Calorie Counting Cookbook

I'm always on the lookout for new cookbooks. I have quite a number lining my kitchen shelves, cabinets, drawers, you get the idea. But my favorites have two things in common, colorful photographs of the recipes, (how am I supposed to know what I've fixed looks the way it's supposed to if there are no pictures?), and the nutrition information.

A new cookbook written by Duncanville, TX cooking teacher, Karel Anne Tieszen, has both. It's called "In Your Own Kitchen" and it's her first venture into writing down what she's been doing in the form of her adult cooking classes for years. On her website, it states that the classes "emphasize realistic food preparation for 'regular' people..." And that appears to be the approach of her cookbook, too.

She came up with the more than 150 recipes for the cookbook after years of seeing which ones her students favored. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Tieszen said, "If you know the reality of what the calorie count is going to be, you know how to accommodate it into your day." Amen to that! It's nice when a cookbook author realizes the importance and benefit of providing it for you. The cookbook is offered through Amazon but is currently sold out and there's a waiting list. It can, however, still be purchased directly from Tieszen's website, http://www.kitchen-friends.com/

Another bit of good news: On a quick shopping stop at a Super Target yesterday, I was encouraged to see that many of their packaged baked goods, the ones from their own bakery, now include nutrition labels complete with calorie count! In the past, I was tempted to buy some of their specialty breads but resisted since I had no idea how to figure them into my day. Another store I like to frequent, Texas-based Central Market, has a large heavenly aromatic bread-baking section which I still avoid for that same reason. As people become more mindful of their calorie intake, hopefully, such stores will eventually 'get' how important that factor is to many of their customers.