Cook Books that I Can't Live Without

Preparing food for my mom was a challenge, especially when I had just discovered which foods seemed to cause her disturbances.  Hallucinations and sleep walking as my gauge, I was forced to take a new approach with food.

One of my former colleagues and very good friends reads my blog.  She had seen the trouble I was having preparing food that my mom could eat with out causing her to have issues.  I have always taken pride in knowing that I can navigate a kitchen.  But, my mom's restrictions were all the foods I cooked... the only food that I knew how to prepare.  I learned to cook from my mom; not a healthy way to eat.  I believe my mom's lifetime of poor nutrition caused the problems that she has today.

My friend Jo, she mailed me a copy of Dr. Phillip Tirman's "The Wine and Food Lover's Diet" for my birthday.  It was a huge suprise.  The book, it came at the absolute perfect time.   Every recipe that I make from this cookbook is phenomenal.  He teaches how to cook with healthy foods.  It's simple.  The pictures are beautiful and the ingredients are all gluten free.  My favorite recipe is the Meditereanean Spiced Chicken.  It's made with a little wine, corriander, cumin ... fabulous. 

Dr. Tirman's deserts... holy God, HEAVEN.  I highly recommend this cookbook.  He teaches how to use spices and herbs.

The next Cookbook that I can not live without is Dr. John La Puma, ChefMD's Big Book of Culinary Medicine: A food Lover's Road Map to Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Getting Really Healthy


Dr. La Puma found my blog and left a comment with regard to food being medicine.  Something that I have always believed but never lived.  My mom's illness, her Alzheimer's, Diabetes and Heart Disease have all been a huge wake up call for me.  I have 30 years before I'm my mom's age... there's time to fix the damage.
 
Dr. La Puma outlines a weight loss program that does not feel like a diet.  I made Dr. La Puma's Mahi Mahi the other night and it was awesome. You can find Dr. John's recipe here with an instruction video - Miso Glazed Double Sesame Mahi Mahi
 
Note:  If you have never cooked with Miso paste, be cautious, it's not a hard paste.  I thought it was more of a "hard paste" so I squeezed the bottle a little too hard and had Miso all over the place... a mess.  Miso paste, it's supposed to be a little watery.   
 
Dr. La Puma's website is fabulous.  He shows the kitchen chef how to prepare food.  He has a TV Show on Sunday mornings on Lifetime at 9:30 am. 
 
My first cookbook that taught me how to eat Vegetarian is by Marilyn Diamond.  A master of Vegetarian Cuisine.  Marilyn taught me first hand how to prepare food for a healthy life.  For years she was after me to clean up my eating.  She has met my mother and for the last 10 years was worried that if I didn't change my personal ways of eating, I'd be in the same boat as my mother.
 
Of course I listened to my friend Marilyn but I didn't take any action... not until one day I saw my mom hallucinating after she had eaten gluten.  It was in the wee hours of the morning that I had heard an echo from the paste, my friend Marilyn's warning.
 
I was scared straight.  Dementia sucks.  Live with someone who has it for just one day and you too will start to eat more healthfully.
 
These 3 books are my base books for cooking.  They also inspire me to write new recipes.  All 3 of these chef's, Marilyn Diamond, Dr. John La Puma and Dr. Tirman are my personal food heros.  I could not have healed myself and my mom without their cookbooks that are full of food wisdom.  Food is medicine... it's the fuel we need to heal our sick bodies.  It's up to us to take charge and do it now.