by Ellie Krieger
The Taunton Press, $28.00, 316 pages
Should you be on a regular weigh-reducing diet and still want reasonably healthy and flavorful foods, The Foods You Crave is a good addition to your kitchen library. It has some 200 recipes, mostly those you find in many contemporary cookbooks (Apple-Pecan Muffins, Vegetable Cheese Strata, Pasta Puttanesca, Triple Chocolate Cookies) but the author altered the ingredients to be lower in fats, sugar and cholesterol. She did it so that maximum flavor is still retained. In the deviled eggs recipe, for example, she discards half of the cholesterol-rich egg yolks and substitutes tofu for most of the mayo. Ground turkey and chicken take place of ground meat and sausages. She retains much of the butter and cream in recipes thus not sacrificing their powerful flavor influence. All recipes give serving sizes, exact nutrition information and states the health benefits of the recipes.
The list called The New Way Pantry lists ingredients that any good cooks already stores. Many tips for healthy eating, cooking and shopping throughout the book are helpful. The recipes are well written and easy to follow with many professional color illustrations. The subject index is thorough in easy to use.