You CAN trust a skinny cook ;-)

Phew, well that’s good to know! Have any of you seen Cook Yourself Thin? It’s a cooking show hosted by 3 lovely ‘skinny’ gals all about healthy cooking. I think I’ve seen every episode, and there’s only repeats on now, but I loved watching how they turned every day food, like lasagna, pizza, cakes and more in to healthier meals.  Allison Fishman is one of the hosts and she recently released a cook book ‘You Can Trust A Skinny Cook’.

You Can Trust A Skinny Cook was created with the home cook in mind. Before making the cut, each recipe had to pass the following tests:

1.Are the ingredients in this recipe easy to find?

2. Is the recipe easy to make?

3. Will you have fun when you make this at home?

4. Will you be proud of what you made? (will your friends and family lick their plates?)

5. Does it taste good?  Really good?

The one thing I struggle with when I get a new cook book is “what shall I try to cook first?” Instead of stressing about what to make (especially for this review) I decided to just enjoy the cook book and browse it slowly, read the recipes, and of course linger over all the mouth-watering photos.

 

At the beginning of each recipe, Allison writes a little personal ‘blurb’ (for want of a better word), I think it’s like getting a  letter from your girlfriend, telling you why they loved the recipe, or what happened the first time they made it.  That’s why I’ve been enjoying browsing this book so much.

 

There’s other pages too scattered throughout the book that read like an even longer letter. Seriously it makes me wanna pick up my pen (or type on my keyboard!) and send a good ole fashioned snail mail letter to my friends :-)

but, back to the recipes…. I loved the look of this one, roasted beet salad with goat cheese and walnuts. I just picked my beets from the garden this week, but I didn’t have any goat cheese in. I still roasted the beets (something I’d never thought to do, as I always like mine pickled!) and they were delicious. I am so getting the rest of the ingredients to make this next week, (and unfortunately I’ll have to buy beets cos I have none left in the garden).

  I decided I’d try a cookie recipe this week.  Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I have to be honest, just a choc chip cookie doesn’t really do it for me . . . well ok, they’re good fresh out of the oven, but my favorite cookies usually always have oats in them. I would prefer an oatmeal and raisin cookie over a chocolate one any day. I love the chewiness of them, and the oats make them much more satisfying.   This recipe had everything I loved about a cookie in it.

The only thing I didn’t have on hand was dried cherries, so I used dried cranberries instead.

Let me tell you, these cookies were DELICIOUS! Seriously delicious. Allison’s goal in adding chocolate chips and cherries was to make these so satisfying, one would be enough. I have to say, they were so good it was VERY HARD not to have more than one! Each cookie had 100 calories in it. They were soft and chewy and warm and  . . .did I say delicious?! 

I have to say though, by the next day the cookies were rather crispy, not chewy at all. I don’t think I over baked them because I baked them for 5 minutes less than the recipe said. But I also have to say, that as a crispy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, it is still seriously delicious:-)

There’s so many more great looking recipes in this book. I can’t wait to try more.

 

** I received a review copy of this book from Wiley publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are 100% mine **

Weight Watchers – Cookbook Review

Some time last year, as a way to encourage myself to eat healthy I decided to ‘splurge’ and buy the Weight Watchers At Home Kit. I didn’t want/need to go to meetings and at the time I didn’t want to join the online program either. The At Home Kit was perfect for me. I received lots of motivational books, along with the WW food calculator, cookbook  AND a free subscription to their magazine (which I love).  I stuck with the plan for just a few months though, then kinda fell off the wagon during the Summer and Winter months.

When I decided I needed to get back on track with better eating and exercise I was a little sad to find out that Weight Watchers had revamped their whole program! It was now called Weight Watchers Points Plus. It meant all the material I’d just invested in was rather obsolete, even the calculator wouldn’t calculate the food points correctly (all that had changed too). But still, I was sort of excited too. A new year was approaching and I really wanted to get back to eating healthy (I’d really let me myself over-indulge during Christmas!).  So, this time I DID join on line, and 5 months later I am still following the plan (most of the time) AND still feel motivated because I check in with a group of girls at the forums every day. Accountability is the key.

I bought a new WW calculator but I didn’t buy a new cookbook. I had to recalculate the points of a recipe when I made it using my new calculator. . . . .  that is, until now.

Now I have :

Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook, 4th Edition. And it calculates the PointsPlus for every meal :-) 

The WW New Complete Cookbook has been completely revised and updated to reflect the way Americans are eating today. Packed with 500 delicious and nutritional-conscious recipes, this new edition of the cookbook helps people stay on track and achieve their weight management goals, including information and values for those following the new PointsPlus program.

When I first received the book I spent most of the evening just browsing through it slowly. Turning every page and almost drooling at some of the wonderful photos!

Really? Nachos Grandes!!  That’s what I love about Weight Watchers – NOTHING is off limits :-) The book is filled with great recipes from Breakfasts and Brunches to Slow Cooker Classics and everything in between. My only problem?   . . . deciding what to cook first!

I decided to make this Chicken and Rice dish. It looks so savory, AND I had all the ingredients in.

To be honest looking at the recipe photo, I thought the dish might be rather complicated, but I was happy to see there was only 4 steps to it, and step #1 was preheat the oven to 350!  This was going to be easier than I thought.

I didn’t have ‘chicken parts’ (breast, drumstick and thighs') just skinned chicken thighs, so I used those….. sautéed in a pan til browned (then remove)

then cook bell pepper, celery, garlic and onion for about 5 minutes. I added some small diced patty pan squash that I just picked from the garden too :-)  Next I stirred in a can of tomatoes and some chicken broth, once it was boiling I added rice and oregano (I didn’t have any saffron that it called for).

Transfer everything (including the browned chicken) to a casserole dish and cook covered for about 25 minutes until chicken is cooked, then add some frozen peas and cook covered again for 15 minutes.  I took this picture before I’d added the peas!

   

Just as I expected, this was a really savory tasting dish. I loved the veggies in it and the thighs were really nice and moist. I had more of this the next day for lunch and the flavors were even more intense.

I can’t say enough good things about Weight Watchers, I love that I can eat all of the things I like, nothing is off limits. It’s teaching me to watch my portion sizes and to eat lots more fruit and veg (all free points) :-)  I can’t wait to try more recipes from the book.

 

** I received a review copy of this book from Wiley publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are 100% mine **