Donna Hay is beyond fantastic, in so many ways. My mother tells this story of seeing her on CityLine (if you've ever lived in Toronto and watched TV in the morning or have a mother who did, you've seen this show), and she's on there, cooking and chatting up a storm, with a big rip in her sweater. Totally doesn't care. She's just a mom who wants to cook good food for her family that looks and tastes great, and that's exactly what her books and magazine are about.
This book, New Food Fast, is a godsend even for me, who only has one (albeit always very hungry) fiance to feed, and not two or three kids. Our deal is that I cook most nights and he does the dishes, and so although I sometimes find having to come up with the ideas for meals every night (this I mind more than the actual cooking of them), I don't have to do dishes, which I'm grateful for. But when I come home from work or school at 6:30, and Jonathan is already hungry, I need to find something that I make that is quick, tasty, and uses ingredients that I've already got. And in comes Donna Hay. The book is divided into chapters on meals that take about 10 minutes, about 20 minutes, and about 30 minutes. 10 minutes! How can you go wrong? And her ideas are delicious. How about Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Dill Sauce, Pasta with Scallops and Lemon Butter (drool), or Miso Soup with Chicken and Noodles? All in 10 minutes. None of her recipes has a ton of ingredients, they're all easy to make, and Hay is obviously as interested in variety and nutrition as she is in speed of preparation.
The other best thing about this book is the photography. Donna Hay has used the same food photographer for all of her books: Petrina Tinslay. Her photos are so gorgeous- fresh, colourful, simple, and absolutely delicious looking. I could just look at the photos and ignore the recipes and still think this book was a treat. I definitely need to work on building my collection of Donna Hay books, because one is definitely not enough.
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