Book Review: The 17 Day Diet Cookbook

I have been trying so hard to stick to a healthy diet. I believe that my family and I do pretty well. However, we have been eating the same healthy recipes over and over again and it’s becoming a bit redundant. I admit that I’m beginning to eye recipes that are not as healthy not only because I’m craving comfort food, but also just for the simple fact that I want to mix up our weekly menu.

Dr. Mike Moreno has created a nutrition program that revolves around four 17 day cycles. This diet plan and the recipes for the diet plan are included in the cookbook entitled, “The 17 Day Diet Cookbook”. This cookbook includes 80 new healthy recipes! As I mentioned, there are four 17 day cycles. These four cycles are Accelerate, Activate, Achieve, and Arrive (a combination of the first three cycles). With each cycle, you have a designated calorie intake total and the menu choices change. This enables you to have variety and not feel stuck in a monotonous diet.

My thoughts on the book:
This is a really nice hardcover cookbook. I feel that the majority of the recipes are appetizing recipes that I would love to try cooking. There are many recipes that include various types of fish. I love fish – it’s packed with protein and perfect to eat when you are trying to lose weight. My husband and I are eager to eat more fish; however, our daughter is allergic. Once we discovered her allergy, we stopped cooking fish at home. This has been disappointing. With our chaotic work weeks, I don’t have a ton of time to prepare dinners. Therefore, I attempt to cook recipes that the entire family can eat. This keeps me from preparing multiple dishes for our family as well as helps keep my grocery bill down. However, if you don’t have a family member who is allergic to fish, this cookbook has many choices for you! There are many recipes that I am looking forward to trying, such as the Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork and the Jerk Chicken.

I really like the fact that the cookbook has beautiful colorful photos of the recipes. I like seeing what I am trying to make. I also like that the cookbook provides additional tips for readers, such as ways in which you can change the recipe, save time in preparing the recipe, ideas for substitutions, and more. It is extremely helpful (in my opinion) that the cookbook provides menu plans for each cycle. Your entire menu is laid out in front of you! No debates about what to buy at the grocery store – you simply need to create your grocery list based upon your menu. The only thing that I found disappointing about the cookbook is that nutritional information was not included with the recipes. I try to pay attention to this as much as possible.

Want to read more about The 17 Day Diet Cookbook? Visit www.The17DayDiet.com

About the author: Dr. Michael Rafael Moreno is a graduate of the University of California at Irvine and Hahnemann Medical School (now Drexel University). Following his residency at Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, California, Dr. Moreno moved to San Diego, where he now practices family medicine and sits on the board of the San Diego Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In 2008, Dr. Moreno launched, “Walk with Your Doc”, which he participates in every Tuesday and Thursday morning before his workday begins. The program began when Dr. Moreno offered to walk with a patient to motivate her to exercise and has since grown into a thriving community.

You can purchase The 17 Day Diet Cookbook on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

*Disclaimer: I did not receive monetary compensation for this post. I received a free copy of the book for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Cook'n Recipe Organizer Version 10 Review

This year has been the year of organization for me – well, a real driven attempt at it anyway. I feel as though I can be proud of what I have achieved. Part of my organizational goal included organizing my recipe books and cards. I made an attempt and it has been working somewhat. However, there has been one looming hole in my organizational success. I am not organized with the recipes that I save online. I subscribe to various food networks, websites, blogs, etc. in order to keep tabs on recipes in which I am a fan or would like to make one day. I then lose track of where I have kept such and such recipe, which can be frustrating.

Cook'n Recipe Organizer Version 10 is a recipe software for the computer helps people manage their recipes and keep track of where they find recipes. “Cook'n features an embedded web browser with advanced recipe search capabilities and, best of all, the ability to capture internet recipes with one click and save them into your personal cookbooks for easy access later”. Cook’n has numerous capabilities! It allows people to organize their recipes into categories, analyze nutritional information, plan weekly menus, create a shopping list, and even create a family cookbook.

This software was easy to download. I read through the instructional manual so I could familiarize myself with it. I am pretty computer savvy, but there are so many components to this software that I wanted to make sure I was using it to its full capacity. In trying out the search tool, I used “Shrimp Scampi” as my recipe of choice. The first page of search results included all the websites that I frequently visit. I clicked on my first choice, which was a Shrimp Scampi recipe from the Food Network. I clicked the “Capture” button and instantly the entire recipe, ingredients and all the background information included, were plugged into the Cook’n Bookshelf page in front of me. It was that easy! One click and all the information is organized perfectly! I loved that I could then draft a menu for the week and create a shopping list all from the information in front of me. I also thought it was amazing that with the click of a button, all of the nutritional information for the recipe appears! Ingenious!

Cook’n is an easy software to use and once you are aware of all its capabilities and educate yourself in how to use it, it will instantly assist you in your organization of the multitude of recipes you collect. I would strongly encourage you to check it out! Cook'n Recipe Organizer Version 10 has only been released recently and has already received a great deal of positive reviews. Once you try it, you will see for yourself how beneficial it is to maintaining your organization in the kitchen.

There is a deal right now where new customers get a free cookbook with purchase (over 130 to choose from! http://www.dvo.com/cookbooks.php?CID=blogger-review)

*Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.