For busy moms, getting dinner on the table night after night can be a challenge. So it’s no surprise that they often rely on fast food, takeout, and convenience meals like macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and fries. The kids love it, but the drawback is that little twinge of guilt moms feel every time they feed their family another marginally healthy meal. At the end of the day, many children end up with a poor diet high in sugar, saturated fat, and calories. . . a major factor in the rising rates of obesity.

High-profile dietitians Janice Bissex and Liz Weiss show fellow moms a better way. In their book, they offer realistic guidelines designed to give families a healthy meal makeover. The duo’s 5-Step Meal Makeover Plan begins with new advice on how to market good nutrition to kids, establish food rules, and make life easier in the kitchen. Their Best of the Bunch Chapter reveals which brands of kid convenience foods—hot dogs, frozen pizza, and more—are the best- tasting and most nutritious ones out there. They follow up with tips for stocking a healthy pantry, and then serve up 120 recipes for family favorites such as Fast-As-Boxed Macaroni and Cheese, Squishy Squash Lasagna, Cheesy Broccoli Soup, Sweet Potato Fries, and Chocolate Pudding with Toppers. All come complete with nutrition information and have been made over to be faster and more nutritious than the originals.

The Moms’ Guide to Meal Makeovers tackles what’s wrong with today’s all-American diet and offers realistic and delicious ways to improve it.

"[T]he book presents relatively simple ways of bettering recipes' nutrition by substituting lower-fat and lower-sodium ingredients and by always paying attention to labels." Booklist

For the legions of harried moms who need to get dinner on the table each night, a guide to making (and making over) fast and healthy food and getting kids to eat it.

A former dietitian for the U.S. Senate, Janice Newell Bissex, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., is a sought-after speaker, spokesperson, and nutrition consultant for restaurants and food companies. She lives in Melrose, Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters.

Liz Weiss, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., is an award-winning television journalist who has covered health and nutrition stories for PBS and CNN for more than a decade. Currently, she reports for CNN and is Contributing Editor for Health magazine. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.