About the Author With over 15 years experience in the food and nutrition industry, Toby Amidor is a leading dietitian and recipe developer who believes that healthy and wholesome can also be appetizing and delicious. Toby is the founder of Toby Amidor Nutrition, where she provides nutrition and food safety consulting services for individuals, restaurants and food brands. She is a nutrition expert for FoodNetwork.com, writing for their Healthy Eats Blog, and a regular contributor to U.S. News and World Report Eat + Run blog, MensFitness.com and Muscle & Fitness. About the Book
With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it can seem almost impossible to get nutritious meals on the table. In her newly released cookbook, the Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook: Easy and Wholesome Meals to Cook, Prep, Grab and Go, Toby Amidor offers guidance on how to become an expert ‘meal prepper’. As a mother of three, Toby has first-hand experience juggling busy work and home-life schedules. Over the years, Toby developed a weekly meal prep routine that includes a dedicated meal prep day. In the book, you’ll find over 100 recipes along with a variety of weekly meal plans (geared toward clean eating, weight loss or muscle building), time-efficient, step-by-step meal prep day guidance and corresponding shopping lists. Review
I found Toby’s writing style to be very relatable and inspiring. As I read the preface of the book, I thought to myself, “If a single mom of three can do this, then so can I”. Time-pressed moms from all walks of life face similar struggles to find the time to feed our families well. Whether you are a dietitian or other healthcare professional or a patient or a client, one of the most precious commodities you have is time. Preparing a healthful meal for yourself or your family during a busy work week means digging in that precious and limited time. While you may not question the importance of spending time to cook healthful meals, patients and clients may need both inspiration and guidance to help bypass the tempting alternatives of ordering out or choosing fast food.
Meal prepping ahead of time can help folks who are short on time, especially during the busy work week, and ensure they have quick, easy, and healthful meals on the table every night of the week. Dedicated ‘meal preppers’ will reap the benefits of saving money, saving time, controlling portions, getting more done with less effort, eating healthier and improving multitasking skills.
Toby expands in detail about each of the following healthy meal prep principles:
-Focus on simple meals first, variety second. -Batch cook one day per week. -Creatively reuse dishes. -Plan your vegetables and salads.
-Cook easy recipes with ingredients you always have.
Overall, the book is organized into sections on meal prep and meal plans, followed by recipes to fit meal categories or food types including breakfast, grains and beans, salads and vegetables, fish and seafood, poultry, meat, ready-to-go snacks and sauces, dressings and staples. You’ll also find tips on organized food storage and help figuring out what you can and cannot freeze and how to thaw safely.
In my opinion, Toby’s book takes the guess work out of meal prep and offers a step-by-step, well-organized approach that guides readers toward meal prep success. To learn more, visit tobyamidornutrition.com. If you decide to use this book for yourself or with clients, please share your experiences. Comment below, tag NutritionConnectionsLLC on facebook or tag me on twitter @karenbuch using #foodnewsreviews.
Disclosure: This book review first appeared on Nutrition 411. Nutrition 411 receives no monetary compensation for book reviews. The reviewer received an electronic review copy of the book and was compensated to write this post. Thoughts and opinions expressed are the reviewer’s own.