Christmas Presents!

Submitted by Dana on Sun, 2009-12-13 20:34

Or, I suppose, embarrassingly late Hanukkah presents. Or Yule gifts, or Kwanzaa or Festivus, or any other darn thing you'd care to celebrate. December birthdays. What-the-heck, I-like-you, so-here's-a-present Day.

* In the interests of shameless self-promotion, I must recommend that you give any and all low carbers on your list a fine low carb cookbook. Like, say, any of these.

* Also very much worth giving -- Judy Barnes Baker's Carb Wars: Sugar is the new Fat, or Eating Stella Style:Low Carb Recipes for Healthy Living, by professional chef and ultra-successful low carber, George Stella. Any of these books would also be great for the diabetic on your list, whether he or she has figured out the low carb thing yet or not.

* There are 25-count'em-25 great Low Carb Gift Baskets available from CarbSmart, and there's still time to get them by the 25th! (Assuming you live in the USA, that is.) There are a bunch of great baskets, including one designed by my friend Jimmy Moore.

* For the hard-core nutrition geek on your list, Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories is a must-read -- the most important nutrition book of the decade.

* If you're fond of a vegetarian who is slowly realizing that his or her diet isn't yielding the great health he or she had hoped, it would be a great kindness to give Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth. One of the most beautifully written books I've read this year.

* If what your favorite low carber likes best is a good rah-rah pep talk, Jimmy Moore is your man. With a foreword by yours truly!

* For the exerciser on your list, you might consider Yoga Booty Ballet. I picked this up at the local Goodwill, and it's quickly become my new favorite workout. It's a neat combination of dance, aerobics with light weights, yoga (hardest part!) and ballet moves. Hard enough to make me feel like I've really accomplished something, but nothing goes on so long I can't bear it. And I like the instructors. Even That Nice Boy I Married likes Yoga Booty, even if it is pretty female-centric. Maybe even because -- nothing like fit women in workout clothes bending and stretching, you know?

* Gifts of food are traditional, but of course you don't want to give low carbers the usual cookies or homemade bread. How about a membership to The Bacon of the Month Club? My publisher actually gave me a membership one year. A new variety of small-farm gourmet bacon every month -- what's not to love?

* If your favorite low carber has lost a size or more since last holiday season, you know that new clothes in a smaller size will be welcome!

That's all my brain is coming up with right this second. More as I think of it!

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Comments

Question about Christmas present received

Submitted by tc1974 on Sat, 2010-01-02 11:34.

Hi Dana, I just received 500 LOW-CARB RECIPES as a gift. I love it and am anxious to try some of the recipes. The Greek Roasted Chicken recipe on page 269 looks like a good place to start but I have a question. The ingredient list says "1/4 lemon juice". Should that be 1/4 cup? Seems like a lot of lemon juice but I'm not a good judge of these things - is the chicken tart? Thanks a lot for a great book and for your time to answer a dumb question!

Greek Roasted Chicken

Submitted by Dana on Sat, 2010-01-02 11:44.

Yes, it's 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Argh. My editor told me that the average book goes to it's first printing with a dozen errors, but that's the first time that one's been pointed out to me. No, the chicken's not particularly tart, just very flavorful. Keep in mind that this is a marinade, and quite a lot of it doesn't wind up in the finished dish. For some reason, acid marinades really point up the flavor of chicken; I have a recipe called Picnic Chicken, too, which is marinaded in a vinegar-based marinade -- again, it simply points up the flavor of the chicken.

So glad you like the book!!