Food and Gifts! What would the holidays be without them? From the traditional dishes we prepare every year to the unusual and exotic specialty, from the highly frivolous gift to the perfect one matched exactly to the needs of the recipient, we strive to make the holidays wonderful by providing food and gifts for the people we love. One of the best ways to merge these holiday standbys is to give the gift of a cookbook. This is an especially thoughtful gift for family and friends with diabetes because they can use these books to take care of themselves all through the year. The variety represented here provides something for everyone and every style of cooking. Choose a book from any of these categories–dessert, fast and easy or specialty. Find the perfect gift for a loved one, or choose one for yourself so you can cook in a healthy, delicious way for everyone you serve.
Dessert
The cover of The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts, Decadent and Delicious Recipes for People with Diabetes makes you want to rush to the kitchen and whip up the Chocolate Drizzeled Peanut Butter Cakes or Raspberry-Brown Sugar Crumb Cake. These recipes sound so good! Each recipe has the serving size and exchanges, fat, calorie, cholesterol, sodium, dietary fiber, sugar and protein counts. There are cakes, quick breads, sweet pies, smart tarts, fruity desserts, custards and puddings, cookies and bars and a chapter of “pleasers from the freezer”.
Fast and Easy
Want to fix your dinner in a hurry? Try The 4-Ingredient Cookbook; Simple Quick,and Delicious Recipes Using Just Four Ingredients or Less! Full of easy to prepare breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks as well as time saving tips, tricks and techniques. Try the Toasted Pecan and Apple Salad, Salmon with Lemon-Thyme Slices, with the Hot Skillet Pineapple. This ADA cookbook has exchange lists, calorie, fat ,cholesterol sodium carbs, fiber and sugars and proteins as well as prep time and cooking time.
The 15 Minute Diabetic Meals cookbook has over 200 recipes that allow you to make healthy and tasty meals almost as fast as you can eat them! By taking advantage of widely available convenience items such as pre-cooked meat and poultry and grains and fresh or frozen pre cut produce,, you can make nutritious meals straight out of your freezer. The ingredient lists are short and use items that are easily stored in your cupboards and refrigerator. There are sections for Breakfasts, Lunches, Appetizers & Snacks, Side Salads, Meatless Entrees, Beef, Seafood, Poultry and Pork Entrees, Side dishes and Desserts. There are Exchange/Choices listed for each recipe as well as calorie, fat (both saturated and trans fat), cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, dietary fibers, sugars and protein. Try the Shrimp on Greens with Creamy Avocado-Buttermilk Dressing? Or Grilled Chicken with Asian-Ginger Sauce? Toasted Pecan and Brown Onion Rice? There are so many more delicious recipes!
New from the ADA- Fast and Flavorful, Great Diabetes Meals from Market to Table by Linda Gassenheimer, producer and host of Food, News and Views on NPR and the Miami Herald column “Dinner in Minutes”. The book features quickly prepared recipes for two, with shopping lists and preparation times for the recipes, as well as a list of calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugars, protein and exchange list. Of course, you can double or triple the recipes for more people. There are delicious recipes for soups, salads and entrees listed in sections featuring seafood, poultry, pork, beef, veal & lamb and vegetarian meals. Try the Marsala-Glazed Chicken with Roman Spinach with a preparation time of only 15 minutes! How about Mediterranean Steak with Minted Couscous or Pistachio Crusted Beef? Salmon Gazpacho?
Specialty
Are you looking for recipes that are quick, taste great and have a special flair? Try The NEW SOUL FOOD Cookbook for People with Diabetes. All recipes feature the ADA’s new nutrition guidelines, are easy on the budget and great for weight control! How about Seafood Creole or Daughn’s Jerk Fish from Mama’s Favorite Seafood section or a Corn Bread Casserole or Baked Pork Hawaiian, a simple Pork Roast or Easy Beef Casserole? There is information about reading food labels and about the tradition of African-American Cookery and how they relate to Diabetes. And then, to finish the meal, there are the desserts: Sweet Potato Pound Cake, Skillet Peach Upside-Down Cake or Strawberry Cream, and many more.
Feel like having a light, fresh meal? Corinne Trang’s ASIAN FLAVORS Diabetes Cookbook teaches how to prepare perfectly balanced, diabetes-friendly meals with easily found ingredients. Beautiful photographs and delicious recipes abound. There are Soups, Finger Foods, recipes for Rice, Noodles and Crepes, Vegetables, Seafood, Meat & Poultry and Sweets. Try the Coconut Curry Rice Noodle Soup with Chicken or Baked Vegetable Spring Rolls! Summer Peach Salad with Thai Basil, Grilled Beef in Grape Leaves or Grilled Lemon Grass Pork Chops..just a few of the tasty recipes in this jewel of a cookbook. Connie Trang has been called the “Julia Child of Asian Cuisine”.
Do you want to cook with fresh healthful ingredients? The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook is full of recipes that are health without sacrificing flavor. You’ll find Southern French-Style Herb-Roasted Turkey, Tunisian Fish Couscous, Valencian Seafood Paella and more than 40 other main dish recipes. There are dozens of first courses including Soups, Rice and Grains, Pasta and Couscous as well as simple and tasty side dishes and salads. In the dessert section you will find Nectarines with Mint Sugar, Date, Almond and Sesame Balls or Baked Egyptian Pumpkin Pudding along with many other exotic and delicious sweets.