Graham Kerr's Kitchen Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've only seen the TV show, in which Graham Kerr often refers a lot to this book so I hope that qualifies me to review this book based on the recipes. Graham shows that by going a little bit further in the preperation and ingredient buying of well-known meals a meal can be made not only more delcious but leaner and more nutritious. Kerr offer's healthy variations on american dishes and I don't mean in a "lite" way, when placed side-by-side as he nornally does on the show you can see how much of an improvement Kerr's "Minimax" dishes make over the original.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Graham Kerr's Kitchen

An eclectic and practical cookbook that emphasizes a sensuous approach to healthy eating explains how to enhance the color, aroma, textrues, and taste of food while reducing fat, calories, and cholesterol, in a collection of more than one hundred recipes. Reprint.

Click here for more information about Graham Kerr's Kitchen

Read More...

Stella's Kitchen: Creative Cooking for Fun, Flavor, and a Lean, Strong Body Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My husband and I have fought for years about what to eat. He is thin, can eat a pint of Ben and Jerry's a night without *visible* repercussions and loves meat and pasta and potatoes. I, on the other hand, have been competing in Ultimate Frisbee, I lift weights, run, teach aerobics and Spinning and have the lifestyle and genes that will always make it necessary to watch my diet and excercise.
Food has been a constant battle with my husband; he wants to make pasta and broccoli with olive oil (which all makes me sick and lazy) and I want a salad. I bought this cookbook, and now we've found peace. I don't feel "gloppy" after eating these recipes and he feels satiated. He can cook and I trust that he won't over-butter-and-starch me. (Normally, I feel a need to defend my diet and the kitchen). I can cook and he doesn't feel like I'm starving him. It just feels balanced. He browsed through the book one day and said, " I would eat anything in here" (BTW, he's a picky eater) and I would too!
The recipes are simple- sometimes painfully so- and that is a reminder that you can still eat healthy food during busy times and spend *less* time than if you went to the nearest junk food outlet. There are no dessert recipes, but the smoothies taste like dessert!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Stella's Kitchen: Creative Cooking for Fun, Flavor, and a Lean, Strong Body

This unique cookbook features 112 delicious, quick and easy-to-prepare recipes for beef, poultry, fish, breakfast meals, protein snacks, vegetable sides and sauces. All recipes include nutritional data (calories, protein, carbs, fat and fiber) and many include modifications to make the recipe friendly to certain dietary restrictions or weight-loss plans.
Valuable and easy-to-understand features will help you learn important methods of cooking healthier; how to troubleshoot common problems; how to substitute; ideas for those times you aren't able to cook. Tips and tricks on saving money and time are included in many recipes and on special feature pages.
This unique cookbook features....
Delicious, Flavorful Recipes for Beef, Poultry, Fish, Breakfast, Protein Snacks, Vegetable Sides, and Sauces. All recipes include nutritional data (calories, protein, carbs, fat, and fiber).
Recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. Some are more formal and some are more casually but none will leave you in the kitchen forever!
Recipes that are friendly to almost any type of diet. These recipes are sugar-free or reduced in sugar and with the exception of a few pasta dishes, do not contain white flour and are made exclusively with no sugar-added, reduced-sodium, low-glycemic, lean protein ingredients and replacements.
21 creative protein shake recipes that don't contain the sugar and other excessive calories of protein drinks, yet mimic them in taste. In fact, most shake recipes are low-carb and contain only sugar-free ingredients!

Modifications for several recipes will help you alter recipes to your own tastes or dietary preferences with ease. Make a dish spicier, lower in carbs, into a salad or maybe even sweeter
Tips & Tricks on saving money and precious time are included in recipes and special feature pages.
Inspiring ideas on bringing fun, life, and love to meals are written into every chapter.

Click here for more information about Stella's Kitchen: Creative Cooking for Fun, Flavor, and a Lean, Strong Body

Read More...

The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, & Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)As a parent, I try my best to create a home environment which is happy, healthy and safe for my family. The ideas I came across in this book have helped me in my efforts to do just that. From tips on eco-friendly cleaning, to food storage, from saving energy to nutrtitional tips... it has a little bit of everything! It is well written, easy to read - and a great book to keep on hand to refer to later on. It is the type of book which gets you thinking... and has you looking at your kitchen, and even the rest of your home... in a whole new light!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, & Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place

Click here for more information about The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, & Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place

Read More...

From Saint Hildegard's Kitchen: Foods of Health, Foods of Joy Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Saint Hildegard lived in the 12th century. She was an abbess, a mystic, and eventually, a saint. Among the considerable writings she left are her thoughts and opinions on the spiritual as well as physical values of various foodstuffs. This rather unusual cookbook derives its recipes from these theological and visionary musings, although a few are directly from the saint herself. This is not a meat and potatoes diet at all, but surprisingly well-balanced, considering the limitations of medieval fare.There is an emphasis on greens and grains, especially that health food junkie's delight, spelt, a decidedly acquired taste.Dishes vary from the simple, using only a few ingredients to the much more complicated, requiring a very well stocked pantry.A few ingredients will be unfamiliar to most 21st century cooks in the Midwest.I doubt that many folks regularly cook with nettles, something we generally consider a weed these days, but St. Hildegard makes a omelet of them,praising their purgative, restorative, and stimulative virtues. While this slim volume may prove more for reading, than cooking, Chicken Cooked in Wine for the Heart and the Tunisian Ratatouille are quite delicious.

Click Here to see more reviews about: From Saint Hildegard's Kitchen: Foods of Health, Foods of Joy

The 12th-century Benedictine Abbess Hildegard of Bingen was blessed with an astonishing array of talents. She was, among other things, a mystic, naturalist, visionary, and composer. Hildegard was also granted, by means of heavenly visions, in-depth knowledge about human nutrition. She believed foods of joy revitalized us and helped preserve good health in every sphere--physical, spiritual, and psychological.Now, famed French chef Jany Fournier-Rosset has mined from Hildegard's writings a collection of tasty recipes--you'll find everything from simple jams to chestnut souffle, from spiced wine to Tunisian ratatouille. The book contains a measurement conversion table, cooking terms, special bread-making instructions, lists of ingredients with definitions, sources for rare ingredients used in the recipes, and an index. Readers will also find a brief biography of Hildegard and table graces from Saint Benedict and others. With a focus on good health and vegetables and herbs from the garden, From Saint Hildegard's Kitchen makes a wonderful gift for the cooks in your life--including you!

Click here for more information about From Saint Hildegard's Kitchen: Foods of Health, Foods of Joy

Read More...

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Well, the gauntlet has been thrown.
In the wake of Mireille Guiliano's runaway best seller, French Women Don't Get Fat and its common sense nudge urging dieters and just plain folk in general to look back to tradition rather than seek out convenience to buttress the pillars of your culinary and nutritional foundation, Naomi Moriyama with her husband William Doyle fire back with enough fact, statistics, recipes, menus and history to send Western Civilization back to the Dark Ages.
Naomi Moriyama, a chic and slim 45 year old marketing consultant, doubles as a powerhouse of energy and vitality as she meters out her rebuttal to Mme. Guiliano in a righteous defensive strike of her culture's dietary habits and staples worthy of any 10th century shogun --- i.e. Japanese women live on average to age 85; only a birdlike 3% are deemed obese) And she does this with a straightforward panache that puts all of Mireille's pandering of her French ancestry to shame. (Note: my review of FWDGF was favorable in as much as it underlines the need to return to a real slow food way eating rather than pre-packaged, chemically enhanced non/fast-food junk) However, where Mireille barefacedly underlines her anthem of quality over quantity by compelling her readers to nosh on pricey triple creams, imbibe expensive champagne by Veuve Clicquot ----the company for which she works--- and with these offers vague advise about love being a natural slimming agent, Naomi, just gives us a straight shot of brown-rice samurai wisdom backed by enough scientific sources and academic studies that keeps eating plain, simple, and a step above common-sense.. In a way, she kamikazes the competition into the Maginot line by providing more than 30 economical recipes, menu plans, and portion control with internet ingredient URLs provided for easy access to Japanese market staples. The biggest out of pocket expense, besides the price of the book, could be replacing your present dishes with the small and elegant place settings preferred by Naomi's countrymen.
But will the idea of becoming like the mysterious doll-like Japanese geisha succeed in capturing the attention of an American audience with the same whole-hearted obsession of morphing oneself into a Gitane smoking, cigarette skirted French demoiselle?

Like FWDGF, JWDGOOF abounds with little vignettes about the respective author's childhood comfort and food experiences. While the focus remains similar to that of FWDGF, namely real seasonal food, quality over quantity, no snacking, smaller portions, social eating and the very Eastern contemplation of the food's beauty and nutrition, the author relies on the tradition provided by her mother, an obviously clever woman who presents fruit carved like flowers for dessert instead of a mountain of cake and cookies like her American counterpart;
On a purely technical level, tradition for Naomi and her family consists of a food wheel of seven spokes: fish (her description of the Tokyo fish market with its sights and smell is a fish-lover's heaven), vegetables( an emphasis is on sea vegetables; no canned or frozen here except for edamame), rice (brown preferred), soy (no processed stuff here, only tofu, miso, beans and sauce), noodles (soba, udon, ramen and somen), tea (types and preparations are provided) and fruit. Note the obvious exclusion of dairy---full fatted or otherwise, ----bread and flours. Beef and chicken are used as condiments rather than main entrees. That's not to say that Naomi and husband Billy don't indulge in the occasional bagel or pizza binge; however their main nourishment takes place in Naomi's New York facsimile of her mother's Tokyo kitchen.
All in all, if there is a contest in the war of the dieting worlds, I doubt that JWDGOOF will win in spite of its right-on message and clearly stated facts. Unfortunately, as svelte and vivacious as Ms. Moriyama is, there is something good or bad about the French stereotype that utterly captivates Americans. Check out all the books on Amazon,com that feeds into this desire for sophistication French-style.
That said, don't discount this book. Although, I would have liked Ms Moriyama to address the issue of menopause and diet and provide a Japanese food pyramid, as a utilitarian manual, the book is a good buy for the money. It's got everything on its side, science, history, and how-to instructions on how to prepare Japanese staples that are unfamiliar to the typical American. I am confident that like Naomi's non-Japanese husband, you will find the pounds melting off by following her centuries-old secrets. Recommended as a lethal weapon in your real food arsenal against weight gain.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen

Click here for more information about Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother's Tokyo Kitchen

Read More...

The Family Chef: Make Your Kitchen the Heart of Your Family Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Family Chef is my perfect cookbook! Thank you Jewels and Jill. Delicious, healthy, beautiful recipes that my family and friends can't resist. I made a feast for 12 people almost entirely from The Family Chef and a week later everyone is still raving about the food! I gave both of my daughters-in-law copies of The Family Chef and have now ordered a few extra books to give out to friends and guests. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes and helpful tips - but mostly, thank you for the great inspiration! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Click Here to see more reviews about: The Family Chef: Make Your Kitchen the Heart of Your Family

With a sterling reputation and a string of A-list celebrity clients, private chefs Jewels and Jill Elmore have created unforgettable food for such luminaries as Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. For the first time ever, Jewels and Jill reveal the secrets to their success both in business and at home with their own families—with more than 75 stunning, savory, and satisfying home-cooked recipes, fully illustrated with easy-to-follow directions. Using this book by two of America's most accomplished private chefs, readers can capture the magic and beauty of the best fresh, healthy, and nutritious cooking.

Click here for more information about The Family Chef: Make Your Kitchen the Heart of Your Family

Read More...

Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures: 117 Foods That Fight Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Memory Loss, Bad Digestion and ... Problems (Jerry Baker Good Health series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Five HEALTHFUL Stars!! In this great compendium Jerry Baker's expert nutrition team, Karen Cicero and Colleen Pierre, shows that many foods can not only taste good and be the source of healthful nutrients, but have healing powers that many of us may not be aware of and can apply in specific cases of need. In an age when we hear so many individual news stories on the benefits of a particular food, it's hard to remember them over time. Now we have one place to look for many common foods available to us all that pack a nutritional punch and HEAL. Not exhaustive to be sure, but a great reference book nonetheless that outlines common foods that it claims can fight cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, osteoperosis, memory loss, etc. And the benefit cited in most of the listed foods is the #1 killer in the US: heart disease.
This book is practically a summary of the healing powers and cures of a wide variety of specifically targeted foods. In addition, there is a "Shop and Serve Solutions" area for each food with tips on selecting, storing, and preparing them. And there are 111 easy-to-prepare healthful healing recipes. It also has great tables comparing the benefits of the varioius types of berries, another table on the benefits of various types of beans, and yet another on the various types of oils.
I know that a well-known health newsletter held a "Healthiest Vegetable" contest and their tests revealed the "Sweet Potato" (no skin) is the king of veggies, so I checked for it first and it's here, along with a great 'sweet potato fries' recipe. Incidentially, "Raw Carrots" and "Cooked Carrots" (yes, listed separately) come in second & third respectively among veggies and they are likewise listed with a really simple "Sugar Baby Carrots" recipe. The rest of the health magazine top five are: "Spinach", and "Collard Greens" (a great fighter against cataracts and macular degeneration). And they are all listed in this book with extensive data on their benefits. So this book is on target in the comparison with the health newsletter's extensive research results.
Laid out in alphabetical order, literally from A to Y, with a 'bullet list' of what each food "Battles", what it "Bolsters", and a table of it's nutritional value (calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, etc..). Naturally, the first food is "Apples", which "Battles" cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, and stroke. Apples "Bolsters" (bowel) regularity. And so on, all the way through 117 foods to "Yogurt" on p 485. On p. 490, there is a "Super-charged Menus" list of breakfasts, lunches and dinners for 7 days using recipes contained in the book. Very practical! it's a very readable book that may have you looking at some rather common foods differently and stocking up on them because of their benefits. It did so for me! This book could vastly improve your health or unknowingly save your life!! Five HUGE NUTRITIONAL Stars!!
(Hardcover, 510 Illustrated pages with large type fonts.)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures: 117 Foods That Fight Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Memory Loss, Bad Digestion and ... Problems (Jerry Baker Good Health series)

The healing powers of favorite foods are leveraged in the recipes and cooking tips in this guide to using food to alleviate serious diseases and common ailments. Fighting colon cancer with cheese, preventing heart disease with green beans and chocolate, and curing urinary tract infections with blueberries are examples of the preventative measures and homemade cures that will help readers slash medical expenses and minimize doctor visits. Shopping advice and menu recommendations are provided that offer healthy, nutritional meals designed for sufferers of specific diseases.

Click here for more information about Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures: 117 Foods That Fight Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Memory Loss, Bad Digestion and ... Problems (Jerry Baker Good Health series)

Read More...

Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook: 250 flourless, Dairyless, Low Temperature, Low Fat, Low Salt, Living Food Vegetarian Recipes Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook" is a great all-purpose book for anyone new to sprouts and sprouting and for the sprout vetran who is looking for more recipes and ideas. The tone is chatty and humourous. The book is a great read cover to cover, but it can also be read a section at a time, in any order.
I received this book as a gift and almost immediately I had trays and bags of sprouts in my kitchen. We've stopped putting lettuce on sandwiches and use various sprouts. Sprouts on salad, in stir-fry, in soup... I've tried several of the recipes with success. The sprout bread is really popular and so are the crunchy sprouts.
One word of caution: sprout bread has neither the flavour nor the texture of bakery bread. It is better. It is sweeter and more satisfying. It is also packed with nutrition. If you are expecting something close to regular bread, you will be disappointed. If you remember that what you are eating is something else entirely, you will love it.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook: 250 flourless, Dairyless, Low Temperature, Low Fat, Low Salt, Living Food Vegetarian Recipes

Turn nuts, vegetable seeds, grains and beans into gourmetfood! Sprouted breads, cookies, crackers, living soups, dressings,dips, spreads, sautes, alternative non-dairy milks, ice-creams, evensprouted pizza and bagels! Chapters on making sprout bread, fooddehydrating, juicing, natural sodas, alternatives to dairy and salt,smart vegetarianism. Glossary of healthy foods. Includes Questions andAnswers and seed resources. Over 150 illustrations, photos & Charts.

Click here for more information about Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook: 250 flourless, Dairyless, Low Temperature, Low Fat, Low Salt, Living Food Vegetarian Recipes

Read More...

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been a vegetarian since I was sixteen. In the late eighties, that was rough- even more difficult than being a vegan now. In the last year, I made the transition to vegan, but thanks to the work of innovative cooks like Isa Chandra Moskowitz, that just isn't hard anymore. The next challenge? Going raw- very difficult because apparently you need a Vita-Mix, a dehydrator (I don't think I've ever even seen one of those), a food processor, a grinder, and a bunch of other esoteric equipment I've never even heard of- right?
Ani Phyo earned four stars right off the bat by making almost every one of her recipes doable with a blender or, in many cases, a knife. There are maybe three recipes that absolutely require a dehydrator- and even that can be gotten around. For this reason alone, if you've been thinking about raw but you've been intimidated by all of the required equipment, check this out.
The recipes that I've tried- and I've gone a little crazy in the last few days- have been not only simple but really, really good. So far I have made her Miso Soup, Almond Yogurt, Black Pepper Cheeze, Nori Rolls, Coco Kream Pie (oh wow- so good), a bunch of her shakes and my version of her Sunflower Bread (hmm- how did I do that without a dehydrator?). Almost all of this has been accomplished with a blender, and I don't even own the legendary Vita-Mix. In other words, the majority of households can do this.
Every chapter opens with her thoughts and recommendations on environmentalism. I liked most of her suggestions, but I was a little put off by her statements that hers was not a "bargain body" and that she is thus willing to pay more for her premium produce. I applaud her- I even envy her and others like her- but I am disappointed that she doesn't touch on the readers who can't afford organic produce for the most part and live in areas with lousy public transportation systems and recycling. I shudder any time I read something that makes it seem as if health is only for the wealthy.
However, she didn't lose a star for that because her tone, as strident as it may have been at times, inspired me to find a work around for my dehydrator- and I did. Ever make yogurt using a heating pad? If you have a small enough pan- think one that fits into a toaster oven- and some tin foil- congratulation, you have the guts of a make your own dehydrator. I'm still tweaking mine, but I was very inspired by the results with my Sunflower Bread.
This is a soup to nuts guide to going raw, and it won't require you to reoutfit your kitchen. It may, however, inspire you to rethink your approach to food.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes

Click here for more information about Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes

Read More...