Now Stella is one of those remarkable individuals who has adored food all her life and, therefore, has centered her attention on its finer qualities, its taste, texture and fragrance, its preparation and its consumption. She has become an artisan in the kitchen.

Cooking is fun, but nothing compares to the eating.

Consumption of food became one of our author's more outstanding culinary accomplishments. Cooking and steaming, slicing and dicing are mute tasks if not accompanied by testing and tasting. Stella, during her years of passionate study and extensive practice, gained weight to match her broadening skill. The day came in Stella's life when food and its preparation looked back at her from the unkind mirror in the dining room. The young lady slipped into the over-sized category while braising duck in her secret honey-glaze.

In a race for priority, exercise gained the lead while creative cooking fell to a safe second. Walking and jogging led our determined heroine to marathon running and weight lifting, muscle and might. Stella is a warrior. She loves food no less and refuses to diet. She simply expelled the junk from her pantry, kitchen cupboards and bulging refrigerator. The troublemakers, bandits and thieves were last seen hanging out at the local landfill feeding the pigeons.

She emerged with the same brilliant passion for taste and creativity, but smothered it with purpose and sautéed it with loving care. Her thoughts: You eat to satisfy, delight and reward yourself, of course, but you eat to serve well your marvelous body and its needs. There is no joy at the expense of your health.  If you are a warrior, you will find protein-rich meals for muscle building, energy-packed snacks for high performance, pre-game power meals for the dynamic athlete, smart and constructive dishes for the heavyweight seeking a fighting weight and meaty feeds for the active lightweight striving for solid mass.

Simple, nutritious and mouth-watering quick fixes are on every other page for the taste-conscious, weight-conscious kitchen-lazy. There are daring, high-value meals to suit the fastidiously slim.

Unique kitchen tips and hints, food-processing cues and generous contributions of culinary wisdom add variety, ease and fascination to your kitchen and food preparation.

There are so many cookbooks on the market, who can count them? Stella's Kitchen spills over with imagination and simplicity, flavor and goodness. It's a book for the high performer and fit, the bright-spirited and enthusiastic, the creative who seeks superior health and long life, as well as the self-considerate and hungry obviously, you.

Dave Draper
Mr. America, Mr. Universe
Author of Your Body Revival: Weight Loss Straight Talk


The food thing...We are more influenced by food than we are religion, politics, family and friends. A good meal outshines a sunny day. Conglomerates are formed, consequential disputes are settled and proposals of marriage are made over the gracious sharing of pleasurable food.

We eat everything from frankfurters to frogs and Snickers to snails. Food is in the air, in the seas, underground and grows on trees. It's everywhere. We can't live without food, yet because of our love affair with it, we severely compromise our health and shorten our lives. We eat downright bad foods, too much of the wrong foods and not enough of the right foods, and we eat in excess. Oh, boy, do we eat.
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Foreword
Dave Draper