Bonding and cooking ingredients make wellness advocate’s cookbook special

Eleanor Rivera shows some of the ingredients she uses for the recipes in his latest cookbook. | Michelle Joy L. Padayhag

CEBU CITY, Philippines — It is more than cooking and more about building a healthier relationship.

This was how Eleanor Rivera, Cebuana health and wellness advocate, described her newest cookbook titled “Divine Sweets & Treats,” which was launched at the Abaseria Deli and Cafe last Saturday, May 25.

The cookbook focuses on healthy sweets and snacks, which also came from farmers’ children’s cooking workshops done in 2018.

“This (cookbook) encourages parents to make time for their children,” she told CDN Digital in a separate interview.

The cookbook, which has 200 pages, is designed for children with its recipes mostly having only three to four steps to make.

The recipe section mostly centers on snacks and sweets. To name a few are tropical ice cream, puddings, luscious custards, cacao-filled truffles, cookies, and brownies.

This is healthy for the children since the kinds of food from the new cookbook contain nutrients like enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, protein, healthy fats, and fiber.

Rivera also wants to be easier for parents where to source out ingredients as she also suggested recipe alternatives.

Read more: Eleanor Rivera: Living healthy, mindfully happy

What makes the cookbook imteresting is the children’s nutritional health programs. She also wrote about the people behind the Healing Present  Nature and Wellness Center. 

Bonding with children 

“It is all about the relationship and making the children understand what is kindness and love,” she said on why her second book is focused on children.

As a former educator, Rivera believes that cooking is still the best way to spend time with children. 

“With the presence of social media and gadgets, you can establish good relationships with children as you teach them values,” she said. 

She believes that cooking and eating healthy food will lead to a happier life for children.

“We would have less problems on drugs. We would have less problems on health,” she said.

The bonding will also lessen the problems on cruelty of the word since children will learn to be quiet and create healthy relationship.

For Rivera, the learning for children starts at home.

“Divine Sweets & Treats” is her second cookbook after she released “Organic, Divine, Gorgeous: Recipes to a Passionate Cook,” in 2016.

Her first book was recognized in the 22nd Gourmand World Cookbook Awards under the Health and Nutrition for the Public category./dbs