The Diabetes DTOUR Diet Cookbook: 200 Undeniably Delicious Recipes to Balance Your Blood Sugar and Melt Away Pounds by Barbara Quinn, MS, RD, CDE and the editors of Prevention magazine (Rodale, $24.99)
The statistics are sobering. Fifty-four million Americans, or about 20% of our entire population, have pre-diabetes. Most don’t even know about it and what is especially shocking is that number has doubled during just the past ten years. Unless we can reverse the current trend, soon one in three Americans will develop diabetes at sometime in their lifetime.
Maintaining a delicious, nutritious, and healthy diet isn’t as difficult as you might imagine. Barbara Quinn, a full-time clinical dietician and certified diabetes educator for the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California, and the editors of Prevention magazine, a publication that attracts a readership of nearly 11 million, recognize the urgent need to combat what has become America’s fastest growing health concern. The result is a user-friendly cookbook that features 200 recipes for eating DTOUR-style. What does that mean? Simply that each recipe includes one of the all-important fat-fighting 4 – calcium, Omega 3s, fiber, and vitamin D. These four supernutrients not only help melt pounds away, they also improve insulin sensitivity and in some cases may even reverse diabetes.
This collection is divided into three parts: Food is the Solution; Let’s Get Cooking; and DETOUR Resources. The recipes include appetizers, breakfasts, soups and sandwiches, salads & sides; meats & poultry; seafood; vegetarian, sweets & treats; and sippables. Three recipes were tested from this cookbook. I love soups, especially during cooler weather. The Smoky Black Bean Soup took about eight hours to prepare in my slow cooker but filled my kitchen with an aroma that made my chops water. It was tasty and the chipotle chile pepper gave it a nice zing. My second choice was Chicken and Antichoke Cacciatora. Even though it took less than 45 minutes start-to-finish, the flavors were perfected blended. My third pick was a dessert since diabetics do not live by celery alone. No one can resist Double-Chocolate Walnut Brownies and this recipe called for flaxseed, wheat flour, and canned tomato puree. Yes, tomato puree.
This cookbook is highly recommended. The recipes are fairly straight forward and the menu suggestions and product recommendations make it a snap to retune your diet so that it works with not against you. This collection also proves that to eat healthily, you don’t have to sacrifice flavor.

Double-Chocolate Walnut Brownies
Prep time: 15 minutes/Total time: 40 minutes plus cooling
Ingredients
3 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped
3 Tbs canola oil
One half c whole wheat flour
One fourth c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbs ground flaxseed
Three fourths tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 omega-3 enriched egg
1 omeda-3 enriched egg white
1 c packed brown sugar
One third c reduced-sodium canned tomato puree or tomato sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Mexican vanilla)
One fourth c chopped walnuts
Confectioners’ sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat an 8” by 8” baking pan with cooking spray.
Combine the chocolate and oil in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high power for one minute or until the chocolate pieces are glossy and lose their shape. Stir until smooth.
Combine the flour, cocoa, flaxseed, baking powder, and salt on a large sheet of wax paper. Stir to blend.
Beat the egg and egg white with a fork until smooth in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and mix, breaking up any lumps. Add the tomato puree, vanilla extract, and chocolate mixture. Add the dry ingredients, mixing until thoroughly blended. Dollop the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the walnuts evenly over the top, pressing lightly with a spatula to embed them partially in the batter.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center has moist crumbs clinging to it. Do not overbake. Cool for ten minutes before cutting into about sixteen pieces. Dust lightly with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Per serving
143 calories, 3 g protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 7 g fat (2 g saturated), 11 mg cholesterol, 62 mg sodium.

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