Today Show’s Joy Bauer Reveals How She Creates Her Endless Recipe Library [Exclusive]
From delightful desserts to savory main courses, resident Today Show health and nutrition expert Joy Bauer has a delicious, but healthy recipe to meet just about any craving.
After decades as a leading health expert, she continues to create new ways to tackle just about any dish and ingredient. So how does Bauer keep turning out fresh new recipes and ideas?
Joy Bauer from ‘Today Show’ finds recipe inspiration almost everywhere
“I’m the food lady, but I get inspiration everywhere,” she recently told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “I love to take beloved classics that we can’t be eating every single day, but figure out how to lighten them up with nourishing ingredients. When we go to restaurants I’m always reviewing the menu and noting certain things that I want to go back and experiment with in my kitchen.”
“I also get tons and tons of requests on social media,” she continued. “I love social media so much because it helps to keep me relevant in real time. And so I know what people are most interested in, what they’re confused about. It’s been a really great platform for me. And it’s giving me so much creativity and knowledge that I otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
“I used to always get emails from my NBC account after segments, but social media is like a whole other beast. It’s amazing. It’s exhausting, but it’s amazing,” she laughed.
Joy Bauer’s ‘Today Show’ recipes must also be foolproof
While Bauer’s recipes are delicious, she always has to keep health at the forefront. “It’s a dance for sure,” she shared. “And every single recipe does not work the very first time. Sometimes I’ll set out to make one thing and it’ll be a fail for that specific thing. But I am enamored with the texture and the taste, and it inspires me to take it in a totally different direction.”
Bauer also has to make her recipes foolproof before she shares them on her website and on the Today Show.
“Normally if I were just cooking for myself, I would do a pinch of this, a pinch of this … play around,” she explained. “But because the recipes have to be published, they have to be fail-proof. So I am very specific with measurements. Most chefs are not like that. And I wouldn’t even call myself a chef. I’m a food-loving health fanatic who has taught herself how to be super skilled and savvy in the kitchen. But I am very OCD with my amounts because I want anybody to make it at any given time. And I want it to come out perfectly.”
She revealed 2 new recipes to make for breakfast, lunch or dinner
A few of Bauer’s newest recipes are incredibly versatile because they could be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Her Stuffed Quinoa Peppers with Eggs and One Skillet Mexican Rice Bean Baked Eggs are packed with nutrients and protein. Bauer recommends using extra large peppers for the stuffed quinoa recipe to hold the egg in place.
She also shared that eggs, including the yolk, should be included as part of a healthy diet. “This fear of the yolk is so old-fashioned,” Bauer said. “We have this Harvard study and basically what it shows is that eating eggs with the yolk as part of an overall healthy diet does not increase your risk for heart disease. And so now the American Heart Association has embraced eggs as well.”
“They say up to one egg a day,” Bauer said, and even wrote a jingle, “Seven eggs a week to help your brain and body peak.” Eggs are an excellent source of selenium, vitamin B12, biotin, iodine, and choline and a good source of high-quality protein, pantothenic acid, and riboflavin.
