Last week we took a look at Chapters 1 and 2 of The Sneaky Chef’s second book, where Missy outlined the importance of a healthy home and why she decided to focus on men this time around. This week, we’re going to take a look at Chapters 3 and 4 of the book.
In Chapter 3 – The Lists – Missy helps us learn how to shop more effectively so we purchase healthier ingredients and save time and money. She also provides a fresh (pun intended) perspective on when to buy organic to limit pesticides (foods that have no skin or a thin skin, like strawberries, celery and imported grapes) and how to stock up on the least contaminated foods, such as sweet corn and pineapple. The chapter wraps up with a comprehensive list of Sneaky Chef staple foods, broken out by category, such as produce, frozen foods and spices. (Missy provided a short list of these staples in her Thursday blog.)
In Chapter 4 – The Sneaky Chef’s Bag of Tricks – we get a look at The Sneaky Chef’s ways to add health to all her recipes. The first method – pureeing ingredients and adding them to recipes – is what made The Sneaky Chef famous when she demonstrated it on TV shows like The Today Show. In addition to using this method to get ingredients that many don’t like into traditional foods (e.g., spinach in brownies), the book discusses how pureeing foods allows us to add a lot more vitamins, because they are more concentrated. The recipes in this book include everything from pureed broccoli to tofu as well as combinations most of us couldn’t dream up. Other methods she delves into include:
- Finding foods that are easy to hide, like cauliflower and oat bran (the list also includes sardines, so I’ll be interested to see how that works!)
- Substituting nutritious liquid for boiling water, such as green tea in rice
- Combining items that are nutritional complements, such as a puree of spinach and blueberries to boost iron absorption
- And 10 more!
If you have a method of sneaking healthy foods into your meals, we’d love to hear about it – you can respond to this blog or join the discussion in our Channels.
Next week, we’ll take a look at Chapter 5 with The Sneaky Chef’s make-ahead recipes and we’ll begin to dive into the recipes that have made Missy such a hit.
Happy Sneaking!
Kerry
