The Genius of Heidi Swanson and 101 Cookbooks

I’ve been a fan of Heidi Swanson and 101 Cookbooks for years now. If you haven’t yet visited the site and tried at least a few of the recipes, you should head over there right now, print a couple out, and spend the next couple hours or days cooking. The flavor of her food will knock you out, I promise. Plus, most of her recipes are incredibly healthful.

Strangely enough, it was only recently that I realized how inspired and thoughtful Heidi Swanson’s recipes are. Truly, she’s a genius. While some of her methods are time consuming and the ingredients difficult to find, if you take the time and follow them as best as you can (she always allows for modifications and makes suggestions) you will understand where I am coming from. She’s a brilliant, brilliant lady!

Of the recipes I’ve made, I want to personally suggest the following three as all-time favorites:

Big Sur Power Bars
My husband cannot get enough of these. He loves the espresso powder infused oats, nuts, and rice cereal. Note: No matter where I’ve looked, I cannot find the brown rice cereal the recipe calls for. I use Rice Crispies, which Heidi mentions are a fine alternative. The picture above is a Big Sur Power Bar.

Triple Ginger Cookies
These are the best cookies I’ve ever had. Seriously. They are my husband’s favorite, too, and he’s a straight up greasy chocolate chip guy. The three types of ginger, the lemon zest, and the turbinado sugar you roll the cookies in make these little treats phenomenal. Note: I didn’t have star anise on hand when I started making these, so I used Chinese Five Spice, which contains star anise.

Curried Bean Salad
Even without the black lentils, this salad was amazing. I wouldn’t have imagined curry powder pairing with beans so nicely, but it’s great. It’s bright, flavorful and full of fiber. I ran myself out of curry powder making this! Note to self: Put curry powder on the list, pronto!

Of course, there are plenty of other yummy recipes, too. I like the Banana Chip Cookies, the Berry Beer Baked Beans, the Ginger Jeweled Salad, to name a few.

I’m looking forward to trying the Giant Chipotle White Beans next.

What are your favorite 101 Cookbooks recipes? Let me know, so I can add them to my list!