Healthy Life Kitchen [Hardcover]

Marilu Henner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2000

Marilu Henner has helped legions of readers transform their bodies and their lives with her innovative diet, exercise, and lifestyle plan. Now, she brings her eager fans the highly anticipated The Total Health Kitchen -- a delectable collection of more than 200 nutritious, satisfying, dairy-free and sugar-free recipes. With dishes gathered from top chefs around the world, Marilu serves up an innovative compendium of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and snacks that bring healthy cuisine to new levels of taste and ease of preparation. This must-have cookbook contains a "healthy junk food" section for converting the no-no treats we crave into nutritious, guilt-free goodies, as well as heart-healthy recipes using soy and fish protein!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Move over, Martha Stewart: there's a new chef in the kitchen and she's on a mission to improve everyone's life from the inside out. It's Marilu Henner, bestselling author of Total Health Makeover and The 30-Day Total Health Makeover, but perhaps better remembered for playing Elaine on the popular 1970's TV show Taxi. So much more than a cookbook, Henner's hefty page-turner is like a detox program for the kitchen. She begins--in her typical, perky style--with a hard yet humorous look at the reader's kitchen and how it functions. Next she preaches the dangers of sugar (Henner calls it "kiddy cocaine"), red meat ("animal products are the number one cause of our number one killer, heart disease"), dairy products ("bovine slime"), about 200 food additives, and certain cleaning products. Nicely designed charts make the technical information easy to read; thankfully, Henner's engaging, chatty prose nicely complements the wealth of serious data presented here.

Once the kitchen is free and clear, Henner walks readers through the health food store, describing key staples, tasty items, favorite brands, and foods with kid appeal. Then she's on to the bulk of the book: the many savory recipes for entrées, appetizers, sides, salads, sauces, and desserts. Dishes like Linguine with Red Clam Sauce, Coconut Shrimp with Curried Hummus on Wonton Squares, and Killer Brownies certainly don't sound low-cal or low-anything, yet each recipe--borrowed from Henner's pool of friends, relatives, and favorite chefs--follows her Healthy Life food-combining rules (don't mix proteins with carbohydrates, eat fruit separately, etc.) and are free of dairy, red meat, and refined sugar. Especially helpful are the tasters' and contributors' comments that accompany nearly every recipe. And since Marilu has an opinion about everything (it's her book, after all), she too offers comments, suggestions, and anecdotes galore. --Liane Thomas

About the Author

Marilu Henner is an actress who is best known for her roles on the hit TV series Taxi and Evening Shade.She is also the bestselling author of Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover and The 30-Day Total Health Makeover.She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Robert Lieberman, and their two sons.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (July 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060393645
• ISBN-13: 978-0060393649
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,330,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great resouce for healthy information, July 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Healthy Life Kitchen (Hardcover)

What a nice surprise. I'm not a Marilu Henner fan and I've only glanced at her previous books, but this one caught my eye because of the wealth of information in it. In an easy read fashion, she covers all the basics...how to evaluate your kitchen, how to make changes, what chemicals are harmful both in food and in cleaning supplies and healthy alternatives to both. She lists name brands for healthy food alternatives which takes the trial and error out of shopping. The recipes are not that different from "normal" cooking...a couple of healthy changes and you're on your way to a delicious meal. This book is not entirely vegetarian as it contains both fish and chicken recipes. It is a great place to start in making healthy changes in your life. It's like having several resource books and a cookbook all in one.

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the perfect cookbook, August 13, 2000

By 

L. Mire (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Healthy Life Kitchen (Hardcover)

I'm not vergetarian, but I am dairy free. After looking for a cookbook with dairy-free recipes for quite some time with no luck, Marilu's book came at the perfect time. After reading some of the other comments, I do want to say that if you are truly ready to make the changes in your life and get rid of the sugar, dairy, caffeine, chemicals, etc., this book will help you to no end. Marilu may not be a nutritionist, and she never claims to be, by the way -- but she has lived a life of healthy food and she looks great! That's enough of a "credential" for me. Marilu speaks what she knows and her books are undeniably life-changing. However, you have to be ready to make the changes and drop any resistance. I really enjoy some of the new features in this cookbook, like the cost guide, where the meals fit in on the color rainbow, and the complexity level. Never being much of a cook before I did Total Health Makeover, Marilu's easy recipes made me feel like a gourmet chef. I knew next to nothing about health foods and, armed with Marilu, she made going grocery shopping fun. And to those who think her meals are pricy, think about eating out in restaurant...in what it costs to buy a meal for one, you can cook for your family, or have lunchtime leftovers for a few days. Trust me, the book and the program will comepletely change your life if you let it!! You'll have more consistent energy, you'll feel like a million bucks, and perhaps most importantly, you'll look better :-)

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some tasty recipes...a little confusion too, November 5, 2000

By 

Sallie Stephens "waterbugirl" (OHIO, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Healthy Life Kitchen (Hardcover)

I, like several of the other reviewers, have read all of Marilu Henner's books and have given up dairy, meat, caffeine, sugar (and wheat too...although she doesn't suggest this, it's just what I decided to do). This book is very helpful in many ways: the walk thru the health food store is great! It provided me with some trusted name brands that I could look for when shopping. I also appreciated her comments on food additives that are dangerous, as well as her section on natural alternatives to cleaning agents. Very helpful. I have tried several of the recipes and found them to be quite delicious. Granted, they may taste 'different' than what we may be used to, but I found them to be very, very good, and since I have decided to adopt this lifestyle, they are great to have on hand. I love the fact that you can really 'taste' the pureness of the food. I didn't give this book 5 stars because I found some subjects to be a bit confusing: ie: the section on food combining---I still get confused over proteins and starches. especially when it comes to nuts, seeds and soy products.I think she could have spent a bit more time on that section. Overall however, I feel great and appreciate Ms. Henner's approach. She has definitely opened my eyes!