Just watched part of Dr Oz and say the idea to substitute club soda or diet soda for all the egg/oil/water in a cake mix. any one tried this or any other Hungry Girl recipes? I really want to make substitutions as I find I do better keeping off weight when I do not have to give up anything but can make lower calorie versions. Nottoo sure about her Red Hot Apple Pie in a cup tho'

My family personally loves her recipes. They are all easy and kid friendly. As far as subbing for cake recipes, we have been doing that for years due to allergy issues. The cakes are moist and tastey, and you can add a package of fat free sugar free jello pudding powder for an even tastier cake. Our fave is white cake, vanilla pudding, and diet orange soda. Creamsicle cake!
Her egg mugs are all easy breakfast fixes, and I like the pasta swaps (but be sure to rinse the noodles VERY WELL!). My hubby's fave is her Hot Hot Boneless Buffalo Wings. I thought the Red Hot Apple Pie looked good, even bought the red hots for it, but it has been too hot here weather wise for me to want to make it.

Of the ones I've tried, many of them are good (or not too bad and are better with some substitutions).

The cake thing totally works. Just add soda until it's the right consistency and bake like normal. It tastes the same and it's SUPER moist! One of my friends HATES recipe substitutions because it changes the taste, but he really loved the soda cake.

Some recipes are kind of high calorie for low-cal options, though. I tend to work those so they're lower.

If I want cake, which is a rarity, I will have a piece of "real" cake. That's my personal philosophy but I don't struggle with indulging like many others here seem to. That said, the recipes offer some good advice on ingredients and techniques that will "lighten up" recipes that you just can't live without (if you're that type). What is horrible is the sickeningly sweet style of writing the recipes and website are written in. The whole thing reads like it was written by a sixteen year old from Orange County. If you can get through that, I bet her stuff is pretty good.

I have tried quite a few of the HG recipes and enjoyed them. Give them a shot!

My friend swears by her recipes. Also, I'm a calorie count member and they recently started sending out some of her recipes in emails Today I got a butternut squash fries recipe that I want to try.

My mom and I are going to try the cake thing one day. Out of pure curiosity really. We're usually a "if we are going to have it we're going to have the REAL THING" type of people.

I've made cookies before using applesauce. Apparently they taste better according to my brother and my fiance.

I haven't cooked anything from hungry girl but Skinny Taste is probably my favorite cooking blog right now.

I've always wanted to try the cake mix and diet soda thing out of curiousity (kind of like I like to add Mentos to pop for fun - I'm a little nerdy), but am a little boggled by the the idea that it's that much better for you. Most cake mixes take 2 eggs = 140 total for the whole mix. That means a reduction of 12 calories per serving (6 calories if you do 24 cupcakes like I do). Water adds no calories, and the oil can be subbed with no sugar added applesauce (and I never measure it - just add 1 of those little snack cup ones that I swipe from my kids' snack stash). I don't understand the logic behind adding chemicals and artificial sweeteners to a cake mix that already has all the sugar in it? And yes, I do drink diet Coke - not anti-artificial sweetener, just don't see why it's needed.

Have tried a few other recipes and liked them.

I've only made one (the turkey veggie mini meatloaf) and it's awesome!

Does anyone have her book? Curious as to it's worth getting...

I thought about getting one, but it was too expensive to justify me getting it (especially when I get all my recipes online anyway). I just went to my local library and perused a couple of them. I just copied down the recipe or scanned the pages.

Unless you really want the book (if so, go for it!), it's easier to just pick and choose out of the recipes because some of them use expensive diet food substitutions. I usually can't afford them. So I alter the recipes anyway.

I was looking at the recipes online and started to add some to my fav list! But there was another book on there about shopping for groceries. I think it's $7 on Amazon. Have you seen that one?

That's my philosophy as well. For me, periodic indulgences are a must. I've never liked junk food, so most of my indulgences run toward high-quality desserts and such.

F.

I have two of the books (given to me) and they're loaded with fakey fake "diet" foods. If that's your thing, they're great. I think I did end up getting one soup recipe we use a LOT around here, but that's about it. There must be 9834 variations on packaged oatmeal, which I just can not abide.

I'm not a health nut, I live on Diet Coke (I know, I know) but when you talk about heating up artificial sweetener, I get a little nervous. That seems to be what makes it iffy and dangerous (well, more so).

I agree with some posters that it some of the recipes are heavily "fake" in order to make it low calorie. I take the point about keeping the egg in and adding applesauce, but doesnt the applesauce add even more calories? According to HG, you can save 100 calories per slice using the soda method.

Some of her substitutions have never made it into Jamaica so I KNOW I will not get like the pasta noodles here. When I am in the USA I can use some of the recipes but otherwise, I am thinking that a good vegetarian or low carb website will provide quality healthier recipe. I am surprised at her inclusion on shows where it seems that health is all the rage, yet she promotes so many "empty" foods or foods filled with artificial sweetner