I think that cooking for someone with a special diet is often difficult. We are so accustomed to cooking with a lot of dairy, meat, salt, and sugar in America. I fall into this group wholeheartedly. I try to be wise about all of these ingredients and eat them in moderation. Two months ago, I wanted to decrease the sugar in my family's diet. So, my answer was to look for some new recipes. That's usually my first impulse when it comes to cooking. When I have recipes I want to make and that sounds good, I'm much more likely to make them.
Because I wanted to decrease the amount of sugar, I thought of cookbooks for diabetics, since they have to have diets low in sugar. I requested two diabetic cookbooks for review. I really enjoyed America's Best Cookbook for Kids with Diabetes. I wrote a review here two months ago. Since then, I've been sporadically cooking recipes from the second diabetes cookbook I have, 250 Essential Diabetes Recipes.
I've made a white sauce for my fish, the broccoli ranch salad, classic greek salad dressing, and an eggplant dip. The white sauce needed spice. The Broccoli salad was surprisingly good. The Greek salad dressing was pretty salty, but good. The eggplant dip was declined by my husband after a few bites. He wasn't crazy about the strong celery taste to it.
What I loved about the Kids cookbook was that the recipes had just enough spice for kids and enough to keep parents happy. In contrast, the recipes from this cookbook were quite bland except for the broccoli salad. I'm going to rabbit trail for just a second...
I have noticed that many cookbooks from the 1950s and 60s had recipes in them that were very basic and mild. Usually the recipes didn't have a lot of spice in them or strong flavors. Over the years, the number of cookbooks has greatly multiplied! There are still those cookbooks with pretty mild dishes, but there are also many cookbooks that have plenty of spice in their recipes. My tastes fall toward the more flavorful side. So, with those random thoughts...
The recipes from this cookbook reminded me a lot of those blander recipes from days long ago. They weren't bad recipes, but they simply weren't as packed as flavor as I'd like.
But, there are many strengths of this cookbook. 1) The formatting, as with all Robert Rose cookbooks, is great. The recipes are so easy to read and understand. None of the recipes are very difficult to make. There's a very helpful introduction at the front of the cookbook. 2) You can modify the recipes in this cookbook. With special diets, food often needs to be bland so that it will settle with someone's stomach. If that's what you're looking for, this cookbook will meet that need. Also, if there's an ingredient (like my husband and celery), adjust the amount you add to the recipe.
If you're looking for a diabetes cookbook to check out of the library, look this one up. The pictures are appealing and it's easy to use. You may find that it's a good fit for you and it will give you a place to start.
Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook from Robert Rose for review.
Yesterday, I got a new cookbook, Taste of Home Baking, in the mail to try out.
My mom loves Taste of Home magazine so I was curious about this cookbook. I bake a lot so I do have many cookbooks on my shelves. At one point I had 100 (my husband counted), but I've cut back to only the ones I use which has left me with about 80 or so. I guess I cook a lot.
When this cookbook arrived, I was immediately pleased. Inside the front cover was an insert offer with a free 1 year subscription to Taste of Home magazine ($10 is the special rate usually) which makes the $18 price on Amazon for this cookbook a great value! When you open up, you'll see that there are two plastic pages protectors that you can use to protect the cookbook pages while you are cooking. I can't tell you how many spots my cookbooks have on them from my cooking! Once you get past those two features, you'll notice that there are many sections including one for cupcakes (the new craze), lighter recipes, and special diets. The formatting of this cookbook makes it very easy to read and use. There are plenty of pictures to give you an idea of what you're making--and make it appealing! The pages are thicker than the ones in America's Test Kitchen's family cookbooks (also binder-style) which makes the pages easier to turn and less likely to rip out.
I chose to make two recipes from this cookbook in the 24 hours that I've had it so far. Yesterday, I made the gluten-free brownies. They have... garbanzo beans in them. The recipe sounded so strange I had to try it. They turned out! Actually, my kids (3, 5, and 7) raved about them. They weren't as heavy as normal brownies since they didn't have any wheat or butter in them. They were really quite good!
I was able to find the recipe for the brownies online HERE.
The second recipe I made was one for apple muffins. I do want to note that Taste of Home is not typically thought of as a "healthy" cooking magazine so I wouldn't say that most of the recipes in this cookbook are "healthy" type baking recipes. The muffins were quite good (and easy to make) and because there was butter in them, we didn't need to put butter on them when I served them.
This cookbook has significantly improved my opinion of Taste of Home recipes. I had a church supper cookbook by them last year that I finally gave away because the recipes I made didn't turn out that well. This cookbook, on the other hand, has already proven successful in our house!
Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher.
