CNN - Review: 'The Joslin Diabetic Quick and Easy Cookbook'

(CNN) -- What a fantastic cookbook! If you are a diabetic, you know how hum drum meals can become. Not so with "The Joslin Diabetic Quick and Easy Cookbook". The authors, Frances Towner Giedt and Bonnie Sanders Polin, introduce a whole new experience in eating with 200 recipes that take you from breakfast through dinner, as well as a mid-meal snack. It offers a variety of ways to create gourmet dishes you previously considered off limits.

Each recipe has been carefully assembled to appeal to the appetite, incorporate all nutritional needs, uses a minimal amount of preparation time, and is followed by ingredient breakdown and exchange information.

Imagine Cheese Blintz with strawberries for breakfast, Cobb Salad for lunch, Turkey Scalappini Marcala for dinner, topped off with Roasted Pineapple Margarita Style for dessert -- makes your mouth water!

"The Joslin Diabetic Quick and Easy Cookbook" also is helpful in selecting the necessary supplies for a healthy cupboard, suggestions for ordering when you eat in restaurants, answers to questions you might have along medical lines, several weeks of menus and complete charts for the breakdown for all the allowable exchanges.

I found the Beef and Onion Mix recipe on page 173 especially helpful in preparing several of the one-pot meals such as Beef and Artichoke Penn Pasta Bake (Page 172) and 25-minute Texas Hill Country Chili (page 174).

Beef and Onion Mix
1 1/2 pounds extra-lean ground sirloin 1 large onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced
Crumble the ground beef into a 3 quart microwave-safe casserole dish. Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes. Drain the meat in a colander to remove any fat. Wipe out the microwave dish with paper towels.
Return the beef to the casserole dish and stir in the onion and garlic. Divide the mixture equally among four microwave-safe freezer containers. Cover and freeze. Use within 3 months.
To use, remove the cover and defrost following your microwave manufacturer's instructions. Use in recipes as needed.
Makes four 6-ounce packages.
Per package: 284 calories (34 percent calories from fat), 10 g total fat (4.0 g saturated fat), 40 g. protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 114 mg cholesterol, 86 mg sodium.
Joslin Exchanges: 5 1/2 very low fat protein, 1 vegetable.

Both authors have lived with diabetes for many years and know the importance of a healthy, appetizing meal. This cookbook most certainly will bring the joy of eating back into your life.

Alberta Kiesel is a diabetic living in California.