[eyre13]

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has tried any of the Hungry girl recipes/cookbooks? I'm trying to eat better, and avoid "diet" foods and such (first, because of cost, but also because I'm trying to cut out processed things.) I was wondering if any of the books would be worth the money.... I know a lot of hte dessert things I can't do, as I'm allergic to Splenda (weird, I know.)

Thanks in advance!

[aimeebell]

Many of her recipes include reduced calorie/reduced fat processed foods. If you are trying to eat more whole foods and less processed foods, I don't think the Hungry Girl cookbooks would be the best fit for you.

[kaplods]

I don't use a lot of processed foods (but there are a few I won't give up, primarily sugar free, artificially sweetened beverages and on rare occasions jello gelatin and puddings).

For me, artificial sweeteners are a sanity saver. I use a lot less than I used to, but I don't know if I'll ever knock it down to zero, mainly because I have such a strong hunger response to "real" sugars.

I bought one of the Hungry Girl cookbooks (the "200 calorie" one), at a thrift store.

I was able to adapt some of the recipes to more whole foods (for example using a mixture of ground almonds and flax seeds in place of the bran cereal she uses in a lot of recipes).

I love and collect cook books and I have a "policy" that works for me. I don't pay more than $5 for a cookbook unless I've browsed it first (I'll order it through my library if possible first).

I have to say that in terms of whole foods, Hungry Girl's cookbooks comes closer than the JoAnna Lund cookbooks (the undisputed queen of processed diet foods in my opinion). Not that there aren't a few Lund recipes I've come to rely on.

(No matter how junk-free I get, I don't think I can ever give up my light lemon-shakeup lemonade or my frozen strawbery daquiries I learned from one of the Lund cookbooks).

The original strawberry daquiri recipe called for frozen strawberries, Diet Mountain Dew, bottled lemon or lime juice, and dry sugar free strawberry jello mix (it had to be Jello, because any other brand of sf gelatin would make the daquiri gritty).

The jello was completely unnecessay, so I now just use frozen berries and either diet lemonade or lemon lime soda (usually using Splenda as the sweetener). A little liquid makes a great sorbet, and more liquid makes a nice frozen daquiri.

[eyre13]

Thanks ladies! I was a little afraid of that. I did the whole diet and eating diet foods once before and things didn't work out well.

I like your $5 rule kaplods! I am a cookbook junkie too!

[theCandEs]

I have one. She has some good recipes, but she does rely heavily on low fat stuff. I'm a low carber, so I don't cut back on the fat too much. I do like some of her salads. I just use regular dressing instead. Since I stopped using artificial sweeteners, I find it hard to use some of the recipes, though. If that doesn't bother you, then you might really like the book.

[fillupthesky]

you can also check out her website and sign up for her daily emails- you can get plenty of recipes and other fun food news emailed to you. also, a lot of her recipes (in cookbooks or not) are archived on her website.

[Jerbs]

I got all of her books from the library. As opposed to using the recipes straight out of the book, I have used it to come up with ideas of what to cook and adapted it to suit my needs. For example, a neat thing she suggests is to use old fashioned oat meal, but doubling the liquid with one cup of almond milk (non sweetned) and 1 cup of water and cooking it much longer. It comes out creamy and the Almond milk adds some fiber and other things that I thought was cool.
I am the type that can't follow recipes, I always have to do it my way. But these cookbooks have opened my eyes to pairing different things together that I normally wouldn't, and methods of cooking that are new to me.
That said, I am also not a buyer of books, so I will get the info I need, and return them to the library.