Marilu Henner - Healthy Life Kitchen

I have been racking my brain for weeks now trying to figure out how to start this book. Do I start with a personal story from childhood about the smells, tastes, and emotions felt while watching Mom cook with love? My mother definitely loved us, but I dont know how much of that went into her cooking. She taught dancing in our garage and ran a beauty salon out of our kitchen, so the kitchen smell I remember most is that of perm solution. (As my uncle used to say, As a cook, she was a very good dance teacher.)

Maybe I should begin this cookbook on a more global level. I could start with the staggering statistic that despite the fact that the average restaurant meal contains one thousand to two thousand calories and fifty to one hundred grams of fat, we are currently eating in restaurants at least four or five times a week. We are cooking at home less and less often. (Most people say they dont even know the first step to cooking healthy for their families.)

Or maybe I should start this book (as I always want to start my books) with the loudest voice possible, shouting, screaming, and declaring I LOVE THIS FOOD! Believe me, I like to be healthy and I like to be fit, but most of all, I love to eat. There is no way I could have eaten this way for the last twenty-one years if the food I ate was unappetizing and unsatisfying. Discipline can only take you so far. After a while even the most resolved among us will cave in to cravings and longings for the things we have given up. But what if we didnt have to give up our favorite foods? What if we could take recipes from our childhood or favorite cookbooks and find healthier and better-tasting ways to make them? And what if we ended up looking better and feeling better as a result?

When people come to my home for the first time, they usually expect something like steamed vegetables and a block of tofu. (Im not kidding. This was actually served to me once by a well-meaning host.) I love to surprise my dinner guests by serving traditional dishes they would expect at any dinner party, except that these dishes contain nothing that is harmful to their health: no red meat, no refined sugar, no dairy products, and no chemicals. My guests are often amazed that these healthy dishes taste so much better than what theyre used to. I always tell them the reason is simple: its REAL food!

It seems so unfair to me that health food has a bad rap. I spoke recently at an event hosted by Healthy Dining where famous California chefs presented the most amazing dishes (most of them within the same guidelines as The Total Health Makeover). The smells and textures and colors of the food were so rich and exciting and sensual, I couldnt help but think health food is really sexy! Its funny that people think a healthy, firm, vibrant body is sexy, but they dont relate the same principles to a vegetable. (On second thought )

Many people love to cook and know how rewarding it can be. They have a pretty good idea of what makes a meal healthy, but they dont bother going to the trouble because they feel its too time consuming to prepare and clean up afterward. They end up eating a lot of fast food, takeout, and prepackaged foods instead. All of these are usually high in fats, processed flour, sugar, and/or chemicals and are almost never made from fresh or live food. Most people assume that healthy meals are more difficult and require more time to prepare than junk food. The truth is that preparing healthy food doesnt have to be more burdensome or time consuming. The trick is to design your kitchen so that healthy eating becomes simple and convenient. Many people are intimidated by recipes and preparation because their kitchens are not organized for cooking and easy cleanup.

That is why I wanted to write this book. I not only wanted to turn you on to the best recipes Ive ever presented, but more importantly, to explain to you how important it is to have a Healthy Life Kitchen. A Healthy Life Kitchen eventually produces a Healthy Living you! But its a good news-bad news story. If youre like most people, 70 percent of the contents of your kitchen right now is unhealthy and has got to go. But the good news is that there are healthy and tasty alternatives to everything! The transition is easier than you think. Ill show you how. Together, we will not only get rid of the health robbers in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, we will also look under your sink and examine the harmful chemicals in your cleaning products that may be killing you. Well explore your kitchen top to bottom, from organizing your utensil drawer to discussing what pots and pans are best to buy. And speaking of shopping, Im taking you to the health food store and turning you on to the best products Ive discovered in my twenty-one years of total health living.

So lets strip down that kitchen of yours and literally turn it into a health factory. Youre not alone. Ive been there myself. If you had looked in my refrigerator before I got into health, all you would have seen were Tab, Dijon mustard, and nail polish. (Not that I was on some crazy nail polish diet. Refrigeration is a great way to keep nail polish from separating.) Ive done kitchen makeovers for most of my friends. Ive done them on several talk shows. I even did one at my childrens school. Now its your turn.

This book is a compilation of the best recipes from my favorite cookbooks, restaurants, website members, friends, and family. You will notice that there are no nutritional analyses for these recipes. Weighing, measuring, and/or counting calories or fat, carbohydrate, and protein grams in my food stopped being a priority when I gave up dieting. This program is all about rediscovering your natural appetite. If you are eating clean, healthy food, your natural appetite will determine for you how much to eat. If you eat dairyless, meatless, sugar-free, and chemical-free foods in the right combination, you will automatically or instinctually eat the right amount. In other words, eating this way means you really can eat anything you want, because eventually the more you eat this kind of food, the more you will want this kind of food and this kind of food only. I cant tell you the number of times I have heard from people that once they cleansed their palate and could appreciate the healthy flavors of real food, they fell in love with the program and their excess weight came off. Portion control became a natural process. Everything in these recipes is good for you, good tasting, and will promote your bodys function as a well-oiled machine. When you let your body do what it was designed to do, your metabolismthe burning of your food (storing of the good stuff and elimination of the waste)happens naturally.

Of all the books Ive written (five so far), this book has definitely been the most fun and tastiest to work on. Ive learned so much from you through your E-mails and messages on my website, marilu.com, your comments at book signings, and talking to you on the street. I know that most of you want to eat tastier, healthier food made from ingredients that you already have or can find easily. That is why the recipes in this book are so easy and delicious. While many of them have come from restaurants and cookbooks, some of the best recipes in this book have come from readers like you. This book, inspired by you, contributed to by you, is, most importantly, for you. So come on. Lets have some fun in the kitchen!