Third heart-healthy cookbook on sale

Recipes using ingredients that pack a powerful punch of flavor and nutrition are the mainstay of the “Heart Rock Café III: More Hits from the Heart Rock” cookbook, now on sale at Baptist Hospital East.

The cookbook, the third in the Heart Rock series, was produced by the hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation department. Recipes span from appetizers and breakfast to quick fixes, pizza, beef and pork, vegetables and desserts.

“With these recipes we went more with a balance of fat, a blend of colors and textures, and that they be quick and easy,” said Dietitian Marsha Hilgeford, the cookbook’s primary author.

“Anybody can pick up one of these recipes and make it.”

The focus is on heart-healthy cooking, as it was with the first two cookbooks, both developed from the department’s “Heart Rock Café” cooking demonstrations. While the demonstrations are no longer conducted, Hilgeford continued to collect recipes from staff, and patients, while developing some of her own for a newspaper column.

In the eight year gap between the second and third cookbooks, Hilgeford said she thinks Americans are gravitating toward healthier eating. “It’s a work in progress,” she said. “We’re getting there.”

The 268-page cookbooks are available in the Baptist East Gift Shop for $15 each, or may be purchased by credit card and shipped for $15 plus $4.95 shipping by calling the Baptist East Information Center at (502) 897-8131 or by ordering online.