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Summary: This book has been my bible ever since I bought it!
Review: My review pertains to the version of the book that has 350 recipes. But I would assume that this version is a similar quality.This book has really been a great resource for me. My son (who is 3) has multiple food allergies (wheat, rye, corn, eggs, soy, dairy, chicken, foods in the night-shade family like potatoes, tomatoes, bell pepper....the list continues). It has been quite a nightmare to know what to get for him. And he also started developing sensitivities to the food that he ate all the time (oats, pork). When I got this book, I learnt about the rotation diet, about how one could get sensitive to foods if exposed to them for an extended period of time. It provided me with alternative foods, information about food groups (which is essential when planning a rotation diet), lots of alternative things to use instead of sugar (agave nectar, maple or date sugar), how to use alternative flours (amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, teff) which have all been so much help. I have been using the breakfast and better breads section extensively, and also the snack and dessert sections. With the range of allergies that my son has, those have been the hardest types of food to prepare. The main course sections have some good suggestions as well. I would highly recommend this book if you need to deal with multiple allergies and are at a loss as to where to start. I found the recipes in this book much better to use than the recipes from the Food Allergy Network, which is rather strange. The recipes from the FAN mostly had wheat flour in them, and provided no information on rotation diets, food groups or alternative flours. Some of the other books that I have bought are also not very strong in these areas. This book is particularly good if you have the type of allergies that I listed earlier. If you only have one or two of these allergies, perhaps you might find the recipes too esoteric and it might be unnecessary to go to such lengths as I have had to, to find the right food.
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Summary: Will always have a place in my kitchen
Review: This book needs to be in your kitchen if any of the following apply to you: · you are vegan, · someone in your family has food allergies, · you are vegetarian and want to include more vegan recipes in your diet, or · you enjoy baking but cringe at the amount of butter and sugar in most recipes Author Jones was diagnosed with food allergies in 1976. She defines a food "allergy" as the following experience: "eating a food causes you distress, or if you discover any clear cause-and-effect symptoms that are relieved by avoidance of specific foods." Her completely updated and revised cookbook includes over 350 recipes. Each is free of all common food allergens. No more getting halfway through a recipe only to realize that it would have been gluten-free if only you had used the other flour option. There are also chapters on ingredients that may be new to you, rotary diversified diets, keeping your home allergy-free, eating out, and helping children with allergies. Note that this is not a vegetarian cookbook. However, a majority of the recipes are vegan. There are 17 vegetarian main dishes, and several of these have become instant hits at my house. The Better Burgers are the greatest. For Thanksgiving, I served the Zesty Loaf for the first time and an hour later, the loaf was gone, and my sisters-in-law were begging for the recipe. We have also grown quite fond of the Fresh Apple Muffins. They will be going with us to our La Leche League meeting this month. And I'm willing to bet that none of them will be making the return trip home. The only recipe that hasn't turned out well was the Date Pecan Pie. Too much blackstrap molasses makes things taste like cough syrup. My only complaint with the book is that quite a few of the baked goods call for white buckwheat flour or a combination of flours. While the author explains how to grind whole buckwheat groats in the blender, I find that to be too time consuming. With a preschooler and baby around, I don't have time to grind my own flour. I have the same issue with the combination of flours used in some recipes. It takes extra time to get out and measure three different flours. However, as one who eats a vegan diet in the comfort of my own home, I have to say that I love allergy-free cookbooks: no dairy, no eggs, and all-natural sugars. As a fine example of a cookbook that fits this bill, The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook will always have a place in my kitchen.
--Reviewed by Virginia Delaney
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