Elizabeth Yarnell - Glorious One-Pot Meals

Elizabeth Yarnell is on a mission to help busy people eat healthy, home-cooked meals without sacrificing their time, money, or taste buds. After a 1999 diagnosis of multiple sclerosis forced her to take a good look at her diet and lifestyle, she dove into researching the connection between what we eat and how we feel. The infusion cooking technique she subsequently invented and patented has not only given her a way to manage the course of her health but also provided a quick and convenient weeknight dinner solution that satisfies the pickiest of eaters.

Now a Certified Nutritional Consultant (CNC) and Natural Health Professional (CNHP) as well as a cooking school instructor and healthstyle coach, Elizabeth enjoys sharing knowledge and ideas about healthy eating, natural health remedies, and living a natural lifestyle on her blog, Effortless Eating for Healthier Bodies (EffortlessEating.com).

Elizabeths 2005 independently published cookbook, an earlier version of Glorious One-Pot Meals, spent eight weeks on the Denver Post bestseller list and was recognized by Best Books 2006; the National Indie Excellence Awards; iParenting Media, where it was named an Outstanding Product; and the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.

On her national tour Elizabeth speaks about healthy eating and cooking to audiences ranging from busy parents to empty nesters and from foodies looking for the next new cooking idea to MS patients and their patrons, heart disease sufferers, diabetics, cancer patients, and others who believe that bodies need and deserve good food. An event schedule can be found at GloriousOnePotMeals.com, along with answers to Glorious One-Pot Meal cooking questions, new recipes, video demonstrations, and much more.

Elizabeth lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and two children. The Glorious One-Pot Meal infusion cooking process holds U.S. (no. 6,846,504) and Canadian (no. 2,401,092) patents.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like
and let the food fight it out inside.

Mark Twain

Glorious One-Pot Meals call for whole foods rather than processed and packaged items, and youll find that each recipe even the vegetarian onesoffers a complete and balanced meal of an appropriate amount of protein, a variety of vegetables, and a healthy serving of carbohydrates.

While many other familiar one-pot meals require a side dish of pasta or rice made separately, or even a salad or bread, Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes are intended to provide the entire meal in just one potnothing else is needed, not even a salad. Each meal is complete in and of itself and offers a range of nutritional benefits.

The centerpiece of the infusion cooking technique is the Dutch oven. If you havent used a Dutch oven since you were a Scout, relax: It has grown up. Todays Dutch oven is not the heavy, blackened behemoth that simmered baked beans for fifty at the cook-out all those years ago. Lighter in weight than those of old, sometimes coated with a nonstick surface of fired-on enamel, and often dishwasher-safe, modern Dutch ovens still carry a core of cast iron but now come in a wide variety of brands, sizes, shapes, and colors.

Any shape or brand of cast-iron Dutch oven works well with this technique: Round or oval ovens are most common, but you might also see snowflakes, hearts, eggplants, apples, and other fanciful shapes. As a result of its unique heat-conduction properties, cast iron works best for this cooking method; you wont experience the same guaranteed results using a pot made of another material.

Personally, I prefer enamel-coated cast iron over uncoated cast iron for a variety of reasons: (1) Enamel-coated Dutch ovens are lighter, an important consideration since you will be loading the pot with food and then lifting it in and out of a hot oven; (2) enamel-coated cast iron doesnt need seasoning and wont rust; and (3) most enamel-coated cast-iron Dutch ovens are dishwasher-safe, making clean-up even more of a breeze. However, uncoated cast-iron Dutch ovens perform just as well when cooking Glorious One-Pot Meals, and may be less expensive.

Some readers have had limited success using stainless-steel Dutch ovens as long as they have the essential characteristics of a Dutch oven: a wide, flat bottom, vertical (not sloped) sides, and a lid with a ridge on the underside that sits heavily and securely on the pot.