The majority of the recipes in this book are meatless, and plenty of dishes are gluten- or dairy-free. Making a recipe fit how you eat is as easy as changing chicken to vegetable broth or making vegan pesto by replacing Parmesan cheesewith a non-dairy version.

      I’ll also turn side dishes like Baby Bok Choy, Shiitake Mushroom & Sugar Snap Pea Stir-Fry (page 128) into mains by adding tofu, beef, shrimp, or chicken for protein.

      Introduction7

      Healthy eating every day is easy when you cook with the right ingredients, including fresh fruits and vegetables in season, locally grown beans and grains, eggs from hens running around outside, and humanely raised meat and poultry. Even where I live, in New York City, I find all of them at our year-round farmers’ markets and increasingly at grocery stores that seek out organic food growers and producers who care about quality and sustainability.

      I was lucky that my mother understood how closely health and eating were linked long before “wellness” and “holistic” were buzzwords. She didn’t call them superfoods, but we ate a diet supercharged with nutrients and micronutrients—whole-grain bread, maple syrup and honey in place of white sugar, and kale decades before it became the poster child for goodness. Turn to page 8 to start reading about how eating fruits and vegetables, smart proteins, good fats, and herbs and spices benefits us. The recipes that follow make eating them every day easy and enticing.

      Colorful, boldly flavored dishes can satisfy enough to help you eat moderately. My way of making them is by using flavorful ingredients from all over the world—like miso, Spanish smoked paprika, tahini—that also are rich in phytonutrients and other elements that support optimal wellness.

      Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean sacrificing pleasure. Indulging a sweet tooth in moderation is essential for me. It means following up a veggie-rich meal with an oat milk-based dark chocolate pudding or spiced grilled peaches. I sometimes crave comfort food, too, so in this book you’ll find my deliciously virtuous versions of whole-wheat waffles (made with whole-wheat flour), meatloaf (featuring turkey, plus a savory mushroom gravy), and mashed potatoes (with olive oil swapping in for butter).

      Eating healthy includes caring about the earth. For deciding when organic is essential, for fruits and vegetables I follow the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen. When buying meat, I confirm that animals are raised conscientiously. For sustainably harvested seafood, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch has a good guide. I buy at local farmers’ markets as much as possible, and bring my reusable bags.

      Eating healthy every day includes skipping stress. So along with using super ingredients, let the recipes in Everyday Healthy help cooking be a nurturing meditationyou enjoy!

      introduction