Product Description

A winning combination of healthy eating and convenience.

Here's an ideal combination: a tasty meal, nutrition for good health, and the convenience of a slow cooker. The Healthy Slow Cooker offers more than 100 delicious, nourishing recipes that are healthy and contain key nutritional, health and wellness information. Along with a complete nutrient analysis, each recipe will feature: - An icon denotes vegan friendly recipes - "Mindful morsels" that highlight particular nutritional elements - "Natural Wonders" that provide an a overview of a dish's healthful benefits

For example, Indian-Style Chicken with Puréed Spinach provides 400% of the daily requirement of Vitamin K, and cumin in the recipe improves digestion. Here's a small sampling of the tantalizing array of recipes: - Creamy Polenta with Corn and Chilies - Moroccan-Style Lamb with Apricots and Raisins - Ribs 'n' Greens with Wheatberries - Winter Vegetable Casserole - Cranberry Pear Brown Betty - Indian Banana Pudding

For diabetics, the book features a separate section of useful advice and nutrition guidelines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5024 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780778801337
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Proves the slow cooker stashed in the back of the cabinet can do more than stews and roasts. (Cherry Hill Courier-Post 20060315)

Information and recipes with high nutrition, reduced sodium and boosted fiber. (Sue Story Truax Omaha World-Herald 20060329)

[One of] the best of my nearly 20 slow-cooker books... an artful palate and healthful bias come together in recipes. (Kathy Martin Miami Herald 20060810)

One of my favorite slow-cooker cookbooks. (Amy McConnell Schaarsmith Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 20060208)

Focuses on intriguing dishes that will be ready once you get home... enticing soups and stews. (Linda Fradkin Galveston County Daily News )

About the Author
Judith Finlayson is a food writer and the author of many cookbooks, including the bestselling 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes, Delicious and Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes, and 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

This is my fourth slow cooker cookbook. The more I use my slow cooker; the more ideas I have for using this versatile appliance. It fits so well with how I like to cook that I'm constantly seeing new ways to incorporate its services into my life. So perhaps not surprisingly, I became interested in finding a way to combine the burgeoning interest in health and nutrition with the convenience of using a slow cooker.

Like most people, I'm becoming increasingly aware of the important role diet plays in health. And while most of the recipes in my previous books could be described as nutritious, I gradually came to realize that they didn't maximize the advantages of all the exciting new developments occurring in the field of nutrition. Groundbreaking research is proving that food can provide much more than daily sustenance; it also has the power to prevent, and possibly even cure, many illnesses, from cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes to certain kinds of cancer. Integrating some of this information into slow cooker recipes that people can regularly use to make convenient and delicious meals seemed like an excellent idea.

The food we eat contains vitamins and minerals, plus a multitude of compounds known as phytonutrients, some of which you may be familiar with for instance, antioxidants such as lycopene and beta-carotene, and phytoestrogens such as isoflavones and lignans. All these substances work together to keep us healthy in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. What we do know, however, is that over the long term we can dramatically influence our health status by eating smarter to get the most out of food. Along with maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, monitoring alcohol consumption and not smoking, eating a nutritious diet plays a key role in keeping us well.

Current strategies for healthy eating emphasize consuming a wide variety of whole foods, particularly fruits, vegetables and whole grains. By habitually eating an assortment of foods from all the food groups, you're making sure you get the broad mix of essential nutrients that make up a healthy diet: vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. But more than that, you're tapping into the healing power of food. Emerging evidence indicates that all the nutrients in foods work together to create synergy in the health benefits they produce. A kaleidoscope of colors on your plate signals a host of phytonutrients that team up to keep you healthy For instance, studies show that the lycopene in red tomatoes and the glucosinolates in green broccoli are far more formidable cancer fighters when combined than either component is on its own.

Making good food choices from every food group also means avoiding junk foods and those that are highly refined. Such foods tend to be high in calories and low in nutrients. Instead, choose foods that are "nutrient dense," those that deliver optimum nutrition for the calories they provide. These include red and orange vegetables, dark leafy greens, unrefined whole grains and deeply colored berries, among others.

Striving to achieve a balance among the intake of good fats, protein and carbohydrates is another objective. Each of these nutrients, which interact with one another in complex ways, plays an important role in helping the body stay well and defend itself against disease. Contrary to conventional wisdom and still a bit controversial, there do not appear to be any links between a low-fat diet and good health. It is the kind of fat that matters. Commercially produced trans fats, which have a well-documented adverse effect on cardiovascular health, should be avoided, and, whenever possible, saturated fats should be replaced with unsaturated fats, which have numerous health benefits. To help you get the most out of this book, in addition to the total amount of fat per serving, the nutritional analysis that accompanies each recipe also specifies the quantities of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat.

In writing this book I've tried to do several things. As in my previous books, I've included a wide range of recipes, from hearty soups to elegant desserts, accompanied, wherever appropriate, by "Make Ahead" information to help you take full advantage of the convenience provided by a slow cooker. But this time I've also focused on making the results as nutritious as possible, without sacrificing one iota of lip-smacking taste. Although this is not a vegetarian cookbook, vegetarian and vegan recipes have been noted. Also, in keeping with the latest research, the recipes emphasize healthy servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and I've kept the proportion of animal protein relatively low. In addition, I've treated every recipe as a focal point for sharing valuable information about nutrition. Every recipe includes:

- a nutritional analysis. This lists the number of calories, and the amount of protein, fat (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated as well as the total amount), carbohydrates, dietary fiber; sodium and cholesterol per serving;

- an evaluation of the standard nutrients provided by a serving of the recipe. This identifies each serving as an "excellent source, "good source" or "source" of specific vitamins and minerals as well as dietary fiber; based on criteria defined by the USDA and Canada's Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising. For more information on how the nutritional analyses and evaluations were determined, see page 4; and

- two other sections, Mindful Morsels and Natural Wonders, which contain additional information on aspects of nutrition to help you make more informed choices about what you eat and to help you develop a pattern of healthy eating.

I hope you will find this book helpful. More importantly, I hope you will use it often to get the most out of the convenience your slow cooker provides by preparing delicious and nutritious meals that help to keep you and yours happy and well.

- Judith Finlayson

Customer Reviews

Healthy Cooking Made Easy
I studiously avoided learning to cook for 50+ years but a friend who's very health conscious recommended trying a slow cooker. This cookbook gave me the additional boost I needed. Finlayson is very knowledgeable about nutrition, and somehow manages to make it interesting to read about. Plus, she gives tips on what to prepare the night before, so you can set up the crock pot in the morning, turn it on, and have a great meal by the time you get home. I love the Thai Pumpkin Soup, which has become a favorite in our household. If you're trying WeightWatchers point system, this has an abundance of good recipes.

International Flair
Reviewed by Geri Eden for Reader Views (3/06)
In a world of fast food, deli's and supermarket fare, Judith Finlayson shows us how we can savor tasty, slow-cooked meals with only minutes of prep time. Her 288 page cookbook is filled with beautiful pictures of finished dishes, tips, make ahead info, nutritional charts, mindful morsels and natural wonders. Judith opens the book by giving an in-depth look at how to use your Slow Cooker by walking you through information about the various sizes of crock pots, how to care for them, tips on speeding up the cooking process, reducing liquids, the proper size, the use of herbs and baking within the crock pot cooker.
The cookbook is well organized, has an easy to read larger font and uses contrasting headers and shading that aids to move the reader's eye from one section to another. Her cookbook is separated into seven sections titled: Bread & Breakfast, Soups, Poultry, Seafood & Fish, Meat, Pasta & Grains, Just Veggies and Desserts. She closes with Diabetic Food Values, a Bibliography and an Index.
Her recipes include common spices that most cooks should already have on hand and fresh ingredients that can be easily found in any grocery store. No extra trips to specialty food sources. What's really impressive is that she covers all types of meals like dishes you can make for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. One of my favorite recipes was for Creamy Tuna Casserole which is something you might never think of being able to cook in a crock pot.
Judith has written several Slow Cooker cookbooks and this particular book may be of special interest to those that enjoy recipes with an international flair. In addition to American and European favorites, there are numerous dishes from the Middle East. You will undoubtedly find dishes to please just about everyone. Finlayson continues to prove that Slow Cookers can be used every day and should be brought out for more than just the infrequent home or work party with food like queso, cocktail meatballs or party sausages. So dust off your crock pot and get cooking!

Not all at Once
THE HEALTHY SLOW COOKER:
More than 100 Recipes for
Health and Wellness

By Judith Finlayson

Slow cookers are different now. No longer do you put all ingredients in to return home and find an non-distinctive, mushy, rather flavor-lacking concoction.

After four books, Findlayson has reached important conclusions for better slow cooker creations. Some of these make her feel zucchini, peas, snow peas, fish, seafood, and milk/cream do not respond well to long cooking. She also feels peppers, hot sauces and curry powder do not do well with long cooking. Her solution? Add these during the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Each recipe has a two-page spread with headnotes, preparation tips, make ahead hints, "Mindful Morsels," and "Nuture Wonders" which expand on the nourishment of the main ingredient, The book also gives Nutrients Per Serving and significant vitamin content.

Besides breakfast, even bread items and tempting desserts, The Healthy Slow Cooker helps you make some tempting, exciting dishes. Here a description of some of the recipes:

Beet Soup with Lemongrass and Lime -
Combines garlic, gingerroot, red bell pepper, red chile, lime zest, coconut cream and cilantro.

(The Spanish favorite) Caldo Verde -
Has cumin, onions, carrots, garlic, chickpeas, potatoes, paprika, collard greens and smoked sausage

(A Moroccan favorite) Harira -
Calls for celery, onion, garlic, tumeric, lemon zest, tomatoes, red lentils, chickpeas and parsley. This is best topped with Harissa made from red chile peppers, caraway and coriander seeds, cumin, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, lemon and sweet paprika

Spicy Peanut Chicken -
Incorporates, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, gingerroot, peanut butter, lemon juice, soy sauce, red curry paste, coconut milk, green peas, roasted peanuts and cilantro.

Cioppino -
Made with onions, fennel, garlic, anchovy filets, tomatoes, dry white wine, fish stock, white fish, shrimp, crabmeat, red bell pepper, chile pepper and optionally topped with Easy Rouille made from mayonnaise, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and hot paprika.

Beef and Barley with Rosemary and Orange -
Includes mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots garlic, orange zest and dry red wine. Can be topped with Persillade of parsley, garlic and balsamic vinegar.

Chili con Carne -
Make with flour, olive oil, onions, garlic, oregano, cinnamon stick, cumin, beer, kidney beans, ancho chili powder, chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, poblano chiles, cilantro, sour cream, red onion and roasted red pepper strips.

Barley and Wild Rice Pilaf -
Calls for onion, garlic, rosemary leaves, tomatoes, vegetable stock and toasted pine nuts.

Tamale Pie with Chili Millet Crust -
Make with onions, olive oil, celery, garlic, oregano, cumin, black or pinto beans, tomatoes, corn kernels, green bell pepper and jalapeno or chipotle pepper.
May be topped with millet, water, black pepper, Monterrey Jack cheese and chopped green chiles.

Review by Marty Martindale, 2006, Largo FL