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Hearts & Minds - Information for ChangeSM
Secrets of Easy
Healthy Cooking |
Part I Foods to Cook
Enjoy the best
If you cook at home, you can afford higher
quality for less than the cost of restaurants. (Not that I'm against restaurants.) You'll
also save the time and expense of traveling.
You can enjoy all kinds of
food.
High-quality ingredients are
healthier and taste better. Use fresh fruit and vegetables. Learn to adapt your menu to
what's in season. It's often freshest and least expensive in the markets.
Organic produce
Organic produce is better
for the environment, farm workers, our nation's water supply and your
health. Ten years ago, organic food often appeared as wilted, sorry-looking specimens.
Now, with more people using organics -
and more stores carrying them - they're often quite fresh and the taste can't be beat.
Many of the best restaurants
use organic ingredients. You can, too.
Whole grains
They have a complex, hearty, nut-like
taste - especially when grown organically. Whole grains are naturally high in vitamins and
fiber, mixing well with a wide variety of foods. Even if you now prefer white bread and
white rice, you may quickly develop a taste for them.
Free-range meat
Raised without antibiotics and hormones,
it is better for you and the animals. Increasingly, mass-market meat is raised in cramped,
prison-like spaces. Many animals are cruelly confined - sometimes with barely enough room
to move. This unhealthy situation then requires heavy dependence on antibiotics. The result
is resistant strains of disease that eventually may infect us, too.
Free-range animals are raised
(and hopefully slaughtered) in a more humane way. Of course vegetarianism is even more
humane. If you are reducing consumption of red meat, chicken and fish, be sure to get
enough vitamin B12 and iron in your diet.
Illustration © by John Michael Jones
 Good Cookbooks
I particularly recommend The Moosewood
Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. Each recipe I've tried has been delicious (even though I
often reduce the amount of butter it suggests). Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest
cookbook is also recommended.
The Joy of Cooking has much
info on basic cooking, with a greater emphasis on the traditional American cuisine.
*These books may be available in your local library or
bookstore. Commercial, online stores like Amazon Books
and Barnes and Noble can probably get
them for you quickly.
More to come
We'll add more techniques - and recipes -
on an ongoing basis.
See also: Socially Responsible Food and Fun
with Lentils.
BILL BLACKMAN
is president of Hearts and Minds and has been home cooking for 25 years. His bio is with governing board members.
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latest text changes February 23, 2006. |