As you might expect, I have a lot of cookbooks, old and new, sweet and savory, healthy and decadent. The division between those last two types of cookbook always seems more important around the beginning of the New Year, since many hope to add new and improved eating habits to their list of things to accomplish during the year. The difficulty with cookbooks is that all to often "healthy" books are unfairly labeled as not being worth it, with bland or boring recipes that can't compare to the ones found in the more "decadent" cookbooks.
While it is true that the more fattening, higher calorie recipes usually taste good (assuming that you're using a good cookbook in the first place), so can the healthier ones. And this year, there were plenty of health-conscious cookbooks released to add to your collection, whether you are looking for something healthy or just for some that that tastes good.
Comfort Food Makeovers and Fast Food Fix both remake recipes into lighter versions without sacrificing flavor. The Biggest Loser Cookbook is based on recipes that worked for contestants on the hit show, and The South Beach Diet Parties and Holidays has a good selection for entertaining. Perfect Light Desserts has lots of lightened sweets recipes
Other health-conscious books include What to Eat to help you shop more effectively and choose nutritious foods, The Healthy Lunchbox has a selection of kid-friendly, easy to make lunches that are better than most school-provided alternatives. California Squisine is another fun, kid-friendly book to encourage kids to eat right (without knowing they're doing it). Diabetes Meal Planning Made Easy is a great resource for those who really need to manage their food intake to deal with diabetes.
Cakes so amazing they'd be hard to cut into
Fruit juice: An invitation to diabetes?
Morbid thoughts? Have a cookie
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-03-2007 @ 3:15PM
Carrie Gamble said...
I read with interested you article about healthy cookbooks. It's so true that even if they are healthy, if the recipes are bland why would you bother making them? In my family we like to explore new and different recipes but always end up going back to what is tried and true.
I have published a cookbook, Grandmother's Cookbook. My grandmother, Elizabeth Rose von Hohen, and I worked together to preserve all of the recipes she had accumulated over the years. Many were not written down. What we ended up with was a treasure, not only for our family, but for many other families to enjoy and share. Our book is a slice of "living life the old fashioned way" with comfort food recipes, memories, wildflower watercolors and feelings from the heart.
We recently launched our website: www.grandmotherscookbook.com. Please visit it if you have a chance to learn more about our book. As a cookbook lover I think you will enjoy the site and our cookbook. I would be happy to send you a copy for review. With your permission, I would love to link our site to yours perhaps through a review of our cookbook on your blog.
You may enjoy reading a recent review which was published on "The Burning Void" website. Here is the link: http://www.burningvoid.com/weblog/reviews/2007/01/
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