Williams-Sonoma New Healthy Kitchen: Desserts

Book excerpt: With New Healthy Kitchen Desserts, you can improve your diet while enjoying dishes such as Golden Kiwifruit Pavlovas, Walnut and Date Tart, or Sautéed Plums with Amaretto. This colorful series of healthy cookbooks takes a commonsense approach to eating right. Food fads and trendy diets may come and go, but your family doctor can tell you that you will never go wrong eating a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and legumes. We all know that we're supposed to be eating several servings of each of these foods every day. But you might not know that we're also supposed to be eating as many different colors of fruit and vegetable as possible. The naturally occurring pigments that give vibrant colors to fruits and vegetables also offer an array of unique health benefits, boosting your immune system and fighting common diseases and conditions as you age. These pigments and other plant compounds -- known as antioxidants and phytochemicals -- work in tandem with vitamins, minerals, and fiber to keep our bodies strong and well. The amazing benefits of colorful foods, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts are being studied in labs across the country and touted by government experts on nutrition. But all the good advice in the world won't help you put a healthy dinner on the table. The books of the New Healthy Kitchen series -- Starters, Main Dishes, and Desserts -- will do just that. The 60 recipes in these pages, grouped by the color of a key ingredient, offer dozens of appealing and easy ways to bring a rainbow of fruits, vegetables, and grains into your daily meals. Even better, 24 "Fresh Ideas" suggest simple ways of enjoying fresh produce as an impromptu dessert. With New Healthy Kitchen Desserts, eating right won't be a sacrifice or a chore. In these books, healthy food means good food, simply prepared and a pleasure to eat.