Oz cookbook filled with great recipes, planning and organizational ideas
Taking a trip into the Oz Family Kitchen, with this book by Lisa Oz, is a literary field trip that will pay edible dividends. Whether you are a fan of Oprah or not, you have probably heard of Dr. Mehmet Oz, television health guru. His various prescriptions for healthy living often include healthy eating options.
This volume combines the delicious food of his heritage (Turkish) and his principles of good eating as presented by his wife, Lisa. Her approach is eminently practical. She is a wife and mother and knows how to appeal to a wide audience including children with well-balanced delicious and easy to fix meals. The book is organized by meal category, making it easy to use and includes in introduction by Dr. Oz himself on the benefits of healthy eating and by Lisa Oz on how to prepare one’s pantry (how to stock), counter (what to keep out on the counter instead of refrigerating it), refrigerator, and freezer.
These lists are comprehensive and well presented. In fact, they make a good reference for whenever you might have a question about basic food storage.
Dr Oz’s introduction is much longer than I thought it would be. He offers open honest insight into his own family life and way of eating. If you are a fan, you will find this quite interesting, informative and exciting to learn so much detail about a TV hero. Even if you are not a fan, the information on basic food habits of a very busy family will give you insights into how to structure a good food eating program for your own brood.
Lisa Oz is no slouch. She is a writer, producer and entrepreneur, edits the Dr. Oz magazine and helped found a group called the Health Corps, which is a peer-mentoring nonprofit. The aim of that group is to deliver a progressive curriculum in nutrition, fitness and mental resilience to teens in at rick communities across the country.
One of the very first recipes in the book, a part of the introduction, is one of the dishes Lisa Oz tasted in Turkey when she met Dr. Oz’s family after their engagement. It is a homey, delicious and adapted for American kitchens version of a super delicious eggplant dish called “The Priest Fainted.” When I saw her take on that recipe, which I have enjoyed in Turkey, I knew I would like this book. Some of my other favorites, include her Mediterranean grilled eggplant wraps and a variety of vegetable delights like white bean and spinach soup and warm quinoa wand chickpeas. She also adds chickpeas into a very inventive fried rice paella with spiced chickpeas and shrimp.
Dishes like the Oz family roasted turkey with apricot and rosemary stuffing, rack of lamb with hazelnut and herb crust—and lentil and mushroom loaf offer a wide range of main course dishes.Cakes and cookies are not ignored—even a healthy eating diet allows special occasion sweets and Lisa Oz provides us with her family’s favorites.
I like this book—it offers a wide range of tasty options that should appeal to many tastes. Its excellent information on pantry and preparation make it a great gift for the new cook and the wide variety of recipes, make it an interesting choice for cooks of all interests and abilities.
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White bean and Spinach Soup
6-8 servings
Great for the coming cold evenings and a nice soup supper to intersperse with heavy holiday
meals—reprinted with permission from The Oz Family Kitchen
Ingredients
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large carrot diced into half inch pieces
1 large celery rib cut into ½ inch slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 dried bay leaves
Two fifteen ounce cans of cannellini beans, drained but not rinsed
2 bunches leaf spinach , about fourteen ounces, hard stems removed
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Fine ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh parmiggiano reggiano for serving
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium . Add the onion , carrot, celery, garlic and cook, stirring, occasionally until the onion is tender but not browned, about four minutes.
Stir in the herbs. Add about six cups of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low and cover the saucepan with the lid ajar. Simmer until the vegetables are very tender about thirty minutes.
Stir in the beans, spinach and lemon juice, maple syrup, and red pepper flakes, Add more water if needed to cover the ingredients. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Increase the heat to simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and cook uncovered until the spinach is very tender and the soup is lightly thickened. Remove the bay leaves and serve.
Title | In the Oz Family Kitchen; More Than 100 Simple and Delicious Real-Food Recipes from Our Home to Yours
Author | Lisa Oz
Length | 288 pages
Publisher | Harmony
Price | $27.99
This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Oz cookbook filled with great recipes, planning and organizational ideas."