Customer Reviews

Zone-Perfect Meals in Minutes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

First of all - don't get me wrong: I am a big fan of the Zone diet, and a large part of the reason for that is it's relatively easy to understand and to integrate into my lifestyle without any really onerous sacrifices. I have even been able to concoct Zone-friendly foods that are acceptable to my 12-year old son, who is a somewhat finicky eater. So all kudos to Dr. Barry Sears, the creator of the Zone principles.

Furthermore, there is an obvious need for a Zone cookbook - As Barry Sears says in the introductory chapter, "The biggest complaint about the Zone Diet is that it takes too much time. No longer. If you follow a few simple rules and use the recipes provided in this book, it will now take you only minutes to enter the Zone."

Just one problem: the guy whom Sears hired to put together this recipe book, "Scott C. Lane, an exceptionally talented culinary expert who is also trained in the most advanced food technology," has apparently done all his cooking in a laboratory, and never prepared a thing in a home kitchen.

First off, because most of the recipes rely exclusively on the low-density carbs (vegetables & fruits), the resulting proportions are absolutely laughable. Ten of the 12 omelette recipes in the first 20 pages suggest making omelettes with 1/2 c. of egg white (I estimate you get a pan diameter of about 5 inches with that) and filling it with 6-8 cups of cooked vegetables - "spoon vegetables onto half of omelette; fold over and cook 2-3 additional minutes." Has Scott ever tried this? I'm thinkin' this "omelette" looks like a mountain of vegetables with a little white lace doily on top. One recipe (p. 35) calls for 1/2 c. egg whites, and (I kid you not), 2 oz chicken, 1.5 c. onions, 3 c. bean sprouts, 4 c. mushrooms and 10 c. spinach - a total of 19 cups of omelette fill. Yes, I know spinach reduces a lot in volume when you cook it, but come ON! Even without ANY of the spinach there are 9 cups of contents for the 1/2 c. of omelette wrap.

And that's just for one single portion!! I'm cooking for three every night. I guess Scott has access to an industrial kitchen with restaurant-size pots, but I don't have the storage space for vats big enough to make these recipes for my family! If I followed the recipe on p. 35 literally, I would need room to cook 3 x 19 c. = 57 c. of vegetables. Lord help me if we were the typical family of four - we'd be talking about 76 cups! A little impractical, don't you think?

The ridiculous thing is, these recipes didn't have to be so stupid. All you have to do is convert some of the low-density carbs into a small quantity of high-density carbs, like 1/4 c. of kidney beans or potato; and in fact, 2 of the 10 omelette recipes do just that. When I make one of the stir-fry recipes, I convert part of the pile of low-density carbs into 1/2 c. of brown rice or barley in the bottom of the bowl. Simple, obvious - inexplicably overlooked in this book.

Second, Scott obviously has good help in his kitchen. Many of his recipes require sauteing 1/2 the recipe in one pan, mixing the other half of the ingredients in a bowl, sauteing them in a second pan, then combining the two halves of the recipe. Scott, honey - get a clue from Kraft and Betty Crocker: people prefer to minimize the number of dishes they do after dinner. We don't all have kitchen assistants to clean up after us like you do.

Third, lots of his recipes have way too many ingredients (e.g., p. 83 - 18 ingredients) and far too much chopping, mincing and slicing thinly to be made speedily. And since that is supposedly the reason for this cookbook (remember the "Meals in Minutes" title)... one has to wonder what they're doing in here.

Finally, some of his seasoning is a bit "precious." For example, on p. 48 - 1/8 teaspoon of red wine. I don't think I've ever SEEN a 1/8 teaspoon measure, let alone would I bother to own one. And since that red wine, combined with 1/8 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, is supposed to flavor a full 10 cups of food, I'm skeptical it's even worth the trouble. On p.70, along with the hearty enhancements of garlic, Worcestershire sauce and celery salt, he "spices" the meal with 1 tblspn of "lemon- or lime-flavored spring water." Come on, Scott, it's a taco salad - let's go wild and make it full-strength lemon zest or juice! Granted, this is more of a minor annoyance than a major complaint, but it just reinforces the point that the recipe author is way out of touch with his readership here.

On the other hand, the recipes are marginally useful in getting a feel for how to work with the "block" balancing system. And ironically, the non-recipe chapters of the book are very useful - basically an abridged version of the detailed teachings from the original books. So for those two reasons, I'd give the book 2 stars overall - not useless, but certainly not nearly as good as it could have - and should have - been. I hope Dr. Sears will try again - perhaps this time in collaboration with someone like Good Housekeeping, where they know how to create recipes that actually work for today's busy lifestyles.

I'm a firm believer in the Zone way of eating but the recipes in this book are truly ridiculous. The book starts out with a good and basic explanation of the Zone principles however that's where its practicality ends. The recipes are all built on the same principle--veggies for carbs, lean meat or poultry for the protein, then throw in some nuts or oil for the fat. The only variety are the types of veggies and maybe the method of cooking. The "dessert" recipes, for example, are just different kinds of fruit on cottage cheese. Same with the breakfast recipes--I really don't need twenty different recipes for omlets spelled out for me. Simply reading the Zone explanation would give anyone enough knowledge to put together the kind of meals that are presented in this book. This book would only be valuable as a bare-bones introduction into the Zone and even for that purpose "40-30-30 Fat Burning Nutrition" by Gene & Joyce Daoust would be a much better choice.

I am no longer following the Zone diet, but when I was on it, I found this book to be very helpful.

There are enough recipes in this book that I could always find something that worked for me. I tended towards the simpler "snack" recipes, partly because some of the other ones did take more time to prepare.

I've also got a large family (at the time I had 4 children) so the recipes had to be increased a good bit for my family. Which wasn't a huge problem, but some of the meals were just too expensive to make for so many.

There are some great egg recipes in there, and very easy to fix snacks, and it's all thought out and balanced, which, of course, is a definite plus for staying in the Zone.

The recipes were very easy to follow and understand, even for a novice cook such as myself. I would recommend this book for anyone following this diet, and even for those who aren't, simply because it IS a sensible way to eat, and the recipes are easy and varied.

I think these recipes are good starting points for Zone-compliant meals you might actually want to eat. Sure, they're Zone-"perfect," but who wants to eat 5 cups of collard greens with no spices except some vinegar and the ubiquitous worcester sauce? Not me. I believe if you buy this book, follow the recipes, but reproportion the vegetables and add some spices, you'll have food that you actually want to eat and is still 95% Zone-compliant. But by themselves, these recipes are really hard to take without adjusting them. In the end, you're probably better off reading about the Zone, then modifying other "real-world" recipes to make them Zone-compliant. I do it.

I think this book is an excellent complement to Mastering the Zone. There are a great variety of delicious zone meals. I have begun using frozen vegetables to speed up cooking time and mixing up the sauces for increased dish variety. The snack ideas have also come in quite handy.

This book is not written for people who really enjoy the culinary arts. It basically is for the bachelor who doesn't want to be bothered making anything fancier than an omelette. Anyone with a family or anyone who has cooked extensively will be appalled by the suggestions in this book. Honestly, if just sticking to the diet is the primary objective, just eating a simple chicken, tofu, or fish dish with the appropriate amount of green veggies and fruit is more than adequate and ten times more delicious than some of the gruesome combinations in this book.
On the positive side, the book's layout is nice, especially the spiral binding which makes for easy reading while using. Too bad, that after making one too many of the catastrophic taste concoctions, I never used it again. Also handy are the Zone portion charts in the back of the book, but again these can be printed up in a fun format using the table function in Excel and mounted to the inside door of a cabinet for quick reference.
Overall this book is totally irrelevant and a waste of cash.

I faithfully made almost every dinner entree in this book, and most were not only bad, but inedible. The salmon with salsa on top of snow peas was an abomination.

I gave it one star for the one recipe that was good (taco salad). I recommend creating your own Zone recipes.

I am apparently in the minority here but I like this cookbook. I'm glad I didn't read the reviews before I bought it!!!

Yes, it calls for a ridiculously large amount of veggies (especially the dinners)but isn't that the point. You are suppose to be eating a large amount of fruits and veggies with a small amount of meat/fat. This is what the nutritionists have been telling us for years.

Quite frankly, after years of weight loss/weight gain I have discovered there are no shortcuts to eating well. There are very few convenience and fast foods that can be a regular part of a healthly, non-fattening diet.

My family and I found these recipes to be very tasteful. The spices add a lot to the flavor. I like the fact that the ingredients are combined. Plain grilled veggies on the side don't do much for me. When combined in these recipes they are much more palatable.

True, we often can't finish the portion sizes but that saves me the trouble of preparing lunch the next day.

As for the slicing and dicing...try buying frozen veggies or presliced veggies (mushrooms, onions, green beans). Also, When I chop onion or other standard veggies for a recipe I chop the whole thing and store in the fridge for the next meal. One thing I did note was that you tend to use the same veggies,. meat and spices over and over again so once you have them on hand it is very easy to throw together a meal.

Last, but not least, I do agree that it takes more that mere minutes to prepare these meals but on the whole not any more time than it would ordinarily to cook a meat and veggies from scratch. If you aren't cooking that way then you are probably using pre-packaged convenience foods that are not all that healthy or good for a weight loss diet.

I am a good cook, and just picked up this book after deciding to really DO the Zone diet. Both I and my husband ("the Audience") are delighted! The recipes we have tried are very tasty with large portions, and enough information is provided for me to improvise.

As with "Enter the Zone", the writing sounds like pure hype. I don't necessarily believe that the French follow this eating pattern, and frankly, MY (French) grandmother loved nothing in this world more than potatoes. Bottom line, however, is that if you are interested in what you CAN eat in the Zone, buy this book!

Although I liked the recipies the best, I especially liked the masterful way in which Barry lays out a game plan on eating habits and organizing daily meals. I was a nimrod when I began his program, but now have lost weight and gained confidence in my daily life through diet.