We are very excited to have partnered with By Grace Ministry to bring a sugar-free, low glycemic cookbook to Canada! Food for Life is a recipe collection from Mennonite ladies across North America who have discovered that their traditional family and church recipes can indeed be made healthy and completely compatible to a healthier lifestyle of eating.

Margaret Raber along with many other women combined their talents and produced this nearly 350-page, full-colour cookbook, ranging from your favourite appetizers to the most decadent, time-honoured desserts. Included are recipes for your own baking blends and sweetener blends, as well as an entire section devoted to canning and preserving in a sugar-free, slimming way.

Margaret chose creative titles to mark the different recipe sections as low-carb, low-fat, or a combination of these two fuels. These recipe sections are easily recognizable by their titles, “Pass the Butter,” “Crucial Carbs,” etc.

Also included is a well-written explanation before each recipe section. To quote a small section from ‘Pass the Butter’: “For years we’ve been told to ‘stay away from fats.’ But that’s not true! Our bodies and brains need healthy fats to function best!! Butter, coconut oil, and olive oil are great ways to get this vital yumminess in!”

As one particularly fond of canning and preserving my own food, I was elated to discover there was an entire section of tried and true canning recipes! From freezer jam, to pickled peppers and beets, sugar free ketchup and spaghetti sauce, relishes and fruit, the options are ALL there! No more feeling stumped about sweetener quantities and whether it will affect the preservation. It’s been figured out for you!

And finally… What sort of recipes should you expect? Here is just a sampling.

• Baked Macaroni and Cheese
• Soft Serve Ice Cream
• Blended Caramel Frappe
• Cranberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
• Creamy Fruit Salad
• Over Fried Chicken
• Jalapeno Poppers
• Strawberry Pretzel Salad
• Mini Pecan Tassies
• Mustard Eggs
• Taco Bake
• Wet Burritos
• Chicken and Rice Delight
• General Tso’s Meatballs and Rice
• Grape Nuts
• Peach Crisp
• Slow Cooker Baked Beans
• Sourdough English Muffins
• Creamy Finger Jello
• Raspberry Lemonade
• Apple Cake with Butter Sauce
• BBQ Buffalo Chicken Nachos
• Monster Cookies
• Peanut Butter Granola

These are just a sampling of the over 300 recipes you will find contained in this gem of a work. One thing I found to be a bonus with these recipes is that it is good solid, simple cooking with very few special or fancy ingredients. Most of the main dishes use foods easily found at your local grocery store, and most of the baking recipes include recipes for your own sweetener blends and flour mixes. Score for those that like a simpler cupboard! Below are a few pictorial samples with the ingredients removed for copyright purposes.

If you live in the USA, you may be able to find this book at your local bookstore, or you can order from By Grace Ministry directly.