Share your cookbook

Despite the variety of cookbooks I have, I'm not a recipe follower. Instead, I use my intuition to direct what combinations would be best. I do love having the option, with the cookbook available if and when I need it. Plus, it's great for ideas. I scan through them in the same way I do menus, drooling over the potential meals that could be had.

These are some of my favorite cookbooks:

The Self-Healing Cookbook
This book explores eating with the seasons, how food affects your mental clarity and emotional state, home remedies and healing foods, and a list of high and low stress foods. I got it around 15 years ago when I first started to discover the food-mood connection. It's indispensible. Some of the delicious recipes include Sesame Gravy, Julienned Carrots & Hijiki, and Tangy Cabbage.

Nourish
I have to be honest, I've never even looked at the recipes in this book - yet it's still one of my favorites. Why? Pretty pictures. That, and I love the name of the book. I love the concept of nourishment - through food and all areas of our lives. It's what I teach and practice. Some of the recipes do sound incredible, and uh, interesting - Swimming noodles, Star Anise and Almond Steamed Sourdough Buns, Witlof and Orange with Curly Kale, Blanched Fava Bean and Golden Zucchini Salad.

Angel Foods
This one was published at a time before raw foods hit the trendy scene. I remember buying it because I was drawn to the cover of angels harvesting food and flying cherubs with a horn in one hand and a bunch of carrots in the other. Like the one above, I've never looked at the recipes in this book either. Instead, I was taken by the prayers on every page beneath an angel drawing. "Guardian Angel, please give me the patience to allow myself to unfold in my own time." "Guardian Angel, please help me remember my Divine origins." "Guardian Angel, please help me always be open-minded."

Cooking for Healthy Healing
A food bible in many ways. This one I've used with clients and myself, following the recipe in order to restore health. There were two specifically that I used every time I felt a cold coming on - Potassium Juice (carrots, spinach, parsley, celery) and Potassium Essence Broth (carrots, potatoes, onion, celery, parsley, cabbage, broccoli). The "Diets & Healing Programs" are categorized, easy to find, and include Eating for a Healthy Pregnancy, Building Immune Power, Eating for Heart & Circulatory Health, Mineral Rich Diet for Stress & Mental Exhaustion, Sports Nutrition: Eating for Energy & Performance, and many more. This book looks like an updated version.

What are your favorite cookbooks? Share them here.

Comments

[elizabeth]

Feeding the Whole Family (can't remember the author)

Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

smittenkitchen.com (ok, it's not a cookbook, but it may as well be one ;)

I am also enjoying Deborah Madison's vegetable soup cookbook, though I can't remember the exact name of it right now

By the way, if you like food and cooking, you should read Gluten-Free Girl. It is easily one of the best memoirs I've ever read - it makes you fall in love with good food all over again.

[aura I. Gómez]

I love Giada De Laurentiis - I usually replace follow her recipes - but I replace the regular pasta with whole wheat, high pasta and organic vegetables. Voila!

[Vanessa Smith]

Great! Thanks for sharing all these resources. I hadn't heard about any of them. I'll be checking them out now!

[Leigh Ann]

I like Holly Clegg's trim&TERRIFIC Freezer Friendly Meals. It's nice to know the dish will freeze well, rather than just guessing from a regular cookbook.

Leigh Ann Otte
Managing Editor
My Family Doctor magazine