March 18, 2014 | 2 minute read

Beginning today, we’re kicking off a month-long celebration of our recipes with Recipe March Madness brackets, as we’re preparing for our 500^th issue of Health-e-Recipe.

We asked colleagues, friends and dietitians for their favorites and narrowed the field to the 16 most popular recipes. You’ll find  four categories – Appetizers, Side Dishes, Entrees and Desserts. Vote for your favorite here in each category and then come back to vote again every week. The winner will headline on April 15.

AICR has created and shared recipes – from our 1980s paper newsletter to our emailed version today – because we know that what you eat plays a pivotal role in lowering your cancer risk.

Today you can easily find recipes online – from websites, twitter, pinterest and facebook. But it isn’t easy to find tested and tasted recipes that combine health and cancer prevention with flavor.

Our recipe developers do that for you. They create dishes that follow our nutrition guidelines for cancer prevention. Then, a chef independently prepares each recipe for our tasting panel – with diverse tastes and preferences – to give it thumbs up or down for our use.  We also conduct a nutrition analysis (Living Cookbook and/or ESHA Food Processor) on each recipe to ensure it meets our standards.

If you are relatively new to cooking we have recipes that use familiar ingredients and require basic kitchen skills. For those looking to expand their cooking repertoire or who have more experience in the kitchen, you’ll find dishes that introduce less well-known ingredients and slightly more advanced cooking techniques.

You can also use our recipes to involve your children in food prep and cooking. With so many colorful vegetables and fruits in our recipes, kids can explore new flavors and learn how to chop, stir-fry and taste some delicious new foods.

Our recipe developers find inspiration from cuisines from around the world, making healthier versions of comfort food, ethnic and regional favorites. They also find new ways to incorporate vegetables, fruits and spices, for example, to keep the flavor, but increase the health value.

From appetizers to entrees, our dishes include a lot of colorful vegetables, fruits, grains and other plant foods that give flavor, texture and health-promoting and cancer-preventive nutrients and phytochemicals.

Let us know your favorites – what would you have put in the Sweet Sixteen? VOTE.