Julie Bove > wrote:
: Yep! I got not one, but TWO of them for Christmas.

: The first one is Betty Crocker 30 minute meals for diabetics. First, let me
: say I am put off by any cookbook that has 30 minutes in the title. I'm all
: for convenience foods so long as they are organic or at least free of stuff
: like HFCS, transfats or any of our allergens. And yes there are some things
: like that out there. Even some tasty things! But in my opinion if you can
: make it in 30 minutes or less, you are NOT cooking. And in looking at the
: recipes I would have to say this is true. Although some do call for raw
: meat, they also call for things like brown Minute rice and all sorts of
: prepared sauces. Most of what I see in there (even if I were not allergic
: to the ingredients) are not things I would eat, diabetic or otherwise.
: There is a recipe for green beans with caramelized onions. Now that sounds
: good and it even uses raw green beans. But... It calls for sugar to
: caramelize the onions. I know a lot of restaurants do this and I've seen
: chefs on TV do it because they say it makes things faster. True, but
: nothing beats slow cooked true caramelized onions. And you just can't get
: that with sugar.

: Most of these recipes call for reduced fat stuff, no sodium stuff and
: already prepared things like BBQ sauce. Now that I think about it, the book
: does not use "cookbook" in the title. And that's a good thing because it
: really isn't. Overall, the recipes (and I use that word loosely) are lower
: in carbs than in past books I have had. They do have an entire chapter on
: carbs and how a diabetic should eat. There is a section for snacks and mini
: meals, some of which have as many as 2 carb choices (i.e. 30g of carbs).
: One of these is for a latte with soymilk. There is a LOT of soy throughout
: this book. Apparently the author thinks we should eat a lot of that. I
: don't think so... I was amazed though that there was no section for
: desserts. Woo hoo! That is pleasing to me. A book that doesn't treat us
: as sweet starved people. There is a section in the back that gives some
: sample meals and does give suggestions for dining at other people's houses.
: Sweets might be mentioned there. I didn't really read the whole thing and
: probably won't.

: I highly doubt I will make anything out of this book. Just not my style.
: But I might recommend it to a newly diagnosed diabetic who is really
: confused about diet or to a person who doesn't know how to, doesn't want to
: learn how to or just won't cook.


Cookbooks of this kind are designed for peole who dont havethe ime to cook
and have used all kind s of prepared foods or take-out regualarly and re
now confronted with a new situation and need to strt cooking in a way to
be able to live with this mysterious new disease they have. It can be
most useful, if, often too high carb for most of us here, but a great
improvement over non-stop frozen entrees and fst food.

Wendy