THE LOW-CARB GOURMET - by Karen Barnaby

Tell us which recipes you've tried from this book and what you thought of them, whether they were great or duds. Don't post the actual recipes here because of copyright issues. If you've tweaked one of the recipes to come up with your own version, feel free to post it in the recipes section at the top of this forum.

NOTE: Let's use a separate thread for each cookbook that we review.

Spinach Salad with Bacon, Tomato, Avocado & Ranch Dressing - page 75

I made a few changes to the recipe. Mainly I combined the avocado with the dressing. Karen's version said to cut the avocado into wedges. I used two avocados instead of one. I also added extra red onion and omitted the peanuts because I didn't have any on hand. I haven't included the peanuts in the counts. Karen said this makes 4 servings but they're huge. You could easily feed 6-8 people with this but I did manage to eat as much as she recommended and enjoyed it very much. I rated this a 4 out of 5. You can see my version of this recipe here



Zucchini, Sour Cream and Jack Cheese Bake - page 135

I changed a few things. I used regular onion instead of green onions because I didn't have any on hand. I had a 4 ounces chunk of Monterey jack cheese so I used it all instead of the 2 ounces Karen called for. I slightly increased the amount of zucchini and used a smaller baking dish than called for because it would have come out too thin baked in an 8x8" pan. Karen added 2 teaspoons fresh basil to hers but I left that out and added some pepper instead. I also doubled the amount of salt, but you can add it to your taste. I also topped mine with some freshly grated parmesan cheese because I had some to use up and it just sounded like a good idea.

Although the flavor of this is very good, it came out a little watery. Mine also took longer to bake but that's because my oven temperature inadvertently had gotten turned down 25 degrees. Maybe it would have set up better in the center had the oven been the correct temperature. I really liked the parmesan cheese on top. I rated this a 3 out of 5. Click here to see my version.