Cooking and Baking: Recipes with Raw and Superfoods

By Cindy Weeks

Cooking and Baking Recipes with Raw and Superfoods The Cooking and Baking Cookbook introduces the Superfoods diet and the Raw Food diet, both of which are highly nutritious and helping in maintaining a very healthy lifestyle. The belief that certain foods are so good, so high in nutrition they are deemed "super." Including these foods and the raw f

• Language: English
• Publisher: WebNetworks Inc
• Release date: Mar 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781631878060

Book preview

Cooking and Baking

Recipes with Raw and Superfoods

Cindy Weeks

Copyright © 2013 Cindy Weeks

All rights reserved.

Introduction

This book covers two different diets, the Superfoods Diet and the Raw Foods Diet. Each diet is a choice by many to enjoy a healthy lifestyle of good nutrition with well-balanced menus. The diets offer satisfying meals and each includes desserts and snacks, no meal or time to eat is left leaving you hungry. These diets offer meal plans that serve to encourage a healthy immune system. They are a lifestyle change for the better and the benefits are freedom from many health issues caused by poor diets including obesity.

First, knowing what superfoods are will help you to want to eat them more. These are foods that have an extremely high amount of antioxidants and compounds and nutrients that are naturally within them. A superfood can be a vegetable, fruit, and other edible plants. These are the most vital of foods that we should strive to consume on a daily basis. Another way of looking at them is as nature's perfect food. The superfoods included in this book not the specialty foods you hear about as the latest fad, like acai berries, but are foods that are readily available in the local supermarket.

Superfoods main dishes covers well over a month's worth of meals, without eating the same dish twice. If you enjoy spicy foods, try the BBQ Style Salmon with Kale, Chipotle Salmon with Peanut Salsa, Spicy Corn and Sweet Potato Soup, Easy Caramelized Onion Pizza, Spicy Beef Soup, Rigatoni with Walnuts, Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, and the Slow Cooker Beef and Sweet Potato Curry. Also, try the Stuffed Onions, Roasted Squash and Kale Salad, Baked Beets, and the Steak with Roast Vegetables. Other main dish recipes include Pinto Bean Tacos, Salmon with Lemon Butter Sauce, Avocado and Black Bean Wraps, Sardine Sandwiches, Stuffed Tomatoes, Spinach and Cheese Bread Pudding, Broiled Salmon with Green Beans, Baked Beets, Collard Greens with Bacon, Pasta with White Beans, Tomatoes and Basil, Bean and Barley Vegetable Soup, and a Brown Rice Bowl with Shrimp and Broccoli.

When cooking meals side dishes and appetizers are perfect companions to the main entrees in the superfoods diet section. Try the Roasted Eggplant Salad, Pomegranate Carrots, and Broccoli with Bell Peppers and the Leeks with Vinaigrette. Also included are recipes for Bagna Cauda, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Pumpkin and Flax Seed Dip, Quinoa Salad with Kale and Avocado, Red Bean Dip, Cranberry Salsa and a Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette.

Superfoods also have a short breakfast section, but there are four and you can interchange them by only eating each less than twice a week. Enjoy the Blueberry Walnut Muffins, Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes and the Apple Flax Seed Muffins. Of course, you can include a bowl of good old fashioned oatmeal and slices of fruit and still remain eating the superfoods.

Superfoods also include delicious desserts and snacks. Some are simple recipes that you can make in abundance and store for easy snacking later. Enjoy the Granola Bars with Fruit, Blueberry Chocolate and Walnut Parfait, Dark Chocolate Cake, Blueberry Shortbread Bars, and the Roasted Nuts. Make a variety of desserts and snacks by combining certain foods and recipes, such as sprinkling the roasted nuts over the dark chocolate cake.

The superfoods diet proves that healthy eating does include great flavors and hearty meals that leave you satisfied. Consuming a superfoods diet on a regular habitual basis will result in better health and that includes your ideal weight as well. Superfoods do not include junky processed foods. When you break the junk food habit for a superfood habit, you will start to crave these foods and recipes instead. This will put you on the path to having a stronger immune system and the ability lose and maintain weight loss.

The Raw Food diet is an increasingly popular diet because of the use of food in the food's most natural state, raw and uncooked. The premise behind the raw food diet is that when foods that are processed and cooked lose most of their nutritional value. Some of the recipes within the raw foods section require the use of a dehydrator, to help you make the most of the foods. This enables you to store the food longer without worry of decay.

There are a full three weeks of main dish entrees in the raw foods diet section. This means you can plan for almost month's worth of menus when you use the main dishes in conjunction with the side dishes. The raw foods diet does not suffer for flavor choices. Check out these recipes: Brussels Sprout Tarts with Mushrooms, Peppers and Onions, Brazil Nut Chutney, Raw Tostadas with Guacamole, Chickpea Salad Chard Wraps, Raw Lasagna, Chard Pockets, Zucchini Noodles with Broccoli and Pesto and the Spinach Mushroom Quiche.

The side dish section of the raw foods diet covers side dishes, appetizers, sauces and breads. For breads there is the Buckwheat Curry Bread and a delicious Sundried Tomato Spread for the top. For sauce there is the Raw Marinara Sauce. The side dishes and appetizers includes Butter Lettuce and Avocado Salad, Red Pepper Bisque, Carrot Tomato Soup, BBQ Walnuts, Mashed Celery Root with Garlic and Chives, Sunflower Seed Pate and a Cashew Cheese.

The breakfast and brunch section includes delicious crepes, waffles, bagels and more. Enjoy a nice Apple Cinnamon Crepes or a Chia Pudding with Strawberries or Bananas, Raw Waffles, Banana Splits, Cinnamon Citrus Crepes, Raw Brazil Nut Onion Bagels and Crepes with Berries and Cashew Cream. These recipes are easily adaptable to trade the fruits.

The best thing about the raw food diet is the ability to fix a meal without cooking. The benefits of the raw food diet include a cleansed digestive system, clear skin, better moods, and clear thinking. The biggest benefit is deriving the full nutrients from the raw foods since they are eaten raw and natural before cooking and processing removes them. Both diets featured here are healthy.

Section 1: Superfoods Cookbook

Superfoods Cookbook Introduction

What are Superfoods?

As the saying goes, we are what we eat and people are becoming ever more conscious that this is the case – and that they’d rather not be consuming a long list of chemical additives which they probably can’t even pronounce, much less identify as food! It’s well known that diet is one of the keys to better health and simply put, some foods are better for you than others.

That’s where superfoods come in. These are foods which offer a wealth of nutrients as well as antioxidants and other naturally occurring compounds which promote better health and even reduce the risk of many illnesses from minor to life threatening. Superfoods include a fairly wide variety of different fruits and vegetables; and to be perfectly honest, most of them are foods that you probably already knew were good for you.

In this cookbook, we’ve included recipes which incorporate many of the foods which are well known as the most nutritious, healthy dietary choices. We’ve also steered clear of the trends; as you’re probably aware if you spend any time at all