Special Feature: Products Sally Recommends

Lowfat Book Reviews

Cooking for Heart & Soul
Compiled and edited by Stanley Eichelbaum

100 Delicious Lowfat Recipes from San Francisco's Top Chefs.

Dictionary of Healthful Food Terms
by Bev Bennett and Virginia Van Vynckt

Health food has become so mainstream that it is necessary to know something about health food and health terms. From amino acids and carbohydrates to beta carotene, folic acid, and HDL, all these terms and hundreds more have been collected for inclusion in this great, new guide. This comprehensive book lists over 1,000 up-to-date definitions of nutrition and diet terms, covering safety, health studies, vitamins and minerals, and weight loss in a language that everyone can understand. The Dictionary of Healthful Food Terms does not advocate any particular diet or food fads. It does, however, tell us what foods to select for optimal health, based on reliable findings of nutrition experts. Definitions cover: antioxidants, additives, bacterial contaminants, dietary fiber, fats, herbs, sodium and sweeteners, nutritional labeling and many other topics. Special features include: home remedies, how to read food labels, and even how to build your own food pyramid.

Fat Chance:
Your Best Chance for Permanent Weight Loss
Joan Cortopassi and Annette Cain

This book combines information about fitness, nutrition and low fat cooking. Topics vary from subjects such as how to read labels, meal planning, creating personalized fitness routine and more than 90 low fat recipes with nutritional information. According to the authors this book is the way to attain permanent weight loss and not just another "miracle diet."

Fat Free Junk Food Cookbook
by J. Kevin Wolfe

From Scorching Nachos to Crunch Caramel Corn, here are more than 100 recipes for snacks that look, sound and taste like indulgences - but aren't! In chapters like Concession Stand Snacks, Sweet Treats, Fresh From the Bakery, and Yes, You Can Have dessert, dubious dieters will find such reassuring recipes as Cream-Puffed Chocolate Cupcakes, Blue Cheese Potato Salad, and miraculously Fat-Free-Drippin' Burgers. With helpful tips on making no-fat substitutions, coping with periods of weight loss backsliding, and dealing with all those leftover egg yolks, The Fat Free Junk Food Cookbook makes fat-free fabulous!

Food
by Susan Powter

The no-nonsense guru of healthy and smart living shares her ideas on food. This book is not only entertaining but also a useful guide. Powter shows you how to eat for both fitness and pleasure, and while you're at it, how to turn food from a sometime enemy into a true friend. An indispensible guide for (soon to be) sensible foodies.

Fresh from the Garden
by Perla Meyers

250 easy recipes categorized by the vegetables she recommends you grow yourself. Zillah Bahar -- though horticulturally-challenged -- reviews.

Fresh Start
by Julee Rosso

Easy to make recipes promoting lowfat cooking through moderation, not deprivation.

From the Earth to the Table
by John Ash and Sid Goldstein

A Julia Child Cookbook Award winner! John Ash realizes that a revolution is taking place in the kitchens and vineyards of Northern California. Lowfat, high-flavor cooking and an array of "new" sauces -- pestos, chutneys, salsas and stock reductions, among them -- are just the beginning. This collection of 300 recipes focuses on creating dishes with fresh seasonal ingredients and producing distinctive flavor combinations. You also get tips on ideal food and wine pairing and wine suggestions with every recipe.

Fusion Food Cookbook
by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison

This husband-and-wife team knows a thing or two about fusion, the art of mixing and matching seasonings and cooking techniques to arrive at utterly creative cuisine. The best of Asia, Mexico, the American Southwest, the Caribbean and the Meditteranean are combined, and the result is a new American cuisine. Braised Chicken East and West and Barbecued Salmon in New World Pesto Sauce give you an idea of the good things to come.

Great Cooking in Minutes
by Judith Ets-Hokin

Short on time? Zillah Bahar summarizes this cookbook: 250 recipes that can be made light, made ahead of time, but, most of all, made quick. Includes a recipe for Risotto With Baby Artichokes.

Great Taste -- Low Fat: Holiday Cooking
Published by Time-Life Books

Do you want to gain your usual five pounds this holiday? If not this book can help keep off those extra pounds while whipping up low calorie delicious holiday favorites. This full-color volume includes 80 healthy holiday recipes accompanied by a complete nutritional list for each.

Heart Healthy Cooking For All Seasons
by Marvin Moser, M.D. with Larry Forgione, Jimmy Schmidt, and Alice Waters

This is the first cookbook to combine detailed information on heart disease as well as health, low-fat yet delicious recipes from three of the country's top chefs. Most recipes in the book conform to national guidelines for recommended fat and cholesterol intake. Heart Healthy contains over 100 delicious, enticing new recipes which have been created for a healthy lifestyle, but are certainly not low on great taste.

Jane Fonda, Cooking for Healthy Living, 120 Easy LOWFAT Recipes
by Jane Fonda with recipes by Robin Vitetta

This is a book that's hard to review; there is so much packed in here, that it could definitely be two books. The illustrations by Jennie Oppenheimer are fabulous; colorful, impressionistic, vibrant introductions to each section, but these art pieces seem to fight the very good color photos of the food and seem too sophisticated for the solid graphs, menu planners and how-to's of the book. If you're looking for good information on what to eat for every meal of the day, basic information on low-fat eating, and some creative recipes, this is a good book.

Joan Lunden's Healthy Cooking, Featuring More than 100 Lowfat Recipes to Feed Your Family and Friends
by Joan Lunden and Laura Morton

This is a combination of personal scrapbook, motivation and some pretty darn good recipes. In the first section of the book, Lunden pitches her new-found lifestyle to eat to live (vs. living to eat), and suggests how to keep motivated eating well. Part two is devoted to some fascinating cooking tips for getting the fat out of your diet but leaving the flavor in and the recipes. In between time are photos of Joan and other celebrities. Even her children's nanny gets into the act, and we get before and after shots of how eating better helped the nanny lose weight. Good reading and some very good information.

Leafy Greens
by Mark Bittman

A complete and accurate guide to those anti-carcinogenic greens with pictures, nutritional information and substitution guidelines. The recipes are easy and pan-ethnic; they run the gamut from seaweed to broccoli rabe. Roast Chicken Breast with Sauteed and Roasted Savoy Cabbage was sweet and easier than it sounds. So was Chard with Garlic, Pine Nuts and Currants and Watercress - Sesame salad.

Let's Eat
by Susan Powter

Powter reassures you that it's okay to eat -- it's all in how you do it. This collection of 150 all-American favorites features lowfat, wholesome and delicious recipes. Sloppy Joes and Meat Loaf that will keep you svelte. Ooh. Thank you, Susan.

Lighter, Quicker, Better
by Richard Sax and Marie Simmons

These two veteran food writers, with a dozen books between them, have worked well together for years writing their "Cooking for Health" column for Bon Appetit magazine. They achieve their lighter approach by using such flavor enhancers as lemon zest, fresh herbs, garlic and chiles, and all kinds of mustards and flavored vinegars. This is real food, but with some interesting twists and turns along the way. There are enough helpful tips and solid food information to make this book a great reference guide as well. With healthy recipes like these, you can have your foie gras and eat it too.

Looney Spoons
by Janet & Greta Poleski

Who says low-fat foods have to be tasteless, unappealing and boring? No weigh! Janet & Greta Poleski offer up a refreshingly unique low-fat cookbook with a spunky personality in Looney Spoons, which takes the intimidation and confusion out of healthful eating by making it fun and easy to understand. Using an innovative and somewhat wacky presentation style (featuring over 300 cartoons, plenty of humor, bit-sized chunks of useful lifestyle information and a lively page layout), this cookbook sets the standard for the next generation. The key ingredient to the book's widespread appeal is its collection of over 150 hearty, superb tasting recipes. Tofu and bean sprouts are not listed in the index (phew!), but you will find a wide selection of mouth-watering, popular dishes that appeal to all ages and taste buds. Additionally, a simple message is also conveyed: common sense, moderation, and variety -- the same tried and true advice offered by doctors, dieticians and other health experts. But what sets it apart from the pack is its non-clinical, unintimidating style. As the author/sisters put it: Lets face it -- pizza tastes better than carrot sticks.

Memorable Menus Made Easy
by Robyn Webb

This cookbook helps you prepare at home meals without a lot of time, effort, cost, and bother. Memorable Menus is packed with tips and shortcuts to slash preparation time for a top-of-the-line 5-course dinner to an hour and a half. Webb has included 250 unique recipes, 50 complete menus, step-by-step preparation tips, shopping lists, new diabetic exchanges, complete nutritional analyses, and dozens of ideas for entertaining with style. Whether you are entertaining or just preparing "a little something special" for yourself or your family, in this book you'll find a delicious, balanced menu for every occasion.

Richard Simmon's Farewell to Fat Cookbook
by Richard Simmons and Winifred Morice

You can just hear the golden oldies playing in the background as veteran exercise guru leads you through Side by Side by Side dishes, Openers, Lunch Time, Something Smells Good and Not Just Another Head of Lettuce, his euphemistic categories for side dishes, appetizers, lunches, desserts and salads that are innovative, interesting and, of course, low fat. He cautions, with humor, that these recipes are not to be eaten en masse, but per serving, and that lively manner and humor create a feeling he's right in the kitchen with you. Best of all, these may not seem like low fat recipes but they really are. The design is spirited and fun, and is full of good, solid information: how-to's and tips for cooking low fat in general. A great starter book for someone pledging a 1997 resolution to get the fat out of the kitchen.

Spring: Recipes Inspired by Nature's Bounty
by Joanne Weir

Noted chef and author Joanne Weir offers springtime seasonal recipes utilizing some recipes of the year's most anticipated ingredients: tender asparagus shoots, delicate leafy greens, juicy strawberries, silvery salmon and newly molted soft-shelled crab. This "no-fuss" cooking philosophy is clearly demonstrated in fifty contemporary recipes which include everything from appetizers, soups and salads to main courses, side dishes and desserts. Each recipe is accompanied by a beautiful color photograph.

Stop the Insanity
by Susan Powter

Susan Powter has walked the walk: divorce, depression, and the final blow, ballooning to over 240 pounds. Trying to follow the lessons of the diet and fitness industries as we know them, she only encountered failure and frustration. On her own, she learned how to eat, breathe and move properly, lose weight permanently, and regain her strength and sanity. Now she can talk the talk. Listen to her! This woman can, and will, change your life.

Summer
by Joanne Weir

Joanne Weir's inspired collection of fifty fresh and refreshing summer recipes presents maximum flavor in minimum time. Summer provides a wealth of information on how to use the season's bounty. Weir explains how to pick the ripest fruits and vegetables by touch, smell, size, and color. Beautiful full-color photographs accompany the glossaries of summer fruits, vegetables, and seasonings. Preparation techniques are well illustrated and a charming quotation accompanies each recipe.

The Pocket Powter
by Susan Powter

The diva of determination wants you to eat right and move well -- and she'll also motivate you to become as strong, lean and healthy as you can. In this book, Ms. Powter fields over 250 questions from her legion of fans, answering each in her inimitable "go girl!" style. It's "Pocket Powter" for a reason: this one should be in your back pocket at all times.

Quick Meals for Busy Days
by Nathalie Dupree

Not feeling up to Domestic Godhood tonight? Here's a cookbook for busy folks who still want to eat well. Dupree bravely ventures into previously unspeakable realms like "pre-washed," "pre-sliced" and "jarred."