My back hallway shelf of cookbooks

Recipe books are inspiration to me. When I first started to cook they were instructional manuals – I adhered closely to what they said – to learn how to cook.

After many delicious and terrible meals, I’m more comfortable in the kitchen. I play more with the recipes, exploring variations and ingredients.

I try – I don’t always succeed – but I try to do a recipe close to how it’s written the first time I make it, and then I go wild from there. Many of my recipes have been inspired by the row of recipe books that I keep in my back hallway. Throughout the week I pull out recipe books from the back hallway shelf (pictured above) and cook or uncook (raw), as the case may be. By the end of the week, my kitchen counter is a record of the recipe books I’ve been using the most.

My kitchen counter with this week's recipe books

Here’s this week’s kitchen counter recipe books.

• Living on Live Food: Alissa Cohen – I always come back to her first recipe book. The recipes are easy and quick raw.
• If The Buddha Came to Dinner: Hale Sofia Schatz – It’s more than a recipe book, it’s a chronicle of healthy living which also includes a great cleanse I have done many times. Hale was one of my  first health coaches 12 years ago!
• The Savory Way: Deborah Madison – Great veggies dishes from simple to elegant.
• The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook: Elana Amsterdam – Beautiful little book with fun recipes.
• Veggie Burgers Every Which Way: Lukas Volger – This is one of the newer books on my shelf. I’m working my way through it slowly. It has a lovely falafel burger that everyone in my family loved.
• Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure: Lorna Sass – Lorna Sass was tuned into healthy cooking way ahead of the curve. She’s my go-to person for all pressure cooker recipes.
• The Angelica Home Kitchen: Leslie McEachern – This is the first cookbook put out by one of my favorite NYC restaurants – Angelica’s Kitchen. It has timeless macrobiotic recipes.
• American Wholefoods Cuisine: Nikki & David Goldbeck – I don’t know if this is even in print anymore. It’s kind of like a Joy of Cooking for wholefoods. It’s got over 1000 recipes.
• The World Goes Raw Cookbook: Lisa Mann – This is my newest cookbook. I started using it at my moms house and liked it so much I bought my own.

Oh, and the recipe book you see in the recipe stand is one that I wrote for family and friends in 2003. It’s called The One-Handed Chef: Recipes For A Full & Health LIfe. My kids were little and my daughter was always in my arms, which is why I was often cooking with one hand.

Almost every week I make several recipes from this little book. Our favorite is the healthy waffles. I’ll be sure to include them in the new book I’m working on!

So, Pull out an old recipe book or get a new one. It will inspire you in the kitchen.

I would love to know what recipe book you are using the most right now. It doesn’t have to be your all time favorite, just the one you are reaching for the most.

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Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her healthy recipes and wellness tips click here.

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Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.

She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.

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