Carol Floyd

A book of salads for those who live in Alaska without central heating!!!

Mix-and-Match Salads Cookbook has got over 30 easy and delicious salads and dressings. The recipes include some very exotic salads and some very interesting dressings like Balsamic, Whipped, and Creamy Greek Feta Dressing.

However, my biggest reservation is that while the cookbook in its introduction claims to suggest some “super health salads”, the amount of oil used in most recipes belies that impression. So don’t go by the use of the word “Salads” in the book’s title, because this is certainly NOT a healthy, low fat cookbook.

Look at the ingredients of most recipes and you will find that they are extremely heavy on oil. For example,

Balsamic Dressings contains 1 ½ cup (360 ml) olive oil.

Whipped Type Salad Dressing contains 1 ½ cup (360 ml) Canola oil.

Poppy Seed Dressing contains 1 cup (240 ml) Canola Oil.

Spinach Strawberry Salad with Goat Cheese has 60 ml Canola Oil. Why do you need to put so much oil, I wonder, when this is not even required to make it creamy?

Similarly, Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce has ¼ cup (60 ml) Canola Oil, in addition to the ½ cup of peanut butter which the Author is already using.
Even the Asian Noodle Salad has 2 tablespoon of oil (1 tablespoon sesame and 1 tablespoon canola) which seems a bit unnecessary.

Ramen Noodle is drenched with 2 tablespoon (30 ml) Sesame Oil 3 tablespoon (45 ml) Canola Oil.

I can recommend such fat heavy recipes only if you were living in an extremely cold climate without heating because then only can you burn off the extra calories. I have lived in Ladakh where temperatures in winters go below -10 degrees C (14 degrees F) during the day and -30 degrees C (-22 degrees F) at night. That’s why Ladakhis drink their tea with lots of butter which is necessary for survival but would I recommend it to anyone who is thinking of cutting on fat? Think not.

One more point. The author claims to be teaching to make “your own salad dressing”. However, I could find no way of making Light Mayonnaise being mentioned in many recipes (such as Creamy Greek Feta Dressing, Light Ranch Dressing, Low Fat Honey Mustard Salad Dressing) or the Miracle Whip dressing. However, the Author has provided the methodology for making many other kinds of dressings.

There are also a number of recipes like German Style Pasta Salad, Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing, and Broccoli Salad, which use bacon. However, no substitutes are suggested for people who do not consume pork/beef products for religious reasons or because they want to avoid consuming red meat for reasons of health.

The things I like about this book is that it makes tossing up salads a very easy task because of its clear directions. The author has provided some nutritional information and colour photos for most of the recipes. She also gives both American and metric measurements which is really thoughtful of her.
I am sure Carol is a great cook who has come up with a great compilation of lovely traditional recipes.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves making gourmet traditional recipes at home without bothering about fat, calories, cholesterol or dieting in general!
… (meer)

COOKIES AND TREATS FOR CHRISTMAS AND BEYOND: DELICIOUS, YEAR-ROUND FAMILY FAVORITES
Like the ideas in this book, everything from untypical treats to the standby's. Great gift solutions also.
Recipes come with a photo picture and detailed instructions, along with nutritional information. Variations at the end of some recipes are also included.
Some of the recipes included alcohol. Like the brunch section also. None of the recipes we can make for ourselves as we can't have sodium and are on very low fat diet.
Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.… (meer)