My current favorite is Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole & Natural Ingredients Into Your Cooking by Heidi Swanson. My roommate, Annie, discovered it at Anthropologie a few days after my birthday and wished she had uncovered them before my birthday so she could have given them to me. I went out with birthday money the next day and bought it cause everything looks sooooo yummy. It's divided up into Building Your Pantry, Grains, Color, Superfoods, Natural Sweetners aka everything is super heathy and the cookbook is really well rounded. There is pasta, sushi, cookies, salads, soups, dips, granola, and more. I've only cooked out of it a few times, but the spine is already starting to show much love.
Another book Annie discovered that I bought as well is Fast, Fresh & Green: More Than 90 Declicious Recipes for Veggie Lovers by Susie Middleton. Veggies, veggies, and more veggies. I've started to eat a more vegetarian diet since veggies are what we're supposed to eat mainly anyways. I can't tell you the last time I cooked meat on my own at home. And when I do, it's just salad toppers. This book is divided up by the technique used to cook the dishes and gives suggestions as to what to eat them with.
Some other favorites:
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. Alice was a pioneer in organic, local cooking. The cookbook explains what is in seasonally so you can go to the farmers market to pick everything up depending on what time of year and your location. I actually picked this one up after reading that Natalie Coughlin, Olympic medalist, cooks out of it.
Clean Food by Terry Walters. This is a seasonal guide to eating close to the source, per the cover. It's great because the pages are colored based on the season so, like with The Art of Simple Food, you can just turn to the "Spring" section, or whatever, and head to the farmers market.
Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero is great for anyone who is vegan, vegetarian, allergic to soy or gluten, eating a low/reduced fat diet, in a hurry, or unable to find more obscure ingredients. All recipes are labeled so it's easy to find what you need if you have any restrictions. The recipe that caught my eye, and quite honesly the only one I've made thus far, is the Lemongrass Asparagus Risotto. It was so good. I made it with a friend who also loves to cook and he said you can leave the mint out if you don't like mint. I like mint, Adam, so there. It's staying.
That's all for now. I'm sure I'll uncover more and more cookbooks as time progresses. If you know of any great cookbooks, let me know! I'm always up for fun kitchen time.
