Understand your child's nutritional needs and prepare fast, tasty meals

babies and toddlers need good nutrition to grow and thrive, and this essential, timesaving guide makes it easy to feed your child right. It explains exactly what foods you should introduce at what ages — and shows you how to prepare fresh, home-cooked baby and toddler meals that beat anything you can get from a jar or box.

Discover how to

• Save money and expand your baby-food budget
• Dish up healthy, well-balanced meals
• Introduce new foods at the right time
• Serve foods with high kid-appeal
• Have fun cooking with your child

Her self-effacing stories are at times painful (such as babysitting the night she should have been going to the prom), but the road that led her to healthy cuisine and weight loss is almost comical (though she certainly didn't believe it to be too funny at the time). After the excitement of moving to Hawaii to launch an Italian bistro at a seaside resort, the author, then a robust 205 pounds, was deflated when she arrived to find she had been replaced and put in charge of the establishment's spa cuisine.

The 200 recipes, as expected, are a mixture of healthy ways to prepare beef, chicken, fish, and vegetables. She has even included some full-fat recipes, such as a rich Lemon and Pecan Loaf. These are accompanied with reminders that it is OK to indulge occasionally, but a trip to the gym or eating "light" during the other parts of the day are the necessary balances to achieve weight loss. Even if it is not weight loss, just a healthier approach to eating you seek, Daelemans's book will inspire and entertain. --Teresa Simanton

From Publishers Weekly
It would be easy enough to hate Chef Kathleen she's cute, thin and the founding chef of one of the world's most luxurious spas. But it's also hard not to fall in love with her sassy conversational tone, her genuine warmth and encouragement (believe it or not, she was once a size 22) and her terrific recipes. Chef Kathleen tells of her own battles with dieting, what finally worked and how she kept the weight off for good. In the same witty, warm tone, she offers up luscious lower-fat lower-calorie versions of such favorites as BBQ Chicken Pizza, Meatloaf and Fast Fried Chicken alongside other healthy alternatives such as Oven-Baked Salmon with Ginger and Lime, Lentil Lemon Soup and Karen's Angel Food Cake. One of the most winning features of the book is the sidebar that accompanies each recipe and includes everything you wish other cookbooks would: tips on variations, time-savers and what to do if "the Queen's coming to dinner." Best of these sidebars is the "Guy-ometer": honest comments from a typical guy (Chef Kathleen's father), ranging from "Well, it wasn't steak " (Linguini with Zucchini, Basil, Mint, & Parmesan Cheese) to "Now, this is real food!" (Pasta with Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe). This is a must-have for anyone who wants to eat healthily, and an invaluable kitchen companion that puts fun back into cooking. Illustrations not seen by PW. (July 1)Forecast: Coming from such a high-profile publisher, and addressing such a widespread need in an amiable fashion, Chef Kathleen's book is poised for commercial success.

Copyright 2001 Cahners business Information, Inc.

Deborah Taylor-Hough, mother of four, is as organized as a soldier. She shops one morning in less than an hour, chops and prepares ingredients the next night after dinner, and then spends one long day cooking. Making double and triple batches of 10 recipes, she ends up putting 30 meals for two adults and two children into the freezer, ready to heat and eat. Taylor-Hough's plan uses simple, familiar recipes. Her family eats meat loaf, baked ziti, and chicken and broccoli casserole made with canned soup. Each dish is repeated several times a month. To keep her grocery bill under $200 a month, she uses store brands and buys ground meat in bulk, and only when it's on special. As much a manual for a way of life as a cookbook, Frozen Assets tells how to create your own meal plans, cope with a small, "in refrigerator" freezer, and how to use this bulk-cooking method even if you are single. If you are into efficiency and want a guide to reorganizing your culinary life, this book is a must-have. It even offers advice on how to recover from a whole day of cooking. Taylor-Hough's recommendation: go out to dinner that night! --Dana Jacobi

From Library Journal
This book offers relief to those tired of eating restaurant fare or expensive, overpackaged convenience foods at the end of a hard day. Bulk cooking, the practice of preparing numerous meals and freezing for later consumption, was a survival strategy the author employed after the birth of her first child. After a decade of experimentation, she shares her menu ideas, recipes, and tips for shopping and preparing these thrifty, frozen treasures that can simplify the daily meal rush. Recipes are for family favorites, but the author encourages readers to adapt their own recipes to the freezer method. Suggestions appropriate for large families and singles are included along with forms to help organize the cook. With more emphasis on frugality than Mimi Wilson and Mary Bath Lagerborg's Once-a-Month Cooking (Focus on the Family Pub., 1992), this will appeal to both the thrifty and the time-conscious. Recommended for public libraries.ABonnie Poquette, Whitefish Bay, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed business Information, Inc.