Cook books!

I want to hear suggestions for a cook book, cooking magazines, websites, etc. that have good, healthy and low-fat EASY recipes that I can make! I've been looking to buy a cook book for awhile now, but there's soooo many options out there I don't know what to choose! Suggestions?

EatingWell magazine and Cooking Light magazine!!

Both also public cookbooks... EatingWell has a good one called "Healthy in a Hurry" and another called "EatingWell Serves Two" 

 

CookingLight also publishes "special all-recipe editions" that are themed.  For example I have one that is soups and stews, and one that is easy weeknight meals.  I get them in the magazine section at Target.

The Weight Watchers cookbooks are also good (and they have a magazine now.)

EatingWell and Cooking Light also have really good websites where you can get the recipes.  I still like having a cookbook for browsing and getting ideas.  Honestly I cook out of one of those books or magazines almost every night.  I love having so many ideas at my fingertips so I don't have to cook the same thing over and over.

The EatingWell cookbooks also include a lot of technique hints about things like cooking dry beans, various grains and other stuff that needs a special trick you might not know. 

I got 2 as gifts in Dec.  My fav is "Cooking Light", (I like pictures) and so far, seems easy and quick.  My other one is "Moosewood" low fat.  Very interesting recipes and the ones I've tried so far are a big hit.

edit:  another thing with newer cookbooks I like, they have prep time plus nutrition info.  After many yrs of cooking the same things, and eating the same things my entire life, I was tired of everything.  I like the new flavors.  I'm using more curry and other spices.

I'm a fan of the World's Healthiest Foods website: www.whfoods.com =)

 I have that Moosewood lowfat cookbook also, and really like it.  There's another really excellent Moosewood one called "The Moosewood Entertains". 

I like Light & Tasty.  It is published by Reiman Publications.  www.tasteofhome.com is their website and you can also find a lot of recipes there.

My current favorite is Meals in Minutes by The American Heart Association.  Every recipe has nutritional information. 

Suggestion:  Go to the library and look at the low calorie cookbooks there before buying one.

If you have a slow cooker Fix It and Forget It Light is great!  Tons of easy recipes that use items you always have around.

I wasn't crazy about Fix it and Forget it Light. Too much "add one can of cream of _____ soup".

I prefer Not Your Mother's Slowcooker... the recipes aren't light but most of them are easily modified to be more diet-conscious.

I'm a big fan of Cooking Light, the magazine and the cookbook.  I would also recommend to you the South Beach Diet Cookbook, which has some great basics and they are all lower in fat and have only good carbs! Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals are also quick and easy and there are pics.  I got that one for Christmas.

 I have so many cookbooks, I just love to pour over them and create menu ideas.  If you ever get ambitious, I recommend Donna Hay (Australian Chef/Author) who does amazing things with food.  I am very inspired by her cooking, as well as that of The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten.  Stay away from Paula Dean and all that southern fried stuff!!!  Love it, but can't eat it right now!!

There is a great Rachael Ray cookbook called "30 minute get-real meals"... the recipes are all "lower" carb without being NO carb (for example a pasta dish that uses half the pasta and twice the vegetables.)

 

 

My favourite low fat cookbook is called One Smart Cookie by Julie Van Rosendaal. It's full of quick and easy low fat dessert recipes. I also like the Eating Well Serves Two, and Almost Vegetarian by Diana Shaw, which is out of print, but you can find it at your local library.

My favorite one is the Pillsbury Good for You cookbook. It has lots of quick and easy recipes that are pretty low in sodium, low in calories, and with quite large portions. Some of the recipes are pretty crap but a lot are quite good!

My first cookbook, and still one of my favorites, is Cooking Light's 5 Ingredient 15 Minute cookbook. None of the recipes will actually take only 15 minutes, but it's still remarkably quick and easy and filled with with yummy ideas.

Cooking Light & Moosewood are great. Those have been mentioned.

The Joy of Cooking has lots of great healthy recipes as well. Of course there are also lots of not so good for you sections too. However, it is such a wonderful, basic cookbook with recipes that are hard to screw up too bad. I have learned so much about cooking from it, which makes me love cooking, which in turn inspires me to cook healthy dishes rather than phoning in a huge order of pad thai. :)

I love my Moosewood book- I use it all the time! It really is a must have!

I get a magazine from the UK called Good Food- I really like it...

I shall now proceed to look at Cooking Light- that sounds interesting

Hi!

I highly recommend The Ultimate Healthy Living Plan and its supplement, Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health.  These two books have been dubbed "The Bible" in our house - super healthy, uber tasty, low cal, low fat recipes.  Most utilize spices instead of salt, always favour whole grain over processed bleach grains, and are easy to make.  :)

Soooo many great responses! Yay! :-D Thanks everybody, I'm going to the bookstore tomorrow! ;-)

How it All Vegan, The Garden of Vegan and...the other one written by the same woman. I Love these books.  they are (obviously) vegan but you could use non vegan ingrediants as well, they are great and  have really quirky comments throughout as well. healthy and unique recipes!

I subscribe to Light and Tasty as someone already suggested. It's a pretty good magazine. For websites, my favorite is recipezaar.com. They have thousands of recipes and you can type in what you're looking for and lots will show up in your search results. There's also allrecipes.com which is also good.

i love my new joy of cooking.  aside from the thousands of recipes, it's a great reference book and will answer just about any food question you have (including many of the questions that are asked around here).  it has a massive chart of nutritional information on whole foods, conversion charts, and a whole "about foods" section.