The Help Yourself (and Others) Cook Book

Feb 10

This cookery book is excellent - bits of food info and advice mixed in with simple, appealing and easy recipes that are quick to prepare and cook, and will help your health. The author Dawn throws it all together with little cartoons, bits of humour that made me laugh and a prick at your conscience for wasting stuff when places like Ghana spend GBP1.50 a year per pupil on education. The recipes are colour coded, green(fresh), blue (frozen) and orange (stored). She gives lists of what to keep in freezer, fridge and cupboard so its easy to always have the ingredients for a fresh meal to hand. Each recipe is also listed with info such as 2 a day ( fruit and veg) high fibre very fast ( time needed). Do yourself and Ghana a favour - buy this book, it's a fiver well spent and you won't regret it.

Feb 10

These days most of us are more interested in not only our own health and wellbeing, but also in trying to help those in developing countries. Here is a wee book that costs under a fiver, but manages to combine all of that and more with the proceeds from the sale going to help the Ghana Education Project. There is a lot of information in here, all imparted in easy-to-digest bites (pardon the pun) and therefore ideal for today's busy person. Find out how to cook some tasty and healthy meals, prepare a perfect picnic, get your five a day in interesting ways and locate a healthy snack. All the meals in here are quick to prepare and don't involve those tiresome gourmet ingredients beloved by celebrity chefs that are unavailable to the majority of us. There is also information about what keeping food in plastic does to you (nothing good), healthy cooking tips and a good basis for weight loss and sensible eating. Alongside all this there are plenty of mentions about Ghana in general and Nkwanta in particular, which is a very poor area and where the money is going if you buy this book. I think what I liked best about it - apart from the good cause, tasty recipes and readability - are the sobering little asides that contrast our lives in the overpackaged, overprocessed West with those of the Ghanaians. As the author says it does indeed seem amazing that we need telling how to eat less when so many people are starving...

Mar 10

Packed with plenty of simple, mouth-watering ideas for everything from breakfast and snacks, to lunches and family meals (chicken with sweet potato and pesto, anyone?), this book is a testament to the author's philosophy that good food is something to be savoured, not obsessed over. Dawn's warmth, wit and wisdom come across through the tips and asides scattered throughout the book, and through its quirky drawings, for which this multi-talented woman is also responsible. Best of all, the book supports the Ghana Education Project. Everyone involved has donated their skills and covered production costs themselves, meaning every bit of the book's cover price goes towards the charity.

Mar 10

This is a Search Press publication with a difference. This book is being sold at GBP4.99 with all proceeds going to the Ghana Education Project to build a school in Nkwanta Ghana. The book has been written by Dawn Waldron who is a trained nutritional therapist and a cancer survivor. Are you getting the idea, this book is good from every angle. The recipes do you good, the money you spend on the book does someone else good and there are many other food related issues which are touched upon in the non-recipe passages. I am not always a wholesome eater- (proven by my figure!) but the recipes actually had even me going wow and there aren't even any carefully styled pictures!