The Co-Op Cookbook: Delicious and Healthy Meals in Less Than Half an Hour

Fifield offers 100 main-dish recipes from her popular What's for Supper? program at the Co-op Food Stores in New Hampshire. These excellent dishes are low in fat, emphasize fresh produce and will please both meat eaters and vegetarians. Soups, stews and stir-frys can generally be prepared in a single pot or pan. Recipes ""are designed to encourage the cook's creativity,"" which is not a way of saying the recipes haven't been adequately tested. Quite the contrary: additions and substitutions are suggested for almost every recipe. Dishes such as Portabella Cassoulet will inspire cooks to cruise the produce aisle of their grocery store or co-op with renewed zeal. Sturdy recipes such as Pasta with Tomato ""Cream,"" which uses evaporated milk for a creamy taste without the calories, and Spicy Sesame Stir-Fry Beef will please kids and picky eaters without boring sophisticates. Golden Delight transforms seasonal butternut squash and walnuts into a topping for pasta. Recipes make the most of healthful ingredients such as salmon, whole grains (including quinoa) and ground turkey. Texas Hash and Grampa's Saturday Night Kale invigorate comfort foods with spice. Peanut Veggie Stir-Fry, among many other dishes, is a deceptively simple, deeply satisfying meal that will easily become a staple of the healthful and economical home cook's menu. (Apr.)