Alissa Noel Grey - 5 Ingredient Cookbook: Fast and Easy Recipes With 5 or Less Ingredients Inspired by The Mediterranean Diet: Everyday Cooking for Busy People on a Budget (Mediterranean Diet for Beginners Book 1)

by Alissa Noel Grey
Text copyright(c)2016 Alissa Noel Grey
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within. We just love the cozy feeling of sitting down with our family to a home-cooked dinner! But we also live in an age when we are constantly on the move and putting a home-cooked meal on the table during a busy weeknight looks like an impossible endeavor. In my new cookbook I have gathered the very best of my easy, five ingredient family recipes for evening meals, inspired by my Mediterranean origins, and prepared using simple and easy to find ingredients and a variety of cooking methods. A delicious meal doesn't require tons of ingredients.

All my recipes have a few things in common - they are healthy, they are family-friendly, and they can be prepared even by an inexperienced cook. Preparing meals at home may seem hard at the beginning but it soon turns out to be an amazingly rewarding experience. Cooking at home allows you to control the ingredients in your food, so you can choose natural ingredients instead of unhealthy processed foods. It also helps control the amount of salt and oils you use in your recipes. The Mediterranean diet is not actually a "diet." Yes, it will help you lose weight and improve your health but it is really more of a relaxed and family-oriented lifestyle. It is living, cooking and eating with enthusiasm and love.

People who live in the Mediterranean countries like Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey and Morocco eat mainly local, everyday products that can be bought around the corner or grown in their own backyard. The Mediterranean way of cooking is in reality healthy home cooking embracing a variety of fresh ingredients such as whole grains, healthy fats, more colorful vegetables and fish, and less meat, and using wine, olive oil and fragrant herbs to create rich flavors. A hallmark of Mediterranean dishes is that they derive deep flavor from simple ingredients prepared simply. Unlike many diets that involve increasing your intake of certain vitamins and minerals, with the Mediterranean diet you can always improvise, invent, vary recipes, and substitute one ingredient for another. It allows you to eat a wide variety of healthy whole foods in moderation, is high in good fats and dietary fiber and extremely low in saturated fats and bad cholesterol. The Mediterranean diet will help you:

• Eat a well-balanced diet of whole natural foods
• Prevent heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer
• Lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure
• Improve cardiovascular health
• Improve brain and eye health
• Eat foods that are high in good fats and dietary fiber
• Lose weight
• Increase energy

Just remember these rules to be certain that you are really following a Mediterranean diet:

• Eat vegetables with every meal and eat fresh fruit every day;
• Use olive oil when cooking.

  Use little or no butter at all;

• Include at least two legume meals per week add lentils, chickpeas or beans to salads, soups or casseroles.
• Include at least two servings of fish per week: oily fish, if possible, such salmon, mackerel, gem-fish, canned sardines and canned salmon;
• Eat smaller portions of lean meat mainly chicken, lamb, and beef;
• Eat yogurt and cheese in moderation;
• Consume wine in moderation, only with meals;
• Eat nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and dried fruit as snacks and dessert;