FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT DIABETIC COOKBOOK: Slow Cooker Favorites—to Include Everyone!

Wintry weather seems to demand slow-simmered soups and stews, and the bestselling Fix-it and Forget-it series has long been a source for these and other Crock-Pot meals. Good, who edited those homey collections, returns with a useful new diabetic edition. Each of the hundreds of recipes for appetizers, main courses, soups, vegetables, breakfast dishes and snacks comes with a nutritional analysis, and timely health tips are scattered among the recipes. Good also includes a week of sample menus (with nutritional breakdowns), answers the "Ten Most Asked Questions About Diabetes" and gives a brief reading list. Other than that, this book follows the same formula as its predecessors: recipe after recipe from people (mostly women) across the country. Some of the entrées are new, such as Autumn Harvest Pork Loin, with cider, apples and butternut squash, and Chicken Azteca, a savory mix of chicken, black beans, corn and salsa. However, many of the recipes from the original Fix-it and Forget-it are repeated here, verbatim, while others from that volume have been slightly modified to fit diet guidelines. As always with this series, lots of canned soup, frozen vegetables and cake mix go into the slow cooker in the name of ease and convenience; fortunately, those dishes have been lightened up enough so that diabetic cooks can enjoy them, too. (Jan.)