J gave me a new cookbook for Christmas and I love it!!! It's the America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. 
I get "Cook's Illustrated" magazine and absolutely love it. They work to perfect the recipe and then share the science behind why things work and don't work. It's fascinating! I know I can trust any recipe I pick up from them. BUT...they're focused on flavor, not health! So while their recipes make FABULOUS special occasion meals, it's not an every day thing. Until this cookbook!- It's healthy, but not diet. (No fake sugar or butter here!)
- It's family friendly, but not casseroles.
- It's a binder, which means it stays open well. Isn't it annoying when bound cookbooks keep closing on you when you're trying to cook!
- Its glossy pages are splatter-friendly. You can just wipe them off!
- It's BIG! Over 500 pages! Many pages have two or more recipes per page!
- It has handy references! It will describe a simple preparation for a fish filet, chicken breast or pan-seared steak and then several sauces, relishes, vinaigrettes and marinades.
- Illustrations! Many (most?) recipes have an illustration and there are many step-by-step illustrations throughout the book.
- Tips! Throughout the book it has taste tested and recommends various brands as well as off-the-wall tips. Who knew anchovies in your beef stew and vodka in your pie crust would make such a HUGE difference!
Here are some big hits that I've made:
Chicken:
- Spa chicken (no oil) with mushroom-marsala sauce
- Chicken fajitas
- Roasted chicken breasts with root veggies
Vegetarian:
- 10 veggie stew
- Wheat berry and arugula salad (pictured)
- Salad with roasted peppers and black beans
- Stuffed acorn squash with barley
Meat:
- Pork chops with port wine and cherry sauce
- Beef stew
- Flank steak with salsa
Can you tell I like this cookbook? I should get a commission. :) The best part is that when J gets home from work, he plays with Abigail while I make dinner. It's fun for me to get back into cooking (which I love) and brings such joy to my heart to hear Abigail cooing at her Daddy! She's in love, just like me!
8 comments:
I may have to try it. I love the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I don't have any, but a friend lent them to me when Claire was in the NICU. She said, "I thought you might want something to read, but don't have the energy to get into a novel so I brought these for you to flip through." She was right! I really enjoyed reading snippets of the science behind the recipes, and all the experimenting they did with the ingredients, while spending all those hours in Claire's little NICU pod. You can only stand there and look at the baby for so long before you just want to sit down and read, especially when you can't hold her.
Maybe I'll ask for that one for my birthday next month.
Sounds like a great cook book. I need fresh ideas!!
Yummmmmm...sounds awesome to me! I may need to check that out!!
I ordered it. I can't wait! Sounds delicious (looks delicious)! :):)
Sounds like a cookbook I might need to check out!
As I've been doing my Bible in 90 Days reading, we started with Psalms a couple of days ago and I loved coming to Psalm 34. My only experience with it has been your blog title and I loved reading it in it's context, but also recognizing verse 3. It was like a light in a dark tunnel :).
You are amazing! Those sound so good.
I'm def going to have to do the salad pictured...that looks delicious!!! Grace in My Heart has this too and recommended it. I had it up on amazon to order and then forgot. Thanks for reminder...ordering now!
Ooh...that looks like a good one! I'm so with you on the bound cookbooks. I don't know why anyone even makes them bound anymore. I think I'll have to check this one out. Heading to Amazon now! :)
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