Customer Reviews

Fabulous Lo-Carb Cuisine

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my favorite low carb recipe book. No crunch up pork rinds to pretend they are something else; real food without exotic ingredients requiring a trip to health food store. Two favorite recipes: Lasagna stuffed peppers and Strawberry Custard tarts. All the desserts do NOT consist of let's leave the crust off the pie and make a sugar free pudding filling.

I owe the friend who recommended big time (as a slim book I originally wasn't going to buy -- but more than a dozen recipes you'll actually make and use are worth more than a book of 300 you won't).

One often hears complaints about lo-carb cuisine because it's "boring" or "meat, meat, meat." No more, dear friends.

In "Fabulous Lo-Carb Cuisine" Ruth Glick as assembled a formidable array of recipes that are sure to please the tastes of the most moribund eater. Not only are they tasty, but by taking advantage of available frozen and canned products, Ruth has made them quick and easy.

I've prepared several of Ruth's recipes for people who aren't into the lo-carb regime and they're amazed at how good they are and how various the menu can be.

This book is a keeper for sure.

From reading many of the other reviews, I thought this book was going to be really great. I ignored the reviews that mentioned the 2 tsp dip serving sizes thinking I could convert them to more realistic portions. This is one of my complaints; however, you can convert many of the appetizer recipes and they still have reasonable carb counts. My biggest complaint is that the book is small without much variety. There is one recipe per page and a few recipes take two pages unnecessarily. Chapter 4 is called, "The Meat of the Matter (as well as chicken, eggs and fish)". There are 30 recipes in this chapter. Seven of these are for omelets or quiche and 3 for stuffed peppers (I am not a fan of eggs or bell peppers so there are only 20 recipes to consider in the MEAT section of the cookbook for me). I feel like a lot of effort was made to stretch the length of this book by offering variations of the same recipe as different recipes (for example, Marzipan and Orange Almond Candy are the same recipe with the only difference being the type of extract plus lemon juice in one and water in the other). I think offering a recipe and then some variations is a better use of space and would provide space for more recipes. There are some unique and easy recipes, I just don't think this book was worth [$$$]

There are so many innovative recipes in FABULOUS LO-CARB CUISINE that I don't know where to start naming them. Spanakopita Bake; Peanut Butter and "Marmalade" Spread; Blue Cheese Ball; Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Salad; Broccoli, Ham, and Cheese Salad; Brazilian Green Beans; Sweet and Sour Mustard Sauce; Orange-Rosemary Butter; Roasted Onion Spread; Greek Lasagna; Chicken-Broccoli-Almond Salad; Quick Parmesan Cauliflower; Grilled Beef, Italian-Style; Lasagna Peppers; Shrimp with Olives and Feta Cheese; Orange Roughy, Mediterranean-Style; Basil-Parsley Pesto; Salmon Pie; Pan Pizza Omelet; Southwestern Quiche; Marzipan Candy; Orange Almond Candy; Coconut Truffles; Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies; Fruit Pizza with Marzipan Crust; Strawberry Tarts with phyllo dough shells; Frozen Strawberry Cream Pie; Pecan Cream Cheese Tarts; and Toffee-Flavored Pecans are a few of them.
FABULOUS LO-CARB CUISINE may have some recipes with the same names as recipes in another low-carb cookbook, but Ms. Glick's versions will be the best one's you've tried. Just sample her Key Lime Pie, Almond Macaroons, Strawberry Ice Cream, Mexican Stuffed Peppers, Kung Pao Chicken, Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip, Salmon Spread, Barbecued Beef Brisket, Beef Paprikash, Buffalo Wings, Chili con Queso Dip, Italian Chicken with Peppers and Onions, or Shrimp Bisque;
and you'll see what I mean.

This is a cookbook of "normal" recipes, not "guests are coming what can I make to impress them" recipes. As the author says in the prologue (and you MUST read the introductory passages, they contain vital information on how serving sizes and carb counts are computed), these are the recipes that she and her family use day in and day out. They are all fast, simple, and straightforward. Time saving tips are also included. And (with the exception of the sloppy joes) I've found them to be good-to-excellent ("I'd make this again" to "Can I make this again tomorrow?"). For the kitchen clueless, there are also some helpful "goes well with xxx on page xx" notes to make assembling a complete meal a breeze. I'd prefer if there was a general index in the back for main ingredients ... the "xxx was on sale at the store, now what can I make with it" syndrome ... but the book is thin enough that scrolling through the table of contents or paging through the sections is a doable search.

I'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, so the dessert recipes in this book took me by surprise. All the ones I've tried are wonderful!

I love this book, it has great recipes. However a lot of them have 10 or more carbs, at least the main dishes. Once you have a main dish with 10 carbs you can't really add any of the delicious side dishes. I would recommend this book, just watch the carbs.

This book has some of the best low-carb dishes I've tasted, plus it has lots of variety. Another thing I really like is that the serving sizes for main dishes and desserts are very generous--some other books have very small serving sizes so it seems like the total carbs are low when they really aren't. At first I thought the serving sizes for the dips were small in this book--the author counts each little 2 teaspoon portion as a "serving"-- but even if you eat 8 or 10 of these you only get 4 or 5 grams of carbs. So you can actually eat a lot of the little "servings" and be okay.

One reader wondered how to figure the nutritional data when there is a range of servings, but the section on Nutritional Analysis and Recipe Yield in the book explains it. "If there's a range of servings, say 4-6 servings ,the analysis will be based on the lower number." So, you can get an range of how many people the recipe may serve, but still know the data is based on the minimum number of servings--(in other words the most generous portions!).

This book is a delight! I occassionally purchase low carb recipe books, and never know quite what to expect from a new one. I enjoy Barbara Doyen's "Back to Protein" book, for exampe, but I find it heavy on the meat. I adore my insightful Fran McCollough books, but sometimes find her recipes too tricky for everyday. If you, too, are tired of either the gourmet or the all-meat-all-the-time approach to low carbing, and appreciate interesting flavors and refreshing, but simple combinations, then this book is for you. From the simple but delicious recipes for multiple variations on stuffed peppers, to the barbequed beef brisket or strawberry mousse, I highly recommend this book! My husband and I can hardly tell we're "low carbing" anymore. The recipes here offer just plain old, good food. Of course, it *IS* all low carb, and helpful carb and nutrition counts are provided with each easy-to-follow recipe. We've enjoyed every recipe we've tried, so far, and look forward to trying all the others.

I have been looking at several cookbooks before settling on this one [on the advice of friends]. The recipes are simple, easy to prepare and most importantly....very tasty! I've only tried one dessert I didn't quite care for [the pecan cake], but everything else has been absolutely delicious. Even my non-lc eating friends loved the roasted asparagus and the baked cauliflower and cheese. If you're looking for easy-to-use recipes that are flavorful and will add variety to your lc diet....this book is great.