The 1500-Calorie-a-Day Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)Everything the first cookbook, The 1200-Calorie-a-Day Menu Cookbook : Quick and Easy Recipes for Delicious Low-fat Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts wanted to be and wasn't. Don't get me wrong; it was fine for its time. This book is just plain better.
Updated recipes with 9 or fewer ingredients and less reliability on fat-free, chemical-laden frankenfoods. (Although there are some!)
The entire meal takes less than 30 minutes--the whole menu complete on one page. Calorie count and other nutritional information provided for each recipe/menu including identifying menus higher in fiber, vitamins A & C, and calcium.
I made the Creamy Pumpkin Pie dip for our dance troupe hafla and it was a big hit! Nothing to take home.
She doesn't provide grocery lists. That will depend on what menus you choose. But, she does offer a brief nutritional introduction (just enough to keep your eyes from glazing over)and suggestions for what to do with leftovers. I'm all about freezing extra portions for later so I don't mind a recipe that serves 4-6.
Those who've read some of my other review will note that I'm a BIG fan of mix and match diet cookbooks. If I was going to buy a companion volume, I'd choose The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook


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Eat up. Slim down. It's just that easy--with just 1,500 delicious calories a day!

From the author of The 1,200-Calorie-a-Day MenuCookbook, comes all new recipes for when you are counting calories but don't want to sacrifice flavor, taste, or variety. While most low-calorie meal plans leave you hungry for more, this cookbook serves up a satisfying selection of energy-boosting breakfasts, fast-fix lunches, and delectable dinners--plus two healthy snacks and one guilt-free dessert--every single day! It'shard to believe it's just 1,500 calories.

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Dinner Survival: The Most Uncomplicated, Approachable Way to Get Dinner to Fit Your Life Review

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(More customer reviews)I really liked Sandi Richards' first book The Family Dinner Fix: Cooking for the Rushed and just knew that I had to have this one when it came out.
This book has 10 weeks of menus for 5 nights of the week. It only includes 5 evenings of meals because it is expected that one night you will dine out and perhaps another you will eat leftovers or have pizza. The meals are divided into color coded meals of green, blue, red, and yellow. What this symbolizes is the time it takes to prepare each meal so you decide when night you're having which color.
The red and yellow coded meals are designed to be ready in under 30 minutes with the red requiring less cutting and chopping. The green and blue coded meals are designed to have dinner ready in under 60 minutes, it allows for doing something else while dinner is cooking. The green means less cutting and chopping. So while dinner is cooking you could be helping the kids with homework, starting laundry, etc.
Each week has at least one of every color so you mix and match as your evening plans dictate. There are fabulous pictures and nutritional information with each recipe. Food exchanges are also included for those who need that info. Additional serving suggestions are provided to complete the dinner meal such as the addition of rolls, salad, side steamed vegetables, etc. This would be a great gift for someone who is new to cooking and dinner preparation. It really is an uncomplicated approach.
Grocery lists are also included so make sure and check out her website, www.cookingfortherushed.com it's a great supplement to the book. I would also suggest Getting Ya Through the Summer (cooking for the Rushed) if you can still find it.
I set my timer and made the Pecan-Crusted Salmon, sweet potato fries and broccoli per her timeline. This is a yellow coded 25 minute meal so I set the timer and started. It took me 31 minutes from start to finish. I think my delay was in reading and re-reading just to make sure I didn't miss a step. That is just my newness and inexperience with the recipe. I think her timelines are definitely within reason.
Her biggest suggestion is to have a menu prepared for the whole week ahead of time. So as you as you get home you know to start water boiling or turn the oven on, etc. Then you go change clothes while the water is boiling, oven is preheating vs. starting it after you've changed when you're more likely to say "let's just order pizza."
I highly recommend this book for those who need a jumpstart with dinner and getting meals in order. Family meals should be a priority and not an afterthought. Fast food is not a healthy, nutritious meal...this cookbook is. If you like this genre of cookbooks I would suggest The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner: Easy Family Meals for Every Day of the Week as well as The Candy Bar Cookbook.
For the publishers, the front cover of this cookbook does not do Ms. Richards justice. It looks too similar to her first cookbook and when I initially saw it I thought it was her first one, The Family Dinner Fix. This cover should not have included her picture and exact same pose as her first book. Regardless of that this one is a keeper.

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7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a woman "of a certain age" and married for 20+ years, I have been cooking for a long time. I admit, I am far from gourmet: I don't specialty shop; I don't watch the TV cooking shows or reality shows starring angry chefs and their desperate-to-please minions; glossy gourmet food and recipe magazines make me nervous.
I do have skills. I have one small shelf of cookbooks in my kitchen. I can cover the basics, having more or less successfully fed and nourished a healthy family of five for some time now. Culled from a 25-year-old, well-worn copy of the cooking classic: BETTY CROCKER'S COOKBOOK (1987), family magazines and, in more recent years, recipe searches on AllRecipes.com for the iPhone and iPad, I have compiled my very own cookbook: a mish-mash of photocopies, hand-written classics and typed recipes, all carefully preserved in plastic page protectors and haphazardly "filed" in a white, plastic-coated (easy wipe!), 3-ring binder.
However, having said all of that:
Even with my vast and very practical culinary knowledge and experience, I love, Love, LOVE Susan Nicholson's 7-DAY MENU PLANNER FOR DUMMIES! An instant new-NEW classic, this book should be a treasured kitchen bible for every man, woman or young adult trying to prepare and serve nutritious, delicious, affordable and do-able meals for a family, couple or even healthy meals for one.
Susan Nicholson is a registered dietitian and creator of the 7-Day Menu Planner newspaper column, featured in major newspapers and in online syndication, too. She is a culinary professional and a talented writer with a lot of experience and a great sense of humor, which makes 7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies more than just another cookbook.
7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies gives you a year's worth of weekly dinner idea and recipes that "take about 30 minutes to prepare, contain an average of 30 percent calories from fat, and use common ingredients to save time and money." It is a well-organized and simple roadmap for menu planning, offering great recipes, practical instruction and tips, and a very consistent weekly plan of coordinated dinners: Family Night; Kid's Night (not just for children!); Express Meal; Budget Night; Heat and Eat; Meatless Night; and Easy Entertaining. I love the fact that the week's meals are coordinated to use ingredients in common and a central philosophy of reduce, re-use, recycle and re-format throughout the week's plan. (Trust me, *not* repetitious, you will not get bored!)
7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies makes planning and preparing meals less of a chore and more simple, easy, quick, healthy and delicious. Whether you are an old pro in the kitchen or a culinary "noob" (as my kids say), make room on your cookbook shelf for a new classic!
-- Sherri Caldwell, Humor Columnist & Reviewer at RebelHousewife.com
Co-Author, The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!

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Flavorful, nutritious meals that can be prepared quickly, easily, and economically
7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies is the perfect book for any family looking for a structured, nutritional approach to daily meal planning. It contains over a year's worth of weekly dinner ideas and recipes that take an average of thirty minutes to prepare, contain an average of thirty percent calories from fat, and use common ingredients to save time and money.
Features budget-friendly family meals that are both quick and healthy
Dinner for each week of the night is associated with a theme—for example: Family Sunday, Kids Monday, Express Tuesday, Budget Wednesday, Heat and Eat Thursday, Meatless Friday, and Easy Entertaining Saturday

In this time of budget, time, and health consciousness, 7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies gives families just what they need to easily plan the right meals!

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