The first thing you need to know about Heather Houck
Reseck, the author of this book,
is that she’s a member of the Seventh Day Adventist
church. Not that it matters what religion your
cookbook author is, but I didn’t know this when I
started reading this guidebook and I was distracted by her talk about the Sabbath and going
to church until I realized what church she was talking
about.
She’s also a registered dietician and health
consultant dedicated to helping hurried families eat
healthy meals. Her book is big on shortcuts, from
mixes to slow cooking, marathon cooking sessions to
buying in bulk.
The book includes more than 100 pages on meal
planning, nutrition and quick cooking methods, while
the rest of the book features recipes for mixes,
breads, dishes with fruit, entrees, side dishes, bean
dishes, salads and food gifts.
All of the recipes include many variations so you can
get a lot of mileage out of this book just by trying
the same recipe in a different way. For instance, the
recipe for bean enchiladas is a delicious but pretty
standard bean, cheese and sauce situation that
initially calls for refried beans, but includes
variations that add brown rice, meatless burger, green
chilies, sautéed vegetables and extra spice or
exchanging the refried beans for black beans (which is
the way I tried it, and I would definitely do it
again).
Many of the recipes also include variations on how to
cook the meal, from using the microwave, oven or
stovetop to plugging in the slow cooker. There are
tons of hints, tips and techniques for cooking quick,
healthy meals that your family will love. If you want
to know how to use a slow cooker or a pressure cooker,
freeze meals for your family or get in and out of the
supermarket faster, you’ll find something of use in
this book.
This book provides a very solid education in planning
and eating vegetarian meals. Reseck is a little
obsessed with clever plays on words and acronyms, but
mostly these puns just serve to highlight her
enthusiasm in her topic.
Reseck says there are eight traits of great cooks:
they plan proactively, prepare nutritious food,
produce delicious food, preserve simplicity, prize
beauty, pursue timesaving strategies, practice
ingenuity and persevere at learning. With the help of
this book, you will build up a bunch of these traits,
becoming a better good and giving your family more
nutritious food in a flash.
Sarah E. White is a freelance writer and editor living
in Arkansas.
