(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)

By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

As the holiday season is about to get underway, what could you use more than a food substitutions bible? I've found season after season that David Joachim's "The Food Substitutions Bible: More than 6,500 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment and Techniques" has gotten me out of more jams than a helpful elf ever could have.      

It's the best substitutions-savvy tome I've come across. There really is no replacement for this 700-page helper that concisely describes more than 6,500 stand-ins for ingredients as well as equipment and techniques.      

Joachim has weathered his own scrapes in the kitchen while authoring 30-plus cookbooks, including the first edition of this book, which won the prestigious International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) award.      

He and his fans felt a fatter edition was needed. He added more than 1,500 additional substitutions. His substitutions are usually one-on-one direct and as easy as pie. For instance, if you don't have the heavy metal pellets that are used to weigh down a pie crust while blind baking (baking the crust without a filling), replace with dried beans.       

If you don't have a pie pan, his size chart clues you in to what to use instead. No jar of pumpkin pie spice (the convenience many of us have come to rely upon)? No problem. Joachim will tell you the individual spices to emulate. In fact, if you want to customize that spice helper, add, to taste, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.      

And it goes on, such as the fresh pumpkin substitutes that will kick off a list of Joachim's examples below. Helpful, too, are his many back-of-the-book ingredient lists, which compare large varieties of everything from rice, to potatoes, to oils, to coffee, to crabs, to olives.

•  - If you don't have fresh pumpkin, substitute with: canned pumpkin puree (to replace mashed pumpkin), chopped butternut squash, chopped buttercup squash, chopped sweet dumpling squash, chopped Hubbard squash, chopped calabaza or chopped sweet potato.   

For further reference: 1 pound of fresh pumpkin equals 1 cup cooked and mashed; 1 (15-ounce) can of pumpkin equals 1&3 / 4 cups mashed; and 1 (29-ounce) can of pumpkin equals 3&1 / 2 cups mashed.     

•  - If you don't have mozzarella cheese, substitute with: Scamorza, Caciocavallo, provolone, string cheese, queso blanco, Bel Paese, muenster, Gouda or fontina.      

For further reference: 1 pound of low-moisture mozzarella equals 4 cups shredded.      

• - If you don't have 1 tablespoon chopped fresh lemon balm, substitute with 2&1 / 2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint plus 1 / 2 teaspoon chopped fresh lemon verbena; 2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh lemon basil or holy basil; or 1 to 2 teaspoons lemon zest.      

For further reference: 1 ounce of fresh lemon balm (a minty lemon herb often used to season salads, poultry and meats) equals 2 cups chopped or 1 cup of fresh chopped equals 1 / 4 cup dried.     

• - If you don't have a spatula, substitute a pancake turner (for turning and gentle scraping or stirring) or a clean flexible spackling knife or dough scraper (for spreading for stirring).     
• - If you don't have a fondue pot, substitute a heavy earthenware or stoneware pot set over a low flame or on a warming tray; a heavy-bottomed saucepan (enameled cast-iron works particularly well) set over a low flame or on a warming tray; or a chafing dish set over a low flame.       

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Pumpkin pie spice (the store-bought mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice) as an autumn toast topper that's often enjoyed by kidlets, too, is tasty mixed with stevia, or another natural zero-calorie sugar replacement. It's an excellent variation for the old-fashioned favorite cinnamon-sugar toast topping. Another bonus: Not only is cinnamon considered a super spice that health researchers have studied for its medical benefits, but so is ginger. 

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet(Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.