Delicious, Healthful Eating For People With Food Sensitivities

Imagine some of your favorite foods ... crusty French breads, decadent chocolate brownies, yummy cookies, homemade pies, or hearty muffins. They sound great, don't they? Maybe for someone else, but not for you; you can't eat these foods because you are sensitive to wheat. Think again: thanks to Carol Fenster, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Originally published in 1995, Fenster has updated and revised her WHEAT-FREE RECIPES & MENUS: Delicious, Healthful Eating for People with Food Sensitivities (Avery; July 2004;$16.95/Trade Paperback
ISBN: 1-58333-191-3) to reflect new medical findings on food sensitivities and a greater interest in living without wheat.

With the new release of her ground-breaking book, Fenster's mission is to heighten the awareness of food sensitivities while also addressing the little-known condition called celiac disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) regards celiac disease - an autoimmune form of intolerance to gluten, a protein in wheat - as the nation's most common genetically transmitted condition. It affects nearly three million Americans - ten times more than originally estimated - and requires a gluten-free diet for life. After being told to avoid wheat 15 years ago, Fenster set out to create a business in a niche that few thought was important. What started as a suburban, home-based cottage industry of writing special diet cookbooks and developing gluten-free products for manufacturers has become an international business in its tenth year.

WHEAT-FREE RECIPES & MENUS is based on Fenster's collection of recipes that she has developed and refined over many years. Recipes reflect her Midwestern roots, her appreciation for international cuisine, and the typical gluten-free person's longing for bread and other baked goods. WHEAT-FREE RECIPES & MENUS has something for everyone with basic recipes that gluten-free folks want the most: pizza, French bread, sandwiches and pasta, along with more contemporary choices like focaccia, bagels, and breadsticks. Fenster has also included a mouth-watering array of gluten-free desserts that are perfect for any occasion. Family and friends will love her Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Peach Pie (with a fail-proof pastry crust that anyone can make), Chocolate Brownies, and Bread Pudding. Fenster provides each recipe's nutrient content based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines.

Fenster organized WHEAT-FREE RECIPES & MENUS into chapters on breads and pasta, grains and beans, soups, sauces, vegetables, main courses, and desserts, making it easy for the home cook to quickly find just the right recipe. For easy meal-planning, Fenster offers menus based on all-American favorites like meatloaf, crab cakes, sloppy Joes, and spaghetti and meatballs, and she rounds out those menus with side dishes such as scalloped potatoes and dumplings. She also includes a chapter focused on breakfast dishes such as waffles, pancakes, and muffins because breakfast is typically a wheat-based meal.

About the Author

Carol Fenster is a consultant to several food manufacturers including Bob's Red Mill, for whom she develops gluten-free products. She is also a consultant to the U.S. Grains Council in the U.S. and Japan. She is a much sought-after speaker at national conferences and local support groups in the U.S. Through her numerous cooking demonstrations for natural food stores, lectures, consultations, cookbooks and website, Fenster advises individuals with food sensitivities on how to use foods appropriate for their special diets. Her expertise is in cooking without the traditional American ingredients of wheat, dairy, eggs, and sugar. A portion of her profits are donated to charitable causes that focus on the diagnosis and treatment of food sensitivities.

Fenster is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She appears in nine episodes of "Fo