally "all-white" meals, and using healthy fats, such as olive oil and avocados. The whole family can enjoy these tasty recipes and feel good about what they#x19;re eating.

Author Biography

Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS, (Woodland Hills, CA), also known as The Nutrition Myth Buster, is a nationally known, board-certified nutritionist and expert on diet and weight loss. He has appeared on the Dr. Oz Show, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS and has contributed to articles in the New York Times, Forbes, the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Vanity Fair Online, Men’s Heath, Prevention, and dozens of other print and online publications. He is a popular speaker who presents at both academic and consumer events all over the world.

Jeannette Bessinger, C.H.H.C., is a board-certified, holistic health counselor, award-winning lifestyle and nutrition educator, and owner of Balance for Life, LLC, www.balanceforlifellc.com, which provides lifestyle health and nutrition education to individuals and organizations. A whole foods cook, she is co-author of The Healthiest Meals on Earth and a contributing writer for Clean Eating magazine. She is a lifestyle health and nutrition consultant to several public and private groups and coalitions working to improve the health of schools and cities in the United States.

Excerpts

Lean and Savory Sauced Pot Roast

From Dr. Jonny:As a kid, I really liked pot roast even though I had no idea what it actually was. Most pot roast recipes call for “beef chuck,” which is basically mystery meat—not to mention extremely fatty. A simple upgrade makes this comfort food healthier: Just choose bottom round, a leaner cut of meat that will give you all the flavor of the original with fewer calories. It’ll still cook up nice and tender because Chef Jeannette prepares it in a slow cooker and smothers it in a juicy, flavorful tomato sauce, eliminating the need for high-cal gravy. Leaving the skins on the potatoes adds fiber and vitamins, and using a slow cooker saves calories because you don’t need extra “browning” fat. Note: If you really want to make this a healthy dish, choose grassfed beef!

Ingredients

- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped

- 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1⁄4-inch (6-mm) rounds (or use a 1-pound, or 455-g, bag of mini-baby carrots to save time)

- 2 stalks celery, sliced

- 3⁄4 pound (340 g) baby new potatoes, halved or quartered if large, unpeeled

- 1 can (14.5 ounces, or 410 g) diced tomatoes in sauce, undrained

- 2 tablespoons (32 g) tomato paste

- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) red wine vinegar

- 4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

- 1 tablespoon (15 g) Dijon mustard

- 1 teaspoon Sucanat, sugar, or Xylitol

- 1⁄2 teaspoon each salt and fresh-ground black pepper

- 1⁄2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled

- 1⁄4 teaspoon cumin

- 1⁄4 teaspoon turmeric

- 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

- Pinch of allspice

- 2 to 21⁄2 pounds (905 to 1135 g) boneless bottom round roast

Scatter the onion evenly in the bottom of a large slow cooker. Add the carrots, celery, and potatoes. In a medium bowl, mix together the tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, garlic, mustard, Sucanat, salt, pepper, rosemary, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and allspice until well combined. Place the roast over the vegetables and carefully pour the tomato sauce over all. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or until the meat is tender and cooked through.

Yield:6 to 7 servings

Per serving:382.6 calories; 14.7 g fat (34% calories from fat); 36.4 g protein; 24.5 g carbohydrate; 5.3 g dietary fiber; 108.6 mg cholesterol; 344.4 mg sodium

From Chef Jeannette:Even Healthier: for a unique flavor twist with more fiber and vitamin A and less starch, substitute a large sweet potato or half a medium butternut squash for the white potatoes. peel and dice into 3⁄4-inch (1.9-cm) chunks.