Cooking Light

LOVE the idea of this book but I've got several issues with it. 1. Most of the breakfasts are carb-based. Muffins, pancakes, biscuits, and other whole-grain options. Very few offer any kind of protein heavy dishes, which dieters know, is what sustains you to the next meal. (If I at 2 biscuits for breakfast and nothing else it'd last me about a half hour before my tummy was growling and I was searching for my next bite.) 2. These meals look fantastic but aren't realistic. There are show more ingredients in these dishes that you'd have to buy a whole package of something for, but then nothing else to use them up on. "Mr. Stripey Tomatoes", "Maple Smoked Bacon", "Giardinieras" (whatever those are) and "Coconut flour" being prime examples - and that's only in the first half of the book. Just not the average items to keep in the pantry - and these random things are in many of the dishes. That being said, truly, I love the idea of this book - it's exactly what I've been thinking about doing myself with a three-ring binder. :) show less

More recipes from Cooking Light Magazine have made it into my repertoire of favorites than from any source other than my mom :) and this book of 200+ recipes promises some more (including most of the entries in the fish/shellfish section!).

Its premise promises dishes with either 5-ingredients max (not including salt, pepper, etc.) OR preparation time of 15-minutes max, and it mostly comes close to delivering on that (when considering just the assembly/cooking time, not also the show more sometimes-significant mise-en-place prep time). The ingredients are mostly common, but combined in fresh ways -- some are “whole” and some are semi-prepared timesavers (e.g. chicken stock, rotisserie chicken, canned beans … and even Kashi 7-grain waffles, which in one recipe are topped with arugula, goat cheese and eggs, yum!).

It’s a beautiful book -- smooth, heavy paper (I did have to stress the binding to get the book to lay flat); good organization and layout; nutritional information (fyi: most recipes serve 4-6); and beautifully styled, full-color photos for about 2/3 of the prepared dishes. The food really does look fresh and colorful, and overall I’d characterize the vibe as what you’d see on the menu of a hip-comfy restaurant. It’s a keeper of a cookbook.

(Review based on a copy of the book provided by the publisher.) show less

Cooking Light books are always a delight. Unlike so many Kindle books, Cooking Light books includes photographs that give you a nice idea of the finished dish. The directions are clear, and many of the menu items look tasty. Usually, these books merit five stars, without question.

However, unlike Cooking Light Slow-Cooker Tonight!: 140 delicious weeknight recipes that practically cook themselves, which I finished just before this cookbook, Cooking Light, Fresh Fast Food: Weeknight Meals show more relies heavily on ingredients difficult to access in the hinterlands, such as the Indian spice garam masala, "meatless" meatballs, jicama, vegetarian "frozen meatless crumbles" -- whatever they are, heirloom tomatoes, baby arugula, mango nectar, basil- and garlic-flavored polenta in a tube, English cucumbers, Israeli couscous, prosciutto and goat cheese. I live in Louisville, whose the metropolitan area tops 1 million, and I can barely get some of this stuff! Imagine how hopeless it would be in rural Vermont or a small town in Mississippi -- or the rural parts of my own state, for that matter! I think that the editors of Cooking Light magazine should have suggested some substitutions for those who can't buy jicama and prosciutto at their supermarket and who can only dream of specialty stores.

That said, quite a few of these recipes remain accessible to cooks from Key West to Kotzebue, Alaska, and are they quick! In addition, as you expect from Cooking Light, they include little touches such as marinating some meats the night before that take little time but add so much flavor. I'm very glad that I bought this cookbook, and so will you. show less

This is an older cookbook that I found a copy of at the thrift store a whiiiile back, but have just recently really went through, reading over recipes, marking ones I am interesting in making, and cooking from it. First of all, I have a ton of pages marked. I have cooked 6 recipes from here recently and each one has been amazing. The ones that I have made so far have been: Nonstop, No-Chop Chili; Sloppy Joes with Corn; Southern Shrimp and Grits; Sirloin Steak with Tarragon-Garlic Sour Cream; show more Penne and Chicken Tenderloins with Spiced Tomato Sauce; and Parmesan Chicken and Rice. Both my husband and I have commented that each one would be something we would want to make again.

Besides the great tasting recipes, let me get into some of the other reasons that this is one of my favorite cookbooks. I love a cookbook with pictures! I have made some recipes from books without pictures, and don’t necessarily only make recipes that have photos, but it makes it so much easier to flip through and decide what you feel like making for the week plus it shows you what the end result should pretty much look like. This in particular can be helpful with something like the Sloppy Joes I made, to see how thick or thin their resulting mix from the recipe was. Each recipe in this book includes a photo.

Another reason I really like this book is the general layout of the recipes with the ingredients, the instructions, the serving size and nutrition facts, quick tips, the photo, and a side bar Menu that gives you side options and even short recipes for simple sides to go along with the recipe. This side bar also includes a “Game Plan” that gives you tips on when to prep which parts, including making the provided sides, to be most efficient in getting everything done at the same time.

Lastly, each one of these recipes has been so quick and easy it has kind of surprised me. I am so used to spending longer on cooking things that either taste about the same or not even as good as the recipes from this book. I will say that some of the recipes recommend short cuts like buying pre sliced and chopped, frozen, or otherwise prepared produce and I typically opt out of those choices and just do fresh, but even then it didn’t take that long to make the recipes that I did. I am excited to try out some of the others I have marked very soon! show less