In her previous book, "Microwave Gourmet," Kafka wanted to teach people how to cook, she claims. This time around, she wants people to be healthy. Well, her book has a good start. You'll find 400 healthful recipes, many of them party foods and brown-bag lunches, take-out and restaurant foods containing more data than you really need on basic techniques, cooking times, oven wattage, metric measures and whatnot. There is even an explanation of nutrients and some slim diet menus for those who want to try a 1,100 to 1,400 calorie (males) diet based on recipes from the book.
Frankly I thought the nutrition stuff a waste of time. The real value of the book is not in the nutrition information which can be better and more extensively found in a good book on nutrition, but in the innovative way you can use the microwave oven while trying to keep fats, cholesterol, sodium and sugar down to a minimum. Even if you don't use the microwave oven for more than heating up a frozen diet meal, you'll find some enticing ways of boosting the microwave repertoire, especially if all you do is heat coffee.
You have soups made without flour, bakery products, such as steamed banana muffins made with vegetable oil. "If you find a way to make bread successfully in a microwave oven, let me know," said Kafka in an interview with The Times. She also does not have high hopes for finding a way to make successful souffles. "Some things simply don't work in a microwave oven," she said.
