Vickilynn Haycraft and Shonda Parker released a fabulous new book, “Naturally Healthy Cuisine: Real Food for Real Families.” Since we’re coming up on summer, when we all hate to heat up our kitchen with cooking, I’d like to share one of their helpful summertime cooking strategies from the “‘Surviving Summertime” section.
“Make as many of the hot foods during the cool period of the day. We prefer the evening. Bake breads, rolls, tortillas, etc. in large amounts and freeze, so that you have fewer baking days to heat up your home. Make ahead and partially bake pizza crusts and casseroles. If you plan ahead to allow the casseroles to thaw in the refrigerator the day prior to when you want to bake and serve, your oven time will be reduced.”
These tips are part of the “Surviving Summertime” section of the book — and it includes more tips for summertime cooking strategies, summertime cooking ideas, and many refreshing summertime recipes. I just spotted a recipe for an almond butter sandwich spread that involves adding shredded coconut and orange juice to almond butter – doesn’t that sound yummy and refreshing?
For more information on the book, including ordering, please visit Shonda Parker’s Naturally Healthy website. You can see the table of contents on Vickilynn Haycraft’s Real Food Living website.
Do you have any summertime cooking strategies to share?
I’ll start with one of mine. I cook summertime meals outside, using my roaster oven or crockpot. I wrote about it back in 2006. There’s no heating up the kitchen and almost no mess. Our favorite meal to cook this way is baked burritos, using sprouted grain tortillas, beef or chicken, and refried beans.
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that’s great – and I put my dehydrator outside in the summer – with (top 3 shelves) ‘vegetable flax crackers’, then ‘carrot, sunflower, mushroom burgers’, then ‘cheesey kale chips’, bottom shelf is ‘almond, carob, mint crepes’ – since I use a low temperature – the enzymes are still intact and it is considered ‘live food’ – food can even be warmed in the dehydrator but if it’s under 105 degrees – it’s still ‘live food’
-Jannai
Looks like a good book – it’s the second time I’ve come across a review today. We don’t often cook outside, but we eat almost every dinner on the patio in summertime.