i was wondering if any of you girls have any favorite low calorie cookbooks? i am looking to buy one and don't know what to get. i need one badly though! i am tired of making the same low cal meals over and over and over and over...
any suggestions???
gabrielbeth

I subscribe to Cooking Light and I have a couple of their cookbooks. I love love love Cooking Light! The recipes usually come out fantastic--you would never know that they are low calorie. My SO has even commented on how great some of them are. Also, they are generally right on with the nutritional info. I always recalculate the nutritional data on my own and I've found other cookbooks aren't always accurate (for example, Better Homes and Gardens is often off, sometimes by quite a bit). Most of the recipes are easy to moderate in difficulty and don't call for hard to find ingredients. If you don't want to subscribe to the magazine, they publish a bunch of cookbooks (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/...Cooking+Light), including some that are specifically for quick and easy meals. Or you could just buy the annual compendium (includes all recipes published in the magazine for the prior year).

I also like the Better Homes and Gardens Healthy Family Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069...=UTF8&s=books), although the recipes aren't as consistently excellent as Cooking Light. But my edition is several years old, so they may have improved it.

Finally, I have the American Heart Association Quick & Easy Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/060...413436?ie=UTF8) and if you are looking for super easy peasy recipes, this is it. I do find that the portion sizes are often small, so I end up increasing the recipes a bit (e.g., if a recipe calls for 3/4 ground beef, I make it an even pound). I always aim for 4 oz of meat per serving and this cookbook definitely doesn't do that. Also, the recipes can be a little bland, so I always add more spices than called for. I think the cookbook is aimed at seniors who don't need to eat as much and don't like spicy foods. And the cookbook would have you drain your 93-95% lean ground beef then rinse it with water in a colander to remove that last 5-7% of fat. I tried this and I don't recommend it. 5-7% of fat isn't very much in terms of calories or nutrition but it sure makes a lot of difference in flavor.

- Barbara

I find used cookbooks at Thrift stores...kinda sad they are almost always brand new looking...

My favorites at the moment are Weight Watchers Simply the Best - 250 prizewinning family recipes (1997) & Prevention's Quick & Healthy Lowfat Cooking - Featuring Cuisines from the Mediterranean (1994).

What I look for in a good cookbook...does it give nutritional information per serving? Does it have ingredients I can actually find? Does it look like stuff I might actually eat?

I love WW Cook it Quick and Take out tonight. I got them from Costcos for about 9 dollars each.