When I moved to Canada almost 3 years ago, I’ve left all my cookbooks I had in Poland. I love cooking and preparing something yummy for my hubby and me. I sometimes creatively come up with the recipe, but other times, I go accordingly with someone’s instructions. Nina Cucina is a brilliant woman, who promotes healthy lifestyle and as you know that is something I love, as well! 🙂 Her cookbook “Nina Cucina- Your Healthy Gourmet – Beautiful, Healthy Food to Keep You Healthy and Beautiful” is the one I’ve been using the most for over a year now and that’s why I’d like to share it with you.
What I love about her book, she doesn’t go with a fancy names of the dishes, but mostly puts the ingredients in the title of each meal, which makes my life easier. I’ll be honest with you, I’m slightly frustrated when I ask someone about his or her dish “oh, what is it?” and they respond with: “devils on horseback”, which are prunes wrapped in bacon. Don’t get me wrong, I understand if I’m at a restaurant looking at menu and I see what’s in the meal right below, but when I visit someone or ask a friend or a family member “what is it?”, don’t tell me “priest stranglers”, because I don’t see any priest, nor stranglers, but pasta with something and I’m just curious what is this “something” in there. Or “glorious cloud of mashed potatoes”, well the clouds are in the sky, not in front of me and if I’m interested in poetry, I’ll go ahead and buy a book with poems. So let’s leave the fancy names to the restaurants and their menus and real chefs and if we’re at somebody’s home or a simple party, you can tell me what’s exactly in the meal without the fancy name :).
That being said, I really like Nina Cucina’s cookbook, because without looking at the recipe, but only the title of it, I know what I need to buy or if I already have it in my fridge. It’s just easier and faster that the names are at the margin of each page. When I see “Pumpkin quinoa pilaf”, I know that pumpkin and quinoa are the things I need the most for this dish or “Zucchini almond soup” where I know that zucchini and almonds are necessary.
Of course, each recipe has a list of ingredients, but also, which I find very helpful, there is a “What you’ll need” section where are listed all the tools from your kitchen that are needed to prepare the dish. “Chef’s tips” area will give you storage information, recipe alternatives and a plethora of other great information in a short form.
Since Nina Cucina is healthy gourmet lifestyle cooking with accent on healthy lifestyle, the nutritional information is included with every recipe to help you stay on track with your health. Each recipe includes chart of calories, and amounts of protein, carbs, fat, sodium and fiber.
In this book, you’ll find healthy gourmet starts, bites and desserts, gluten free breads, soups, marvelous mains, “garden to table” and meat temperatures charts and measurement conversion as well.
Great purchase for yourself or somebody you love, who are health food conscious people. This 180 pages can really change your plate into a much colorful and healthier for you and your family.
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