Review: LOOKS GOOD
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 18, 2013
Since my children have flown the coop I have eaten less meat and more veggies, paying attention to combinations that will create what I learned in my one Home Ec class was called a complete protein.There are 22 amino acids. Your body requires a combination of foods containing all 22 to make that complete protein. The simplest combos are peanut butter and bread, or beans and rice.Of course, all breads are not the same, nor are all beans or all rice. Some peanut butter has a lot of sugar, while others are like wallpaper paste.If you picked up this book, you probably already know the one most perfect food is a plain old chicken egg, though there's something I still don't understand. Check the label closely and you'll find many eggs are labeled  'unfertilized'.Can somebody explain how a chicken lays an egg without the help of a rooster? Guess I should look it up.You'll find a variety of salads in the book, with grains (couscous), seeds ( mostly sunflower), beans (including garbanzo, used in hummus),several types of nuts, fresh and dried fruit, garlic, and lots of other fresh herbs. When the recipe calls for parsley the author makes a point of specifying the flat leafed variety. You'll be glad to try it. Flat leaf parsley has a flavor that makes you wish the curly leafed stuff was never created.Garlic is easily grown in your home garden. In most cases you can plant the garlic you buy in the produce department. Only occasionally is it treated to prevent sprouting. The general rule is to plant in cool weather and harvest in the heat of the summer. Check the internet for the depth.Several other herbs, such as rosemary, chives, all types of mint are perennials. Plant them once and all you really need to do is cut them back or continue to use them. Strange as it seems, sage is a member of the mint family and like all other members has a square stem and is perennial. The odor is sure different.A friend of mine grows garlic. He said that once you plant it, you always have it. He must not cook much.The thing that sets this book apart are the number of recipes with grains, nuts, hyperlinks (small pickles), cucumbers and the occasional recipe with beets. Since my family had a large garden, I grew up with beets and enjoy them. Some people have never tried them.Combine the nuts and grains and you'll have a complete protein (in most cases); add twice as many veggies as you have protein, make sure you have a calcium source, maybe plain yogurt as a salad dressing, and a vitamin C source, like one of the citrus fruits, vitamins D and B complex...why am I planning your meal? You don't have to get all your vitamins at once, but you do need a protein at every meal !!Now educate yourself and go eat!