The Fairway Market in New York City calls itself "a market like no other". That's quite a bold claim for what I thought was simply an organic supermarket. Boy, was I wrong! Once I went inside, a new world of food was revealed, all in the busiest city in the world, New York.

The most nutritious food are those grown locally, within 50 miles of where you live, and cooked in a simple manner that retains those nutrients. However, finding the freshest ingredients, or your local farmers market can mean a greater effort on your part. You may have to drive past a few mega-grocery stores to arrive at the freshest ingredients. The effect on your health and nutrition will be worth the trip!

Even in New York City, a "concrete jungle", you can find fresh, local ingredients. The Fairway Market in New York has a beautiful outdoor display of fruits and vegetables, all clearly marked as to country of origin, along with description of the items. This can be very helpful in choosing your own ingredients for the healthiest cooking.

Once we venture inside the market, it becomes obvious why they call themselves "a market like no other". Along with the amazing variety of every type of fruit and vegetable, dry cured fish and meats, a full bakery, sushi, and authentic Cheese Mongers, there is a sense of pride in the food they present and sell. Everything is displayed with such respect for the food, just like I experienced in Paris. It was very easy to eat healthy food in Paris, it was everywhere!

When you have access to the freshest local ingredients and you cook them with a simple method, you create easy healthy recipes that fit your desires. Since I think learning to cook is the easy part, then actually finding the locally grown ingredients is the difficult part. I demonstrated how easy it is to cook easy healthy recipes in a previous blog post.

The combination of basic cooking methods and the most flavorful ingredients, like those found at the Fairway Market in New York, will always yield the best meals that you create yourself.

Prepare easy healthy meals and learn how to choose the freshest ingredients from the market with “French Food Finds: Buy Fresh, Cook Simple, Eat Well” the DVD that explores why French food is so good.

Once you know the secret, you’ll be creating easy healthy meals in no time!