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Summary: Try the Olive Soup
Review: This cookbook has a permanent place in my kitchen, if only for the miracle of olive soup.There is so much more, though. Her Cajun Skillet Shrimp, Heroin Wings and Kay's Crab Stuffed Mushrooms have become stardards in my home. There is real treasure to be found in the desserts, too. You might not find your ingredients in the baking aisle, but if you know where to look, your supermarket has them. The results are very much worth it. Try the Chocolate Mousse or the Cheesecake with fruit... If you're counting carbs, this is a simply terrific book to buy.
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Summary: GREAT recipes - easy and GOOD!
Review: This book was recommended by a friend, and he was RIGHT. I'm not the best cook, and I usually gravitate to cook books that have lots of color pictures. This book has NO pictures - but what it DOES have are lots of very easy, very tasty, very low carb recipes. I'm astounding all of my family and friends with dishes they prefer to higher carb versions. Did I mention I've lost 16 pounds and am NEVER hungry? I LOVE this book!
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Summary: Great low-carb cooking
Review: I have been using this cookbook for about three weeks. The recipes are both flavorful and easy to make. I would recommend this cookbook to anyone on a low carb diet; many who are not on a low carb diet would enjoy the recipes, as well.
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Summary: Some very good but some HORRIBLE recipes
Review: I think they tried a bit too hard to come up with a bunch of recipes. Some of them are great and the books is well worth the money but some of them are pretty bad. I think like many recipe books people try too hard to write tons of them instead of writing less recipes but make sure the ones are good. I think it is a good buy but not an awesome buy.
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Summary: Life-Saver
Review: This book is a life-saver. Dana Carpender tells it like it is. If you're gonna do the low-carb lifestyle, unless you are extremely well-off and can afford lots of specialty foods like low-carb bread, you need to cook! And this book helps you do it. There are lots of great ideas in here, folks! This book is very informative and a great companion to her book "How I Gave Up My Low-Fat Diet and Lost 40 Lbs." She starts out her cookbook with important information about ingredients and low-carbing in general. Of course she gives you the effective carb count in each serving, too. The only caveat, and the only reason I did not give it the full 5 stars, is that quite a few recipes seem to call for hard-to-find ingredients. That aside, I love this cookbook!
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Summary: on the low carb bandwagon
Review: Dana, my one question for you, is where in this book or your others, or even your website for that matter.....are the pictures of you 40 pounds heavier??!!
Jeez.....you and Dr. Phil....walk the walk!
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Summary: Fun recipes so you can make low-carb work fo ryou!
Review: This book isn't "How to pretend you're a Cordon Bleu Chef so you can sweat over every meal while trying to lose weight". It's a book written in a wonderfully no-nonsense style. Dana Carpender writes in a way that makes cooking approachable by anyone, and most especially to someone who is completed befuddled at how to make low-carb a successful life style choice, not just how to jump on the latest diet bandwagon. What makes low-carb a lot easier to manage is that you don't count calories. As Dr. Atkins wrote in "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" "... people who follow the Atkins Nutritional Approach may eat fewer calories than before, it certainly is not because the program limits calorite intake. People doing Atkins may end up eating fewer calories because they are generally less hungry and no longer obsessed with food" So, the point is that to make low-carb a healthy lifestyle choice you need help to overcome your obsessions with the wrong ways of dieting, like counting calories. That's where 500 Low Carb Recipes comes into play. Some of the ingredients may be a little tougher to find at mass-market groceries, but if you have a good chain like Whole Foods, you'll have no trouble finding these ingredients. Best of all, the recipes result in really tasty meals - the kind of food you'll enjoy eating and you won't feel like you're eating rabbit food and punishing yourself. I became addicted when I found the recipe for Oatmeal Cookies. Yeah, really! Low carb oatmeal cookies! If you just want to jump on the latest bandwagon, or want a book that does all your thinking for you - maybe this isn't for you. But once you've found how well low carb works for you, you need stimulation to make it a life style. That's what this book does for you. In the end, that's what makes the difference between yo-yo fad dieting and really successful weight management. Great job, Dana! You've made losers of us all ! <grin>
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Summary: The KEY To Doing Low Carb for LIFE!
Review: This book has been the key to my success with low carbing! When I first started LC, I was gung ho for the basics... I couldn't get enough scrambled eggs, steak, and cheeseburgers without the bun. I was in heaven! Soon, however, heaven turned into purgatory as I started dreaming about fruit and thinking about stealing candy from my own kids! Then Dana came to the rescue with this incredible book! Chocolate or sweets craving? She's got it covered and then some. Need something salty and crunchy? Check! Need an entree that will please your non low-carbing husband and kids but still keep you on target? You betcha. She's covered everything from soup to nuts, LITERALLY! If you're bored on any of the LC diets, then you need to get Dana's book RIGHT NOW. Then, if you're still bored, well... you just aren't paying attention!
DON'T miss the Heroin wings. If you *aren't* low-carbing, you'll wish you were after trying these tasty treats.
In short, get this book now and kiss the bunless hamburgers and strips of bacon goodbye and say hello to a whole new WORLD of food options! (Also, I need to express my annoyance with the very few people who have given this book a negative review simply for the fact that it revolves around a low carb way of eating. The title should be an excellent clue that the book is *about low carbing*. If you don't like or don't agree with low carbing, you should not write a review of a low carb cookbook. It's unfair to Ms. Carpender by providing people with your opinion about the diet, which they don't care about, rather than a fair review of her *book*, which is the purpose of these reviews. In my opinion, reviews that attack a diet without addressing Dana's book should be removed from Amazon's reviews.)
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Summary: Some big hits but also a few misses...
Review: This is a great resource if you're looking for good but unpretentious and easy-to-make low-carb fare. As others have mentioned, main dishes are Dana's strong point. They aren't gourmet but we've found many we'll make over and over again. So far, our favorites are the Noodleless Lasagne (try it w/ spinach!) and Chicken Artichoke Skillet. The Chicken Paprikash w/ Fauxtatoes, Heroin Wings, and Artichoke Mushroom Pork are also very good. Misses are mainly clustered in the dessert section, but then again it's understandably more difficult to develop low-carb desserts that taste "normal." We loved the Oatmeal Cookies, but the Peanut Butter Brownies (a recipe borrowed from Diana Lee) were awful, as was the Sunshine Cheesecake. Be aware--a number of items require somewhat obscure/expensive ingredients (i.e. soy powder, psyllium husks, etc.). Nonetheless, if you have a Whole Foods in your area, you should be able to find them with no problem. It's really impossible to make low-carb baked goods without some kind of substitute for regular flour, so any other reduced carb cookbook that includes breads, cookies, etc. is likely to present the same issue. Also, if you're looking to cut both carbs *and* fat, this may not be the choice for you. Many recipes call for heavy cream, butter and/or full-fat sour cream. Calorie counts are not included. Overall, this is easily the best low-carb cookbook I've found and with the above caveats in mind, I'd definitely recommend it.
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Summary: Gotta love Dana's food!
Review: Let me tell you all now - this girl knows how to cook!! I've had some of her food on more than one occasion, and it's just excellent. I am wanting to buy this book soon for my dad - he could use it! I'm also very proud to know Dana & her hubby Rick personally - two absolutely wonderful folk. She's a winner and so's her book - you can be too.
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