If you made a New Year’s resolution to avoid white flour, white sugar and other processed foods, Deliciously Organic is the cookbook for you.
Modeled after Carrie Vitt’s blog of the same name, with pretty photographs by blogger Helene Dujardin, her book shows you how to prepare healthy, wholesome dishes without sacrificing taste.
Carrie asked me to edit the recipes for the book. At first, I was dubious about organic recipes, thinking that they wouldn’t be too different from regular ones, except the ingredients would all say “organic.”
But that misconception downplays the mouthwatering recipes and new (to me) cooking techniques and ingredients in the book. Even though I buy mostly organic products, I learned new things, such as using organic coconut oil to saute chicken, substituting stevia in place of sugar, and presoaking grains overnight to aid digestion.
Sometimes I took a break from editing to try recipes that sounded good, such as the Roasted Red Onion and Pear Salad. It never occurred to me to roast onion for a salad, and doing so heightened its sweetness.
The hardcover book is beautifully produced in full color with heavy, glossy paper, and a feminine script for recipe titles. It’s the first cookbook from International Focus Press. If you buy it through the publisher, you will be entered in a drawing for a Kitchen-Aid mixer or Cusinart food processor. IFP also hosts Source Notes on its website so Vitt can provide links to studies and articles.
Vitt (find out more about her in this feature article) was committed to a professional product. Testers who work for her mother’s catering business made every recipe and submitted comments. The recipes using whole grains were a challenge, as she found that straight substitutions didn’t work. She writes, “As my husband likes to say, we ate a lot of terrible pancakes during the transition.” To help readers along, she includes a section on why she made the change (she suffered from debilitating migraines), a glossary explaining unprocessed ingredients, and a realistic guide on how to make the change (discard one item and replace it with one new organic/unprocessed item in your pantry once a week.)
So if you’d like to win the signed copy Vitt sent me for this giveaway, leave a comment below by midnight, February 13, 2011. I’ll choose a winner through Random.org. Sorry, this contest is open to US residents only.
Update: The winner is Damaris of Kitchen Corners. Congratulations!
Sounds like an intriguing cook book. I appreciate that it includes cooking tips as well as recipes.
I am on this mission to reduce usage of white stuff like APF, white bread, white pasta etc and this book can be a good guidance for me in that direction. Awesome giveaway Dianne. Hope I win 🙂
Siri
I would love to learn how not to make really terrible whole wheat pancakes. 🙂 Although I’ve mostly switched to whole grains, there are some things it just doesn’t seem to do as well as white. Teach me otherwise!
i would love to learn more about whole grains. i tried to cook brown rice but it always ended up being mushy 🙁
It would be great to have a copy of this book. And very handful, of course.
Looks like a great book! I’m always open to changing up the old standards to be healthier! Thanks for the giveaway!!
I am a cooking instructor in central Maine. I am thrilled to have another resource for teaching healthy cooking technique to my students. Congratulations on what seems to be a wonderful and insightful book. Best of luck.
I love when cooking organic or with whole grains produces results that you don’t have to explain to people that it is good for them and that’s why it tastes so weird! There are a few that I really enjoy. It would be great to add one more to my collection.
I am VERY interested in learning about healthier organic substitutions I can use in the kitchen.
I would love to have a copy of this. I am a big fan of our local farmers who are organic in all but certification.
I would like to have a copy of this book. We’re trying to revamp our eating habits and this would be a good start.
I’ve been dying for this book. I’d love to win it!!! thanks for the giveaway!
What an interesting looking book! I love cooking with different ingredients!
I would love to win this cookbook as it matches the way we already cook and eat. Even though I already make these same choices in my life I am sure there will be new recipes and techniques for me to learn.
I have a cookbook giveaway coming up in the next week on my blog. Another wonderful sustainable approach to eating and living. Every recipe I have tried from it has been excellent.
-Robin
I wish I were a US resident to win that wonderful book ;-(
I’ve made the transition to unprocessed food months ago now and am happy with the way I feel when I eat. My cakes are as yummy as before and help convince others to make the switch, which is one extra benefit.
Sounds like a great book. Heading this way myself as a cancer survivor.
She has what looks like a great recipe for butterscotch pudding posted online and I’m curious to find out if she also included it in her cookbook.
I’m very excited! My fiance and I have been incorporating more and more organic foods into our lifestyle, ever since his transplant almost 4 years ago. Finding sites, recipes and cookbooks hasn’t always been easy. 🙂
In with the good, out with the bad! This book will keep me on track!
Congrats on the book coming out Dianne – you all probably worked very hard on it! I would love to win a copy! Thanks for the giveaway.
I’d seen this book but didn’t know if it was out yet! Wonderful! This matches my own personal goals of eating less processed crap. 😉
Organic cooking is so compelling, but not always easy. I can truly appreciate her struggles with whole grains. Hopefully there are some tips on my foes: whole grain pasta and brown rice!
That cookbook sounds really interesting! I like that it would teach me how to make healthier meals that also taste good! That’s so important because that’s not always the case. 🙂
Looks fantastic – with beautiful pics!
I would love this cookbook!
Right up my alley!
This cookbook sounds great!
I like the words “vibrant flavors” on the cover.
Always looking for ways to make food healthier with wonderful flavor. And lighten things up too. I do think there can be a definite difference in the taste of organic vs. non-organic. Some recipes get caught up in the salt and spices, which are great things but how about the taste of the particular food item? I’ve gotten caught up in all the additions to make things taste better. Vitt’s book could be a fun reminder!
Sounds like a great cookbook! I have tried cutting out sugars, carbs and refined starches in my diet before on Low Carb diets and I always felt 100% more energized and lost weight too. I’d like to read about Carrie’s approach to see what the health benefits are to her recipes and cooking…
Sounds interesting – I’m intrigued by these “new cooking techniques”!
Thanks for offering the giveaway!
i love cookbooks and this one looks awesome!
Goody! A cookbook giveaway!
Wow! This looks like a great cookbook, I love the chocolate chip peanut butter cookie recipe posted at her blog. Thanks so much for promoting this author, her recipes, and your own work… I look forward to every piece of mail I get from you! 😉
Looks like a terrific cookbook, thanks!
I would love to have a copy of this book 🙂
This cookbooks sounds lovely!
I wonder what Carrie’s view’s are on organic sugar. That’s what I use, but only in my coffee.
Interesting to see how many new Commenters have landed here this time around. Must be the Cookbook? Or the offer? NO! It is, as always, your interesting take on subjects that everyone is talking about but never in such depth and with such exquisite phrasing. We can all learn a few good lessons here – and then hopefully we will put them to evident use!
Thanks Dianne. You never disappoint.
Karen
Thanks for sharing the information. about the book. I’m always interested to learn more about organic items because I’ve found the more I’ve read the more I’ve learned that many of my preconceived notions about organic foods are wrong, i.e. organic produce costs more. Sometimes, but lots of times not. Especially if you can shop at a local farm or farmer’s market. I love that I can feed my family food that I feel good. And books like this certainly help. Gotta go check out the link. Thanks again.
I believe in preparing fresh, unprocessed food at home. It is a personal choice to eliminate unhealthy ingredients. This Cookbook Giveaway: Deliciously Organic by Carrie Vitt is a wonderful resource of healthy recipes. It is important to have flavor in my food as well as good ingredients.
The Souper
I love finding new and creative ways to incorporate healthy and organic cooking into my diet… especially without telling the hubby! I would certainly get good use out of this book. Cheers
This cookbook sounds amazing! I always buy organic when possible and try to avoid processed foods, and I bet I could learn a lot from this book.
Delicious and organic in the same book sounds awesome to me. My kind of food for sure!
It’s already on my Amazon wish list, would love to have it!
This sounds like a great cookbook!
Love her blog… would love her book!
Sounds like a wonderful book. I like that it is written in the spirit of organic with healthy techniques and ingredients, not just items labeled – sometimes misleadingly – organic.
Love her blog and recipes! I would love the book too!
Sounds like an interesting book that would go well with my goals of eating organically and healthy! Would love to have it!
I’m looking forward to improving my family’s health by using her recipes.
I love your site. My daughter is going organic and told me about you. I am just getting started but am loving all the info out there and eager to get my whole family healthy :o)
I would love to win this book! I could definitely use some fresh ideas in the kitchen.
I would LOVE to learn how to love cooking! New and exciting recipes would be great. I really enjoy baking healthy and organic..but for some reason cooking bores me! Baking is so soothing, I don’t know why cooking isn’t! So it’s always the same old around here..broccoli and chicken…whole wheat pasta and peas….SAME OLD! I would so appreciate winning this cookbook:)
I’m very interested in reading this book. I’ve taken a Gourmet/Organic/Whole cooking class at ICE and I’d like to cut out the refined carbs in my diet (without going Atkins Diet full on!) I’d love to win this cookbook!
I would love to win this cookbook! I need all the help I can get!
Can’t wait to read this delish cookbook!! =)
I would be interested in learning to cook less processed foods as well!
I would LOVE to win this cookbook!! I need to change my ways of cooking!
I try to buy organic cooking ingredients whenever I can, as my budget allows. This looks like a great cookbook to help further my desire to cook more organically!
Count me in–I’d love to win a book full of tried and true organic recipes.
Looks like a great book that would find a good home here!
Having recently found some health issues coming up in the house, we are working on a more healthy cooking regime and l love to cook and try new things, so this book would be perfect.
I hope I win but I won’t be too sad if I don’t because I just got her book in the mail a couple days ago. I feel asleep last night reading it. I haven’t gotten to the recipes yet, I’m still reading about “oils”
However, I met Carrie this year at Food Blogger Camp and I was converted to her style before I even had the book. I’m sure the recipes are amazing.
I can’t get enough of new ideas for healthier recipes. Thanks for the chance!
Her stout and chocolate cake looks amazing! What a lovely giveaway!
This book is great! I own it, but I would like to win a copy for my mom. Thanks for the offer to win!
I buy organic because I believe it’s the best food I can put into my children. What goes in!!! I’d love the book.
I checked out your book, Will Write For Food, on a whim at the library. It has such great advice that applies to so much more than just food writing. And in refering a friend to the book, I found your blog, then Gluten Free Girl and The Chef and now the Deliciously Organic blog. You’ve all been doing the research that I’ve been craving to know about. I’m so glad I acted on my whim!
This would be a treat. We have been working at this kind of eating and would enjoy benefiting from someone else’s experimenting. Thanks for the opportunity.