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The Dinner Diaries | 
 enlarge | Author: Betsy Block
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $4.86
You Save: $10.09 (67%)
New (27) Used (10) from $4.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 65655
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 261
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1565125703
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.92398
EAN: 9781565125704
ASIN: 1565125703
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships from PA, 15-day return for any reason.Brand New Book, Fast Shipping, thank you for your order.
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Product Description
"I'd always thought food was pretty straightforward: you're hungry, you eat; you're not, you don't. Then I became a mother." So begins Betsy Block's humorous, life-changing book on the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. But how is her plan even possible when eleven-year old Zack's favorite food is Halloween candy; little Maya is so picky that she'll only eat cut squares of white bread; and her husband's idea of a gift is an electric fryer?
Determined not to give up the good-food fight, Betsy comes up with a creative ten-step makeover plan. She consults experts, visits farms, and shows how she and her family manage the pitfalls, struggles, and triumphs of eating well when busy schedules, surreptitious lunch trades, snack machines, permissive grandparents, and willful temptations intervene. With helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids, The Dinner Diaries chronicles one family's intrepid ten-month challenge to change the way they eat—one forkful at a time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A real mom with realistic, well researched advice July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book has great advice with lots of humor and wit---it's a fun, easy read with awesome tips to help create healthier eating for your family (and bonus! a healthier environment too). The key tips are pulled out in the book and there's a great reference area in the back---chapters focus on daily life of eating with children (and a picky husband to boot!) and what to do about fish, meat, produce, plastics, sustainability, fair trade and much more---it's all thoroughly researched but focuses on what a busy mom wants---the bottom line! The author and her family are very real and very relatable---whether you have picky or very healthy eaters or somewhere in between, you will truly benefit from this book...and laugh.
Funny, mom on a mission narrative, loved it. July 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After finishing "Dinner Diaries" I quickly ordered several copies for friends. This book is a must read for anyone who has ever thought twice about the real nutrional value of family meals. I've admired The authors writings from her Boston Globe days. How great to see her go from food critic to food sleuth. The research is astounding, from dietary nutriontists to the Marine Stewardship Council. The expert advice is all woven into an extremely funny mom on a mission narrative, I devoured it.
Laughter and change - one dinner at a time July 15, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
A fantastic read written by a mom that is passionately concerned with the
health of her kids and the health of the planet. But, forget those preach-y
'you should' books - this one will have you laughing out loud out as you
follow our heroine's adventures and misadventures (a day of cooking
authentic colonial food, a lice outbreak before the girls 'n grains dinner
party) on her journey toward a healthier, more sustainable diet. Her can-do,
realistic attitude is a breath of fresh air. Yes - eat food, not too much,
mostly vegetables - sage advice. But throw in a couple kids, school lunch
cafeterias, Halloween, a picky husband and the challenges of eating local in
a cold climate and it gets just slightly more complicated. The triumph of
this story is that she pulls it off - with humor and imperfection - and
shows all of us out here in the trenches that doing the right thing when it
comes to food is possible, enjoyable and absolutely essential to the health
of our kids and our world.
I laughed, nodded my head, and we're already eating better July 15, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Well, I had all but given up on my efforts to encourage healthy eating in our family. I am a tired, older mom of 2 kids who would be happy with mac and cheese and fishsticks for dinner every night, as long as it included a sugary dessert. I was giving in to their food "choices" more and more frequently, and then I read this book. Not only did it make me laugh and feel like I wasn't the only one being bamboozled by my kids, it has re-energized my efforts to steer us all back to healthier and more delicious eating habits. Reading this book felt like I had lots of support from a mom who knows exactly what I'm going through every day as we swim against the tide of our culture's eating habits. It's readable, relatable, and relevant, and I thank Ms. Block for being able to share her journey with such humor and candor.
 A Schizophrenic Journey Through All the Fads July 11, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
She quotes Michael Pollen's Omnivore's Dilemma several times, but perhaps she needs to read his more recent In Defense of Food. While some may find her seemingly random meanderings entertaining, I considered it agonizing.
She rips the "Certified Organic" movement a new one on page 19, yet her "Dinner of Her Dreams" at the end of the book contains "calcium added organic orange juice, organic peach and apricot juices..."
By the way, what do the terms "calcium added" AND "organic" mean together? Oh and "Certified fair-trade chocolate". She sounds more like a well marketed to mom than someone who's gone through any type of a journey.
I'll admit I skipped about 50 pages, but man, Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. Michael Pollen started your journey; you should have just waited for his next book to end it, sparing at least this reader the details in between.
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