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Secrets of a Skinny Chef
By Jennifer Iserloh
Photographs by Mitch Mandel
Rodale -- 2010
Buy it on Amazon

My winter diet weighs heavy on me... in every respect. I've allowed myself to eat as I please knowing that my down winter coat hides a multitude of sins. With the first buds of spring come the guilt.

So I turn to Secrets of a Skinny Chef. Initially I'm skeptical. Who wouldn't be? The cover says the recipes are decadent and guilt free. I expect there to be a contract with the devil in the appendix. Instead, there is the most unassuming bible of healthy, good eating.

See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.

Slashfood contributor Jennifer Iserloh , a.k.a. the Skinny Chef, is one of those cooks who somehow makes food that isn't drenched in oil, butter or any of those other fattening things that taste delicious. Her latest book is called Secrets of a Skinny Chef: 100 Decadent, Guilt-Free Recipes. In an interview she explained her philosophy and gave a few Skinny Chef tips.

Slashfood: What makes your cookbook different from the million other diet cookbooks out there?
JI: There are a lot of unusual flavor profiles. For example I have turkey tacos, but with star anise. The French toast I make is with orange marmalade and cardamom. So there are a lot of fun little twists with flavors. Making it a little bit more special, getting people accustomed to using spices and herbs in a new way but within the confines of the food they recognize.

I look beyond stats like fat and calories. I'm looking at things like iron content, vitamin C and fiber. So instead of using iceberg lettuce in a taco, I use spinach which is crazy good for you and it's going to boost the nutritional content.

Also I used to work in restaurant kitchens. I think a lot of the healthy cookbooks out there are done by nutritionists who don't necessarily have my food background.

Rhubarb grew abundantly in the corner of my granny's garden. I remember getting a sour whiff once of the dark green umbrella-like leaves that my grandmother warned me never to eat, since they are toxic. The reddish-white supertart stem on the other hand makes luscious sweet desserts if combined with sugar and sweet fruits, like apples for example. Cobblers instantly bring warm weather to mind and this one is a version that I have been making since I was in high school. Pouring boiling water over a topping made with cornstarch creates the amazing "shell" that guests at your dinner table will not forget once they've tasted it.

A lot of friends and readers ask why I call for margarine in my baked good recipes instead of butter. I'll admit, that I love the taste of butter but sadly it's extremely high in saturated fat. In just one serving of most butter rich desserts you can max out your saturated fat limits for the entire day, which means bad news for your heart. If you're having trouble preparing baked goods with margarine that melts a lot faster compared to butter, here's an idea. Freeze the margarine before you mix to improve texture of the dough comes out its best. Be sure to look for "trans-fat free.

Find The Skinny Chef's Rhubarb Cobbler recipe after the jump.

Meatloaf is one of those blue-plate specials that is still on my list as a comforting, satisfying meal that's perfect for winter weeknights. I like to shake up the flavor by adding new ingredients, or even stuffing it with something surprising, like gooey mozzarella and fresh baby spinach.

This recipe is updated with tasty, lean protein sources, including ground turkey, egg whites, skim milk and part-skim mozzarella. I've also substituted old-fashioned oats for the usual breadcrumbs, sneaking in better carbohydrates where no one will notice.

When these red bananas first caught my eye yesterday, I thought they were purple. Purple bananas? Well, there are purple beans, purple tomatoes, purple cauliflower -- so why not purple bananas?

Sounds like something out of an "Alice in Wonderland" garden, but I assure you that they're real and they're actually called "red" bananas. In fact, you might find an array of deep red and violet foods if you were to stroll through some people's gardens -- surely Alice Waters or Dan Barber might have fruits and vegetables from the darker spectrum of the rainbow.