Shelly Vaughan James

The concept behind The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Superfood Cookbook (Shelley Vaughan James and Heidi Reichenberger McIndoo) is that there are certain foods that provide an unusual abundance of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. If we work these foods into more of our meals and snacks, we get more out of what we eat and we live healthier lives. Each section of this book is very specific in laying out how these foods help us, which is a great motivator for working them into our diets.

If that isn't enough, though, surely the recipes will do the trick! There's a quinoa & berries recipe in here that surprised the heck out of me. Sure, I like quinoa well enough, and the recipe looked good, but it was one of those combinations of a few simple ingredients that ended up tasting like something more than the sum of its parts. The same was true of a marinated chicken recipe; it included some familiar seasonings and one that I had trouble believing would go with the rest---but again, the whole was more than the sum of its parts, and it was a delicious recipe. There was also a couscous-stuffed tomatoes recipe that we made, and it was incredibly easy and delicious.

All of these recipes are kept as simple as possible, with enough (but not too many) ingredients. Most of them can be made in 10 or 20 minutes here or there (although of course there are exceptions). There are lots of smoothie recipes in here that I can't wait to try (pumpkin smoothie? yum!), rice puddings, quick breads & muffins, bean recipes, and more. It's hard to know what to try next!

For a longer version of this review (with food photos!) visit Errant Dreams.… (mehr)