Tag: mario batali

5 Cookbooks to Make Healthy Eating Easier in 2015

by Maria

cookbooks to help with healthy eating

If you like food, (i.e. you are any sort of human), you’ve probably encountered one of the most gut-wrenching struggles of mankind. It is this: food has calories. Calories make you fat. This is not good.

I do wish a scenario had worked out where we could eat unlimited qualities of highly caloric food and feel more energetic and healthy than ever. Part of me is still holding out hope that this scientific breakthrough is on its way. It’s the same part of me that is convinced my life purpose is to eat twelve brownies a day.

BUT, until that golden day, you can bet your butt that I will be trying to get as much flavor out of healthy food as possible. And the best way to do this? To the cookbook shelf!

Here are the 5 cookbooks I’ll be pulling from my kitchen shelf this year to make my “get healthier STAT” resolution happen:

For your post-holiday detox:

Clean Slate

Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide to Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body, and Feel Your Best by the Editors of Martha Stewart Living

How gorgeous is that cover? My sister bought this book over the holidays, and we both completely fell in love with the spare but elegant design. It also has options for a 3-Day Cleanse or a 21-Day Cleanse, and the recipes look delicious. If you need to watch what you eat, why not do it in style?

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Read, Eat, Drink–Weekend Roundup

by Maria

Read:
As much as agents do our best to try to help writers and offer insight into the wild, whacky world that is publishing, sometimes nothing resonates quite like hearing directly from other writers. So here’s my favorite author blog post of the week–Colleen Hoover’s incredible story of how writing changed her life. Three years ago, she was living in a trailer, working 12 hours a day, and barely making ends meet. She picked up writing in her spare time and self-published her first book. She sold about 30 copies in the first week, but she kept at it. Today, she’s the New York Times bestselling author of 6 books and has a lucrative book deal with Atria/Simon & Schuster. And the best part of it all? In her words:

Three years ago, my husband and I dreamed about the day we would be able to build a new house. Tomorrow, that’s going to happen. On the same land where we happily lived in our single-wide trailer, we will be breaking ground on the house we will spend the rest of our lives in, and I still can’t wrap my head around it.

I know this started with the fact that I wrote and finished a book, but that was as simple as putting a pen to paper. Nothing would have followed had it not been for the support of my readers. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the motivation. And remember-

Dreams are free, so make sure you have a shit-load of them.

And THAT right there is exactly why we’re all in this crazy, unpredictable, shaky business.

You can read Colleen’s full story here.

Eat:
Raise your hand if you like bacon. Looks like…everyone on the planet. And the only thing better than bacon is bacon + pasta, especially when it’s Mario Batali’s Spaghetti Carbonara. This is (I think) the same recipe he uses at his restaurant Otto in New York, but you can make it yourself at home for, oh, a 95% discount.

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Lemon Pepper Pasta

by Maria

Maria Pasta

This is my very favorite minimalist recipe. It’s a spin on an Italian cacio e pepe recipe, but it’s so much more than the sum of its parts.

It’s also the easiest recipe I have ever made. And one of the most delicious. You’ll be surprised by how these humble ingredients work together to make such a luscious, rewarding pasta. And did I mention that you’ll have dinner on the table in under 10 minutes? This recipe is that perfect mix of insanely easy + crazy delicious + so very affordable that will make it an instant weeknight staple.

As Mario Batali says: “Food, like most things, is best when left to its own simple beauty.”

Lemon Pepper Pasta Recipe
aka cacio e pepe con limone

Maria Pasta 1

Serves 4

1 package of spaghetti (I use whole wheat)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 large lemons
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
Parmesan (ideally Parmigiano Reggiano)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta for 1 minute less than the package indicates. Strain the pasta, return it to the pot, and place over very low heat. Drizzle olive oil over the pasta until thoroughly coated (you’ll need at least a ¼ cup and likely more) then juice the lemons into the pot. Grind a lot of black pepper onto the pasta—you’ll want each strand of spaghetti to have multiple flecks of pepper on it. Sprinkle a hearty pinch of salt and grate as much cheese as you like over the pasta.

Serve onto four plates and top with an extra drizzle of olive oil, another grind of pepper, and more cheese at the table.