Customer Reviews

1,001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes from Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Was excited to see that there was a new book out by Dana. Wondered why I hadn't heard about it on her web site, so I emailed her asking about it. (No response)

So then I find out, after having paid for it, that this is a compilation of several of her previous low carb books, all of which I already own. If you already have her other Low Carb books, don't buy this one. If you want to dip your toe into Dana Carpender's low carb cookbooks and don't own any of them, then this would be a good place to start. You can sample recipes from many of her books this way, and if you like what you try then you can spend the money on the other books to get a more comprehensive collection.

I picked up a book one time called "The Ultimate Low0Carb Diet Cookbook" thinking that there should be plenty of good examples in there to help me maintain a low carb lifestyle. While the book did have some recipes I enjoyed, there wasn't enough. So while I was scrolling through Barnes and Nobles, I came across this, and many other low carb books and spent plenty of time reading through table of contents. This book, without a doubt, not only has types of food I eat, but many of them have the ingredients I carry and look pretty easy to prepare.

As I am the primary cook in my family, I have plenty of options for every one (including for those who aren't on carb restrictions)

I am recommending this book to people I know who are carb restricted.

I was pleased to see Dana Carpender had a "new" book but less than pleased to discover it is a compilation of recipes from her previous low-carb books--not a single new recipe in it. Now, she apparently chose the "best" from her previous books--and I am fine with that--but this should have been noted on the cover.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Dana is an absolute genius at creating delicious low-carb recipes that pass as the "real thing" (her chocolate chip cookie recipe and German Chocolate Pie comes to mind; both are unbelievably wonderful) she is notorious (at least in my opinion as a former editor) for the typos in her books. On her website she does have a list of corrections for previous books but . . . and this is the thing I absolutely cannot understand, why didn't she make those corrections before publishing this one?

Because this level of low-carb cooking requires some very expensive ingredients (nut flours, etc.) it's not a happy experience to be led down a wrong path that results in having to throw out something that doesn't work because the recipe called for the wrong amount of something or left out a critical bit of instruction.

Nevertheless, as I browsed the pages of this title, I encountered some of the exact same typos that had bugged me in the previous ones. And . . . when you see all the mistakes it raises another little worry: Could her carb counts be off? I haven't tested any for myself, but if recipes don't get proofread much, how about nutritional information?

Another quibble: She sometimes recommends products that later go off the market. Okay, that could happen to anyone writing a cookbook as you cannot guarantee the continuation of any specialty product. However, why would she put out this book without changing those recipes? The most obvious one that comes to mind is her use in a number of recipes for the potato-like mix called Ketatoes. The manufacturer has not sold this for a long time, yet this new book has recipes calling for the stuff.

If you are new to Dana's recipes, you'll be thrilled to get 1001 of them. If you are a long-term buyer of her cookbooks you might not be half as pleased to discover this is a retread--and not even an updated one at that. I'd rate the recipes in this book (the ones without typos, I mean) with five stars, but the overall rating came down because of the carelessness of the editing.

Low-carb cooking expert and the author of seven Low-Carb cookbooks, Dana Carpender has compiled 1001 of her very best low-carb recipes laid out with complete listings of ingredients and 'kitchen cook friendly' step-by-step preparation instructions. The result is a 576-page cookbook that will prove to be a never ending source of culinary inspiration for anyone seeking low-carb meals that will please even the most gourmet of palates and satisfy even the most demanding of appetites. From Warm Brie with Sticky Nuts; Sunflower Parmesan Crackers; Italian Sausage Soup; and Fried Brussels Sprouts; to Slow Cooker Chicken Guadeloupe; Maple-Glazed Corned Beef with Vegetables; Cranberry Barbecue Sauce; and Cocoa-Peanut Logs, "1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes from Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back" truly lives up to the promise of its title and is an enthusiastically recommended as an inexpensive and expansive addition to personal, family, and community library cookbook collections!

As someone attempting a ketogenic diet, my first time around I quickly grew bored with a diet of meat, cheese, eggs and more eggs, so I searched Amazon for low-carb cookbooks and decided on this one. This is the only low-carb cookbook I own and I find it extremely comprehensive. There are no pictures in the cookbook, which I would normally find to be a drawback, but it didn't hinder or hamper my perusal of the book and subsequent cooking in the least. The descriptions are succinct and descriptive, the directions are clear and the ingredients are common, plus the discussion of low-carb ingredients at the start of the book is quite helpful for newbies. The cookbook has a variety of recipes with different carb counts, which works well since low-carbers often have different daily carb count goals. A huge bonus of this book is that I had a question about a recipe and I emailed the author and she wrote me right back! (I didn't want to use soy powder in a recipe, so she gave me an alternative.)

As far as the book design itself goes, since it's so thick, the cookbook stays open without the need to put anything on it or use a holder. Anyone who uses cookbooks regularly knows how big of a deal this is, and I usually look for spiral bound cookbooks, but this one works just fine as a paperback.

The only revision I'd make to this book is adding information on the fat in each recipe (each recipe has a listing of protein, fiber, carb and usable carb info). I'm trying to balance my fat and protein intake, and that would be super helpful so I don't have to make the calculations by hand. I think I understand why the author didn't include that info-Americans are all together too fat-phobic.

In summary, this is probably the only cookbook I'm going to need for a long time-what a fantastic investment!

After being mostly vegetarian for almost 20 years, after I read Good Calories, Bad Calories I found myself in need of a fairly comprehensive low carb cookbook. This one is extremely useful. I've made 20 or so recipes from the book so far. All of the meat recipes have turned out, which is good, since organic meat is pretty dang expensive. Many have become new standards for me. Her recipes for crackers have been handy too. I appreciate the included carb and net carb counts for each recipe. Personally, I use Liquid Stevia (this stevia by NuNaturals doesn't have a bad aftertaste if you use it in reasonable quantities) where she uses splenda. The only dud recipe was for the chocolate fudge, which I've tried twice and just has never turned out. A number of the baked goods call for nut flours (not all, but many). My son has the dreaded peanut, tree nut allergy, so that section has been less useful for us. I'd also recommend the 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes: Instant Recipes for Dinners, Desserts, and More, since you really can get most of those dinners on the road quickly. That and an indoor grill with variable temperature(it still sounds odd to me to say that I now own this particular appliance) have really helped me figure out how to cook low carb quickly.

1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes from Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back

Dana Carpender's book is wonderful. I started a lower carb diet in February of 2011 and as of July 2011 I have lost 33 pounds and six inches from my waist. I have been losing weight and maintaining the weight loss while eating many of the delicious recipes from Dana's book. I love her and my wife is ok with that because she loves her too! In the beginning I read the book and started collecting the ingredients Dana listed. I was able to find most of these in our local stores but I did buy a few of them on Amazon. If you can't find the ingredients there are some substitutes as Dana mentions. Then I went through all of the recipes and marked the ones that sounded interesting to me. I have tried many recipes but I have a lot more to go.

We eat something out of Dana's book every single day whether it be "Hot Almond Cereal" for breakfast, Chicken Breasts L'Orange, Ginger stir-fry, Chocolate Mousse (to die for), or Lemon-Vanilla Custard. We also enjoy the Frozen Custard, sugar-free chocolate sauce, coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie, seriously spicy citrus chicken and the parmesan chicken breasts. Her Asian ginger slaw is incredible and we love to take her zucchini-carrot cake on hikes with us to eat as breakfast or a delicious snack.

If you are serious about low carb eating, buy this book, purchase the basic ingredients, select some recipes that peak your interest and start cooking. Dana provides a good foundation for low carb meals and you can make modifications to suit your needs. As an example, by changing two ingredients, Lemon-Vanilla Custard becomes "Orange-Vanilla Custard" and it is delicious. Bon appetit!

While the recipes in this book do NOT call for obscure, hard-to-find items as a previous reviewer complained, nearly every recipe does include Splenda. One of the reasons I am low-carb is to avoid all the harmful, man-made, processed, low-fat diet foods out there. I'm going to try the recipes without this ingredient and hope for the best.

I just bought 3 low carb cookbooks (on top of owning several more already) and this is BY FAR the worst one! First of all, this is a paperback, which in itself is fine, only the pages are literally the cheap paper just like coloring books are made of. Secondly, at least 3/4 of the recipes are absolutely RIDICULOUS! I have lots of low carb cookbooks, and this one asks for ingredients I have never even HEARD of, much less know where to get it, or how to use it! If you buy this cookbook, you can look forward to going to a specialty shop to find the ingredients to use, and you'll EASILY spend another $100 in just ODD ingredients! I am NOT AT ALL happy with this book. I went through the entire thing today, and found MAYBE a handful of recipes that are even do-able. The rest of this is worthless. I would LOVE to have my money back!! VERY DISAPPOINTING.

This is my first go at a low carb cookbook and it really disappointed me. It is full of "fake food" ingredients like Splenda, Ketatoes, and Vege-Sal, and weird special ingredients that I could never find or afford out here in the middle of nowhere like vital wheat gluten, wheat protein isolate, and whey protein powder. The recipes also call for lots of readymade store bought products and lots of canned ingredients. Who eats canned mushrooms anymore?? I was hoping for low carb recipes using normal ingredients and foods I would already have on hand.

It seems like there are lots of different recipes, but all the "rice" recipes just use cauliflower and the "pasta" recipes just use spaghetti squash and the "bean" recipes just use black soybeans, whatever they are. I think this would get really boring really fast. Why do I need ten salad recipes in a low carb cookbook? I know how to make a salad! The recipes are just so basic and boring, I guess this book must be aimed at beginner cooks. I was hoping for low carb versions of regular recipes, and this just didn't deliver for me. There were recipes within recipes, something that drives me crazy in cookbooks: "go to this page to make this sauce and go to this page to make this rub." Hate that!

My husband has decided to go low carb and I have to be gluten and dairy free and trying to find recipes in this book for both of us, even with substitutions and subtractions, was just about impossible. After looking at all 1001 recipes, I think there are only two or three I would actually make. Not worth the money for me.