The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners- Meal Plans, Expert Guidance, and 100 Recipes to Get You Started by Elena Paravantes RDN
$19.99
Product Details
Web ID: 133934104 years ago
from New York, NY
Makes it look easy!
Elena Paravantes’ The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook makes adding healthy, colorful food to your diet look easy. There’s a nice variety of recipes with a focus on veggies and easy to find seasonings. The fourteen day guide will help start you in the right direction.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
from Seattle
Love this book!
The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners is very informative; my Cardiologist suggested I go on a Mediterranean diet and I had no idea what to do. I found this book at B&N and it had all the information I needed to get started, including info about the Mediterranean diet, menus, dietary info with calorie, fats, carb, and protein counts. The only thing that could have been better was the index; I would have liked to have seen it catergorized because unless you know the recipe name its very hard to find what you're looking for. Other than that I love this book and have lost 11 Lbs so far!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
from Atlanta, GA
Easy to prepare Mediterranean recipes
Written by a dietitian and nutritionist, who happens to be Greek and lived in Greece for 15 years, this cookbook provides a brief introduction to the benefits of a Mediterranean diet, followed by cooking tips, lifestyle guides, sample two-week menu, and 100 recipes. The recipes are fairly simple and use ingredients readily available in American supermarkets, although many of the recipes seem as though they would be best if prepared with fresh ingredients, which are not always available. All in all, an excellent cookbook for anyone interested in trying new recipes or embracing the Mediterranean diet for health reasons. #TheMediterraneanDietCookbookforBeginners #NetGalley
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
Yummy!
This cookbook needs to be evaluated as two books combined into one. The book wants to be a scientific-style diet book in the introductory chapters. This creates an unfortunate focus on weight loss and healthism with a side of hyper-focus on the nutrition information. While many may choose to eat this way in an attempt to lose weight, it is worth noting that this focus may be problematic for some readers. Add in that the primary study referenced in this introduction is a long-debunked study by Keys, this could have seen a lot of improvement. Given the wealth of information available on the Mediterranean eating style, this focus and study selection makes this section seem like it needs some revision. However, as a cookbook, this book shines in many ways. The recipes (if you can ignore the obsessive calorie counts) look delicious and accessible. The ingredients are relatively simple and can likely be sourced by many home cooks. The instructions are clear and the overall methods are straightforward and unintimidating. This collection of recipes is exactly what’s on the tin: solid basics for beginner cooks. The pictures, though I would love to see more, look very enticing and I have several recipes incorporated into my next set of meal plans. In short: as a book on the history and science of this style of eating, it gets one star, but as a cookbook, a solid four star read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
from Raleigh
Nice book!
Great book about the mediterranean diet. This book explains all you need to know about this diet and lifestyle and all the benefits of doing it. I love greek food so this diet seems be perfect for me. The recipes look very good, the photos are bright and appetizing, it's very well organized and easy to read to follow. All the recipes have some basic nutritional information such as calories, fats, carbs, proteins and they also have serving, prep and cook information. Very good book! I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
Great Recipes
Reviewing cookbooks gives me a chance to try different recipes that I may never have otherwise tried. I’ve had some winners and some losers! The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners is a winner! The book includes an introduction that explains all the health benefits to living a Mediterranean lifestyle. It explains what food to buy and what to stay away from and the amount of each food you should eat. It’s a great refresher if you already live the Mediterranean lifestyle or a great introduction if you are just starting out. It also includes a two-week menu plan that looks easy to follow. The book includes about 100 easy to prepare recipes broken down by Breakfast, Vegetable and Bean Entrees, Pasta, Rice and Savory Pie Entrees, Seafood, Meat, and Poultry Entrees, Salads, Snacks and Appetizers and finally desserts. Most of the recipe ingredients you will have on hand except for the fresh herbs and veggies which are called for in many recipes. I like cookbooks with lots of photos because then I know what the meal is supposed to look like when it’s done. The photos in this cookbook are beautiful, but I wished there had been more of them. I decided to try Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie) because it looked like one of the more difficult recipes in the book. I had everything on hand (frozen spinach, olive oil, onion, fresh parsley, fresh dill and fresh mint (home grown), nutmeg, sugar, feta cheese, eggs and pepper. The only item I had to go to the grocery store for was the phyllo sheets which I purchased in the freezer section. The only word I have to describe this dish is YUMMY!! It was the first time I ever worked with Phyllo sheets and it wasn’t too difficult. If you don’t like Feta cheese, then you won’t like this meal, but everything went so well together and phyllo is scrumptious!! And…..yes, the cookbook does include the popular recipe, Hummus!!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
4 years ago
from California
This “diet” won’t even feel like one!
Tired of being on diets only to gain all the weight back (plus more)? The Mediterranean diet is more like a lifestyle. Once you commit to it, you won’t want to stop eating its delicious food. The author of The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners knows of what she speaks she’s a Greek-American nutritionist and registered dietitian who has lived this lifestyle her entire life. Other Mediterranean diet books limit the fattening foods, like olive oil, in the menu. This book does not. Other books encourage low-fat meats like boneless skinless chicken breasts. This book does not. In fact, this book allows cheese, bread, rice, and wine, which are forbidden on many other diets. The book allows pasta twice a week too. It encourages eating vegetables and beans and restricts red meat to once a week. The book includes a two-week meal plan to get you started. However, the recipes are the star. Feta cheese is almost ubiquitous in the recipes. So if feta is not a favorite, this diet may not be for you. You might also want to purchase pots of fresh mint and dill. However, once you have those ingredients and extra virgin olive oil, the rest are relatively inexpensive. I bought enough to make sixteen recipes for under $80 that included the oil, cheese and herbs. I can’t wait to make the vegan Sweet Potato and Chickpea Stew and the Baked Italian Spinach and Ricotta Balls. There are also desserts included like Stuffed Dates with Feta, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts. Yummy! Want to lose weight without really trying while eating delicious food? Pick up The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Beginners and begin your healthy new life! 5 stars and a favorite! Thanks to DK and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
5 years ago
from Lake Wobegon, MN
Truly excellent resource to begin with a Med diet!
I readily admit I am a sucker for ANY DK publication. So it doesn't take too much for me to open a book with a DK on the spine for a quick perusal. But for me to consider purchasing it, it does need to impress. This one did. I liked it for a couple reasons. The absolutely fantastic bean & legume recipes. They really got my eye. The Chickpeas with Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomatoes was tempting enough, I had to try it before writing the review! Paired it with the Spanakopita and even the teenager was sneaking chickpeas from the pot after her caramel apple fondue. I suspect we will get a couple of years of enjoying Mediterranean meatless meals from this book - well worth the expense. While meatless entrees grabbed my attention first, I was very impressed that the meat entrees were not all fish. As a nice Scandinavian, Lutheran girl from Minnesota, this style of cooking isn't exactly in our wheelhouse especially if the fish used doesn't come out of the lake. However, it was a WONDERFUL surprise to have such a bounty of chicken, pork and beef recipes. I think this book would be the perfect addition to anyone working with clients who have been told to look into eating a more Mediterranean style diet and need a good solid reference with recipes they would probably explore. The beginning is a bit lengthy for anyone with a foods/nutrition background but it is solid information. As a book seller who has interacted with customers who think a Mediterranean diet is just like some other kind of quick, weight loss, fade thing that tells you exactly what to eat & when; finding out that a Med diet is more a style then instructions can be overwhelming. This book would have been perfect! The breadth, width and depth of the recipes include enough "safe" things (meaning not having to switch to all fish, noodles that they already eat, ingredients they have or can access) that it would be a great resource to be able to share with clients before they purchase. Thanks to NetGalley & DK Pub for an ARC to prepare this honest review!!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com