Zacherys Blog

The Power of a Praying Parent Deluxe Edition Description:

This beautiful new padded hardcover edition of The Power of a Praying® Parent (more than 1,500,000 copies sold) will surely find a new home in the lives of Stormie Omartian’s worldwide audience.

After decades of raising her own children along with her husband, Michael, Stormie looks back at the trials and joys of parenting and the power found in praying for her kids. In 30 easy–to–read chapters, she shares from personal experience as to how parents can pray for their children’s

• safety
• character development
• school experiences
• marriage
• and so much more

Featured in this edition, Stormie’s grown–up children, Amanda and Christopher, reflect on the way their praying parents raised them—and what a difference it made.

Perfect for new moms and dads as well as those a little further along in the journey, The Power of a Praying® Parent is a must–have for anyone caring for a child.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4038 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780736922067
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews:

A book to get you through the day
Like the book says, If your child is 3 or 33 this book is so inspirational. Everyday when I read a chapter it speaks volumes to me regarding my child. My children are in their 20’s and 30’s.I wish I had had this book when my children were first born. The prayers at the end of each chapter are exactly what is on my heart. I highly recommend this book. I have ordered additional copies for new parents to give as gifts as well to parents who have older children.

great help
I just had my 2nd baby 3 months ago. My life as a stay home mom has been so stressful, chasing a toddler and caring for an infant. Plus, marital problems, which is now getting better. Thanks to prayers and counseling. The start of healing for my marital problems is that my husband and I agreed to have every Friday night our prayer night for our children using this book as a guide. I’m also reading The Power of a Praying Wife during my quite time (my baby “bjorned” mesmerized by her acrobatic older sister in the backyard) while I’m sipping by afternoon coffee and praying.

I had some clue on how to pray since I grew up as church goer, but I didn’t have any clue on how to really have a conversation with God. I think cause I didn’t have a good relationship with my dad — he was an absentee dad (blaming work). In my heart, there are so many things I want to chit chat about with God, but I just didn’t know how. We learn our ABCs in school, English 101 in college and all that stuff, but communication with God… it’s a skill I definitely need to improve. This book is wonderful. It’s a blessing. I highly recommend this book.

Practical Parenting
I have read this book many times as my child was growing up. It never occured to me to read it again when the trials of life came at age 18. It truly changed the way I prayed and helped me to realize that. even when I felt so out of control, the Holy Spirit was guiding my parenting. Thanks Stormie

All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking Description:

From the perfect pot roast to the fragrant complexity of braised endive, there’s no food more satisfying than a well-braised dish.

The art of braising comes down to us from the earliest days of cooking, when ingredients were enclosed in a heavy pot and buried in the hot embers of a dying fire until tender and bathed in a deliciously concentrated sauce. Today, braising remains as popular and as uncomplicated as ever. Molly Stevens’s All About Braising is a comprehensive guide to this versatile way of cooking, written to instruct a cook at any level. Everything you need to know is here, including:

• a thorough explanation of the principles of good braising with helpful advice on the best cuts of meat, the right choice of fish and vegetables, and the right pots
• 125 reliable, easy-to-follow recipes for meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables, ranging from quick-braised weeknight dishes to slow-cooked weekend braises
• planning tips to highlight the fact that braised foods taste just as good, if not even better, as leftovers
• a variety of enlightened wine suggestions for any size pocketbook with each recipe
• 16 color photographs, 50 line drawings

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5781 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393052305
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Customer Reviews:

This book’s James Beard and IACP Awards were well deserved!
This is one of the best cookbooks I’ve ever had. My collection is now up to about 300 cookbooks, and this one ranks right up at the top. The organization is fantastic. In terms of usability, it is also excellent. Each recipe has the hours it will take to cook along with the serving size right in front. The directions could not be any clearer. The recipe chapters are organized by food type - vegetables, seafood, poultry and game, beef, veal, pork, lamb.

The recipes are easy. The author explains not only how, but why each step is taken. The recipes we’ve tried have turned out GREAT and our guests have been very impressed with the dinners we’ve served from this book.

I especially appreciated the explanations of the different types of cookware at the beginning of the book. A lot of topics I had questions about she answers — types of meat cuts, braising vs. crock pot/slow cookers (she has about the same opinion of slow cookers as my Mom, who is another great cook - that it can be easy but generally has inferior results) and she has a nice resource section for purchasing items. I also liked the wine suggestions.

The photography is beautiful. This is a good book for both beginners and experienced cooks because it explains things in great detail and has the standard favorite recipes, but it also has a great selection of more unusual recipes that I’ve not seen in other cookbooks.

I’ll be giving lots of these as gifts at Christmas.

Excellent Book on Most Useful Cooking Technique
Braising is the quintessential French cooking technique, as typical of Western Europe as stir-frying is of the Far East. Molly Stevens has given us an excellent book `All About Braising’ which adheres to the very basic cooking principle that if you pay close attention to all the little details of good ingredients, your cooking will invariably improve. So, the book is almost as much about identifying and buying the best ingredients for braising as it is about braising itself.

The name `braising’, based on `brazier’ and heating on hot coals mislead me for years when I knew more about French than I did about cooking and before I started reading about cooking in earnest. I imagined it was a type of grilling when it’s only real connection to hot coals is the very old technique of placing coals on the top of Dutch Ovens cast with rimmed lids to accommodate the coals.

It is also easy to confuse braising with stewing. Braising is a very well-defined method characterized by browning a relatively large cut of protein or vegetable, followed by cooking over a low, all-around heat with liquid extending about 1/3 the way up the height of the primary ingredient. The braising container is tightly lidded so that vapor does not escape the cooking pot and designed to encourage condensation to drip back down on the braised food. Some braising vessels are also designed to leave little very little headroom between the primary ingredient and the lid. Stewing is a much less well defined technique which does not require a lid and is generally done with much more liquid and smaller pieces of food than a braise.

The list of classic `comfort food’ braised dishes is long and familiar to Western foodies, headed up by coq au vin, sauerbraten, braised lamb shanks, and osso bucco. And, these are just the headliners. Ms. Stevens gives us chapters on braising vegetables, seafood, poultry, beef, veal, pork, and lamb. I was not surprised to find recipes for braising vegetables as sauerkraut and other cabbage dishes are well-known braise ingredients, but I was surprised to find braises for fish and some veal cuts. Fish is great for all the fast cooking methods such as sautés, grills, broiling, and poaching. Overcooking is the most common danger with fin fish and shellfish cookery. But, the virtue of braising is that it is the premier cooking method for infusing a protein with flavor from the braising liquid and it is typically done at a relatively low temperature. That means that the principles behind poaching fish apply also to braises, in that you can cook fish to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit and keep it there almost indefinitely without its drying out.

As braising is a very clearly characterized cooking method with a long tradition behind it, it is not surprising that their many different cookpots have evolved to accommodate the method. Almost all of us foodies have an adequate arsenal of Dutch ovens made of either naked cast iron or the traditional French enameled cast iron. I am so in love with my Le Cruset enameled ironware, all my cast iron and Calphalon heavy aluminum ware is gathering dust. Most of us also have large lidded skillets, although I never thought of them as braising pots until I read this book. My fondest recent kitchenware discovery is the Le Cruset bistro pan in enameled cast iron. My two sizes acquired about two years ago are my most commonly used pots next to my 8-quart Dutch oven. Other pots commonly used for braises are braiser pans, typically of lined copper, buffet casseroles, gratin dishes (lidded with parchment paper or foil), and a Doufeu, a Dutch oven lookalike with a well in the lid to accommodate ice to help condense the cooking liquid in the braise.

If I were teaching cooking, I believe braising is the first technique I would teach, as it is evident from this book that the technique is very easy and it makes the very best use of less expensive cuts of meat. It is not a fast method, but it should be the method of choice when you need to feed a large family and you can be in the house while the dish is cooking. This does not mean there are no techniques you need to master, and the author explains the how and the why of braising better than anyone I have read to date, including my culinary hero, Alton Brown. The only little detail I have found unmentioned is the paradox braising shares with poaching in that if you overcook protein, even while sitting in liquid, all the fat and collagen will cook out of the meat fibers leaving it dry in the midst of water, stock, and wine. But, once you know the basics, braising strikes me as one of the very easiest techniques with which to improvise. As a long cooking method, the margin for error with the cooking time is very large and the risks are very small. The most common error will probably be nothing more than a somewhat too dry protein.

In spite of the fact that braising is a very easy technique, the author’s directions for the recipes in this book are detailed in the extreme. This is another reason this is an excellent text for beginning cooks. Nothing is left to the imagination. Not only are the instructions detailed and clear, they are labeled with the names of all the traditional braising steps, so if you have read the introductory material well, you will be reminded of why you are doing each step. The author clearly states that crock pot methods are basically braises, but the author does not discuss the method in detail, and it is good she does not, as the differences are sufficient to warrant your searching out a good slow cooker book for that subject.

An excellent book I highly recommend for your kitchen cookbook shelf.

Community Comfort Food
Coming together to eat from a communal pot a delicious meal with conversation, author Molly Stevens discovered was a significant part of her family and her life, thus this wonderful book.

On top of all this, the wonderful aromas generated over the hours of sumptuous, slow cooking provide additional blessings of braising meals. Her inspiration came from all over the globe, from informal to classic recipes.

Find, experiment and find wonderful culinary community experiences in this collection. I have already with the following: Pork Riblets in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce; Country-Style Pork Ribs Braised with Mango, Lime & Coconut; Osso Buco all Milanese; Short Ribs Braised in Porter Ale with Maple-Rosemary Glaze; Chicken Do-Piaza (Indian Spiced Chicken Smothered in Onions); Tuna Pot Roast with Tomato, Basil & Capers; Creamy Braised Brussels Sprouts; The Simplest Potato & Leeks Braise.

With each delectable recipe comes great, thorough instructions, as well as wine/drink recommendations. Additionaly, there is frequent sidebar discussion on technique, ingredient, e.g. “using banana leaves.” An excellent source listing as well as fantastic “An Opinionated Pantry.”

This is large (421 pg.) resource that is easy and fun to use and will bring great response from your diners.

Amazon.com Review
Braising–cooking food slowly and at low temperatures in a closed pot with a little liquid–produces deeply flavorful food. Molly Stevens’s All About Braising is a definitive exploration of this soul-satisfying approach to food. With 125 simple recipes for braises of all kinds–from meat and poultry through seafood and vegetables, plus a thorough anatomy of technique (Stevens explores oven versus stovetop braising, for example)–the book will please cooks at every skill level. Most importantly, perhaps, it will send them to the kitchen to prepare enticing dishes such as Braised Endive with Prosciutto, Whole Chicken Braised with Pears and Rosemary, Duck Ragu with Pasta, and Veal Shoulder Braised with Figs & Sherry. Braises can also taste as good or better the next day, and Stevens supplies advice for second-day service. Included, too, is an “Opinionated Pantry” which, besides exploring relevant ingredients, expresses Stevens’s ongoing commitment to using only the best and freshest available.

Throughout, Stevens’s offers sensible, rewarding counsel. “If it comes down to a matter of cooking or not cooking dinner for your family,” she says, “I recommend buying commercially raised chicken [as opposed to locally produced or other naturally raised poultry]. Make a satisfying home cooked meal, and sit down and enjoy it with your family.” In other words, Stevens is wise. “The act of cooking on a regular basis will make you a better cook,” she concludes, “and will improve the quality of your life and of those around you.” –Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
Cuisines as diverse as Vietnamese, Moroccan, Italian, British and American all use braising; the technique can be a means to cook everything from vegetables to pork belly. Stevens, a Fine Cooking contributing editor, says that braising is simply “tucking a few ingredients into a heavy pot with a bit of liquid, covering the pot tightly and letting everything simmer peacefully until tender and intensely flavored.” With the help of appetite-inducing photos of Vietnamese Braised Scallops, and Braised Endive with Prosciutto, Stevens illustrates just how exciting a braise can be. “Braising,” she clarifies, “is a building process. The cook adds layer upon layer of flavor, nuance, and character to a dish at each stage.” Although braising is a relatively simple cooking method, Stevens takes her time explaining it, drawing on food science to explain not just how, but why (for example, “Give food plenty of space,” because “If the pan is too crowded… the released moisture can’t escape and will cause the meat to steam, not brown”). Aside from Stevens’s sometimes superfluous prose and ho-hum anecdotes, the book contains interesting tasting notes and cultural information, and Stevens’s lengthy instructions will be particularly valuable to beginners. Photos, line drawings.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
A great book, one that everyone who’s interested in cooking should take time to read, and more importantly, to use. — Ari Weinzweig, founding partner, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, and author of Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating

Filled with friendly advice, inspired insights, and great recipes, it will make you a better cook. — Judy Rodgers, author of The Zuni Café Cookbook

I know that All About Braising will become a treasure in my own kitchen. — Anne Willan, founder, Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne

So welcome after the plethora of books on how to cook everything in 5 minutes. — Diana Kennedy, author of From My Mexican Kitchen and The Essential Cuisines of Mexico

Stevens smashes the braising barrier and proves that she is a gifted technician as well as a world class teacher. — Alton Brown, host of Good Eats on the Food Network

The clearest directions I’ve ever read thread the way with ease to perfect braises, those most succulent of dishes. — Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

The Best Life Diet Cookbook: More than 175 Delicious, Convenient, Family-Friendly Recipes Description:

A good meal is one of life’s great pleasures, but we all know that it can be difficult to choose foods that make us happy and keep us healthy. In his New York Times bestselling book The Best Life Diet, Bob Greene showed more than a million people that you can lose weight and eat delicious food. Now, in The Best Life Diet Cookbook he provides more than 175 recipes that taste as good as they are good for you.

With recipes like Flank Steak with Potatoes and Garlic and Sweet-and-Sour Stuffed Chicken, it isn’t hard to eat well while shedding pounds. Slimmed-down comfort foods like Sweet Potato with Turkey Hash and Beef Stew with Winter Root Vegetables make family dinners satisfying and healthful. Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Oranges and Pistachios comes together in a snap. Or try one of the recipes contributed by world-class chefs like Charlie Trotter or Suzanne Goin, adapted to fit the Best Life guidelines. Craving something sweet? You won’t believe that Pear and Banana Crisp and Apple Pie with Oatmeal Crust are low in fat and calories.

Also included are three sets of two-week meal plans: The Quick and Easy Plan for when you’re most time-pressed; The Family-Friendly Plan with meals to satisfy the whole gang; and The Kitchen Connoisseur Plan for those looking for more of a challenge in the kitchen. Whether you’re trying to drop some pounds or simply want to maintain your weight, these plans do all the calorie-calculating for you.

The Best Life Diet Cookbook is full of useful shopping tips and culinary information. Illustrated with dozens of beautiful black-and-white and color photographs, it is a book you will turn to again and again.

Bob Greene firmly believes that every meal should be a celebration both of the pleasures of food and your commitment to living your best possible life, and with The Best Life Diet Cookbook, you can reclaim your joy of eating and live the life you deserve.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59000 in eBooks
• Published on: 2008-12-30
• Released on: 2008-12-30
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

Customer Reviews:

Healthy food, healthy life
Best-life advocate Bob Greene positions the ideas in this cookbook as a “gift that you give to yourself and your loved ones.” Home-cooked meals made from fresh, natural ingredients will make you feel better, live longer and bond with your family and friends. Makes sense to me. And if you just want to cook yummy foods, these dishes are delicious.

They are also nutritious, and all the details for each serving are at the end of each recipe: calories, protein, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugar, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, calcium and sodium.

Easy-to-follow meal plans are broken down into three sections. Quick and Easy meals take no more than 20 minutes to prepare, Kitchen Connoisseur choices are a little more adventurous, and Family-Friendly meals offer healthy versions of family favorites. Each meal plan has six calorie levels: 1,500, 1,600, 1,700, 1,800, 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day.

Although most of the recipes are geared to busy families with little time to spend in the kitchen, there is a whole chapter of wonderful, healthy dishes from accomplished chefs. These recipes may take a little longer than the 30 minutes or so the other recipes require to prepare. Some of the chefs participating include Mollie Ahlstrand of Trattoria Mollie, Dan Barber of Blue Hill, Sarma Melngailis of Pure Food and Wine, Charlie Trotter of Charlie Trotter’s and Roy Yamaguchi of the 35 Roy’s Restaurants around the world. Ahlstrand’s Zuppa di Pomodoro is a flavorful take on tomato soup that uses garlic, brandy, rosemary and orange juice.

In the back is a handy Techniques tutorial showing how to roast garlic, toast nuts, section citrus, clarify butter and the like.

Other good choices for healthy cookbooks include Deceptively Delicious, Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World and The Most Decadent Diet Ever.

The Eat This Not That! series is also excellent.

Here’s the chapter list:
1. Introduction
2. Recipes
3. Breakfast
4. Soups
5. Salads
6. Sandwiches, Wraps and Crispbreads
7. Entrees: Meat, Poultry, Seafood, Vegetarian
8. Side Dishes: Grains, Vegetables
9. Calcium-Rich Snacks
10. Desserts
11. Best-Life Recipes from World-Class Chefs
12. Meal Plans
13. Basic Recipes
14. Techniques

Best Maybe But Maybe Too Exotic
Buffalo with Blackberries, anyone? Quinoa Granola? How about Salad of Riesling-Poached Tokyo Turnips with Brussels Sprouts, Pickled French Laundry Garden Onion, and Toasted Mustard Seed Emulsion? Bob Greene’s “The Best Life Diet Cookbook”, designed to be used in tandem with his wildly popular “The Best Life Diet” has the best and healthiest of intentions, but isn’t a terribly great resource for anyone short on time or money or with a family of potentially picky little ones–in other words, a good portion of the population. Greene’s philosophy of cooking and eating is a solid one; he firmly believes that “eating is meant to be one of life’s great pleasures,” and that “many of us have lost that special connection with the experience of eating….” The purpose of this books is to help readers “reclaim the experience of eating as a celebration by sitting down to enjoy these high-quality, delicious dishes without overdoing it.” So far, so good.

The recipes, however, split into ten different categories that include Breakfast, Entrees, Side Dishes, and Desserts, overwhelmingly seem geared towards the young, the hip, and the unencumbered, not the average workaday American with 2.5 kids. While there may be a silent majority of working families who are beside themselves with joy to come home from a hard day at work to partake of Tofu Mushroom Scramble on a Whole Wheat Tortilla or Baked Eggplant with Ground Beef, they certainly keep themselves well hidden. And, even if Duck with Plums or Broiled Mahimahi with Grapes and Leeks seems like a winner, the price of the ingredients can often prove prohibitive in these days of the not-so-great economy.

Greene does acknowledge that different Best Life Dieters have different needs, and two of the three two-week full meal plans he includes in the back of the book, the Quick and Easy Meal Plan and the Family-Friendly Plan (the third is the Kitchen Connoisseur plan), are geared for the busy and the child-overwhelmed. The Family-Friendly Plan incorporates favorites like Sloppy Joes and Shepherd’s Pie, but leaves the reader wondering why a person would purchase a book containing chiefly recipes of the Cauliflower Curry with Red Lentils variety if they are planning on cooking the Chicken Noodle soup.

That said, there is no doubt that Greene’s recipes are nutritious, low-calorie, palate-expanding, and a real find for devoted food enthusiasts looking to expand their kitchen repertoire.

His first book is better
As other reviewers have mentioned, many of these recipes contain ingredients that are costly and fit a more exotic palate. His book, The Best Life Diet, contains many more “family-friendly” recipes and snack ideas. In my opinion, that book is a much better resource for planning and preparing meals to fit Bob’s Best Life Diet plan.

About the Author
Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism, and weight loss. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Arizona and is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Council on Exercise. For the past seventeen years he has worked with clients and consulted on the design and management of fitness, spa, and sports medicine programs. Bob has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He is also a contributing writer and editor for O the Oprah magazine, and writes articles on health and fitness for Oprah.com. Greene is the bestselling author of The Best Life Diet Cookbook, The Best Life Diet, Revised and Updated, The Best Life Diet, The Best Life Diet Daily Journal, The Total Body Makeover, Get With the Program!, The Get With the Program! Daily Journal, The Get With the Program! Guide to Good Eating, and Make the Connection.

John J. Merendino Jr., M.D. is a graduate of Yale Medical School. He did his internship and residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and his endocrine training at the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Merendino is board-certified in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the George Washington Univeristy School of Medicine, has published scientific papers in major medical journals, and has 20 years of experience in caring for people with diabetes. 

Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., is the lead nutritionist for thebestlife.com, Bob Greene’s weight loss and fitness website.  She is also a contributing editor for Self Magazine and freelances for other national magazines. Her latest books are The Supermarket Diet and The Supermarket Diet Cookbook.  In her private practice, she specializes in weight loss and eating disorders.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

Eating is meant to be one of life’s great pleasures. The simple act of sitting down to a meal can bring us joy, satisfaction, and, of course, nourishment; in a word, fulfillment — both physical and emotional. Just think of the many memorable events in your life: sharing an intimate, romantic dinner with your partner, toasting a job promotion with friends, celebrating your child’s first birthday, or one of the many special holidays you’ve spent with family. You may or may not remember the delicious food you enjoyed on these occasions, but I’m willing to bet that you remember the moment, the ritual of eating with friends and family, the joy of sharing these events with your loved ones. Simply put, the pleasure of eating and the bonding experience of a meal shared with others is a truly gratifying experience, one that enriches and improves our lives.

Unfortunately, so many of us have lost that special connection with the experience of eating. The reality is that our busy schedules have prevented us from savoring the act of sitting down to a meal, whether it’s just yourself or with those you care about. As a result, many of us have fallen into the trap of trying to satisfy the need for emotional fulfillment that once may have come from dining with friends and family by focusing on the quantity of food and eating more than we probably need or is healthy. That’s where this cookbook can help: you can reclaim the experience of eating as a celebration by sitting down to enjoy these high-quality, delicious dishes without overdoing it. This book contains more than just recipes, though. You’ll also find a few different two-week meal plans, all of which incorporate these delicious recipes into a day’s worth of eating to ensure that you get all the nutrients you need and the right amount of calories.

I hope that you’ll come to think of eating healthy, home-cooked meals made from the freshest, most natural ingredients as a gift that you give to yourself and your loved ones. This may require you to reconsider cooking a bit; I encourage you to try to think of whipping up a nutritious meal not as just another task you have to do at the end of a busy day, but as a ritual that provides important vitamins and minerals, promotes good health, and gives you a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with your family. Nourishing yourself and your loved ones, especially with great, healthy foods, is simply one of the most effective ways to satisfy the body and soul.

To me, that’s what eating is all about, and I’m challenging you to make an effort to embrace that experience, to stock your refrigerator with healthy foods, to make your kitchen a special place where friends and family gather, and to sit down and enjoy meals once again! This cookbook can help you make all of these things a reality and, in turn, improve the quality of your health and perhaps even your relationships.

I know that many people just don’t have a lot of extra time to cook a meal, and I took that into consideration when choosing the dishes to include in this book. Sure, there are some recipes that will challenge your skills in the kitchen; in fact, there’s a whole section devoted to recipes from some of the greatest chefs from across the world. But the majority of the recipes here take just 30 minutes or less, and they include ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen or can easily find at your local grocery store. The perfect example is Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Oranges and Pistachios (page 77). It’s so easy to pull together and takes just 20 minutes to make because you’re starting with an already cooked chicken from your local supermarket. Plus, it offers a new way to serve a familiar dish: instead of pairing the chicken with the same old side dishes, you’re creating a beautiful salad with juicy oranges and crunchy pistachios. And there are many more recipes just like this one!

This cookbook will help you get back on track in the kitchen, and still leave you with plenty of time to get through everything on your to-do list. But I know that time isn’t your only concern when it comes to eating; many of us have also become very calorie-conscious. For those of you who are trying to maintain your weight or slim down, these recipes will also help you focus on the quality of your food instead of the quantity. When you use fresh, high-quality foods, you won’t have to eat as much to get that taste payoff. You’ll be satisfied with less food, which means you’ll consume fewer calories each time you sit down to eat. If you’re looking for another way to keep your calories in check, you might be interested in our meal plans, which start on page 269. We’ve created three different plans, each of which offers six calorie levels (1,500, 1,600, 1,700, 1,800, 2,000, and 2,500 calories per day; as you know, calorie needs vary per person, and should be determined by how active you are and a variety of other factors). Putting together a perfectly balanced diet that provides all the vitamins and minerals you need each day without going over a certain calorie limit is like solving a complex puzzle. Don’t worry: we’ve taken all the guesswork out of it with these meal plans.

Here’s a quick preview of the meal plan options you can choose from. If you’re really time-pressed, the “Quick and Easy” Meal Plan (page 293) will be a dream come true. This plan doesn’t require a lot of cooking, and all the recipes in this section take no more than 20 minutes to prepare. On a typical day you’ll have yogurt, fruit, and nuts for breakfast, a chicken wrap for lunch, and Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish with Spicy Slaw (page 145) for dinner (another 20-minute recipe).

If you have more time to spend in the kitchen, check out the “Kitchen Connoisseur” Plan (page 272). While still relying on quickly prepared recipes, this plan has you spending just a little more time in the kitchen, and includes more adventurous recipes. Wednesday of Week 2 is typical: homemade muesli for breakfast, lunch (made in 10 minutes) is Shrimp, Avocado, and Sesame Seed Salad (page 74) and dinner is Vegetarian Baked Beans on Grits (page 158).

Cooking for a family? You’ll love the “Family-Friendly” Plan (page 315), which uses recipes from this book that kids (and picky partners) can all enjoy. No one will turn up their nose at Ginger Waffles, Chicken Noodle Soup, Taco Salad, Cottage Pie (based on beef and potatoes), and other healthy versions of family favorites. In fact, don’t be surprised if foods that weren’t all that well liked by your family soon become welcome dishes. Take the Broccoli, White Bean, and Leek Tart (page 152) as an example. You may be thinking that your family doesn’t eat white beans or broccoli, but when you put them into a creamy tart, they will not only eat these healthy foods but they’ll actually like them! In terms of time, this plan falls somewhere between the “Quick and Easy” and the “Kitchen Connoisseur” plans. You don’t have to follow the meal plans to the letter, of course. You can simply browse the section for recipes that will go over big at your dinner table.

No matter which plan you choose, you can be confident that you’ll be getting all the nutrients you need. Each meal has been composed to ensure that you get the perfect balance of fat, carbs, and protein, and the plans are rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Why is this so important? Often, when someone fills up on empty calories (like a mound of French fries) or even has a relatively healthy dish that’s missing a satisfying element, such as a whole grain roll, brown rice, or other complex carbohydrate, they tend to be more prone to grazing or snacking throughout the day. The end result: they take in more calories. These meals, on the other hand, will keep you satisfied and full, and will therefore help you cut your calorie intake. (Not to mention that these recipes also fit perfectly into the Best Life plan, a three-phased program to help you lose weight and live healthier. To learn more about the program, check out the revised and updated edition of The Best Life Diet [Simon & Schuster, 2009] or the companion Web site, www.thebestlife.com.)

This cookbook also includes an interesting mix of recipes. You’ll notice a number of familiar classics (think chili and roasted potatoes), as well as comfort food with a healthy twist so you can enjoy these dishes every day, if you wish. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results. For example, if you didn’t know better, you’d think the Steel-Cut Oats “Polenta” (page 167) was a real splurge. But the recipe, which combines sage and oats to create a savory side dish with a crispy exterior and soft, indulgent interior, is high in fiber and uses no cream or butter. Basically, these dishes offer incredible flavor, but they’re better for you! And we’ve also created fresh, new dishes by pairing basic ingredients that you may never have thought to combine. The Broiled Mahimahi with Grapes and Leeks (page 143) is the perfect example. You’ve probably never considered combining grapes and leeks, but the result is amazing; there’s no need to add extra salt, butter, or cream. That means you can keep your intake of sodium and saturated fat down while enjoying fabulous, flavorful food.

I like to think of these dishes, most of which are a snap to prepare, as easy but elegant. That may seem like a bit of a contradiction, but it’s not at all. The Broiled Mahimahi calls for just six ingredients, including salt and pepper! Don’t mistake simple for boring, though. Many of these dishes may challenge your tastes and I hope that you’ll try them with an open mind and enjoy them as much as I do. The recipes in this book — including those in Best Life Recipes from World-Class Chefs, which come from a number of chefs who just happen to be some of my personal favorites — may be a little different from what you’re used to cooking and eating. For instance, chef Anita Lo’s Barbecued Breast of Chicken, Suzanne Goin’s Succotash Salad, and Nobu Matsuhisa’s Parmesan Baked Small Scallops are unique yet accessible. I’m hoping that these foods will expand your…

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers Description:

If you work nonstop without a break…worry about offending others and back down too easily…explain too much when asked for information….or “poll” your friends and colleagues before making a decision, chances are you have been bypassed for promotions and ignored when you expressed your ideas. Although you may not be aware of it, girlish behaviors such as these are sabotaging your career!

Dr. Lois Frankel reveals why some women roar ahead in their careers while others stagnate. She’s spotted a unique set of behaviors–101 in all–that women learn in girlhood that sabotage them as adults. Now, in this groudbreaking guide, she helps you eliminate these unconscious mistakes that could be holding you back–and offers invaluable coaching tips you can easily incorporate into your social and business skills. If you recognize and change the behaviors that say “girl” not “woman”, the results will pay off in carrer opportunites you never thought possible–and in an image that identifies you as someone with the power and know-how to occupy the corner office.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16436 in eBooks
• Published on: 2004-02-11
• Released on: 2004-02-11
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

Customer Reviews:

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mist
This book has been all that I hoped for and more. The book, in a nutshell, basically says that to get ahead in life, in career, in everything, women need to stop acting like little girls.

Replete with examples from Ms. Frankel’s consulting clients, this book gives practical, no-holds-barred evaluations of such behaviours as feeding people at the office, working too hard, asking questions instead of making statements, and “asking permission.” That last was a revelation to me.

As Ms. Frankel points out, we are all raised in a society that says you should get proper approvals before taking a step—any step. But men learn when to ask and when to just go ahead. Men learn how to apply the rubric “It’s easier to get forgiveness than to get permission.” Ms. Frankel pointes out that children, not adults, ask for permission to do perfectly rational things. I had never considered how detrimental to my career the habit of asking permission had been. But I decided to give Ms. Frankel’s suggestions a try. I went to my boss and said, “I cannot come in on Friday.” My boss looked nonplussed. I was petrified, but proud. I had done it. I had Made A Statement instead of Seeking Approval. And he didn’t demur. He said, “Okay,” and we went on with the day.

If you are feeling frustrated by the glass ceiling, if you feel stuck and can’t figure out why you can’t get further in your career ambitions (and if you’re a female), this book is definitely worth the investment. It opened my eyes to things I did that I never even thought about, things that presented an image of an incompetent child—not a competent, composed, and capable woman. My image is now improving, and yours can too.

Sexual Sabotage
How to undo years of socialization of gender roles while working in business? This is a dilemma that women are facing as they push on the glass ceiling. What if the glass ceiling were as much self-created as part of corporate culture? These are some of the issues that Lois Frankel attempts to address in “Nice Girls.”

Her analysis of gender training (such as Nice Girls Aren’t Loud) are pretty much what I heard as a child. Yet…what a delicate line women must walk, as being tough is interpreted as bitchiness instead of hard-headed business savvy. So here’s the problem; Frankel advises worrying less about being liked, advises apologizing sparingly — not profusely and frequently, but that isn’t the same as permission to have a take-no-prisoners attitude. While occasionally being disliked is going to be hard on women who work cooperatively and not in a hierarchical manner, Frankel explains why niceness may short-circuit the path to a deserved top spot.

While Frankel’s book has excellent advice about avoiding subtle but destructive body language and practices like apologizing and making declarative statements into questions, as well as failing to blow one’s own horn as needed, there are other books that explain the male-dominated playing field such as “Hardball for Women.” It’s not enough to understand our own failures to mesh into a world where men pretty much make the rules, it’s also important to understand the rules thoroughly. “Rules favor the rulemakers, and when they don’t, the rules are changed.” Look at the troubles of Carly Fiorina and the attitudes towards Martha Stewart to see some of the pitfalls that can trap someone while following the advice in Frankel’s book without understanding all the rules or new rules of behavior.

More Than Rosie the Riveter:
Men are men. Women are women. Right? The matter of gender is easy enough to establish, but in Lois P. Frankel’s book, “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers” we learn there are underlying mores and premises to follow if women want to be at the top of a company. These rules are unspoken, but Frankel demystifies the process by which some women hurt their success by playing into the cultural roles prescribed to them growing up.

Frankel presumes most women grew up in a home that oppresses women from growing up into full adults. What may have been true for 1954 is not as true today. However, her challenge is still with merit, and in 2004, it crosses the gender barrier. e men should be taking notes from Frankel. There are plenty of little boys among us who need to work as men.

“Rosie the Riveter” ads during WWII encouraged women into the workplace, but often as factory and shipyard works. There was no “Annie the Accountant” or “Sally the CEO” campaigns. Being all you can be means being more than you were as a child. Frankel helps show how women can be more than little girls in the office place, and garner success as a result.

It is important to note that as much as this is an important book for women who esteem to be seen as professional should read, men also should read it. Not every man has reached his potential, and some fall to the same problems, in a masculine variation, as do some women. Fear, exhibited through the lack of initiative and an overborne, unnecessary kindness, holds many people back.

Objective, straightforwardness is much of what Frankel asserts.

Being professional doesn’t mean you need to convert into a stomping intimidator, but it does mean being firm, not wincing when rejection is forthcoming, and thinking about more than immediate relationships. It is about getting the job done well, in concert with others, but never becoming weak while doing it all. You have expertise. You have training. You have what it takes.

Although Frankel is a professional coach, her book itself shows a coach is not needed. You need to be in control of your career, without worrying about the next person. Retain your ethics, your integrity and your aplomb, but it is your job to lead the way through your professional life. No parents, no coach, no friends are responsible for this.

I fully recommend “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers”
by Lois P. Frankel. Follow it up with the classic Dale Carnegie book, “How To Win Friends And Influence People,” to learn the other side of the professional relationship balance.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Review
‘Any woman intent on getting ahead should read this book…a fascinating crash course’ - Anne Fisher, ‘Ask Annie’ columnist

About the Author
Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., lives in Pasadena, California

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MEETING A GROUP OF OLDER BOYS IS A GOOD THING, UNLESS THEY WANT TO TURN YOU INTO A SISSY

EXCERPT

“Why are you doing this to me?” I asked meekly, hoping not to get
him upset.

“Because you’re a pussy,” he said as he sorted through the ladies’
undergarments he held, “and you should dress like one.”

“Please don’t do this,” I begged timidly. “Please.”

“Shut up,” he sneered, “before I belt you again.”

I remained silent after that.

He began dressing me by first untaping my feet, with a stern
warning not to try anything cute. I had to lift my bottom off the
seat cushion as he drew a strange, clinging undergarment up my
legs, past my waist and up to my smoothly shaven chest. It fit me
like a girl’s one-piece bathing suit, hugging my crotch so tightly
that my masculine bulge was no longer evident, and it cinched my
waist in to slim, feminine proportions. On top, it sported two
large, empty cups, but they didn’t remain empty for long. Dick had
brought two deflated party balloons, pink in color, and as I
watched he cleverly filled each one with warm water from the tap,
tied them tightly and positioned them inside the cups of my
undergarment with the knots placed in such a way as to simulate a
pair of erect nipples.

“You’re such a lucky girl,” Dick grinned, massaging my false
breasts as though they were real. “Lots of girls would kill to
have a nice big set of tits like these.”

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48994 in eBooks
• Published on: 2009-11-01
• Format: Kindle Book