Krieger - You have it made! : delicious, healthy do-ahead meals

F inding yourself short on time when it comes to cooking? Wishing you already had something to eat right there and then? Ellie Krieger is here to help by turning your refrigerator and freezer into a treasure trove of satisfying, good-for-you meals.

New York Times best-selling and award-winning author and nutritionist Ellie Krieger understands that we all have those moments when we just dont have the time to cook something. Whether its because youre hurrying to get out the door in the morning or youre scrambling for ideas on what to throw together for dinner, Ellies delicious (and nutritious!) make-ahead meals are the solution.

With over 140 recipes, You Have It Made provides options for breakfast, salads, soups, entrees, and sides, so you can have meals ready morning, noon, and night. Blueberry-Chia Overnight Oats in Jars make for a great way to start the day, Herbed Salmon Salad is the perfect lunch, and your family will gather around the table in delight for Pulled Pork Tacos with Pineapple and Pickled Onions. To make things as foolproof as possible, the recipes come with directions for how best to refrigerate and/or freeze the dish, reheating instructions, and handy nutritional information.

As with her other cookbooks, Ellie manages to find the sweet spot between delicious and healthy by using fresh, minimally processed ingredients and her tried-and-true Usually-Sometimes-Rarely food philosophy, where its all about balance and nothing is off limits. To put it simply, youll find and get to enjoy tasty dishesfrom Pumpkin Waffles to Creamy Tomato Soup to Chicken Enchilada Piethat are good for you, too.

With You Have It Made, youll have meals ready days in advance to enjoy just when you want them. Putting food on the table just got so much easier.

For Thom and Isabella

Copyright 2016 by Ellie Krieger

Interior photography 2016 by Quentin Bacon

Food styling by Suzanne Lenzer

Prop styling by Maeve Sheridan

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krieger, Ellie, author.

You have it made! : delicious, healthy do-ahead meals / Ellie Krieger ; photography by Quentin Bacon.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-544-57930-9 (paper over board)
ISBN 978-0-544-57932-3 (ebook)

1. Make-ahead cooking. I. Title.

TX714.K763 2016

641.5'55dc23 2015028798

Book design by Rachel Newborn

v1.0116

I AM TREMENDOUSLY GRATEFUL for THE talented, creative, and hardworking people who put so much of themselves into bringing this book to life.

Adeena Sussman and Anat Abramov, thank you for your culinary talent and hard work, and for making even the most demanding schedule a joyful experience. Mostly, though, thank you for your enduring friendship. Thanks, Lori Powell, for your inspired and delicious contributions, and for having every last detail done right; and thank you, also, chefs Natalia Hancock, RD, and Jackie Ourman.

Thank you Melissa OShea MS RD, for your hard work, precision and expertise with the nutrition data. And thanks Quentin Bacon, Suzanne Lenzer, Kate Schmidt, and Maeve Sheridan, not only for creating such stunning, mouthwatering images, but also for making the photo shoot such a pleasure; and Suzanne Katz and Ivonne Frowein for making me look and feel good.

Thank you to my A-team management, Robert Flutie and Danielle Iturbe, agents Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, and publicists Janell Vantrease, Crystal Wang, and Marcus Braham. It is an honor and a joy to be able to work with each of you.

Thanks to everyone at HMH, especially my editor Justin Schwartz, and Natalie Chapman for all of your support, as well as Rebecca Liss, Brad Parsons, and Jessica Gilo. It amazes me how the HMH team turns a manuscript into a real work of art that people can hold, pore over, and get so much pleasure and use out of. Thanks for working your magic on mine.

T HIS BOOK IS MUCH MORE than a collection of recipes. It is a step-by-step guide to turning your refrigerator and freezer into a treasure chest of meals to make your life deliciously easier and healthier.

Imagine, on the busiest weekday morning, being able to get a sumptuously flavorful, energizing breakfast ready in less time than it takes to brew a cup of coffee. Or, later that evening, when the inevitable question whats for dinner? comes up, breezily choosing from a menu of craveable, healthful options, right at your fingertips. Think about entertainingfor a holiday meal, Sunday brunch, or just having some friends over to watch the gameand how nice it would be to relax and enjoy your guests while treating them to a feast of memorable, crowd-pleasing dishes.

In your hands right now is a remarkable tool to make that happen: 150 luscious make-ahead recipes that hit what I call the sweet spot, where delicious and healthy meet. And for each, I give you complete directions to successfully refrigerate and/or freeze it, as well as serve it when you are ready.

As a passionate food lover, taste is number one for me, and each of these dishes is full-out delicious. But they are good-for-you too, something that is important to me as a nutritionist and mom. They emphasize fresh, seasonal, minimally processed ingredients, and follow my tried-and-true Usually-Sometimes-Rarely food philosophy, which I introduced in my first book Small Changes Big Results, and has guided all my work and every recipe I have created since. My golden rule: no food is ever off-limits. Rather, I categorize food as Usually, Sometimes, or Rarely. Usually foods are those I use most plentifully and are the backbone of healthy eating: vegetables, whole fruit, beans, nuts and seeds, lean protein, seafood, lower-fat dairy, whole grains, and healthy oils. I sprinkle in Sometimes foods here and there for flavor and variety. They may be a bit more processed, like all-purpose flour, less nutrient rich, like honey, or a little higher in saturated fat, like chicken thighs. Rarely foodslike refined sugar, cream, bacon, and butterare foods that many nutritionists forbid and many cooks use with a heavy hand. I have found the ideal midpoint by using these foods strategically, in small amounts for maximum impact.

The idea is that there is no need to deprive yourself or go to extremes to be healthy. In fact, extremes are usually unhealthy and trap us into a diet mentality. Rather, balance is key. If you are eating mostly nutrient-rich, whole foods, there is room for some butter in your mashed potatoes, some brown sugar in your oatmeal, or even a slice of rich chocolate cake once in a while.

I also believe in focusing on pure, minimally processed ingredients and steering clear of artificial additives. I will use reduced-fat foods only if they work taste-wise and are not laden with chemical additives. So I use low-fat milk and yogurt for example, but you wont get me within a yard of fat-free whipped topping. (Have you ever read the ingredient list on that stuff?) Ill take a little good old-fashioned whipped cream any day. And when it comes to cheeses like Parmesan, blue cheeses, and sharp cheddar, there is just no substitute. Besides, they are so flavorful that just a bit goes a long way.