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What exactly do you mean by 'healthy?'

Is it about calorie reduction or getting more nutrients? Or both?

A very simple, tasty one is roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower really benefits from browning. Preferably roasting. Just wash and dry it (thoroughly), cut into equally sized pieces, whether it be bite size or "steaks," toss in olive oil, salt & pepper (and garlic if you want), spread evenly on a roasting pan, but don't crowd it too much, and roast in the oven on the middle rack or higher at about 425-450F until brown... even nearly black in a few places. It's so simple and delicious.

It makes a great soup too, just blend it with either veg or chicken stock and either some fresh parsley or thyme.

Another veg that does well with char is broccoli. Steam, blanch (heavily salt your blanching or steaming liquid) or microwave (if you must) the cut broccoli stalks until about half done, drain and dry. Toss in olive oil, salt, minced garlic and chili flakes and grill on very high heat or broil until slightly charred. You won't believe how good it is.

Some great books for veg dishes are:

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Tender by Nigel Slater (this one has a great chocolate beet cake)

The Art Of Simple Food II by Alice Waters (So many simple, classic veg preparations in this one.)

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Regarding Mac & Cheese, here is page from Modernist Cuisine at Home:

http://i.imgur.com/E4dd4lQ.jpg

It involves using Sodium Citrate. Calm down! Don't be afraid. It's a type of salt derived from citrus fruits. If you like to cook with cheese this stuff will be your best friend. The only issue is you don't need very much of it, so you will need an accurate scale that can handle very small weights, but they're not that expensive and it'll pay for itself quickly in the amount you'll likely save in cheese costs, because.....

What it does is it helps emulsify the fats and solids of cheese when it melts and it can be used with just about every type of cheese that can melt, so that means you can use it to emulsify multiple types of cheeses at the same time. Why this matters for you? If you're trying to reduce calories you can mix your favorite cheeses with some lower calorie cheeses (like drained cottage cheese) and still end up with a really creamy sauce without having to add cream or butter. This stuff doesn't make Pasta & Cheese "healthy" but it does help you reduce the caloric value of a cheese dish without sacrificing texture... in fact it improves it.

Check it out: http://youtu.be/gOLgLi5ZJOY

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Wife and I picked up the Thug Kitchen cookbook. It's hilarious to read and has some great recipes in there too.

I was raised where meat was pretty much the main entree for every meal, so things that substitute meat seem to work well for me. Some of my favorites are black bean or chick pea burgers, and baked BBQ cauliflower (good to use in tacos, salads, etc.). We also cook up these tasty tostadas as well. (Technically that's a meat-less meal, and you'd have to swap out the sour cream and cheese to go fully vegan).

Also, if you're like me, you'll leave for work and frequently leave your lunch on the counter at home. In those situations, I've found Taco Bell to be a pretty good option. Nearly any recipe tastes just as good asking them to swap the beef for beans.

Hope this helps!

Alton Brown's cookbooks are quite good, so I'll add my voice to those recommending them.

If you don't need color glossy photos, "The New Best Recipe" from the folks at Cook's Illustrated magazine has great recipes and thorough instructions.

When you someday move beyond the basics, I'd also throw in a plug for Michael Ruhlman's "Ratio" and Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques". Ruhlman's book breaks some recipes (like doughs, batters, and custards) down to their basic components and will help you understand how to modify or even improvise with some kinds of recipes, and Pepin's book has great illustrations that can help get you through some of the techniques mentioned by not described by cookbooks. Pepin's Techniques might even prove useful to you now as a reference, depending on what other cookbooks you're working with.

Advanced? That's easy. Not a cookbook, but something far more useful. A comprehensive overview of how flavors work together.

[The Flavor Bible:] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410311129&sr=8-1&keywords=flavor+bible) The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs Hardcover – September 16, 2008, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

Some are very obvious. And some are not. I have yet to try the salmon-and-liquorish combination, but one day...

Highly recommended.

Get the quintessential Better Homes cookbook. It has great tips/recipes and the cookies ARE perfect. Oh! They also tell you the accurate baking time so you don't have to pull you cookies out early for soft centers and crisp outside!

Link to the hard copy:
https://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Book/dp/0470560770

P.S. they also have an app! I have yet to check out though I'm sure its pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-75th-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0743246268


That is pretty much the bible of recipe books. That book is an excellent resource and a great place to start, has pictures on how to cut certain things, and is just a wealth of knowledge for almost anything you need to know. Take your time and read how to use the book before you jump in. Many recipes rely on others, but the book is well written and cross referenced. Should be the best place to start.

Oxygen is not a friend of wine. The minute you open a bottle, the wine starts to change. Other factors like age of wine, how it's been stored and if you vacuum seal or add gas effect wines shelf life after opening.

If you open the wine and plan on drinking later, try to consume within a day or so. The wine will taste different, so buying an expensive vacuum seal will leave you with better wine 24-48 hours after opening. A bottle can also be topped with gas which will let you keep the wine up to a week with less change to the overall taste after opening, in cooler temps. You can find various vacuums and gasses at most places where wine is sold.

If you are using the wine to cook, freezing remaining wine in ice cube trays and then transferring wine cubes to a zip top bag has worked great for me, they last months and are a nice time saver. Cheers!

I also love his How to Cook Everything: The Basics. Most of them are super simple, some are stupid simple (scrambled eggs?), but everything I've cooked from here have been absolutely delicious. It's a nice book to have when you want something simple and fast(ish). Plus every recipe has a picture. I only really buy cook books that have pictures since I flip through books and use the pictures to decide what I want to eat.

I absolutely love Cook with Jamie.

Covers everything from salads, spaghetti, meat, fish to even dessert. Also does a great job explaining what to look for in quality ingredients.

It was my first introduction to cooking, and is absolutely fantastic.

I don't unfortunately. I eat it when I find it but it's so rare to see good Turkish food in the wild that it's just a cuisine I know I like and a few dishes I'm familiar with.

You might really dig The Flavor Bible if you don't know much about seasonings but want a good introduction to them. That book is what took my cooking from following recipes to modifying them.

I'll save you a ton of scrolling through long-winded stories and baby pictures:

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
  
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 1 Teaspoon white pepper
  
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  
  

  Instructions
  

  
  

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and salt. Add in the flour and stir until well combined.
   
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Place your spaetzle maker over the top, then pour half of the batter into the cup of the device. Quickly slide the cup back and forth to allow the batter to drop through. Repeat with second half of batter, working quickly, until all the batter is cooking in the pot.
   
3. Set the spaetzle maker aside and give the dumplings a good stir in the pot. Let them cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until floating on the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl. Toss with butter and spices. Serve warm.
   
   

Joy of Cooking and America's Test Kitchen Cookbook are both super highly recommended cookbooks based on both recipes and their value as references when learning new techniques

There really are so many options it's a bit ridiculous. The Flavor Bible is great for looking up spice and herb flavor matchings. It's always useful to find a use for something.

Some personal favorites for you:

If you have a lot of basil, you could make pesto.

With the cilantro, you could make salsa or salsa verde.

For some reason i always think of rosemary with roasting, probably because it can stand up to the heat, unlike the softer herbs. New potatoes and shallots roasted with rosemary and cumin. Chicken with a paste of rosemary, lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

Buy one of these, a loaf of bread, a bunch of butter, and literally anything else you enjoy eating.

Scrambled egg, bacon cheese campfire pie? Dear god.

While I like your simple recipe, I would not call pam cheaper than normal cooking oil. All it is is vegetable oil and it's like $5 for a can that is what? 5-6 ounces? You can buy a lot of vegetable oil for that price. Even olive oil is more economical than pam. And if you really want your oil as a spray you can get a $10 oil sprayer that will work just as well as pam.

Modernist Cuisine at Home by Nathan Myrvold.

Maximum Flavor by Kamozawa and Talbot.

The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

Also, it's not out yet (published on Oct 28), but if they are gourmets they might be interested in Dominique Ansel's The Secret Recipes. He's the guy who invented the cronut, and the recipes are going to be from his bakery in NYC.

>Her gastro doc is taking things very slowly and deliberately

He's probably just using some algorithm. He's probably checking for some sort of lactose intolerance, gall bladder disease, other stuff before he goes into (expensive) diagnostic testing.

Anyway, roasting typically used oil to the best flavor/texture. Steaming should be your go to for veggies. A bunch of veg is pretty darn tasty if steamed correctly; cabbage, spinach, broccoli, carrots; add some salt/pepper, maybe some lemon juice for brightness and you have a staple veg for every meal.

Fish in foil is a good one too, you can reduce/omit the oil and still be okay.
\
If you want to minimize, but not completely omit oil in a recipe (say grilling chicken breast or salad). Check out the misto

thai curry

I cannot recommend this enough. It is extremely cheap, easy, and delicious. All you have to do is mix this curry paste with coconut milk and bring it to a boil. Then add a cup and a half of stock (chicken, vegetable, whatever).

Then you add whatever you want to it: beef, chicken, fried tofu, peppers, onions, bamboo shoots... you get the idea. Bring it to a light boil for a while, until everything seems to be cooked. Serve over rice

Bittman is the man when it comes to simplicity. When you're ready, go pick up a copy of How to Cook Everything

And here's his
Roast chicken recipe. I like the version where you roast veggies (carrot, potato, celery, maybe some parsnip) in a 450 ° oven for 15 minutes, then toss chicken parts on top, do 15 minutes more, then baste w/ juices, then 15 minutes more. 10 minutes of chopping and prep and 45 minutes of cooking time = dynamite chicken

You might consider this. From Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen - so recipes are usually pretty good.

pasta/rice hodgepodge sounds delicious.

I also got recommended this book recently.

This has some really great recipes, some of which you can find online from blogs

I saw a recipe in David Chang's book (Momofuku) that I'm going to try:

Ginger scallion noodles.

There's a free preview with the recipe on the book's Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X

Don't see a lot of Asian representation yet, so here are some of my go-to lazy dinners. Basically the "Hamburger Helper" type recipes for our Asian household.

Char Siu Chicken Wings:

1 packet Char Siu Seasoning Mix

1-2 lb chicken wings

Dump the mix on the wings and mix and make sure to NOT add water. Mix and cover the wings thoroughly. Leave it in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Bake at 400 for 45min on a rack. Broil for extra crispiness at the end if you like.

Bonus photo of the finished product, I like mine broiled a bit extra for that char flavor. Side of roasted brussel sprouts + rice.

---

Lazy Korean BBQ Chicken

1-2 lb boneless chicken thigh meat cut to 2-3 inch strips

Jar of Korean Chicken & Pork Marinade

Essentially the same instructions as the wings. Dump the marinade on the thigh meat and leave in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours. Bake at 400 for 45min on a rack, finish with a broil if you like. Great with a side of kim chi & rice.

---

Slow Cooker Japanese Curry

1 box Japanese Curry Sauce Mix

2-3 lb meat of choice (chunked for stew)

2 yellow onions, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 potatoes, large chunks

~6 cups water (however much you need to just cover the ingredients in the slow cooker)

Sear the meat first if you like. Dump all the ingredients into the slow cooker. Cook on low for about 8 hours. Serve over rice. Note that you could also prepare the curry sauce mix on the stovetop as per the instructions on the back of the box. I just normally go for the slow cooker method when I want to set it and forget it.

It's in the book How to Cook Everything The Basics (Hardcover) (not a referral link) by Mark Bittman page 204-205 (Paella with Chicken and Sausages).

I don't want to infringe copyright so the closest to the recipe that I found was this one by Mark himself:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014667-paella-master-recipe

Modification to this recipe is:

• Use chicken thighs w/salt and pepper on both side
  
• Make sure to sear the chicken to develop some kind of crust as part of step 1.
  
• Introduce the uncased sliced up chorizo w/garlic and onions
  
• If you don't like Safran, I'm using smoked paprika
  
  For me, the paella is whatever you want it to be. Too much people complaining about what a real paella is. Let's just eat and enjoy it.

1/4 lb beef liver

1 small onion

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp clove

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 cup milk (add ONLY IF using spaetzle maker)

Grind liver and onion in a blender. Add spices and eggs to the blender and blend. Measure the flour into a mixing bowl then pour the blended mixture onto the flour and mix.

If SCRAPING DUMPLINGS: Add 1-3 tsp of water to make a stiff dough. Remove dough from the mixer and kneed until you have a stiff dough, return the dough to the bowl and push the dough to the edge of the bowl. Scrape dumplings with sharp knife into boiling water (add 1 Tbsp of oil to water to prevent sticking). When dumplings rise to the top of the water remove with a slotted spoon into strainer then spread onto a cookie sheet to cool. Spray with Pam and DO NOT LET THEM DRY OUT. Refrigerate or freeze. I freeze in gallon size ziplock bags.

About 30 minutes before serving time heat bacon grease over med. heat in a large nonstick skillet and toss kneflies in grease to reheat, salt to taste. Cover and stir often to prevent browning and sticking. Serve with turkey or beef gravy.

If using Spaetzle Maker: Do not add water but remember to add the milk.

My spaetzle maker looks like this one

The Flavor Bible .. u need to take a peek into this book next time you are in a bookstore :)

Thanks. I may buy a copy on payday
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0743246268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RPy6Cb79VVEVB

What I'll do with regular coconut milk is let the can sit the same way for a few hours so that I know all the cream rises to the top.

I spoon just the cream off the top into my wok and heat that till it starts to thicken. Then I add my paste, cook that till it starts to smell, then add my veg and finally the rest of the coconut milk can.

The paste you use makes a difference too. I've tried a few, and always come back to Maesri

http://www.amazon.com/Cooker-Revolution-Editors-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299748227&sr=8-1

Cook's Illustrated, Crock Pot, what more could you want? I got it last week, first 20 recipes are all soups.

For learning basics you can't go wrong with the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook It's a staple in the kitchen of every person I know.
*Edit: a word

Yes. The Flavor Bible lists some combinations to avoid – some random examples are:

• oysters and tarragon
  
• chestnuts and berries
  
• lavender and coffee
  
• chorizo and sardines
  
• strawberry and pistachio
  
• vinegar and cheese

Get a pie iron. We always make french toast in them in the morning, grilled cheese for lunch, and a few different desserts. Try filling bread with peanut butter, bananas, chocolate and marshmallow and cooking it in a pie iron. Or try it with cherry pie filling. Everybody gets to make their own however they want it.

Clueless in the Kitchen

the flavor bible is more along the lines of cooking theory but between that and whats a cook to do, those are basically the only books i use.


flavor bible: http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400

whats a cook to do: http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Cook-Illustrated-Essential-Techniques-ebook/dp/B00FKHZWGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394654988&sr=1-1&keywords=whats+a+cook+to+do

Amazon has a 12-pack of it

Kenji's book.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087

How to Cook Everything one cookbook to rule them all.

This one is my favourite,

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1401322336/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=1401322336&linkCode=as2

Wine tends to oxidize quickly once it's opened. Wines have a large and complex number of aroma and flavor compounds in them which are fairly unstable and will react with oxygen in air to form less wonderful compounds, kinda like cast iron turns to rust, but more quickly. White wine will turn brown (or darken) and will start to taste a bit like vinegar or sherry. Whenever I open a bottle, I either drink it all (my personal favorite, heehee), or suck most of the air out with a winesaver and keep it in the fridge. It will still go bad (oxidize) within a few days, but if you leave the air in the bottle and don't refrigerate it, it won't be drinkable for more than a day.

If vegetarian is an option and you're ok with some offensive language, the Thug Kitchen cookbook might be a way to go.

https://smile.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586/