As I said in my previous post, I'm trying to start eating better and exercising more this year. I was happy when Penguin Canada asked me if I wanted to review Joyous Health and this book- Grain Power. Both books contain healthy recipes that I was hoping would be tasty.
Grain Power contains over 100 recipes that are not only gluten-free but that also use ancient grains. It was written by the same authors who wrote Quinoa Revolution (which has some really delicious recipes!). As soon as I received this book in the mail I flipped through it and was salivating over some of the photos- they look so delicious! The pizza on the cover is something I would totally devour!
One thing I really liked about this book was that the beginning portion goes through each of the grains used in the book and explains its flavor, texture, forms, how to cook with it, a nutrition guide, and general cooking instructions. I found this really beneficial because I don't usually cook with grains (except Quinoa) so I really had no idea what some of them were or how to cook them. The back of the book also contains troubleshooting tips and tricks for when you are cooking the grains. The rest of the book is divided into Breakfast; Appetizers, Snacks, Salads & Side Dishes; Soups & Stews; Meals; and Desserts & Baking.
As I mentioned the pictures looked delicious, but as I flipped through and read some of the recipes, they sounded even better. I even liked the fact that some of them had options that you could choose, for example- the Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet gave you the option of using beef sirloin tip, chicken, pork or salmon. They also gave you the option of using kaniwa, quinoa, amaranth, or teff instead of buckwheat. I really liked this because I know that some people in my family won't eat buckwheat and others won't eat beef. It was nice that I could still use that recipe and was told what else would taste good in it.
The recipes that I tried out were the Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet mentioned above and the Mexican Chocolate Millet Pudding. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get pictures of either of these recipes.
The Orange, Ginger & Dijon-Glazed Vegetable & Buckwheat Skillet was really tasty. I kept with the original recipe and did the beef skillet tip with the buckwheat. Unfortunately I overcooked the buckwheat and so it was a little mushy, but the recipe was still tasty. The orange flavor was really clear, unlike some orange flavored foods where you taste absolutely NO orange. The beef was cooked really well and everything tasted good together. This recipe got mixed reviews from my family but that was because they forgot to tell me that they don't like orange flavor in their meals and the other didn't like buckwheat.
The Mexican Chocolate Millet Pudding on the other hand was a big hit. I didn't manage to grind the millet seeds fine enough and so the pudding wasn't smooth, but I've learned for next time. No one realized that this was a "healthy" pudding, they just enjoyed the chocolate pudding. They enjoyed it so much that each of their bowls was licked clean of it!
Overall, this book had some really good recipes and I'm excited to try more of them. I really would love to try the Mango, Cucumber & Red Pepper Quinoa Salad and the Thin Crust Vegetable Pizza with Fresh Basil. This cookbook has a wide variety of meals, with meat, fish and vegetables. I am amazed that you can do so much with ancient grains. Big thank you to Penguin Canada for sending me this book!!!
I give this book:
out of 