Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501200013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOLORES KOSTELNI SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A successful diet takes planning, time and knowledge. Unwanted bumps, lumps and bulges weren't formed overnight.
However you choose to change the shape of your shape, strike a happy balance. Be gentle with yourself and consume delicious, tasty foods trimmed of fat, sugar and salt. Make your eating habits more healthful and your weight-loss gradual. Persist. Keep your expectations realistic. Enjoy yourself, even as you diet.
To spark your diet program, five new cookbooks provide excellent, healthful recipes for satisfying your appetite and accommodating your sweet tooth. Four are specifically designed to create appealing low-fat meals and homemade baked goods.
Enola Prudhomme's Low-Fat Favorites (William Morrow & Co., $17.95, paperback). When doctors told chef Paul Prudhomme's mother to lose weight, she immediately began transforming her favorite Cajun dishes into high-flavor, low-fat versions of the original recipes. More than 200 traditional Louisiana and Southern specialties get her makeover treatment in this book.
The recipes use low-fat substitutes and span dips, soups, casseroles, stews, enchiladas, chilis, macaroni, vegetables and desserts. Specific counts on calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium are included with each recipe. I tried something from each chapter, and although this is not my favorite style of cooking, I enjoyed what I was eating.
Two plusses include the book's lay-flat spiral design and the chapter entitled ``Notes from Our Kitchen,'' which features an alphabetical listing of defined cooking terms and ingredients used in the recipes. Prudhomme's dishes add variety to any low-fat diet.
Baking Without Fat by George Mateljan (Healthy Valley Foods, $12.95, paperback). A special baking book presenting a unique approach to the sweets we all enjoy and crave. The author and his team have cleverly created cake and cookie recipes that are both lower in calories than traditionally made items and lack any hidden fats to carry the flavors. Eighty-three of the recipes contain a minuscule half a gram of fat. Cakes possess a moist crumb and high flavor level but lack the familiar oily or buttery feel on the tongue.
Because the author states that the oil-and sugar-ladened standard carrot cake recipe triggered this book, I tried his new version as well as Energy Bars and apricot-filled banana muffins. Each recipe produced excellent results. Also included are recipes designed without wheat and dairy products, those that are good sources of antioxidants and most which are high in fiber.
The book is easy to use. Each recipe occupies two facing pages: The left-hand page explains the recipe and key ingredients along with a nutritional analysis while the right-hand page focuses on the recipe, a listing of ingredients, and clear directions. I commend the author for his ingenuity and creativity in developing fat-free, lower calorie dessert recipes that actually taste good. Mateljan is a renowned authority on foods and eating healthfully. He is a leader in the cause of organic farming. (Order directly from the publisher: Send a check for $12.95 to Health Valley Foods, 16100 Foothill Blvd., Irwindale, Calif. 91706-7811.)
The Frookie Cookie Cookbook, by Randye Worth (William Morrow & Co, $12.95, hardcover). The author, a registered dietitian, co-founded R.W. Frookie Inc., makers of Frookies, fruit-sweetened low-fat, all-natural cookies. This book offers 49 Frookie cookie recipes, all made with fruit juice concentrates and crystalline fructose. Although I have never eaten Frookies before, the four recipes I tried produced appealing results, especially when the cookies were fresh from the oven.
Pillsbury Health Baking: Fresh Approaches to More than 200 Favorite Recipes, by Jackie Sheean, Andrea Bidwell and staff (Viking, $23.95, hardcover). Pillsbury's contributions to the American table are legendary. Dependable recipes that taste and look good have been its hallmarks. In this exceptionally beautifully book, they carry the banner heralding healthier eating by giving a lean touch to old favorites.
The several recipes I sampled from each chapter were a pleasure to make and a delight to eat. Cranberry rolls, chocolate chip cookies, braided rustic oats and wheat breads, apricot sunshine muffins, scrumptious cobblers and crisps, as well as a marvelous applesauce spice cake topped with brown butter frosting. The expected full flavor and seductive texture are not diminished by a lack of the usual quantity of fats, sugar and calories. Each recipe has been triple tested by expert bakers. This is a worthwhile book you will use for years.
Ken Hom's Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking (Chronicle Books, $14.95, paperback). This book best serves those who understand food, fat and nutrition. The majority of Hom's recipes fall into the category of healthful for a number of reasons: a minimum of oil (1 tablespoon) is required, fresh ingredients are a must, preparations exemplify simplicity, meat complements and accompanies vegetables and starches instead of dominating. This wonderful book offers a wide range of tasty, colorful dishes. With a little variation and thought on several other recipes, the dishes can be made leaner.
Hom encourages the melding of familiar Western ingredients with the Chinese pantry as necessary to maximize flavor. Chicken thigh casserole with orange, minced prawns with lettuce leaves, and 10-minute poached salmon with green onion sauce were three dishes I adored. If you're an experienced cook, Hom's recipes will enliven your tastebuds and add gusto to your menus without sending your fat and food budgets over the edge.
by CNB