Cookbooks That Serve up Happiness for the Stomach and Soul

Positive plates.

Just the Good Stuff

By Rachel Mansfield

Rachel Mansfield’s colorful debut cookbook proves that living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean adhering to extreme diets or giving up all the foods you crave. Using better-for-you ingredients, such as grain-free flours, collagen peptides and coconut sugar, she shares with readers how to maintain a balanced approach to eating. Perfect for those who are new to cooking or learning how to incorporate healthy ingredients into their everyday lives, Just the Good Stuff includes an entire chapter on food prep (saves money and time) and lots of confidence-building tips as well as inspirational advice.

Love is Served

By Seizan Dreux Ellis

Before it was a fixture on the LA dining scene and a magnet for celebrity diners, Café Gratitude was founded in the Bay Area with the simple ethos that you can derive joy from being grateful for food, health and good company. With Love is Served, Seizan Dreux Ellis, executive chef at Café Gratitude, aspires to bring quality meals to your table, incorporating the soul of the restaurant in your home. With unfussy methods and easy-to-access ingredients, this cookbook aims to charm and inspire readers to broaden the way they view food.

Eat California: Vibrant Recipes from the West Coast

By Vivian Lui

California has a lot going for it: a laid-back lifestyle, golden beaches and a vibrant food culture. The seafood is fresh, the produce organic and plentiful, and the farmers markets are a wealth of riches all year-round. But beyond our impressive range of produce, the state’s cultural diversity means finding vendors hawking handmade tacos next to a bustling Korean barbecue restaurant. As the recipes in this cookbook prove, it is our genuine love of food—preparing it, eating it and sharing it—that fuels positive energy in kitchens and around tables.