Delicious, Healthy, Flavour-Packed and Quick Recipes Perfect for Back-to-School Meals
Another Cookbook Review by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
Just like that commercial where someone freaks out when they see the first fallen leaf on the ground come autumn, many of us get anxious at this time a year when it comes to preparing quick and easy meals come September. Life is about to get busy again for families who are juggling back-to-school, back to sports, and more. What we need are delicious and nutritious meals that are quick to prepare. Here’s a new cookbook that fits the bill with recipes that are as delicious as they are nutritious.
After a summer of a steady diet of hot dogs, hamburgers, and creamy potato salads, I am looking forward to trying some new recipes that are quick but also nourishing and satisfying. The new cookbook, Deliciously Nourishing Eats: Allergy-Friendly Recipes for Quick, Satisfying Whole Food Meals, is just the book that ticks all the boxes.
Author Aleyda Batarse is a food blogger and the creator of the popular blog The Dish on Healthy. (thedishonhealthy.com, @thedishhealthy.) She lives in Toronto with her three young children who she says are the driving force behind her kitchen adventures. With back to school just around the corner, you will even find some great lunchbox and dinner ideas in this book that are quick, easy and family-friendly.
Batarse’s mission (and yes, she did accept it), as stated in the book, “is to make healthy food feel enjoyable and approachable.”
This book is as big on flavour as it is on substance, with chapters entitled Breakfast and Brunch, Appetizers and Nibbles, Light Salads and Cozy Sides, Hearty Salads, Weeknight Dinners, plus Desserts and Sweet Treats. A few must-try recipes include Perfect (Every Time) Banana Bread, Blueberry and Almond Butter Crumble Squares, Farro Harvest Salad, Crispy Baked Greek Feta Fries, One-Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken, and Slow Cooker Beef Fajita Bowls.
The reason this book rates top marks is that, along with the delicious recipes and inspiring photos) it provides affordable recipes as well as allergy-friendly options. Batarse has included what she calls some ‘chameleon recipes’, i.e., cook once and enjoy in three or four different ways. Batarse cites an example: “Slow Cooker Beef Fajita Bowls on a bed of quinoa or rice can be revamped by adding the beef to tortillas to make burritos or tacos, or Prosciutto, Avocado and Harissa Eggs Benedict.”
In terms of being allergy-friendly, the author offers plenty of substitutions, such as using sunflower butter or plant-based milks for nut butters and cow’s milk. For those with gluten allergies or intolerances, readers can find affordable flour substitutions such as oat flou,r which is used in several recipes in this book. There’s also a handy grocery and pantry list provided.
With Deliciously Nourishing Eats, you can resist the urge to dial your favourite fast food delivery service and dial into healthy, whole food meals that are as quick as they are delicious.
Excerpted from Deliciously Nourishing Eats by Aleyda Batarse, Copyright © 2025 Aleyda Batarse. Cover photo and interior photography by Diala Canelo. Arranged with special permission from the Publisher, Appetite by Random House, Random House ®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. All rights reserved.
Here is another great back-to-school cookbook worth checking out on TOtimes.ca!
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