The Healthy Seniors Cookbook: Ideal Meals and Menus for People Over Sixty (or Any Age)

Shocked by her widowed mother's poor eating habits, travel author McFarlane (Quick Escapes to the Pacific Northwest) was inspired to put together this collection of over 190 simple, ""healthy"" recipes. Most recipes are straightforward, scaled down standards like meat loaf, stuffed peppers and French onion soup. Unfortunately, more than a few give pause. For instance, McFarlane's Pineapple Danish, made by spreading cream or cottage cheese on a slice of whole wheat toast, topping it with a dollop of canned pineapple and a dusting of nutmeg and cinnamon, then broiling, is about as far from a Danish as one can get. Beef 'N Beans, an otherworldly concoction of beef, beans, pineapple, brown sugar and catsup could well be described as depression on a plate. And her Frozen Banana-wrap a ripe banana in plastic wrap, freeze it, then thaw slightly before eating-is hardly a recipe. Though supplemented with advice on topics like decreasing sodium intake and conserving energy (""cook enough for more than one meal"" on days when you have more energy), the recipes' hit-and-miss quality suggest readers would be better served elsewhere.