500 Low-Carb Recipes: 500 Recipes from Snacks to Dessert, That the Whole Family Will Love

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Summary: Here's what I think about it...
Review: If you're into the whole low carb thing and are looking for recipes to keep you on track, then this is your book. I found it to be organized well and gladly give it 5 stars. Also recommend "The Multifidus Back Pain Solution" if you suffer from back pain.

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Summary: Fantastic practial recipes
Review: This book is a godsend for people wanting a low-carb lifestyle, but also need quick (family-friendly) recipes. I started the South Beach diet 2 months ago and I was longing for a more diverse set of recipes. The recipes are written clearly, use practical and easy to find ingredients and taste great. The Chicken with Artichokes and Red Peppers has become a family favorite and is easy to make after work. Dana Carpenter also gives you practical low-carb solutions for sugar-laden sauces (i.e. ketchup and teriyaki sauce). If you can only buy one low-carb cookbook, let this be the one.

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Summary: Is it for you?
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If you're into the whole low carb thing (which is fading fast), then this book will help you out a lot. It's chock full of recipes and the author has laid them all out pretty well so you can find things very easily. Readers interested in losing weight might also enjoy "The No-Beach, No-Zone, No-Nonsense Weight Loss Plan, A Pocket Guide To What Works."



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Summary: This is the "Joy of Cooking" for the low carb set!
Review: If you have changed to a low carb way of living, you may need to update your cookbook shelves. This is a grand choice for your treasured basic cookbook. It is diverse, and well tested. It covers lots of basics.

One shining example is her pumpkin pie with a pecan praline crust is good enough that when you bring the regular pastry crust pie, and the diet pie with the pecan praline crust, the diet pie is devoured by those who swear that they detest diet food.

She has some wonderful salad dressing recipes that lack all of the sugar that the commercially available dressings have.

For the people who still think that low carb is all bacon cheeseburgers, hold the bun, read all of her vegetable recipes. She can help people to reach out to vegetables that they have never tried.

Her cookbooks are always great to read for ideas. I may or may not prepare her recipe as it states, but it will inspire me, and give me ideas, and suggestions as to what I can do with what.

Her suggestions of what to do with steaks are wonderful. The woman does respect a piece of meat, but gives subtle tweaks to really bring out the flavor, rather than simply drowning it, or overwhelming it.

Most of the main dish foods in this book work quite well even if your whole family doesn't eat low carb. If some members of your family eat low carb, and some don't, you can always add starchy sides for the other family members, but let me warn you, once the family sees your "special food", they'll wonder why they have their plain vanilla side dishes, and will be grabbing for your food!

She is more respectful of the dietary decisions that low carbers make in her choices of ingredients. Many so called low carb cookbooks are still filled with empty starchy carbohydrates, like white flour. Dana takes the high road, without making weird ingredient substitutions unless she really has to. Her foods are really good because they are real foods.

If you have tried to get with a low carb way of life, and have had problems with boredom, his may be your tool. If you find yourself cheating, this may be your best hope. If you live with a low carber, cook up a few dishes from this, and show them how considerate, and gifted you are. If you bring her foods to any pot-luck event, nab some early, as her foods go fast.

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Summary: Best low carb cookbook I have seen
Review: As a confirmed 'low carber' for years now (and years after the constant ravenous hunger of the low fat route), I am delighted with the honesty and variety of this gem of a book. The introduction itself should be a primer for all new to the low carb way. Dana, who is not dealing with theories but the personal reality of 'low carbing,' provides a vivid and entertaining treatment of the value of low carb diets and the need to accept that one is 'low carb for life.' (I mention this, in particular, because there is a popular and dangerous assumption that 'low carb' is a temporary programme. No wonder that it is incorrectly thought to be a failure.)

The recipes, though not on a par with gourmet cooking, are superior to, and easier to prepare than, others I have seen in books for the low carb market. They do not require exotic, expensive ingredients in most cases, nor, as with some other books in this genre, are they a veiled advertisement for exclusive mixes and other products.

I am hoping Dana writes yet another book, and that there are a few additions. This book has a disproportionate amount of space devoted to snacks, desserts, and starters, where many of us low carbers have little need for these. I should like to see more main dishes - though a number are included, many are repetitious (numerous hamburger recipes, various Thai and Mexican variations, yet not one recipe for pork ribs, for example.) A number of the recipes are based on preparation for large groups (6-12), and are not easy to proportion for one or two people. The sauce recipes can be repetitious (for example, garlic butter and garlic bleu cheese steak spread), yet do not include variations on gravies to serve with roasts.

Overall, it is the most worthwhile low carb cookbook that I have seen.

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Summary: Great Low-Carb Recipes!
Review: This cookbook is great. I love to cook and these recipes are all fairly easy and quick. The only recipes that call for hard-to-find ingredients are the desserts, but the other recipes are amazing. My favorites so far are the mushrooms in sherry cream, spaghetti squash carbonara, chocolate mousse to die for, and kay's stuffed mushrooms, which were a hit even with my carb-eating friends and family.

I want to thank the author for telling me about a alternative to coffee that is absolutely delicious. Its caffeine-free and comes in 8 delicious flavors. Just google it under "s oyfee" to find it. Now after using a few recipes I am thrilled that they are good to eat and have tons of flavor.. well done!

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Summary: A "MUST" have for anyone planning to stay low carb
Review: My husband and I decided to go low carb 2 months ago. I am a diabetic and need to lose over 100 pounds. He only needs to lose 50 or so. My Dr. recomended the South Beach Diet. I bought the South Beach books, then, I found this book. I am amazed that low carb can taste so good, and not much time to prepare. I have tried MANY times to stick with low carb diets, I've never made it past 3 weeks. But with this book, I have stuck to it! I re stocked my pantry, and made a new menu using the recipes from a few of Dana's books. My sugars have been so good, I had to stop taking my medications (not recommended without Dr approval). If you are planning on staying with a low carb way of life, I recommend you get this book, AND USE IT! I've lost 31 pounds, and it's so easy for me to stick to it.. even for a carb addict like myself.

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Summary: This is "the Joy of Cooking" cookbook for lo-carbers
Review: I've been cooking low carb for my husband and me for over a year now, have read many, many low carb cookbooks, and have bought several. This is the book I look at first, and consider the "basics" cookbook. Quite a few recipes I don't need to look up any more--they're such favorites, I have them memorized. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants have healthy, tasty meals without all the starch and sugar.

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Summary: SOME WORDS OF CAUTION!
Review: When I first came upon this book I was excited about what it offered - a pretty sure fire way to lose some weight. My husband had been "low carbing it" for a couple of years but I had always been concerned about this way of eating.
I had been raised on more of a "Mediterranean" type of diet and didn't like the idea of eating a lot of meat. However, in the past few years I had been eating more processed foods and a lot of bakery items - and I do believe I had turned into a Carb "addict".
I was about 20 lbs over and by utilizing the book's principles, I lost 10 lbs in a couple of weeks. This was very rewarding, but I still didn't like depending on mostly meat for my protein. The author does have a short chapter on vegetarianism, but it is not really supported much in the book.
I've since done some further research and I now believe that one does NOT have to rely on meat for one's protein or to lose weight! A particularly enlightening and well written book is: THE NEW BECOMING VEGETARIAN by Vesanto Melina, MS, RD & Brenda Davis, RD. I believe it is well reviewed on Amazon. I've decided to be primarily vegetarian because of my love of animals and the very sad and disturbing way they are kept and killed. Even sea food, which I thought I'd eat, is well known now for the toxic elements, such a mercury.
I can't stress this point enough - ONE DOES NOT NEED MEAT FOR PROTEIN!
I have kept those 10 lbs off on my veggie diet, by not eating junk and simple carbs.
I was really surprised by this, I had assumed that I'd gain it all back.
Now I'm going for the next 10 lbs.
By the way, my husband has just been diagnosed with gout (extremely painful) in his fingers - which is due to the high amount of URIC ACID that eating large amounts of meat can produce.
He is now on my vegetarian diet, high in complex carbs, vegies, fruit, legumes, etc, and his gout is beginning to subside. I'm able to make wholesome desserts to satisfy my sweet tooth - a good cook book is: THE ESSENTIAL VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK by Diana Shaw - also available on Amazon.
You can verify this info on Google, don't take my word for it........

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Summary: Awesome book really is helping me make this a lifestyle!
Review: I have been low-carbing for almost two years now and have lost over 70 lbs. It has changed my life. But it was getting very OLD. I was having a lot of difficulty meshing my extremely limited grocery budget and my need to feed a family of five with my need to low carb and my desire for my family to also. Basically for the past two years I have been preparing an inexpensive meal for my family (you know, lots of rice, potatoes and pasta) while preparing something quick and easy for me (you know, hamburger patty, chicken and chef salad).

I knew I was going to have to do SOMETHING about this in order to truly make low-carbing a way of life for me. I happened upon Dana's book and flipped through it expecting a bunch of high-cost, hard-to-make recipes like all the other recipe books I've looked at (low carb or not). I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many inexpensive recipes in this book! Recipes that sounded really good. And on top of that there were many desert recipes. So I bought the book and brought it home with high hopes.

What I have discovered in the three weeks since purchasing the book is that there are over 30 - yes, I said THIRTY - low cost main dishes in this book....and so far there is not one I haven't liked. When I say low cost I mean LOW COST. Our grocery budget allows me to only purchase the cheap 5 lb. packages of hamburger meat and the cheap 10 lb. bags of chicken legs and thighs. Being limited to just those two kinds of meat can get pretty boring even if you're not low-carbing. But for the past three weeks we have used our cheap meat - along with Dana's book - to create some fabulous, enjoyable meals with VARIETY!!!

The best part is that the rest of my family has absolutely loved the recipes too!!!! So I'm getting my low-carb meals, my family is too, the recipes are easy to make, and they fit within my meager grocery budget. Can't ask for much more than that from a cookbook. A side benefit is that we've been trying - and enjoying - so many vegetables that I have never considered before because I just didn't know what to do with them.

As other reviewers have said, there are plenty of recipes in here for more costly fare - steak, shrimp, lobster, pork, lamb, etc., but if you've been wondering how in the world you can afford to stay on a low carb diet and not be bored to tears with your food, you really need this book. It has revitalized my commitment to this way of living. Now I know that I really can do this for the long term - and enjoy every bite!

I came here to write a review for this book because I couldn't find a website or email address for Dana Carpender to thank her. I do fully intend to write to her.