Low-Carb Meals in Minutes

As a Type 2 diabetic who can only maintain any control over my blood sugars and weight through a strict low-carb regime, I had high hopes for this book. I hoped that it would provide me with inspirations for meals that would make low-carb life more palatable, and for meals that I could share with my non-diabetic husband.
WHOOPS. These recipes are NOT what I call low-carb. I would gain weight steadily if I ate from the plans in this book. I found one recipe with 46 grams of carbs per serving.
Unless you are someone who currently lives mostly on bread, cereals, fruit, soda, and desserts, this book will *not* help you reduce carbs more than a little. Shy away from it and read anything by Atkins.
What I recommend if youre a diabetic is Richard Bernsteins wonderful book, *Dr. Bernsteins Diabetes Solution*. I am sure that following the principles he outlines is adding years to my life - not to mention the ten pounds it has, initially, removed from my body.

I purchased this book to get me on the right and tasty path of low carb. I loved how the book has all-in-one meal recipes and the 14-day sample menu. I did notice that the carbs seem to be rather high for someone who is pursuing the very low carb weight loss induction period like myself and I am a bit disappointed that I cannot yet try some of the yummy-sounding recipes in the back two sections of the book.

The recipes in this book are not suitable for those on Atkins diet (with which I was able to lose over 30pct. of my weight in a year, then maintain the loss for five years ), nor for those who have substantial amounts of weight to lose. Gassenheimer, for example, makes it appear that one should be at a high carbohydrate intake (presumably, at goal weight) within six weeks, and the 75 grams of carbs allowed in the middle section are far beyond the level at which most could expect any significant weight loss. There are huge amounts of grains included - which are far from low carbohydrate, only high in fibre. Atkins dieters, and those on other truly low carb programmes, would not have grains on their ongoing weight loss menus at all.

One must use this book with discrimination, and not accept the authors statements as gospel, because they are heavily flavoured by varied sources. For example, regarding main dishes, the protein portions are far too small for most, and would prevent the appetite reduction that is critical for low carb dieting to be successful (unless one is seeking to lose very little.) The ingredients include many grains, and grain products are not suited for low carb dieters unless they are at maintenance level. Gassenheimer recommends all low-fat ingredients, and lists, for example, that one may have as many as four eggs a week, when truly low carb programmes have no such restrictions. In fact, for Atkins dieters, the low fat items can hinder weight loss.

The recipes are no worse than those in many low carb cookbooks, though they are hardly gourmet treats. But what is key is that dieters must consult the guidelines of the specific programme they follow, and by no means increase carb counts in such a short period if they wish to succeed.

This book is suited to those who want to drop perhaps five to ten pounds, with an approach that is low carb only by contrast with the ADA food pyramid, not in actuality. One could lose four to ten times as much weight on a truly low carb programme.

For an Atkins Nutritional Approach advocate, this recipe book is not terribly useful. Low carb to me means

really enjoyed the fact that the meals are arranged as complete meals. The shopping list is also a great organizational tool for me. It really takes all the guesswork out of eating low-carb.

I really like the fact that the recipes all yield 2 servings, as I only am cooking for my husband and myself. Since he is not following the low-carb diet as closely as I am, he eats the same things, but might have bread or pasta with his meal as well.

I have found all of the meals to be completely satisfying. In particular, in the Quick Start section, the turkey bundles, as well as the meatloaf with salsa. Very flavorful recipes. even my husband likes them (and hes a junk food addict).

I am really enjoying this cookbook. I have lost some weight, even though thats not my main focus. I feel like Im getting a lot more veggies, which is great.

My mother in law has tried every low carb diet out there, including the Zone and Atkins Diet. Yeah, shes lost a few pounds on each of them but wasnt able to keep them off. Im proud to say shes down 20 pounds, has kept them off for 3 months with this book, and has made many a dinner for her entire family that we all actually enjoy. Of course, she doesnt eat any other carbs during the day but for her one splurge day a week, but I think shes doing great, considering she has little willpower.

Lots of good recipies. Many main course dishes are low carb but most dont follow TRUE low carb like Adkins etc. If you want that buy another cookbook. If you want a low carb way of life this is probably the book.

As the author of a low-carb gourmet cookbook (The Gourmet Prescription. High Flavor Recipes for Lower Carbohydrate Diets), I welcome Linda Gassenheimers contribution to the world of low-carb cooking. Her no-nonsense, time-saving approach and dishes such as spicy roast beef and watercress wraps are certain to please many time-pressured, carb-conscious cooks. This definitely is the busy persons guide to low-carb meals.

44 grams for a salad and dressing, 54 grams for an omelet and oatmeal breakfast, 67 grams for a beef stir fry. The author must be joking. Ive been a low-carb dieter for a number of years following the Atkins lifestyle. Most of the recipes arent even close to being low carb and would exceed most peoples daily carb limit in a single meal, even for folks on lifetime maintenance. The recipes in this book are replete with sugars. bread, pasta, flour, high-carb fruits (pineapple, oranges), and even some low-fat ingredients which you would never find in true low-carb recipes. Its completely inaccurate - even shameful - for the author and publisher to market the recipes in this book as low-carb.

My wife, who does not follow a low carb diet, bought me this book for Christmas because she liked the recipes. No wonder. Ill be returning this book. I suggest that you dont waste your USDUSDUSD either. If youre looking for a good low-carb cookbook, try Back to Protein by Barbara Doyen. It has truly low-carb recipes that are easy to make, contain common ingredients and are delicious. I had the chicken with pecan cream sauce last night and it was to die for.

Im the type of person who buys cookbooks only to have them sit on a shelf. Lindas book is the best for ease, taste, creativity, and weight loss. I have lost five pounds and my husband fifteen, doing it the easy way, eating well. I believe I have been using the book for about a month. I wish she would write another book dealing only with low carb dinners. I dont spend time on breakfast and lunch. I like to keep these meals simple. Ive purchased this book for friends.

I dont believe she gets it. Low fat this, low fat that. This is supposed to be a low carb book. Most of the recipes are way over the carb limit that most low carbers can have. Most meals add up to more than I can have for the entire day, sometimes several days. Not worth the money.

Linda Gassenheimer was a guest on the TV food networks show Cooking Live, and seemed like such a nice person who started low-carb cooking for her husband whod been diagnosed with heart problems.

She does a terrific job in the book of outlining what low-carb means, the foods to include in ones diet and the foods to avoid, and grocery lists for low-carb staples.

The recipes are outstanding and simple. After trying out the menus out for a week, Ive already lost three pounds. Ive been on low-carb diets before, but it has never tasted this wonderful. Linda Gassenheimers background as a gourmet cook has made a low-carb diet not only effective, but eye-popping.

If youre on any kind of low (or lower) carbohydrate program this book is a total waste of your time and money. The average carb count for ONE MEAL is at least 10-15 grams (and thats on her lower carb program.) Multiply that by three, add something for snacks, and youll be well over your daily target.

The recipes are nothing extraordinary. Even if you cant cook, you dont need a cookbook to teach you how to make oatmeal (which shouldnt even BE in a low-carb cookbook) or how to combine cut-up kiwi and berries to make a Kiwi Jumble.

There are several other Low-Carb cookbooks out there that are much, much better. Try Lauris Low-Carb Cookbook or the Ultimate Low-Carb Diet Cookbook instead.

This one is definitely headed for the recycling or resale stack.

I follow the Zone diet, and Ive had a hard time finding tasty recipes (Dr. Sears may be a fine scientist, but a chef he is not). The Right Carbs section of Gassenheimers book follows the same 40-30-30 balanced approach as the Zone, and the lower- carbohydrate Which Carbs meal plans are easy to tweak into Zone-worthiness. Nutritional information for each meal is provided so you can make any necessary adjustments with little effort.

The book also helps you plan and shop efficiently, so you can literally make the meals in minutes, no kidding - I usually spend about 20 minutes making the dinners. Not bad for real food. After dinner it only takes a few minutes to pack our lunches for the next day. I used the shopping lists in the book to compile master lists for each 3 or 4 days of menus, so I always have all the ingredients fresh and on hand. No more worrying about what on Earth to make for dinner.

So far all the meals Ive tried have been at least good, and several have been fabulous. I would be proud to take many of these dishes to my gourmet-cooking club meetings.Even so, none have long lists of ingredients or require extraordinary cooking ability.

Depending on your personal situation, it may help you to know that.

1. If youre on an ultra-low-carb diet these meals may not fit into your plan.
2. Some of the ingredients are seasonal or might be hard to find if you live in a remote area. Substitutions are occasionally suggested by the author, and in other cases are obvious - if you cant get fresh figs, for example, substitute another fruit.
3. Some of the ingredients can be expensive - scallops, hearts of palm, radicchio - but you can make economical substitutions and still have a good meal.

Personally, I feel fortunate to have found a book that so suits my taste and lifestyle. I hope you also find it useful. Good Luck and Bon Appetit..

This is the best low carb book I have bought. I wish I had found it before most of the others, which I never use. I grew up in a house where cooking was not a big thing - so I actually dont know much about what flavours complement each other or how to whip things together. I also do not know how to stock a basic pantry and used to find myself running to the supermarket 4 or 5 times a week picking up items at random, trying to make a meal. This book tells me what to buy, and how much. I am not following the menus, but design my own, and I have saved plenty of time and money by following the buying guidelines for each meal.

This book is practical, saves me time, and is healthy. It is not about how to fry up bacon and melt cheese on top. It does not have recipes with ingredients like soy protein isolate or other unidentifiable items like whey protein, guar, xantham gum etc. They might not be unhealthy, but frankly, I dont know what they are, and it if takes me more than 30 seconds to locate at Safeway, I am not interested. This book focuses on real food, not substitutions for fake food. She doesnt show you how to make pretend chocolate cake out of soy protein and equal. They all taste gross anyway. This book has helped me to live in the real world, with real food, but moderating my intake of sugars and refined carbohydrates.

Laying it straight out is Low-Carb Meals in Minutes. Though being pushed by their marketing guys as a hot diet, it is a legitimate and tasty cookbook and planner.

A lot of the difficulty in diets is getting the infrastructure together. Youve got to buy the stuff, budget things, and then schedule your meal plans.

In Low-Carb Meals in Minutes, you still need to do your homework, but Gassenheimer lays in out in a sensible, easy-to-follow way. She teaches you how.

In fact, one of the first things youll see is a two-week menu plan to get you going.

I fully recommend this Low-Carb Meals in Minutes, but Id better stop writing. Her whisky pork chops would taste great about now.

While this is a pretty book with tempting pictures, the recipes are just not low carbohydrate. Just a short thumb through the recpies shows the following carb counts **per serving**. 66 grams. Winter Casserole Soup and Grilled Cinnamon Oranges, 47 grams. Cheese and Roasted Red-Pepper Stuffed Endive with Bran Cereal, and the list goes on. To be fair, there are some recipes with carb counts in the teens and twenties, but that is even too high for a person with high carbohydrate sensitivity. A second problem is that the recipes are way too fancy for every-day cooking. These are not staple-type recipes, but instead recipes for the gourmet cook wannabe. Im sure theres a place for this cookbook, but I wish I hadnt purchased it myself, as FOR ME it was a waste of money.

This book speaks to me as a carb lover who cant have very many any more. Now I dont feel deprived, and the recipes are so good that I feel like Im cheating. I, naturally, started at the back, looking to assuage my sweet tooth, and discovered Mocha Fudge Cake. (You can even eat both servings without doing damage.) But thats not all -- great tips about shopping (keep a cooler in your car for anytime shopping) and storing food (freeze parmesan cheese). The book is well-organized, and helps you add low levels of carbs gradually so that you dont ever get hungry. And say goodby to prolonged binges. If you have a bad day or week, you can easily go back to the quick start section and get back onto healthy eating without starving yourself. As a run and grab kind of person, I now have lists of healthy flavorful things to grab. I like the fact that Linda allows room for your own creativity by suggesting ways to substitute in many of her recipes. From quick snacks to quick start all the way to those excellent desserts, youll eat healthy without focusing on dieting.

Ive had this cookbook for a few months and love it. Ive lost 7 pounds (I wasnt actually overweight) while eating recipes from this book (mostly the middle section of moderately low carb) and thinking up my own recipes that match the formula I see being used in these recipes. My husband has lost 13 pounds, while eating some of this plus his usual fast food lunch and assorted junk. A very dediated friend has lost more than 40 pounds in 4 months eating 90pct. of her meals (or more) based on this book.

I would find it very difficult (and somewhat nauseating eating so much meat, as I used to be vegetarian) to eat these meals 3 meals a day. But Ive learned a lot from it. And the recipes are really good, tasty, great additions to my life-long meal planning. She offers ideas on substituting stuff you like, or find available, for stuff you dont/cant.

She goes out of her way to offer simple preparation -- i.e., please buy the prepackaged vegis. dont knock yourself out, or you wont stick with it.

One of the things I like about this book is that it offers entire meals, not just random recipes. This is a cookbook, not a diet book, but if you follow the meal plans, youll be on a largely Atkins-style diet. But youll be eating heart/healthy foods such as lean meats, vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy, and only a very small amount of processed carbs.

The book is divided into three sections, which largely match the phases of the Atkins diet. Youll see the people who criticize this book are all seeking nearly-no carb diets. If you want some wacky diet like that, this book isnt for you (though you could use the first 1/3 of the book). If you are seeking a more balanced way to dramatically lower processed carbs and improve blood sugar, while turning your diet to no-carbs and good carbs, here you go.

I love it.

When I read the first review, of this book posted here, I thought, this person doesnt get it. Linda Gassenheimer has created a very smart collection of recipes which she groups in three stages of a low-carb diet. The recipes in LOW-CARB MEALS IN MINUES are based on three separate 14-day menu plans for beginning, middle and advance low-carb lifestyles. Each recipe in the menu is part of a particular 14-day plan so that all fat intake is planned. You may get an individual recipe that seems to have more fat than it should, but Gassenheimer has compensated by offering recipes with less fat for breakfast or dinner. Most recipes found in such books as The Zone, Sugar Busters and Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, are not very appetizing. This books is the exception.

Im a cook so I want to good food and Ms. Gassenheimer, a Cordon-Bleu trained teacher, host of her own NPR food show and James Beard Award-winning author of DINNER IN MINUTES (based on her syndicated column) offers delicious, easy, quick and healthy recipes that the low-carb dieter can live with. Ever try to buy breakfast in a coffeshop or a take-out Most breakfast items are loaded with carbs--bagels, danish, cereals, bread, french toast, pancakes, waffles, hash brown potatoes--you name it--loaded with carbs. Gassenheimer takes the guess work out of this difficult to organize meal. There are even desserts to enjoy.

Some of my favorite whole meal recipes menus include. shrimp caesar with pears and yogurt, mussels mariniere with mesclun salad, pesto chicken with steamed artichokes and fresh figs, nuevo tex-mex layered salad, pecan ham roll-ups with cinnamon oatmeal, sirloin burger with fresh slaw, asian ginger salmon with sesame broccoli and yellow bean salad, sunny-side up swiss melt, and grilled potobello and canadian bacon omelette.

This is the recipe book us low-carb addicts have been waiting for.

If theres room on the shelf for only one low-carb cookbook, make it this one.

Book Description
The Zone, the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, Protein Power - todays hottest diets depend on one thing. cutting carbohydrates. But its tough to do so when youre eating on the go. Low-Carb Meals in Minutes gives the millions of people trying to eat healthier and lose weight exactly what they need. six weeks of complete low-carb meals that go from the cutting board to the table in no time. The book includes 126 menus divided into three sections, including *Quick Start. For the introductory period, when carbohydrates are reduced to jump-start weight loss and eliminate food cravings *Which Carbs. For the transition period, when carbohydrates are reintroduced *Right Carbs. For a permanent regimen, with a healthy balance of 30 percent protein, 30 percent fat, and 40 percent carbohydrate. In each section, recipes are provided for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. All are nutritionally well-balanced and low in saturated fat. Also included are easy-to-follow instructions, cooking tips, convenient shopping lists, and timesaving suggestions.