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Title: Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen: 200 Easy Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss by Kathleen Daelemans ISBN: 0-618-22632-X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (63 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good lowfat recipes, but not many of them
Comment: I bought this book because I have to keep a close watch on my food intake because of my low (hypothyroid) metabolism. I was hoping for great, low-fat or nonfat recipes. The ones that are in here are good, but too many of them say they're "special-occasion calories" or desserts to be eaten only occasionally. I can get special occasion calories in any good cookbook and I didn't need them here. Also, the book is heavy on desserts, whereas there are not enough vegetable and fish recipes (not one spinach recipe!).
The author also doesn't give a nutritional breakdown (including calorie count and serving size) of her recipes, which is frustrating, because her whole philosophy revolves around splurging calories here and watching calories there and controlling portions. What kind of a book on losing weight and eating healthy does not even provide information on nutrition? For someone who really doesn't have the vaguest notion of how to start eating healthy and exercising, this book may be a good start. But it doesn't have enough information and doesn't have enough healthy recipes. The narrative is sometimes funny, sometimes just obnoxious.
Rating: 1
Summary: Actually Threw This Book In the Trash
Comment: I can't describe how disappointed I was in this book. I read some of the other reviews and was so excited when I got it for Christmas. But, my exitement quickly faded. I thought the book was way too chatty, and I hated the guy-o-meter. I'm sticking with Cooking Light for healthy cooking.
Rating: 4
Summary: Effective, Easy to Read Strategy and Tactics for Weight Loss
Comment: This book's title is based on the author's Food Network television show, where Ms. Daelemans concentrates teaching basic lifestyle changes rather than major diet changes for quick weight loss. As such, the premise of this book is immediately more attractive than just about any past, present, or future fad diet you care to name. In that theme, the book is also much more than just a cookbook. It begins with over 75 pages of easy to follow, common sense advice, presented in a breezy, easy to digest style. It is no great surprise that the very first suggestion is that fad diets don't work.
As you see from Ms. Daelemans' TV show, she is in a good position to know this, as she had a long struggle with overeating herself until a career turn forced her to find 'the true path' to healthy eating. It may a little presumptions, but I suspect her message may boil down to 'eat all different kinds of foods, but in a carefully considered moderation'. This is not to say that simply eating in moderation is easy. I found that out in a big way when I discovered that a typically oversized New York bagel, cream cheese, and lox had half again as many calories as I should eat in a normal day. Thus, you cannot eat in moderation unless you know the facts about what you are eating. That's why another early rule is to pay close attention to the nutrition labels of items at the grocery store. You may find some surprises like when I discovered that turkey hot dogs had higher sodium and cholesterol levels than their deli style beef and pork franks in the neighboring bin. An amendment to the rule of moderation is to eliminate junk calories.
In her introductory chapters on good eating strategy, I'm sure Ms. Daelemans doesn't cover absolutely everything you need to know about healthy eating. For example, she does not really deal much with nutrition in general or with exercise and nutrition. But, I am also sure that nothing she says will lead you in an unhealthy direction and you will have a very good chance of loosing weight over the long run, without feeling especially hungry or deprived of tasty food. Now to the recipes.
The recipes are divided into very conventional, easy to access chapters entitled:
Breakfast
Soups
Sandwiches, Pizzas, and Frittatas
Side Salads and Savory Slaws
Vegetable Sides
Pasta, Polenta, Beans, and Rice
Sauces, Condiments, and Other Really Cool Things you Ought to Make
Light Meals, Vegetarian Entrees, and Entrée Salads
Fish
Meat
Desserts
As Ms. Daelemans apprenticed with Judy Rodgers of the famous Zuni Café in San Francisco, she certainly knows what she is doing when it comes to putting together a tasty dish. Most of the dishes are slimmed down variations of classics, without the conceit of using the classic names when the changes in the recipe really mean you are looking at a new recipe. A good example is her 'BLT Salad' which a less honest person may be tempted to label a Panzanella salad.
A quick look at the 'Light Meals' chapter tells us that Miss Daelemans really likes her potatoes and other winter vegetables. This at least should offer some comfort to those who may be afraid of being deprived of tasty food. The variety in this section covers a wide range of classics, with a heavy influence of preparations from Italy and Provence in France.
As a true disciple of Judy Rodgers, Kathleen opens her soup chapter with two different recipes for chicken stock, without all the fussiness from Ms. Rodgers, which is proper to a first class commercial kitchen, but not necessary in the average home kitchen. I am especially fond of Kathleen's instructions for making a vegetable stock. It is a greatly improved version of the hundreds of suggestions you see for saving your vegetable scraps for stock. In general, the Soups chapter also has a strong western Mediterranean flavor to it, as it is heavy on the beans, tomatoes, and cabbage. The chapter on homemade pizzas is almost worth the price of admission. The Salads chapter continues the love affair with the potato and the tomato. I confess I sometimes wonder if there is a touch of evil in cookbook authors' minds when they load their books with recipes using fresh tomatoes, when this product is available with acceptable quality for two or three months out of the year.
There are occasional tips on shortcut cooking. I read them, but do not dote on them. I use them when they make sense to me, but they are not a compelling reason to buy the book. I think the 'Guyometer' ratings are a complete waste of space. I have yet to find any that are usefully negative.'
This is a healthy eating book that is fun to read, which provides tasty dishes to eat, and which has a fighting chance of helping you loose weight. I would recommend this over most others and I wish the Food Network would find a way to commission more shows from Miss Kathleen. Those same old 16 shows are wearing a little thin.
Highly recommended. Miss Kathleen is not preaching to you. She is in the fight with you.
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Title: Getting Thin and Loving Food : 200 Easy Recipes to Take You Where You Want to Be by Kathleen Daelemans ISBN: 0618329749 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 25 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: 30-Minute Meals by Rachael Ray, Dan Dinicola ISBN: 1891105035 Publisher: Lake Isle Pr Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Taste Pure and Simple: Irresistible Recipes for Good Food and Good Health by Michel Nischan, Mary Goodbody, Minh + Wass, Drew Nieportent, Minh Wass ISBN: 0811833771 Publisher: Chronicle Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: 30-Minute Meals 2 by Rachael Ray ISBN: 1891105108 Publisher: Lake Isle Pr Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Veggie Meals by Rachael Ray ISBN: 189110506X Publisher: Lake Isle Pr Pub. Date: 15 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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