30-Minute Meals Posted to Teevee at 12:25 PM on Oct 14, 2004 « Magnolia | Main | Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee » I used to like this show. I still do. It's nice to see someone so enthusiastic and passionate about food. And someone who admittedly doesn't use any fancy gadgets. Some people find Rachael Ray annoying. I admit, she is quite perky. She giggles a lot. She has a habit of saying the same things over and over. But I don't care. She's easy to follow. Her recipes work. And she doesn't take herself too seriously. Watching her is like having a friend teach you to cook. But. Racheal has become a carb person. She has surrendered to the food police and now offers low carb, low cal recipes. That is, in addition to the two or three already on the food network that, might I add, I flip away from as fast as possible. I don't want to cook low-carb food. I hate this whole low-carb business with a white-hot passion. And it's disappointing to see Rachael jumping on the bandwagon. When she's not doing that, though, she's such a valuable resource. She has good ideas on how to speed up traditionally time-consuming recipes. She obviously has a lot of food background and knowledge. Unlike, say, Sandra Lee. My favorite shows: the French food show and the Rainy Day Relief show with the sausage and Broccoli Rabe soup. Her three-bean chili is a staple at my house. I get a kick out of the labels they make for the cans and boxes Racheal uses.