Brooke McLay - The Everything Mediterranean Slow Cooker Cookbook: Includes Sun-Dried Tomato and Pesto Dip, Apricot-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Tuscan Chicken and Sausage Stew, Zucchini Ragout, and Chocolate Creme

Avon, Massachusetts

For Mom, Dad, Grammy, and Jedd. Thank you for teaching me to love food. L.K.

To Grandma Brown. For waking every morning and anticipating what was for dinner. B.M.

THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET is like the land and sea it springs fromvibrantly hued and beautiful. Its also effortlessly filled with health and nutrition. The residents of the Mediterranean infuse their meals with vitamin- and antioxidant-rich vegetables and grains, and they eat a lot of them. And when they do indulge in red meat they consume it in moderation, and use heart-healthy olive oil instead of butter.

There are other notably nutritious aspects to Mediterranean cooking. The use of beanswhite beans, chickpeas, lentilsis common and abundant. Herbs, rich and varied, are sprinkled into tomato- and wine-based sauces, imbuing them with deep, satisfying flavor. Sugar is rarely turned toeven for desserts. The end of a Mediterranean meal may include a bite of fruit-and-nut-based goodness, perhaps drizzled with the natural sweetness of honey, but mounds of white sugar arent spooned into overly sweet batters or frostings. Mediterranean eating is simple, fresh, filling, and generally low in the processed sugars and carbohydrates that have been linked to obesity, cancer, and other chronic or fatal health conditions. In fact, Mayo Clinic recognizes Mediterranean foods as a heart-healthy eating plan (www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/mediterranean-diet/art-20047801).

Of course, the idea of Mediterranean cooking sounds ideal, but changing from familiar, traditional comfort recipes, embracing a new way of eating, can be difficult at first. Learning to cook a new food style can feel overwhelming, as it often calls for unfamiliar ingredients, spices, and combinations. The newness of the process requires work and learningits not automatic in the same way grabbing a box of tacos or broiling a breast of chicken once was. It can be time consuming to learn which ingredients go together, which taste good with chicken or beef, and which work best with pasta.

The EverythingMediterranean Slow Cooker Cookbook seeks to simplify the process, making it easy and fun to learn a new way to cook. It turns more than 300 delicious, healthy Mediterranean-style recipes into breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and moreall made in a slow cooker.

The use of a slow cooker dramatically reduces the typical prep and stove-watching time associated with many traditional Mediterranean dishes. Where classic sauces, meats, and stews once took a dedicated housewife a full day of preparation time, the slow cooker delivers the same sort of slow-simmered goodness without all the watch time. Simply set the slow cooker and let it do the rest.

The flavorsand health benefitsof Mediterranean cuisine are undeniable and incredibly delicious. When made in the slow cooker, they become easier than ever to prepare and enjoy. With the hundreds of simple recipes included in this book, healthy Mediterranean cooking has never been so simple! Set that slow cooker, eat and enjoy!

Mediterranean cuisine is more than just a way of cooking; its a way of life. Its a slower pace of life, its long, slowsimmered cooking served around a rustic farm table, its deep flavors and rich spices, its lean meats and fresh-caught fish full of vital nutrients, fats, and vitamins. And what a wonderful thing that is! After all, to change your diet is one thing. To change your focus, priorities, and start molding your life to a lifestyle known for its health benefits wont just give you a flatter stomach; it will give you a fresh, new way of approaching every day. As you dive deep into these pages, keep in mind your diet is a reflection of your values, your schedule, and the way you view whats important. Embracing the simple values of health, flavor, vibrancy, community, and connectionall associated with the Mediterranean waymay prove to be just as invigorating as the fresh, beautiful flavors youll taste as you make the recipes in this book.

To put it very simply, Mediterranean food is good food. Meals that are inspired by the sea, chock-a-block with fresh gorgeous vegetables and fruit along with fish, whole grains, nuts, and legumes. And maybe even a glass of red wine along with a healthy pasta dish. The diet is light on meat and sweets and uses heart-healthy olive oil instead of butter or lard.

Legendary Italian actress Sophia Loren once famously said, Everything I have I owe to spaghetti. And pasta tossed with olive oil along with fresh vegetables and herbs is a staple in the Mediterranean diet. Though olive oil is high in fat, its filled with monounsaturated fatty acids, which are the good type of fatty acid for the heart. That, combined with the benefits of a diet thats low in sugar and doesnt rely on processed food or copious amounts of meat, means that it has health benefits ranging from heart health to glucose control. Also, people who eat the Mediterranean diet have lower reported incidences of Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases.

In the middle of living a bustling American life, more and more families are turning to the relaxed simplicity of Mediterranean cuisine. The mere mention of Mediterranean cuisine conjures an idea that is likely two parts fantasy and half realityoversized wooden farm tables surrounded by families, everyone sun-kissed and wearing loose gauzy clothes, wide-opened windows overlooking the Mediterranean, sea air wafting gently through homespun curtains.

The Mediterranean area is just mysterious enough, old enough, and far away enough to intrigue us. Of course, that intrigue becomes all the more interesting when there are real life reports from a multitude of studies that indicate Mediterranean countries experience lower rates of coronary disease, and lower rates of some diet-related cancers, than there are in the United States.

The Mediterranean lifestyle does have a focus on family, siestas, big-hearted enjoyment of life, and balanced work hours, which makes the consumer-driven fast-paced American lifestyle look overwhelming and unsustainable. And the fresh, simple flavors and nutrition-packed foods of the area complement this lifestyle.

The popularity of the Mediterranean diet in recent years must be attributed to more than just the ingredients listed in a cookbook. A focus on Mediterranean eating is a focus on fresh and local, slow and savoryon flavorful food grown by hand, by farmers in your own village (or at least in your own state). Its about food made to be shared with a table full of people, as simple and satisfying as feeding a crowd with a bowl of pasta.