Product Description

For busy moms, getting dinner on the table night after night can be a challenge. So it’s no surprise that they often rely on fast food, takeout, and convenience meals like macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and fries. The kids love it, but the drawback is that little twinge of guilt moms feel every time they feed their family another marginally healthy meal. At the end of the day, many children end up with a poor diet high in sugar, saturated fat, and calories. . . a major factor in the rising rates of obesity.

High-profile dietitians Janice Bissex and Liz Weiss show fellow moms a better way. In their book, they offer realistic guidelines designed to give families a healthy meal makeover. The duo’s 5-Step Meal Makeover Plan begins with new advice on how to market good nutrition to kids, establish food rules, and make life easier in the kitchen. Their Best of the Bunch Chapter reveals which brands of kid convenience foods—hot dogs, frozen pizza, and more—are the best- tasting and most nutritious ones out there. They follow up with tips for stocking a healthy pantry, and then serve up 120 recipes for family favorites such as Fast-As-Boxed Macaroni and Cheese, Squishy Squash Lasagna, Cheesy Broccoli Soup, Sweet Potato Fries, and Chocolate Pudding with Toppers. All come complete with nutrition information and have been made over to be faster and more nutritious than the originals.

The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers tackles what’s wrong with today’s all-American diet and offers realistic and delicious ways to improve it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31755 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Released on: 2003-12-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780767914239
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
The unhealthiness of juvenile diets has generated new concern about excessive fast food and nutritionally suspect mass-produced meals in children's daily fare. Dieticians Bissex and Weiss have written The Moms' Guide to Meal Makeovers specifically to show just how to go about enhancing the nutritional value of everyday home cooking. Despite the title's somewhat sexist assumption (Are dads by nature uninvolved in, ignorant of, or averse to their offspring's good nutrition?), the book presents relatively simple ways of bettering recipes' nutrition by substituting lower-fat and lower-sodium ingredients and by always paying attention to labels. Each recipe has a table comparing fat, protein, carbohydrate, sodium, and fiber levels of both the standard and improved recipes. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

For the legions of harried moms who have tossed in the dishtowel on cooking healthy meals (or any meals!), the easiest-ever guide for bringing super nutrition back to the kitchen.

Getting dinner on the table night after night can be a challenge. So it?s no surprise that busy moms often rely on fast food, takeout, and convenience meals like macaroni & cheese, chicken nuggets, and fries. The kids love it but the drawback is that little twinge of guilt moms feel every time they feed their family another not-so-healthy meal. At the end of the day, many children end up with a poor diet high in sugar, saturated fat, and calories ? a major factor in the rising rates of obesity.

Finally, here are realistic guidelines designed to give families a healthy meal makeover.
The Moms lay out a 5-Step Meal Makeover Plan, explaining how to market good nutrition to kids, establish food rules, and make life easier in the kitchen.
In The Best of the Bunch chapter they reveal which brands of kid convenience foods?hot dogs, frozen pizza, and more?are the best tasting and most nutritious ones out there.
The Moms show how to stock a healthy pantry and whip up delicious anytime meals using pantry staples.
They even serve up 120 reworked recipes for family favorites such as Fast-as-Boxed Macaroni & Cheese, Squishy Squash Lasagna, Cheesy Broccoli Soup, Sweet Potato Fries, and Chocolate Pudding with Toppers.

About the Author
Liz Weiss, M.S., R.D., is an award-winning television journalist who has covered health and nutrition stories for PBS and CNN for more than a decade. Currently, she reports for CNN and is a contributing eidtor for Health magazine. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. Janice Newell Bissex, M.S., R.D. is a former dietitian for the U.S. Senate, and a sought-after speaker, spokesperson, and nutrition consultant for restaurants and food companies. She lives in Melrose, Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Great recipes and fast easy meals
These recipes are quick, easy, good, and best of all, a little more adventurous than your normal "family" cookbooks filled with chicken nuggets and pasta. I am not one to plan a week's meals ahead, and I love that I can open this book and find something great to make out of what I have on hand. I've made at least 15 of the recipes and every one was great. The prep time estimates seem to be pretty accurate. Our family in general likes things a little more spicy than most, so some recipes were a little bland but I just add a little more seasoning if that happens. I think they would probably be fine for most people, especially kids.

I think the authors are right on the mark with their advice on kids trying new foods, no "yuck!"s etc. Their philosophy is similar to our own house rules, and as a result my boys (3 and 7) are great eaters. I had the pleasure of meeting the authors at a bookstore signing, and I was very impressed with their knowledge, sensibility, and friendliness!

Skeptic: Convinced!!
I pride myself on being a pretty good cook, so the idea that a cookbook would contain recipes that were not only easy (being a working mom with five kids made that important), interesting to my children, and, compelling to myself and my partner seemed impossible. I really enjoy this cookbook. I have liked nearly every recipe I've tried--the kids have been much more open than I ever imagined--and some of the tips have already infiltrated their way into other meals. I appreciate the ease of preparation; I appreciate the range of foods suggested; I appreciate the graphics and side bars of the book. In other words, I am convinced. I really urge you to give this cookbook along with the authors' suggestions about changing your family's eating habits a try.

Not only for Moms and families
This is a great guide for tweaking your cooking and becoming aware of the many ways you can adjust your own recipies to add nutrition and flavor while cutting out sodium, processed foods, etc. Yes, the recipies themselves are different and tempting in their own right and are creative enough that you can serve them to anyone, not just children/teens. An excellent primer begins the book about how to gradually add nutrition and fiber to your diet over a period of weeks, so you don't have to feel on a "gung-ho" nutrition kick to make some meaningful changes. Includes fun recipes with titles such as "Sweet & Nutty Thai Thing" (a scaled-back/simplified pad thai), plus an entire chapter on one of my favorite subjects "Breakfast for Dinner". A helpful volume for any cook and most any occasion.