Amazon.com (ISBN 0786862696, Hardcover)

Can there possibly be anyone left in the U.S. who hasn't heard of Mollie Katzen? Or if not Mollie herself, at least her first cookbook, the now classic Moosewood Cookbook? Few writers have reached so broad an audience with a healthy-cooking, pro-vegetarian message. Ms. Katzen's latest effort, Sunlight Café, turns breakfast into a healthy, fulfilling showpiece meal, a morning sanctuary for assembling the day. She explains how to do this, no matter what your time crunch or disinclination might be. And in an introductory essay called "Breakfast for Metabolic Health," she explains why.

There are chapters in Sunlight Café devoted to beverages, fruit, grains, muffins and the like, eggs, potatoes, breakfast vegetables, griddle foods, puddings, etc. Katzen takes the time and space to explain how to scramble eggs, how to enrich scrambled eggs, how to augment scrambled eggs, and how to achieve the world's creamiest scrambled eggs. Does that sound comprehensive? Well, the entire book has been written that way. Nothing has been left out. Not sure how much water goes with a cup of brown rice, or how long to cook the grain? Katzen supplies the all-encompassing chart. It's one of many, and worth the price of the book. Among the 350 recipes you'll find easy, delicious baked goods to make ahead and eat at your desk (Katzen is not out of touch with the working world). You'll also find menus for the relaxed brunch you can lay out on the weekend. Leave it to Mollie Katzen: she has taken breakfast and made it better than ever. --Schuyler Ingle