Dessert Every Night!

A cookbook author and motivational speaker on diet and weight loss, Lund offers readers her Healthy Exchanges plan for losing weight. Opening chapters explore her emotional and spiritual approach to effective, long-term weight loss. In her program, Lund divides food groups into Proteins/Meats, Breads/Starches, Vegetables, Fats, Fruits, Skim Milk, Free Foods and Optional Calories. She explains basic cooking terms (e.g., boil, bake, chop); recommends a ""pantry"" of preferred brand names; and gives tips on grocery shopping, reading product labels and creating menus (e.g., ""Fun Times Finger-Lickin' Kids' Night Cookout""). The second section features 200 recipes, geared toward ""busy people who want to eat healthily and economically, but who still want tasty food."" A firm believer that processed foods ""have a place as ingredients in healthy recipes,"" Lund unabashedly uses canned soups, prepared pie crusts, sugar substitutes and reduced- or fat-free mayonnaise, Cool Whip and cream cheese. Timorous cooks will master such basic preparations as Cheesy Tuna Chowder, Broccoli Party Casserole, Creamed Chicken over Muffins and Banana Peanut Butter Dream Pie. Her supermarket sensibility prevails, offering an accessible and affordable healthy eating plan. (Sept.)