Ellie Krieger joins USA WEEKEND

Ellie Krieger joins the USA WEEKEND team as the CookSmart columnist starting this weekend with a collection of recipes perfect for a certain big game! Here's what she has to say about her passion for food, philosophy on eating and the weekly column:

As a passionate food lover, registered dietitian, and busy mom I demand a lot from my food. First it must be absolutely, crave-ably delicious. It also needs to be healthy — nutrient-rich and balanced — without necessarily feeling like “health food.” And finally, with life the whirlwind that it is, my meals must be family-friendly, easy to prepare and use common ingredients I don’t have to search high and low for.

It sounds like a tall order, but chances are you want food that hits the delicious-healthy-easy trifecta too. Happily, I have been able to create recipes and find strategies that do just that. While I have been sharing them on my show, Healthy Appetite on Cooking Channel, in my cookbooks, website and magazine columns, I am thrilled to have the chance to bring them to you in USA WEEKEND's CookSmart column.

Helping people eat well and attain a healthy lifestyle has long been my mission. I was born with such a tremendous passion for food (I was an overweight child) that my mom says me becoming a nutritionist “is like a pyromaniac becoming a fire-fighter.” After receiving my bachelor’s in clinical nutrition from Cornell University and my master’s in nutrition education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, I started a private practice and began to write about food, nutrition and healthy living, and speak about it on various TV shows. All the while I was working as a model with the Wilhelmina agency, which is how I paid for my education. I later wound up counseling many models in my nutrition practice.

I have been an active advocate of health in the community as well, working on a national level with First Lady Michelle Obama on her Let’s Move campaign and locally in my daughter’s public school, as well as with New York City SchoolFood. As a reward for making many healthy changes that included healthier food, nutrition education and more physical activity, my daughter’s school was recently honored with the USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge award — the first in New York City to receive it! I have also teamed up with hunger organizations such as Feeding America, Share Our Strength and City Harvest, to help everyone get as I strongly believe all people should have affordable access to good, healthy food.

While I have some culinary training, I don’t see food from a chef’s perspective, but that of an avid home cook with a meat-and-potatoes husband and a sometimes picky 9-year-old daughter. I’m a stickler for the science behind my nutrition advice and I bring that knowledge, quite literally, to the table. But I have found the most effective thing you can do to get people to eat well is to simply inspire them to cook. A great recipe does just that. Think about it: if you whip up a delicious-healthy-easy dish, you and your family will be immediately nourished. Realizing how fuss-free it is to make and how satisfying it is, you will do it again and again, and pass the recipe on to your friends, further enhancing your own health and that of those around you.

Ellie first wrote for USA WEEKEND in the May 13-15, 2011 issue. She treated readers to a yummy and healthy start to the summer grilling season.

Healthy sizzle: A 600-calorie meal straight off the grill