New cookbook a tool in statewide preventative health initiative

Writer: Gabe Saldana, 956-408-5040, gabe.saldana@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Paula Butler, 972-952-9229, pibutler@ag.tamu.edu

DALLAS — A new cookbook by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s Dinner Tonight program offers more than 100 healthy recipes as the agency launches Healthy Texas, its statewide public outreach initiative on chronic disease prevention.

Recipe categories in the cookbook, titled Essentials, include starters, five ingredients or less, salads, one pot-one pan, simple side vegetables, slow cooker, grilling and desserts.

About 20 AgriLife Extension family and community health agents and specialists launched the cookbook at the State Fair of Texas in October with a cooking demonstration featuring Dinner Tonight, a program to provide busy families with quick, healthy, economical and tasty recipes.

“The cookbook encompasses everything Dinner Tonight is about: healthy meals that are quick and easy to create that your family is sure to love,” said Paula Butler, AgriLIfe Extension regional program leader in Dallas. “And hey, it’s a great holiday gift.”

The cookbook launched alongside Healthy Texas, which, “promotes preventive health at the hyper-local community level,” Butler said. “It’s the university researcher, the clinician and the AgriLife Extension agent working together toward better health for all Texans.”

The initiative is a multidisciplinary approach comprised of lessons from existing AgriLife Extension programming on health, wellness and nutrition, like Dinner Tonight.

Go to https://healthytexas.tamu.edu for comprehensive programming information for the 37 counties where Healthy Texas already operates. Go to http://bit.ly/2mPpDYS to purchase the cookbook Essentials for $29.95.

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