TOS Crew Review – Sue Gregg Cookbooks

I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Healthy eating is something that our family continually strives for in our lives. Like many, we enjoy the opportunity to eat out or partake of ‘treats’ on occasion. During the transition time of our move to Alaska, we found ourselves had us eating more processed food than usual, either with easy to make meals from the grocery or meals out at restaurants. While this seemed like great fun for the boys, I quickly found myself longing for more healthy options.

Breathe New Life into Your Kitchen with Sue Gregg Cookbooks

Thank goodness for resources such as Sue Gregg’s cookbooks.  She has taken the time to share not only recipes for whole foods cooking, but also HOW their family made the transition to healthier eating.  I really would love to see the older boys learning how to prepare healthy dishes rather than falling back on quick things (e.g. boxed mac and cheese or canned soups with grilled cheese) for their assigned cooking times. And, since they are both quite eager to learn right now, the window of opportunity to learn how to cook ‘from scratch’ is one I want to seize.

Sue Gregg really wants people to be happy with their cookbooks as well as be educated in whole foods eating.  She has an abundance of sample files on the website so you can get a good background in their philosophy as well as sample some of the recipes before taking the plunge to purchase a book.  The books are comb bound, which makes it easy to lay the book flat while working with a recipe.

You can order the cookbooks from Sue Gregg. Introducing Whole Foods Cooking  retails for $17 and Introducing Whole Grain Baking retails for $23.  From the list of cookbook page, you can find sample files of most of the cookbooks she sells.

Introducing Whole Foods Cooking Cookbook

With assistance, P has made the Taco Ole for dinner from the book we received. Everyone in the family enjoyed it, with P commenting that it was far better than anything similar he’s had from a restaurant. I loved that it had plenty of flavor for the meat without extras (e.g. salt, flavorings and preservatives) that are found in the prepackaged taco seasoning we’ve previously used. An added bonus is that I already have all the spices necessary to make it in the house.  P also took pride in knowing that he’d made the meal ‘from scratch’ with tasty results.  We’ve used the seasoned meat on top of blue corn chips as illustrated in the recipe, but have also used it to make tacos and taco salad.

Lunches and Snacks Cookbook

Another recipe we tried and loved was for the Orange Frosty. Everyone enjoyed it so much that we’ve made it a few times already and even froze a bit to try in a popsicle format. The boys are not sure if they like it better than soda, but all agree it is a refreshing change to just plain water on a hot summer day. Using the blender was a new experience for the boys and they were a little intimidated by it at first. The youngest is still in the observation mode for anything on the stove or in the blender at the moment, but he helps out with gathering the ingredients and measuring some of them.  Once the weather warms a bit here in Alaska, this one is sure to be pulled out again for snack times.

The Introduction to Whole Foods Baking cookbook was sent to use for review, but with all the upheaval it has not been properly explored.  I had great plans to be baking from her cookbook shortly after J was born. But, the cesarean birth coupled with the move cross country through a monkey wrench in those plans.

Once we get a few recipes under out belt from that one, I’ll come back and share about that experience.  We already do a lot of baking of bread from flour, but have not done much experimenting with the actual grains. So, I will be eager to learn along the way and hopefully find some healthier (and more economical) alternatives to bread purchased at the store.

 

As always, you can see what other TOS Crewmates have to say about these and other Sue Gregg Cookbooks on the TOS Homeschool Crew site. The cookbooks we reviewed were provided to our family in exchange for our review. No other compensation was given to me and the opinions expressed are my own.