Published: February 22, 2008 10:02 pm      

Avon woman shares cooking tips with others

AVON — Jessica Harris said she has been cooking for almost 50 years and credits her mother and grandmother for teaching her how. She grew up on a family farm and used the recipes learned there to cook for her husband Terry and their children.

“I love to cook,” she said. “I enjoy the creativity of it.”

But 10 years ago, her cooking style changed when Terry suffered a heart attack. She said she began cooking low fat foods for the entire family.

“I had to relearn how to cook and develop low fat cooking techniques,” she said.

Harris explained that Terry’s doctors put him on a restricted diet of 11 grams of fat or less. A lot of the foods Jessica was fixing followed the doctors’ guidelines, but just didn’t taste good.

That’s when she got creative.

“That’s when I took regular food and reduced the fat content,” she said.

One example is from Harris’ fettuccine alfredo recipe. She said now uses fat free half and half, skim milk, light butter, and fat free cheeses to replace of heavy cream and whole milk, cheese, and butter.

Seeing how successful these recipes were with her family, Harris said she decided to share what she had learned with others.

Five months ago, she published her first cookbook, Healthy Heart Cooking — Family Style.

The book was printed in a limited quantity, and quickly sold out.

“This was my first try at doing this,” Harris said. “I was happy with it, but I wanted something larger.”

Her second book, Healthy Heart Cooking — Gourmet Classics, offers more of the same, and then some.

Healthy Heart Cooking — Gourmet Classics features recipes for 15 grams of fat or less, nutritional information, different cooking techniques, and suggestions on what to do with leftovers.

“It helps a person take their own recipes and create low fat recipes for themselves,” Harris said.

The cookbook is available for $24.95 and may be ordered online at www.15-lean.com. It will also be available on Amazon.com and in most bookstores at a later date.

amanda.roach@flyergroup.com