12 Best Foods Cookbook: Over 200 Delicious Recipes Featuring the 12 Healthiest Foods

I found this book in the library, not long after I purchased SuperFoods. I checked it out 3 different times, and finally decided that both the information and the recipes were worth adding to my collection. I resisted at first, only because I am trying to scale down my cookbook collection. This was a great purchase, well worth the space on my (limited) shelves. Recipes have thus far proven to be simple and tasty. Occasionally a "different" ingredient is called for, which is hard to find in my medium sized town. In fact, I even looked in a large city for tamarind paste, and was unable to locate it. No matter; in other cookbooks, I am instructed to substitute lemon juice for tamarind paste, and that's what I've done here. None of the main ingredients are hard to find, and in my opinion, a single tablespoon of one odd ingredient is not going to make or break a recipe. Certainly it could alter the final flavor, but I will not pass over a recipe just because I do not have a small amount of one minor ingredient. There are some recipes which are found in various places (such as Huevos Rancheros), but with the author's own twist on them, still making them worth a try. Others, such as the Sweet Potato Salad, are new to me. The 12 foods are primarily things that my family eats fairly regularly, and I am enjoying new ideas for preparing and/or incorporating them. If your family refuses to eat fruits or veggies, this may not be the book for you. I am fortunate that my son (4)... as well as my husband... will eat most anything... at the very least, they will try it once. However, if you (and/or your family) are willing to experiment with fairly common ingredients, you may find some new favorites, as well as an overall healthier diet!

A cookbook filled with over 200 delicious high-powered, disease-fighting micronutrients. Jacobi uses these superfoods to create mouth-watering healthy meals so easy anyone can create. Dana Jacobi has worked in highly rated restaurants in France, as well as run her own catering business and has marketed her own line of gourmet sauces. She has written for Food & Wine, Cooking Light, the New York Times, the Associated Press and the American Institute for Cancer Research. She has authored five cookbooks, and contributed to several others. Her work has won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award and been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Book Award. She currently teaches cooking classes and consults in product development in New York City. The recipes in this book are creative, tasty and attractive to the eye. There are over 40 color photos showing some of the lovely recipes from this book. The recipes were easy-to-read and understand. I feel that Ms. Jacobi has done an excellent job with this book. The chapters you will find in this book include: The 12 Best Foods; Dips, Hors d'Oeuvres, and First Courses; Soups; Salads and Dressings; Poultry and Meat; Fish; Pasta, Sauces, and Grains; Eggs, Beans, and Soy; Sandwiches and Baked Goods; Vegetables and Side Dishes; Desserts; Breakfasts and Drinks; Resource Guide; and a Glossary of nutritional terms. For an excellent book on delicious healthy meals written by a person with excellent credentials, then "12 Best Foods Cookbook" is the book for you!

I made the turkey and walnut meatloaf . I don't cook very often due to my work schedule but I had the best time making the meatloaf and presto--a fabulous, light, tasty, healthy dish appeared that my husband loved! The taste and texure reminded me of a light vegetable pate. It was a terrific summer meal, tasting great the next day, too. This makes shopping a breeze, just have the twelve foods on hand and you can't miss. I am looking forward to having more fun in the kitchen with the blueberries that I have stashed in the freezer. My friends will never believe that I said fun and kitchen in the same sentence. I highly reccommend the 12 Best Foods Cookbook.

This is an exciting concept and the recipe's are exceptional. Having down-sized and given away as much as possible, I have no room for more books of any kind----however--- Dana Jacobi's new book broke my resolve of 8 years, and I am now happily planning a healthy dinner party out of this book alone. 12 Best foods will make this type of meal so much easier than searching through myriad books and magazines for healthy and delicious (and easy) recipe's. Mona Palmer Onstead

'12 Best Foods Cookbook' by culinary journalist, Dana Jacobi presents nutritional information in what I consider a most delightful way, very similar to the excellent book, `SuperFoods' by Steven Pratt, M.D. and Kathy Matthews. As nutritional doctrine is getting more and more complicated, it is a relief to see these two books manage to present a very large body of nutritional wisdom in an easily digestible form. To Jacobi's twelve (12), Pratt and Matthews present fourteen (14), but the agreement between the two lists is remarkably good. A list of the foods covered in both books follows: In both: Blueberries Beans (Jacobi singles out black beans) Broccoli Oats Salmon (Pratt specifies wild salmon. Jacobi has wild and farm-raised with a caution against the skin) Soy (in all its gloriously different forms) Spinach Tomatoes Walnuts In Pratt and Matthews, but not in Jacobi: Oranges Pumpkin Tea Turkey Yogurt In Jacobi, but not in Pratt and Matthews: Sweet potatoes Chocolate Onions I suspect you could pair off the sweet potatoes with the pumpkin as sources of the `orange' nutrients. As fresh sweet potatoes are available the year around, I'll go for them instead of pumpkin, not to mention the fact that you can do with sweet potatoes virtually everything you can do with pumpkin, from soup to pies and back again. Tea and chocolate are also something of a pairing, as both are sources of caffeine and other nifty natural chemicals. If I had to pick, I would go with chocolate. That leaves Oranges, Turkey, Yogurt, and Onions unmatched between the two books, although I suspect some may claim that anything yogurt can do, soy milk can do better, but I do feel a real gap in Ms. Jacobi's discussion with no true milk product, animal protein, or citrus. I think that all this means is that if you want excellent information in a very palatable form, get both books. If you can only have space or funds for one, I suggest Ms. Jacobi's book because, as someone who is much more of a culinary writer than a nutritionist, her very sizable selection of 200 very good recipes is more kitchen friendly than ophthalmologist Pratt and professional writer Matthews. This is probably due to both Ms. Jacobi's own talents plus her communications with some very distinguished culinary sources including Rick Bayless, Molly Katzen, Julie Sahni, Elizabeth Schneider, and Arthur Schwartz. And those are just the ones whose culinary credentials I recognize. While Pratt and Matthews organize their recipes by their fourteen (14) foods, Ms. Jacobi organizes her recipes by type of dish or course. Her recipe chapters are: Dips, Hors d'Oeuvres, and First Courses Soups Salads and Dressings Poultry and Meat Fish Pasta, Sauces, and Grains Eggs, Beans, and Soy Sandwiches and Baked Goods Vegetables and Side Dishes Desserts Breakfasts and Drinks One of the better things about her recipes is that almost all combine two or more of the twelve best foods. The next best thing is that she does not avoid th