Customer Reviews

Lunch Buddies

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Lunch Buddies

Want to have some fun and get healthier, too? Turn your best friend into your lunch buddy and both of you will benefit from these new styles of lunches. Leave behind the fast food counter with all its fattening foods. You think it's boring to fix a brown bag lunch for yourself every day? Try using this book for ideas so you cook only every other day, with your partner cooking on the alternate days. Others in the lunch room will watch you two laughing and enjoying your beautifully arranged meal while the enticing aroma fills the room. Soon you will see an improvement not only in your mental attitude but better results from your blood tests.

This brilliantly written book is anything but boring. Why? A bit of humor is threaded throughout the book. The authors share some of their personal experiences. Pictures of them in authentic costumes accentuate the various periods of food history. Facts and folklore of many foods from past centuries have been turned into delicious recipes for well balanced lunches.

Information regarding the nutrition has been well organized. The tasteful recipes are easily followed so fixing them is simple. The index makes locating what you're looking for very accessible.

Just one word of warning, if you prepare one of these dishes for your husband, don't expect him to praise you for it. Better have some hamburgers handy - just in case he is reluctant to try new foods.

Buy this book and try these novel recipes and suggestions with your lunch buddy for healthy, nourishing, fun lunches.

Caution: once you start reading this book, you may find it hard to put down.

Brown bag lunches turn into an enjoyable experience following the suggestions in the delightfully written book. Not only are are the recipes well organized, easy to follow, but are delicious. The informative book with humor of family life and food origins is illustrated with delightful pictures of the authors in various costumes. It is not just an ordinary recipe book but very unique.

I love this book - it's such an easy read and it's the only "cookbook" I've ever read cover to cover!

From the Lunch Buddy Wraps (my favorite) to the Zucchini and Tomato Casserole, all of the recipes are easy to prepare and contain great preparation tips. The authors are real working women with families who know the challenge of having an enjoyable lunch that's easy to prepare, healthy and yummy to eat.

In addition to great recipes, the authors provide historical and nutritional information regarding food in a manner that's interesting and entertaining. The book tells the story of their friendship as co-workers and experiences as lunch buddies. The personal anecdotes regarding their efforts to incorporate healthy eating into their family and work life will resonate with everyone. Through the recipes they've discovered and/or created, they promote good health and thoughtful eating.

This book is a resource I have utilized often since I purchased it earlier this year in my efforts to be healthier and lose weight and I credit the unique recipes with helping me to lose 20 lbs. I can't say enough about the interesting recipes - you will never get bored. I also like the Tips and Tools section of the book that offers sample menus, shopping lists, information about kitchen gadgets and references and resources including books, magazines, and websites.

I read somewhere that good food is a celebration of life and this book definitely celebrates good eating and good living!

If you want to make your cooking delicious, fun and healthy, you must make Lunch Buddies your kitchen companion. This cookbook brings back memories of feel good foods from your Grandma's kitchen; meals that were not only filling and tasty but also fresh and wholesome. Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra combine nutritious, mouth watering recipes with humor and culture. Most importantly, Lunch Buddies will educate you about delicious alternatives that will keep money in your wallet and inches off your belly! Delectable soups, salads, casserole dishes and much more fill the pages of this delightful book. My finicky 14 year old loves the new recipes I've been preparing since discovering the culinary treats in Lunch Buddies! Thanks to the authors for bringing "healthy gourmet" to a hardworking wife and mom who needed some spice in her tired old recipes!

This book makes cooking fun! The recipes are easy and the info about nutrition is written in an easy to read format. If you are looking for a fun way to eat right and lose weight, this book is for you.

This book is great. Not only does it have great recipes, but the nutrional information is wonderful. The health benefits are spelled out on the ingredients used in the recipes. I have tried several of the mushroom recipes and they are delicious. Better yet, my husband thinks they are great. I love to cook and finding new and innovative ways to stay healthy is a hobby of mine. I really like the concept of preparing food ahead of time. Putting a lunch together is easier and quicker. So I plan to buy more copies of "Lunch Buddies" and spread the word to my friends and family. Thank you Lynn and Susan for your hard work and determination in putting together a book that is not your typical "recipe" or "diet" book. Cook on!

By Kelly Jad'on

From Basil & Spice

It's not just what you eat, but who you eat lunch with that affects your weight and health.

Two ordinary women (not actresses nor models), Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra, have written a very enticing book about the brown bag movement toward better nutrition that is literally sweeping the country. The authors, employees of a hospital, understand what it's like to have co-workers who just won't stop bringing in tempting homemade brownies. Fleming and Dudra, married to "regular" husbands, also can relate to women whose spouses aren't ready to give up the standard American diet.

Tired of eating a yogurt or a microwaved box meal, the two got together and created a lunch buddy initiative: Each person would bring a healthy dish (es) for two and share on a daily basis. Previously burdened with minor health issues, the two women quickly saw their health improve.

A book was born--Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up For A Better Diet. The Lunch Buddy diet includes a variety of recipes, most healthy variations of other more fattening favorites, favoring whole grains, beans, and vegetables. The authors do not think it wise to eliminate a food group. Though they did cut back on meat consumption, they completely avoid processed foods, soda, and diet drinks. Thumbs up for water and tea.

Lunch Buddy recipes fall into categories of:

* Raw Foods--Citrus/Mango Salad with Toasted Walnuts
* Mushrooms--Cream of Mushroom Soup with Quinoa
* Grains--Tomato Oatmeal Soup (delightful variation on this traditional soup--served with grilled cheese in my mother's house--circa 1970's)
* Beans--Red Lentil Soup (one of my favorites!)
* Pasta--Couscous with Cabbage and Mushrooms
* Hot Vegetables--Baked Sweet Potato Slices with Herbs
* Quick and Easy--Lunch Buddy Sandwich Wraps (excellent sandwich--incorporates hummus, veggies, and low-fat cheese)

Lunch Buddies also offers references and recommended resources, nutritional history and benefits of foods used. Most recipes are 4 or 6 servings and will feed a family.

Lunch Buddies is really a wonderful book for those who wish to make a healthy difference in their own lives. The only drawback might be the lack of photos. Take the first step, find a friend who'd like to begin to make a nutritional change, and begin to work together. Join the brown bag movement, like pioneers Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra, and lunch on toward a better life.

5 Stars

Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up For A Better Diet (Lunch Buddies Press/ Jan 2009) by Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra

This cook book is hard to put down; and, I must admit, is the first I have ever read from cover to cover. I hate cooking but this cook book is a MUST HAVE whether you are single, a working person or just trying to economize. The writing is interesting, the recipes are easy and nutritious. Along with the humour one gets fascinating tidbits on the history and culture of many of the spices, grains, raw fruits and vegetables we take for granted and really know nothing about and in the process provides a healthy diet not only for the body but for the mind and spirit as well.

Like many people as I have progressed through what will be hopefully the middle-section of my life, I have been focusing increasingly upon my health and the foods I eat. Specifically, I have been moving in the direction of veganhood, having foregone all pork over a decade ago, beef in the last five years, and (increasingly) most poultry and fish. However, there have been two obstacles to my acceptance of a fully vegetarian diet: the overly elaborate and complex recipes of most vegan cook books, and the frankly "weird" tastes of much vegetarian fare. Happily, Lynette Fleming and Susan Dudra have come to my rescue with their excellent Lunch Buddies.

Conceptually, the work is oriented towards middle-aged women (hello Jo) who long for a healthier lifestyle in face of the passive opposition of family and society (Big Mac anyone?). Fleming and Dudra offer just about everything they or I would need in this collection of quick and easy, but also clever and delicious, vegetarian recipes that are completely compatible with an American palate (no "weird" flavors or textures - but, on the other hand, let's remember that to the Chinese mashed potatoes are disgusting, so it is relative). Moreover, just about everything one could wish to know about the nutrition, ingredients, tools, and favors of vegetarian cooking is discussed in depth. The research and care with which this book was constructed is truly extraordinary, as is the writing itself, which is very accessible but also intelligent and thoughtful.

Even in the context of the dozens if not hundreds of cookbooks that have been published on vegetarian cuisine (many of which I have either borrowed or purchased only to discard in disappointment), Lunch Buddies stands out as genuinely excellent. It is clearly a work of love, and it shows. I cannot recommend this book more highly, and I can only hope that a second volume will be forthcoming. Don't let this one get by you; buy this book, you will not be disappointed!

For the last couple of years, I have been on a cooking kick where I have been trying to steer my family into healthier eating with lots of fresh vegetables and fresh fruits. When I received this copy for Christmas (from my grandma who knows how much I enjoy cooking!), I was really excited! I needed inspiration on how to make lunches much better for all of us ... and this book, not only does it have great recipes, it is informational on different types of vegetables and fruits, herbs and spices. I also enjoy reading the stories about Susan and Lynette, the authors and their families.

This book was created by two women who got tired of gaining weight because they go out to eat for lunch every day or when their fellow workers bring in foods high in calories for their potlucks. Together, they put their heads and came up with a challenge to "brown-bag it" and make their lunches (and dinners) healthier.

The authors have done their research. They not only experimented with different recipes, they also did a bit of historical research on different vegetables and herbs. They also included cute photos of them throughout the book, to make it more fun and personable to read. They include their favorite recipes, their comments about certain recipes and what their friends and relatives thought of their recipes. It is just a comfortable cookbook, almost as if your best friends are in the kitchen with you, talking with you about their favorite foods over a cup of hot tea.

I am definitely interested in trying out the Spaghetti With Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Peas, on page 204, the Wild Rice, Pine Nuts and Cranberries, on page 160, the Mushrooms Rice Bake on page 151, the Roasted Beets on page 223 and more. I never knew that you could eat the entire beet plant or the fennel plant. I learned quite a bit about more vegetables in this book than I would have in another book.

If you're in the market for a homey cookbook, I would definitely recommend this one. If you're a cookbook collector, you really should add this one to your collection because it is just one of the best ones out there ... it is inspirational and fun and the recipes are not time-consuming to make. If you're like me and trying to find better ways to feed yourself and your family, this book is a keeper. Even if you are content with your meat and potato diet, this book is still good to add to your collection because it provides variety for your diet. It just is simply a fun cookbook to own!

12/28/09