Ellie Krieger is a Food Network chef, a registered dietitian, an author, and an advocate of delicious, healthy, and easy cooking.  She believes that by planning ahead, by learning about nutrition and cooking techniques, and by picking the right recipes, you can have the best of all three worlds: taste, convenience, and health.  We talked with her recently about Cooking for Caregiving.

“People view healthy eating as a should rather than a want - they perceive it as difficult, as labor intensive,” Ellie says.  ”But you can have it all. It’s doable with forethought.”  She wrote her book So Easy as an extremely busy mom who still wanted to cook every day for her family. “I was thinking about how do I make meals happen on daily basis?  How do I make the best of my particular situation?”

She suggests that you think of healthy, delicious cooking as a toolkit that you assemble, based on your schedule and daily challenges.  The tools help you save time while producing great meals. For example, if you’re in a caregiving situation, figure out what you have, what your real resources are, where you can get help. What store or market works for your schedule? Is freezing or making ahead an option?  What groceries can you have delivered? “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” Ellie reminds. “You don’t have to think all or nothing. Think about what’s available and easy to do? What tastes good to me?”

We discussed the evolution in nutritional research, and the modified recommendations coming from the FDA and other experts. She notes that change is inevitable as we discover more about the the connection between nutrition and health. But we need to take a long term view, beyond just one study or the fad of the moment. The common threads are still valid, Ellie maintains. “Real food over processed food,” she says. “More veggies. Calorie balance. It’s coming out now that some saturated fat might not be bad for you, but moderation is always the watch word.  Never too much of anything.”

Ellie volunteers in the New York City schools to promote better eating habits for kids, and she practiced as a private nutrition counselor, developing meal plans for individual patients. We talked with her about the challenge of negotiating with loved ones about changing their diet. “Food is often a control thing. The child is somewhat malleable. But an older person may be more set in their ways, and it’s often harder to change their habits.” Because of the control issue, she suggests that sustainable change is more likely if you can make the caree part of the process, and look for healthy foods that they like, rather than trying to make them like foods that are healthy.

One approach is to take their favorite foods and adjust the recipes to improve the nutritional impact. Her upcoming book Comfort Food Fix is about just that … taking familiar recipes and “fixing” them to be more healthy. It’s an effective strategy, but she cautions that you have to be careful to get the taste right. ”Don’t make a weak facsimile. You have to hit the button so it’s still comfortable, familiar and satisfying.”

She emphasizes the importance of working with the caree, if possible, rather than imposing a unilateral agenda. “Food is a physical manifestation of caring,” Ellie says, and it’s an important element of our relationships, lives, and families.

You can follow Ellie on Twitter and Facebook or on her website.  Her books So Easy and Comfort Food Fix are available on Amazon and in bookstores.  We’ll be sharing tips from So Easy in future posts.

Share