Review: Some simple, good gluten-free recipe ideas, but not all original or accurate
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2013
In 'Why to Read This Book' the author says that the recipes are 'healthy, super tasty, super easy to cook, and will help you lose weight'.  Sounded good, so I gave this book a try.Having dealt with gut-issues all my life with various diagnosis including ulcerative colitis, a gluten-free diet has been recommended to me more than once.  I find it tough to stay on the diet, but when I do eat gluten-free, I feel better overall.  I also lose weight on a gluten-free diet, but frankly that's probably due to the limitations of the diet and the fact that I don't find most of the gluten-free ready made products very tasty and usually quite expensive.That being said, this recipe book has some good ones, but they are not all original, and one included an ingredient 'egg noodles (optional)' that you can't even find in a gluten-free form!I think of this cookbook as more of a suggestion guide to gluten-free eating. Not a cookbook that should be seen as a solid, reliable source of original recipes.THE BOOK:Cooking time, Ingredients, and Method (how-to) are all very basic, and formatted poorly so they run together.Some recipes I tried, and liked...+ Bacon & Egg Breakfast, is a favorite with my daughter.  Basically you're baking the bacon around the egg in muffin tins.  Ingenious and fun!+ Christmas Cookies - basically a meringue cookie with chocolate and nuts. Yummy!+ Garlic Chicken Drumsticks - make the whole family happy!NOTE:  Certain ingredients like tapioca flour, Xanthan gum, potato starch, rice flour and quinoa will be new to those who are just starting a gluten-free diet, but they are staples that can be found at most health food stores.  These ingredients and others like raw honey, rice vinegar, fresh herbs, seafood (halibut, shrimp), and fresh veggies, can get expensive.In the Intro and Conclusion the author mentions 50 recipes, but the cover says '51'.  I didn't count, and the recipes are not numbered, so it's tough to tell, but this is really nit-picky stuff so it's simply an FYI.The mentioning of losing weight both in the Intro and Conclusion was a bit confusing to me, but I guess it's because I never thought of it being a real reason for people to eat gluten-free.I also don't think that a gluten-free diet boosts your health, as ideally we'd all eat a balanced diet with a full spectrum of foods - eliminating nothing and eating in moderation.  For those allergic to glutens, it's definitely healthier to eat gluten-free!IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED:The book would benefit from photos of the recipes, but if the recipes were not original, photos might be tough to come by I guess? A bit more detail in the recipe write ups, as well as more clearly defined sections within the book, would also be nice.The addition of a gluten-free foods list would be helpful, as would a list of herbs, spices, oils and grains to have on hand for all gluten-free recipes in the book.As mentioned by another reviewer - some recipes do appear on food related websites. I wouldn't mind this, if the sources had been mentioned in the book. But as it stands, I didn't see any mention of this in the book, nor references for these sources.  This made the author lose credibility with me, which was disappointing, even if the recipes are good ones.