This book is a great resource for recipe ideas that are about as low-cal as you wish to make them. I see lots of reviews angry about the over-dependence on processed foods in this book - if you have concerns about a particular ingredient, simply use the real one. The general rebuttal that I see to this is "then the calorie counts go up!" however if you utilize a calorie database (such as calorieking.com) and do your own math, you may find that the counts do not go up as much as you might expect. For example, instead of 2/3 cup egg substitute (90 calories) you can use one whole egg and two egg whites for 104 calories. Recipes that call for granulated splenda usually use it in small, sparing amounts - using real sugar instead is not going to inflate the calorie counts beyond all reason. Add these simple changes to the fact that MANY of the recipes in the book manage to be under 200 calories, let alone 300, and you'll find there is a lot of wiggle room. Also, ultimately, 300 calories is not very much for a meal. Use better ingredients and bring it in under 500 and you are still doing a fine job at a healthy meal.
My favorite thing so far in this book is the cupcake lasagnas (see the picture I added under customer photos). I use low-fat rather than fat-free ricotta, a bit less mozzarella to offset that, and one real egg instead of egg substitute. I am fairly certain that with these changes this meal has no processed ingredients, and a delicious muffin-sized lasagna comes in at only 163 calories. And that's even with the little dollop of neufchatel that I hide in the center of each lasagna! At 163 calories you can eat 3 of these with no guilt and that's a LOT of food. This is just one example of a recipe that I never would have discovered without hungry girl!
I've also made several of the egg mugs and oatmeals in this book. In my egg mugs I use a real egg and then egg whites rather than egg substitute but these wonders still usually come in under 200 calories and are so filling. I had never heard of egg mugs before the book.
The desserts are also tasty, although these are one category where you'll need to get creative if you want to avoid processed ingredients. It's a fact of life that desserts tend to be bad for you, and she does a great job lightening them up without sacrificing taste.
In conclusion - I'm VERY happy with this book. I don't follow the recipes to the letter when I want to use more natural ingredients, but that's ok. A little imagination and it is a fabulous foundation for great meals.
