Healthy Palate, Delicious and Simple Recipes to Enhance Meals with Fruits and Vegetables

Are you trying to eat at home more often to eat more healthfully (and save some money along the way)? Gold mine! As a registered dietitian with expertise in cancer prevention and wellness, "Include more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans in your meals" is the mantra I am continuously sharing. It's key for people who want to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease, promote overall good health, and achieve and maintain a healthy weight. The Healthy Palate cookbook is the perfect go-to resource to help you reach these goals. The recipes are delicious, and their imaginative combinations provide inspiration when you want to create your own dish but need some fresh ideas. Eggplant, Hummus and Tomato Bake is a personal favorite I make over and over, along with many other meatless main dishes. The book also features delicious ways to add vegetables and fruits into dishes that might not typically include them; you'll never want to go without them there again. "Healthy Palate" provides seasonal menus to show how you can use these easy, quick recipes to make healthy eating delicious. I recommend this book to clients and give it as gifts to friends and family.

Great recipes - we're cooking and eating our way through it!

Rarely do I come across a cookbook where I want to try ALL of the recipes, but Healthy Palate is certainly going to become a well-used "go-to" cookbook on my shelf. This cookbook delivers over 165 recipes that easily incorporate fruits and vegetables into healthy yet flavorful dishes that are sure to become family favorites. Farivari covers all the bases with recipes for breakfast, main dish salads and soups, traditional main dishes, sides, and desserts. While the emphasis of the cookbook is on helping readers boost their fruit and vegetable intake, the author also gently introduces other healthy foods, such as quinoa, bulgur, tofu, and edamame, in user-friendly recipes that pair the unfamiliar with the familiar. As a result, none of the recipes seem overwhelming or complex to prepare.Features that I especially like about this cookbook include:1) The majority of the recipes are scaled to serve four people, rather than a wild range of two to 16 like many cookbooks.2) The recipes make use of canned and frozen vegetables, as well as seasonal fresh.3) Each recipe is introduced with a brief paragraph that may have a time-saving tip, serving suggestion, or helpful preparation tip.4) There are no long lists of "strange" ingredients for the recipes. The recipes are built around everyday foods and staples that most well-stocked kitchens are bound to have on hand.5) Nutrition information for each recipe is included to assist those who are on special diets.6) Many of the recipes offer suggestions for ingredient substitutions, depending upon the season or what might be available locally.7) For foods that may be unfamiliar to the reader, tips are provided on how to select and/or prepare.Other features of the book include five very brief introductory chapters that cover what foods are best for a healthy diet, how to cut salt, a guide to seasonal produce, tips for curbing your appetite, and including physical activity; health-savvy tips scattered throughout the book; eight pages of color photos of some of the dishes; and an index that includes all of the recipes, major ingredients, and food categories.For readers who have tried, and perhaps failed, to include more fruits and vegetables into their diet because they found it just too difficult, I'd highly recommend giving this cookbook a try.

I finally found a cook-book that helps real-life cooks bring nutrition and healthy options to the table. I like being able to prepare one main dish that has both proteins and vegetables. Farivari combines vegetables (roasted potatoes and green beans - who knew?) into single dishes that please everyone and leave fewer dishes to wash.Many of the recipes are seasonal so there's no pretending that we will have $5/lb fresh tomatoes in January. But there are now fewer excuses for not eating healthy year-round. The portobello, broccoli, and white bean dish took only a few minutes and works in February.Each recipe has nutrition information such as calories and fat but also grams of protein and sodium. I was surprised how much protein is in some of the dishes - as I tend to think of fruit and vegetable-centered diets as being lower in protein. Most of the recipes serve 4 but doubling them has not been a problem so far. There are some exotic dishes like tandoori chicken and vegetables but they call for simple and inexpensive ingredients - most of which I already had.Each recipe also has a caption describing the benefits of a healthy diet and serving suggestions - just enough encouragement to keep those awful frozen "healthy lifetsyle" dinners in the freezer.I would be curious to know which recipes other readers have liked. Thanks!

As a nutrition expert and certified diabetes educator, I am always looking for ways to help my clients incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their meal plans. The trick is to find delicious recipes, which don't require a tremendous amount of time and effort. I was thrilled to come across the "Healthy Palate", which has become a must have for so many of my clients and fellow registered dietitians. The Healthy Palate helps families save time by cooking vegetables right alongside meals. Recipes work for the beginner cook to the seasoned chef. Every recipe I've tried is full of flavor, and will delight even those who have previously not eaten any fruits or vegetables. The main entrees in the book are divided into Fall/Winter or Spring/Summer to help save money by using seasonal produce. Recipes are appropriate for those with health issues such as HTN, Diabetes and high cholesterol levels.I highly recommend the "Healthy Palate" for everyone who wants to improve their consumption of nutritious meals.