This unique approach to slimming is based on a revolutionary concept - that of 'Free Foods' - foods you eat in any quantities, whenever you're hungry. And they aren't just typical diet staples such as lettuce and low-fat cottage cheese. Free Foods include pasta, rice, lean meat, fish, poultry, and fresh fruit and vegetables. Fancy a big plateful of vegetable curry with unlimited rice, or a pile of pasta with a spicy tomato sauce? How about a monster jacket potato with a tin of baked beans? Or a meaty tuna steak with a heap of ratatouille? Recipes such as Farfalle and mixed bean salad, Mild and creamy chicken curry, Fragrant pilaff, and many more besides, can be eaten as Free Foods when you are Food Optimising. Gone are the days of feeling as though you are missing out!

    In the 1960s, Edna Staebler moved in with an Old Order Mennonite family to absorb their oral history and learn about Mennonite culture and cooking. From this fieldwork came the cookbook Food That Really Schmecks. Originally published in 1968, Food That Really Schmecks instantly became a classic, selling tens of thousands of copies. Interspersed with practical and memorable recipes are Staebler's stories and anecdotes about cooking, life with the Mennonites, family, and the Waterloo Region. Described by Edith Fowke as folklore literature, Staebler's cookbooks have earned her national acclaim.Back in print as part of Wilfrid Laurier University Press's Life Writing series, a series devoted celebrating life writing as both genre and critical practice, the updated edition of this groundbreaking book includes a foreword by award-winning author Wayson Choy and a new introduction by well-known food writer Rose Murray.