Customer Reviews

The Best of Cooking Light: Over 500 of Our All-Time Greatest Recipes

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am rarely a collector of "Best of" anythings, usually finding them too confusing and incomplete. Besides, who's deciding the "best"...?

This book is an exception. As a seriously addicted Foodie, my new cookbooks are read as I would a novel; from cover to cover. If there is a recipe that I want to try I mark it with one of those little colored post-its. This book is full of little purple post-its. Even though I subscribe to the magazine of the same name, and make at least one thing out of it each month, there is something quite satisfying about having all 500 of the "best" recipes in one volume, without all the ads.

Pictures are divine. The instructions clear as a bell. It has recipes for novice and intermediate cooks alike. Some recipes are quick to prepare and others can take awhile. But none are very complicated. I made the "Gorgonzola Fettuccine with Asparagus" in about 25 minutes (including preparing the asparagus) for a surprise lunch guest, and the very nice "Eggplant Parmesan Lasagne" in about an hour when my guy and I decided last minute to nix dinner "out". The "Caesar Potato Salad" was oh-so-good with a roasted chicken on a busy Sunday (the touches of anchovy paste and vermouth were fun.)

Almost every recipe makes some sort of substitution in the name of lower calories and fat, satisfying the "light" part of the title, but this is not a low-carb book (thank goodness...) I like having the nutritional information handy, even if I don't feel like planning a meal around it!

Bottom line...nothing out-of-this-world innovative or exotic or too new, really. But good, interesting, easy to prepare, lower calorie, everyday recipes in ONE volume. A great book to add to your collection or give to the beginning "foodie" in your circle!

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I tend to be critical of the new additions to my cookbook library. This book has turned out to be a little gem with only a few areas that I would change.

The book is subdivided as follows:
Appetizers and Beverages
Breads
Fish and Shellfish
Meatless Main Dishes
Meats
Poultry
Salads
Sandwiches
Sides
Soups
Desserts

The recipes in this book have great taste, balanced nutrition and straightforward preparation. The instructions are very concise and easy to follow for both the novice and seasoned cook alike.

My overall observations about the book are as follows:

Pros:
1. Book covers many ethnic cuisines in its recipes
2. The recipes are always very good, and differ little in taste compared to the high fat versions
3. Recipe directions are very thorough
4. Bread section is very nice, and many of the recipes are quicker than most bread books
5. Complete Nutritional Analysis is given for each recipe (Calories, Fat, Saturated Fat, Protein, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Cholesterol, Iron, Sodium and Calcium)
6. Most recipes have a full color picture provided in the book
7. Nice sturdy binding that will stand up to many years of constant use


Cons:
1. Shortening (aka: Trans fat) does show up in some of the recipes. I expected cooking light to specify the use of the new trans fat free shortening and they did not.
2. I could have used a little more whole-wheat flour and less white flour in the recipes as well.

As a reader of Cooking Light for about a decade, I have always been pleased with their ability to take a standard "unhealthy" dish and improve its nutritional statistics. In all those years I have yet to find a Cooking Light dish that didn't taste great. I give Cooking Light kudos for making over many of my favorite recipes so that my family can enjoy them more often.

I have given this book 4 stars instead of 5 because the editors did try to make the recipes healthier by reducing the white flour where appropriate and by eliminating standard shortening and recommending trans fat free shortening instead. Overall it is a very solid healthy cookbook, but their is a little room for improvement.

"The Best of ...." books are ideal for people who don't subscribe to the magazine, and I don't. What this book does is clearly point out that the idea of cooking light doesn't have to be the usual bland stuff.

When I opened the book it fell open to Roasted-Poblano Guacamole. Wow! Then I flipped a few pages and came up with Buffalo-Style Catfish Strips. Double Wow!

There's a whole section on breads. I don't normally bake, but their Jamaican Banana Bread just happened to fit the ripe bananas sitting on the counter. The rum, pecan and coconut topping for the bread sounds great. The bread has just finished cooking as I write so I can't tell about it yet (too hot). I had to sample the topping while preparing it and it's wonderful -- just like the whole house smells.

This book is organized by the big dishes: breads, meats, soups, desserts, etc. The only real question is how light can these foods be, yet the banana bread took half or less of the sugar that most banana bread recipes require. That's a lot lighter. Highly recommended.

This is one of the best cookbooks I have. Unlike some Cooking Light cookbooks I've seen, this one is not filled with ethnic foods or bean dishes. Normal, delicious food with a gourmet flair, easy preparation with most ingredients on hand. Portion size in the Cooking Light series is surprisely generous. The nutritional value is a plus. The only problem I have is that I purchased it from a Cooking Light promo, paying $30. Buy it at AMAZON!!!!

I don't think I could ever ask for a better cookbook. This one has EVERYTHING! Ethnic dishes, great desserts, vegetarian and meaty dishes! You'll never need another cookbook. And the best thing? TONS of *large* mouth watering pictures. At least 1/3 of the dishes listed are accompanied by a picture. I sit down and flip through this book even when I'm *not* the one cooking dinner!

Only thing to keep in mind that the meals in this book are only light when the suggested serving size is consumed. However, the book makes it easy for us healthy eatters by providing the calories, fat, protein, carbs, cholestoral, icon and sodium percentages of each dish!

I can't say enough good things about this book! Buy it!!... and while you're at that, buy one for your mother, sister, best friend and third cousin-twice removed too!

99% of the recipes I've tried have been a hit with my family, which includes 2 grade-school-age kids. (If you subscribe to Cooking Light Mag., you know the recipes are hit-or-miss, but this book compiles all the best ones--staff and reader nominated.) I do have to disagree with another post that said the recipes are easy and use ingredients you already have... if you don't have time to cook, some of these recipes will be too cumbersome for you. (Think roasting and peeling your own peppers for an otherwise simple guacamole.) The ingredients lists are also quite long for most recipes. They will force you to use lots of things you may not be used to, especially veggies and spices.

That said, I have had great fun trying new things. Cooking Light does a great job of emphasizing flavor without much fat. The pizza recipes are great; you can skip the homemade dough for the crust and use frozen. I've had some great sandwiches, too.

I love all of the cooking light cookbooks, but especially this one! I like it because it has a lot of pictures (I believe that pictures are very helpful when cooking something new), and the recipes are fantastic. Cooking Light recipes are healthy, but don't sacrifice flavor. My husband, who hates anything even slightly "light" enjoys the food from this cookbook. I highly reccommend it, and all other associated books.

The food actually comes out like the pictures, with minimal effort. And the dishes taste great. They really are pretty healthy. I've only made a couple of dishes. One was a pepper steak with mushroom sauce. Now, this tasted like something that was loaded with calories, but the amazing thing was that it wasn't. The same goes for a potatos au gratin dish I cooked. Normally very cheesy, but this had a little blue cheese, and no-fat milk with a little italian cheese sprinkled on top. Very nice. I normally hate cookbooks because they are too complicated to figure out, and the food never comes out the way it should. This book is different.

This cookbook from Cooking Light has many of my "tried-and-true" favorites. People tell me that I am a great cook but the truth is that I know which cookbook to use. I have made a lot of homemade bread but Angel Biscuits which use three levening agents are the easiest and the best I have ever tried. The Maple Glazed Salmon draws great reviews with quests and my husband loves the Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread. Actually, every recipe I have tried from this book is excellent. It is a mainstay in my kitchen. I wouldn't be without it.

We were given this cookbook for Christmas and have made over 20 recipes since then. They have all been excellent. This is the cookbook we turn to first when looking for something new and delicious. The recipes are not difficult and do not call for uncommon ingredients. They are very doable for the everyday cook. If I could only have one cookbook, this would be the one. The chocolate bread pudding is over the top!