Alisa Marie Fleming

As the title SMART SCHOOL TIME RECIPES: The Breakfast, Snack, and Lunchbox Cookbook for Healthy Kids and Adults makes clear, this eBook is mainly aimed at parents who want to create healthy but quick breakfasts and lunches for their tikes. However, it's great for anyone who never seems to have enough time in the morning before they rush off to work or for employees -- especially teachers like me! -- who need to eat in a rush or at their desk. Not all of the recipes are golden, but that's show more true of any cookbook -- even my two favorites, Twenty-Minute Menus: Time-Wise Recipes & Strategic Plans for Freshly Cooked Meals Every Day and Eating Well Is the Best Revenge, both by Marian Burros.

The recipes are geared to the über healthy -- only one recipe contains real milk, most of these recipes are vegetarian or vegan, there's very little in the way of even whole-wheat flour, and the like. (That's not surprising as the author and the other contributors tend to be dairy- and gluten-free.) However, all are easily adaptable to how you and your family likes to eat. Can't stand the thought of spelt flour? (Count me in that club!) Then you can easily switch to whole-wheat or even all-purpose bleached flour. The thought of grinding blanched almonds to make your own blanched almond flour when you have so many papers to grade is making your skin crawl? You can easily substitute whatever you normally use. The same goes for vegan mayonnaise, quinoa pasta, sea salt, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, garbanzo bean flour, tofurky, and the rest.

It's got a lot of great healthy recipes that would appeal to families that don't subscribe to any special diets or aren't even particularly health conscious: Frosted Cherry "Pop-Tart" Pancakes, Pear and Raspberry Breakfast Crumble, White Bean Dip, Lentil Carrot Stew, various bulgar salads, Chicken and Avocado Salad, Take-Along Taco Bar, Veggie Packed Sloppy Joes, Corndog Muffins, and more. And anyone who has eaten at P.F. Chang's will love the P.F. Chang's China Bistro Chicken Fried Rice.

Some of the recipes are really money savers, too: Making your own instant oatmeal packets, taco seasoning, pesto, Honey Mustard Chicken Strips, and Caesar salad dressing.

One caveat: Smart School Time Recipes does not have a table of contents. However, you can make your own by bookmarking the beginning of each section and then highlighting the titles of the recipes you'll be using. It's not as good as a real table of contents, but, considering the eBook is free, you can't really expect the production values of a book publishing house.

Especially at the price (free), you'll want to add Smart School Time Recipes to your Kindle or eBook reader.

Merged review:

As the title SMART SCHOOL TIME RECIPES: The Breakfast, Snack, and Lunchbox Cookbook for Healthy Kids and Adults makes clear, this eBook is mainly aimed at parents who want to create healthy but quick breakfasts and lunches for their tikes. However, it's great for anyone who never seems to have enough time in the morning before they rush off to work or for employees -- especially teachers like me! -- who need to eat in a rush or at their desk. Not all of the recipes are golden, but that's true of any cookbook -- even my two favorites, Twenty-Minute Menus: Time-Wise Recipes & Strategic Plans for Freshly Cooked Meals Every Day and Eating Well Is the Best Revenge, both by Marian Burros.

The recipes are geared to the über healthy -- only one recipe contains real milk, most of these recipes are vegetarian or vegan, there's very little in the way of even whole-wheat flour, and the like. (That's not surprising as the author and the other contributors tend to be dairy- and gluten-free.) However, all are easily adaptable to how you and your family likes to eat. Can't stand the thought of spelt flour? (Count me in that club!) Then you can easily switch to whole-wheat or even all-purpose bleached flour. The thought of grinding blanched almonds to make your own blanched almond flour when you have so many papers to grade is making your skin crawl? You can easily substitute whatever you normally use. The same goes for vegan mayonnaise, quinoa pasta, sea salt, soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, garbanzo bean flour, tofurky, and the rest.

It's got a lot of great healthy recipes that would appeal to families that don't subscribe to any special diets or aren't even particularly health conscious: Frosted Cherry "Pop-Tart" Pancakes, Pear and Raspberry Breakfast Crumble, White Bean Dip, Lentil Carrot Stew, various bulgar salads, Chicken and Avocado Salad, Take-Along Taco Bar, Veggie Packed Sloppy Joes, Corndog Muffins, and more. And anyone who has eaten at P.F. Chang's will love the P.F. Chang's China Bistro Chicken Fried Rice.

Some of the recipes are really money savers, too: Making your own instant oatmeal packets, taco seasoning, pesto, Honey Mustard Chicken Strips, and Caesar salad dressing.

One caveat: Smart School Time Recipes does not have a table of contents. However, you can make your own by bookmarking the beginning of each section and then highlighting the titles of the recipes you'll be using. It's not as good as a real table of contents, but, considering the eBook is free, you can't really expect the production values of a book publishing house.

Especially at the price (free), you'll want to add Smart School Time Recipes to your Kindle or eBook reader. show less

This is a great guide book / cookbook for people who wish to omit dairy from their diets. It covers a lot of information about various food allergies and sensitivities, what ingredients to look out for in foods, suggestions for how to eat out at restaurants, and, of course, recipes.

While this book isn't geared explicitly toward vegans (some of the recipes call for eggs, and while the recipes are meat-free, the author doesn't omit meat eating from the rest of the text), it is still a helpful show more guide.

The recipes are quite extensive, and the author includes how to make various types of non-dairy milks, snacks, desserts, entrees, etc. Some of the recipes are from various vegan blogs, which I found to be pretty cool.

I definitely recommend this book for people who are interested in going dairy free, or people who are maybe just beginning to take dairy out of their diets. But the experienced vegan probably already knows most of the tips and tricks of avoiding dairy, and might want to just skip to the recipes. show less

I was a bit underwhelmed by this book, available only at Amazon and for Kindle. Recipes were kind of out there for me. I enjoy simply flavors that I can distinguish fairly easy, however, some of these were too far-fetched for me and my pallet.

One that I cannot begin to wrap my mind around was Baked Sweet Potato Chips with Creamy Date Caramel Dip". Now I can understand the sweet potato chips (which I love!), but a caramel made from dates just doesn't do it for me. (It's like saying "Here, show more won't you try my prune and fish kabobs?" Or the current commercial on TV which mention the unheard of, but famous, "beetloaf". Gag!)

And there's the smoothie recipe made from beets and berries. Separate I love both. However, neither make me want the flavor both at the same time! My stomach churns just thinking of this one!

Thankfully this was a very short book, and could be read in a quick hour. I saw nothing I wanted to make right away, although in time I will try one or two of the better sounding recipes, to be sure.

At this I do recommend you get your copy now, while they are still free for the Kindle, as no other media is offered. You may find the 25 recipes worth trying! show less

Smart School Time Recipes by Alisa Marie Fleming
Opening notes ttart this book and how the author got the idea to write this book.
Contributers are listed and which portions they contributed to, designer of cover and editors and their sites.
Intregient notes as some recipes are nut and dairy free.
Each recip chapter starts with a title, summary and the recipes contained in this chapter.
Each recipe starts with a title, author credit and website, SOME contain a medium size color photo and summary show more of the dish.
List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low fat, low sodium, low sugar and fresh vs canned items.
Some have a LOT of items, be sure to have them all first.
Directions are given and there is NO nutrtional information.
Recipes do NOT always start at the top of a new page.
Servings are listed at the end.
Lots to choose from, depenidng on your allergies this would be a great book to keep handy.
Great ideas and yet more great tips using different appliances. show less