What’s Cooking Blog – Entry #25: Sometimes Slow and Steady…

by Bridget O’Donnell

Whenever you happen to read this, Happy New Year!

Like a small avalanche, life very eagerly pushed us into the New Year and with it bestowed a few unexpected tasks. Too late for the pebbles to vote, January, more than usual, required meal options that would save time and energy but leave enough leftovers to repurpose throughout the week and facilitate multi-tasking. Contending with NY’s variable winter weather during the peak of flu season, our choices also had to be nutritious.

…While it may have been stored out of sight, the crockpot wasn’t completely out of mind.

Title of Cookbook: The Anti-Inflammatory Diet Slow Cooker Cookbook: Prep-and-Go Recipes for Long-Term Healing

Author of Cookbook: Madeline Given, NC.

What prompted you to check out this cookbook? After attempting a recipe from Healthy Slow Cooker Revolution a few months earlier, a little less successfully than I preferred, it was time to try again.

What did you like about this cookbook? Primarily, I liked this cookbook’s accessibility. It was a pleasant surprise to find all of the ingredients called for in the recipe in the cabinets and freezer. Comparable to the “Pot Roast with Red Wine Sauce” found in Good Housekeeping’s Slow Cooker (pg. 56), this cookbook/recipe also focused on using minimal ingredients and quick-prep. Almost equally as important was that M. Given, the author, reinforced the anti-inflammatory dietary suggestions I’d been reading about sports nutrition, injury recovery and prevention.

Nominally, The Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook didn’t suggest pre-cooking ingredients in the microwave like America’s Test Kitchen. For whatever reason, I seem to have reservations about cooking anything other than popcorn in the microwave. If you have to wash another dish anyway, why not monitor the progress on an open stove-top? There’s less chance of food exploding all over the surface of the appliance, it really doesn’t take that much longer, cooks/heats more evenly and the end-result usually tastes better.

What didn’t you like about this cookbook/website? Nothing really comes to mind.

Favorite recipe (that you tried from the cookbook/website): Classic Pot Roast (pg. 93).

Did you alter the recipe or make any substitutions? If so, what were they? Because of the nuances associated with slow cookers I followed the measurements listed in the recipe almost to a T. As suggested in the Ingredient Tip, I substituted approximately one cup of broth for red wine. Beef [bone] broth may have been a better choice but I already had a container of chicken bone broth defrosting. Small white and orange sweet potatoes were placed over the meat in the slow cooker but leftover roasted potatoes supplemented individual servings. Sautéed white and shitake mushrooms and dried parsley were used as ‘garnish.’

Would you recommend this cookbook/recipe? Yes, but in addition to this cookbook I’d also recommend experimenting with some of the recipes found in the other titles mentioned in this blog (refer to References below). Between the three cookbooks I curiously skimmed through recipes for hard-boiled eggs, fruit compote, soups, rice, big-batch tomato sauce, meatballs, and suggestions for substitutions like microwaving spices instead of toasting them.