Grab that e-cookbook and get to making dinner! Credit: mccun934

I’m far from being a foodie. I’m the kind of gal who worships Rachael Ray for giving the world 30-minute meals. I’m lazy in the kitchen, and I get really frustrated when a recipe calls for a hoity toity ingredient that can only be found in Timbuktu. Luckily, the kitchen gods took pity on me and sent me three new cookbooks—and all digital at that! With the all-powerful internet, I was able to download the different e-cookbooks to my eReader and start cooking up a storm.

I chose one recipe each from The 50 Best Superfood Recipes, The 50 Best Salad Recipes and The 50 Best Rice Cooker Recipes e-cookbooks. Each one was super-duper easy and scrumdiddlyumptious. I swear I got major sugar-free brownie points from the fella for cooking like a legit big kid.

When it comes to cooking, there’s hardly a person who isn’t wooed by the words “quick” and “easy.” Which is why the new The Biggest Loser Quick and Easy Cookbook is a no-brainer in the kitchen. With more than 75 healthy meals you can prepare in 20 minutes or less and six chapters of recipes for any occasion—Breakfast on the Double, Apps & Snacks Pronto, Speedy Soups & Sandwiches, Throw-Together Salads & Sides, Mains in Minutes, Lickety-Split Sweet Bites—you’re pretty much covered no matter what food you’re craving. With recipes like Easy-Breezy BBQ Pot Roast Dinner, Chocolate Pomegranate Protein Oatmeal, Olive Chicken Salad Pita, “Fried” Mushroom Parmesan Bake and Chocolate Raspberry Dreamers, hungry bellies looking to eat healthy are set.

Another recipe from the new Biggest Loser cookbook that we love? The one below for Sweet Potato No-Skins. The whole sweet-potato recipe that creates a healthier version of traditional fatty potato skins serves four and has 141 calories, 7 grams of protein, 21 grams of carbohydrates (6 grams of sugar), 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 7 milligrams of cholesterol, 4 grams of fiber and 283 milligrams of sodium in each serving. We can vouch that this sweet-potato recipe is as good for you as it is dee-licious!

I like to cook and all, but some nights I just want to make something that’s healthy, uncomplicated and quick. While many cookbooks claim to do this, a lot of times they require you to bust out about 20+ ingredients or rely on processed foods to make dinner easier to whip up. Heck, half of the annoyance of cooking is getting ingredients out and prepped, and these days I rarely buy anything that comes in a box unless it’s a whole grain. Well, Robin Miller of Food Network celeb chef fame heard my plea and created a new cookbook: Robin Takes 5.

Also a nutritionist, Miller’s new healthy cookbook features 500 delicious and simple recipes that require five ingredients or less (not including olive oil, salt and pepper, of course). Each recipe is also low in sodium and has 500 calories or less. While I wish the cookbook had just a few more color photos (I’m a sucker for pretty photos, I’ll admit), you can’t beat the recipes. Divided into chapters on soups, pizzas, pastas, poultry, beef and pork, seafood, side dishes and desserts, it has so many good ol’ standbys (hello, healthy fried chicken recipe we’re about to share with you) and more foodie flavors like Ham Wraps with Manchego and Figs or Prosciutto Panini with Baby Spinach and Fontina. Not to mention that each recipe clearly lists out its nutritionals, so you know just what goodies you’re putting in your belly!

Read on for Robin’s healthy fried chicken recipe from Robin Takes 5! ‘Cause everyone needs a little fried chicken every now and again…

The team at SparkPeople has done it again! Following their first book The Spark, which we loved, the free weight-loss site now has a cookbook to add to its list of accomplishments. And a tasty one at that! The SparkPeople Cookbook: Love Your Food, Lose the Weight, is full of tips, tricks, success stories and—of course—recipes!

Written by Chef Meg Galvin, who is one of only 20 female World Master Chefs in the world, a marathoner, mother of teen boys, and the healthy chef at SparkPeople, the book is an education in healthy eating and cooking. With the help of our gal-pal Stepfanie Romine, editor at SparkRecipes, it’s also an inspirational read that’ll teach you that, yes, you can have all good things in moderation. From comfort foods like Creamy Broccoli and Cheese Soup to more foodie finds like Grapefruit-Pear Salad with Fennel, there’s a little something for everyone.

To give you a taste of what’s in the book (and because, honestly, we have an obsession with healthy pizza), read on for a Pizza Margherita recipe straight from The SparkPeople Cookbook!

Recently a friend (thanks, Andrea!) gave me the cookbook Power Foods: 150 Delicious Recipes with the 38 Healthiest Ingredients. I enjoy cooking, and in the last few months, I’ve really fallen in love with preparing fresh, nutritious clean meals (I credit Trader Joe’s for much of it). Nothing overly complicated. Nothing stressful. Just good ingredients put together in a way that is healthy, delicious and—for lack of sounding totally corny—beautiful. Goodbye processed foods, and hello fresh tomatoes from the garden. See you later, boring iceberg salads. Hola, hearty shredded kale. And this book pretty much took my current love affair with fresh food and launched it to the next level.

Power Foods is part nutrition book, part cookbook. From the editors of Whole Living magazine, it lists 150 “power foods,” along with why they’re healthy, how to store them and how to prepare them. Most of these power foods you already know about—asparagus, Swiss chard, almonds, quinoa, broccoli—but it’s a good reminder, and the tips are beyond the gee-whiz-I’ve-read-that-a-million-times variety. Not to mention that each page has a beautiful color photo. Yeah, you shouldn’t judge a cookbook by its art, but it certainly doesn’t hurt when you have those nomtastic tomatoes staring at you on the cover.

Then you get into the best part…the recipes. I’ve had the Power Foods cookbook for about a month now, and have tried three recipes that have all been awesome. The photo on the cover of the tomatoes? Yep, made that.

Tomatoes are so a power food.

Simply sliced tomatoes, fresh herbs, and a spread made from blending tofu, oil and spices, on top of good whole-wheat bread, the Open Faced Tomato Sandwiches with Herbs and Creamy Tofu Spread on page 122 is perhaps the most perfect (yes, most perfect) summer snack EVER, especially if you have a garden.

I also tried the Chicken Breasts with Fennel, Carrots and Couscous—also delicious and simple to make. And, seriously, who knew that dried apricots could be so tasty? What really took the Power Foods cake for me though was the Kale Slaw with Peanut Dressing on page 310. It’s straight-up veggie heaven. If the fact that I’ve already made it three times in a month isn’t enough to convince you of its awesomeness, consider that it’s a fabulous way to eat kale raw without even realizing you’re eating kale (the peanut dressing is simply amazing). See?

Oh, how I love thee, delicious kale salad.

If you’re looking for a way to jazz up your meals to be a little healthier and a lot more beautiful, I highly recommend Power Foods. While I can’t vouch for every recipe in the book, the three I’ve tried have been stellar enough to put it on my cookbook shelf for keeps, yo.

What’s your favorite healthy eating cookbook? Favorite healthy power foods? Do tell! —Jenn

I had a thing for Rachael Ray back in the day. When she first came on the Food Network she was fun, entertaining and very personable. She seemed, and still seems today, like someone you could sit down and have a fabulous meal with. Episode after episode, she’d show me how to make restaurant-quality “healthful” dishes in 30 minutes or less. After watching her cooking show for about a year, I purchased one of her cookbooks and made a few of the recipes. To quote dear Rach, they were “yum-o!”

Then I became curious. Exactly how many calories were in that seemingly healthy Rachael Ray recipe for Indian Tofu and Spinach over Almond Rice (Rachael Ray: 365: No Repeats, page 156) that I’d made five or six times? After doing the math, I calculated that there were, in fact, more than 1,000 calories in each serving.

Holy flippin’ tofu spinach! Betrayed, I closed my cookbook.

Until now. After some time away from RR (which has been pretty darn tricky with her magazine and talk show everywhere), I’ve decided to give her another go. And, I’ve found that you can easily adapt any recipe that Rach can throw at you—no matter how fried, EVOOed or cheesy it is.

5 Tips to Make Any Rachael Ray Recipe Healthy

1. Don’t follow the serving size. Most of RR’s recipes claim that they serve four, but the portions are beyond enormous, so feel free to cut the recipes in half or be prepared to feed an army. At one point, I made her salsa stoup (Rachael Ray: 365: No Repeats, page 22), and after four days of eating it for lunch and dinner, I still had some left. I still don’t want to eat that damn soup again.

I’ve always loved the name of the Carrots ‘N’ Cake blog. First, because carrots are delicious. Second, because cake is delicious. And certainly, carrot cake is delicious. The word play is enough to make a writer like me giddy. And the message that a healthy eating plan should involve both vegetables and yumtastic desserts? Fully FBG approved. A few months ago I also got the chance to get to know Carrots ‘N’ Cake blogger Tina Haupert while doing an event for Thomas’ Bagel Thins in NYC. And she’s just like she is on her blog—down-to-earth, funny and totally fabulous to have a cocktail with. So when word came that Tina was writing a Carrots ‘N’ Cake book, we knew we’d have to read it! And read we did.

This book is like bundling the Carrots ‘N’ Cake blog into a cute little package that you can take to and fro. A mix of personal stories, advice about eating right and working out, along with actual exercise routines and Tina’s own recipes, it’s a book that you dog-ear every few pages because there’s either a tip or a recipe that you JUST HAVE TO TRY. (For me, that’s her pyramid running workout on the treadie and Cherry-Coconut Baked Apples.)

At times the format of the book is somewhat confusing in that she switches between personal anecdotes, which are told in almost like present-time fiction-like style, and a more objective tone that gives advice directly to the reader, but it’s also kind of cool because it keeps the book true to what it’s based on—a blog. Tina’s honesty in discussing her past challenges with binge eating and somewhat obsessive calorie counting lends more meat and candor to the book, making it feel part memoir and part self-help. Many of the tips you’ve probably heard before, but they’re presented in a new and interesting way.

Want to read the Carrots ‘N’ Cake book yourself? Leave a comment with why you want to win it, and we’ll select one random U.S. reader to win in about a week. The winner will be contacted by email. Now we’re off to have some carrots. And cake. And carrot cake! —Jenn

Grilling. Cooking out. Barbecuing. I honestly don’t care what you call it, so long as you invite me (and don’t ask me to man the grill—I’ve dropped too many goodies between the grates to feel comfortable flipping burgers).

Since I’m a pescetarian (I eat seafood but otherwise stick to a vegetarian diet), I don’t eat a lot of the standard items you find cooking over an open flame, like burgers, chicken breasts and hot dogs. And while I’m all for heating up a frozen veggie burger, especially if you dress it up with some green chillies and melted cheese on top, there are tons of really interesting, totally delicious, and surprisingly simple vegetarian recipes for the grill, and you’ll find more than you could possibly need in Cookouts Veggie Style! by Jolinda Hackett.

Vegging It Out on the Grill

As I sat down and began to read (What? You don’t sit and read cookbooks? You are missing out, y’all), I noticed that Hackett, who’s been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and a vegan for almost 10, really wrote this with both veggies and meat-eaters in mind. She suggests that meat-eaters cooking for vegetarians be considerate about vegetarian entrees touching a meat dish or sharing a utensil to flip them, which is something I guarantee your veg-guests will appreciate. In the same vein, she recommends that if you’re a veg with strong feelings about your meat-free foods staying far away from the rest of the food on the grill, offer to bring your own portable or disposable grill, or at least come prepared with tinfoil you can put over the grill to keep your tempeh from mixing with the bits of charred meat.

The book has chapters dedicated to appetizers, grilled salads, barbecue classics with a meatless twist, sandwiches and burgers, as well as specific chapters on tofu, seitan and tempeh on the grill. Recipes range from things I never would’ve thought to put on the grill (like the Camembert and Mango Quesadillas, which were basically made of delicious) to more expected items you’d have no problem feeding your meat-eating buddies, like Portobello Patties with Pesto Mayonnaise. Additionally, there are pizzas, desserts, fruits and all kinds of other tasty treats. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to dig this book—you just have to like food.

One thing I want to point out, however, is that it’s important to remember that just because something is vegetarian, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily diet-friendly. Ahem, see the Camembert and Mango Quesadillas above. But out of the 225 recipes included, there are tons of health-conscious options that are sure to leave you saying, “What cheeseburger?”

What are your favorite light or vegetarian meals for the grill? —Kristen

Yesterday I mentioned that a cookbook inspired me to take a look at my healthy lifestyle—both where I’ve been and where I’m going. And today, as promised, I want to tell ya’ll about the read that got my noggin’ (and my belly) excited: The Part-Time Vegan: 201 Yummy Recipes That Put the Fun in Flexitarian.

While it is a cookbook, in many ways it’s also a guide to learning more about and experimenting with a vegan diet, which, like I said yesterday, I’ve been doing somewhat accidentally as of late. But—and here’s the really cool and FBG-approved part—the whole point of this book isn’t about not eating meat or dairy ever again. Instead, it’s all about the tasty foods you can eat that don’t include animal products (a small yet totally significant difference!). In fact, the entire concept of the book isn’t about actually going vegan; rather it’s about trying a vegan diet just a few times a week. Hence the title. (All good things in moderation!)

With a fun tone that’s encouraging and never preachy, you get the basics on veganism and an awesome primer on the different (and sometimes unusual) ingredients that make up the basis of the 201 easy vegan recipes offered in the book. Among other healthy foodie ingredients, you learn about cacao nibs, agave nectar and tempeh, including where the heck to buy them and why they’re worth trying (again, in a very friendly tone that is pretty much the opposite of this vegan cookbook).

All of the recipes are divided up by type, including snacks, soups, salads, grains, tofu, etc., and there are 11 handy-dandy dinner plans that include multiple recipes that all pair perfectly for a vegan feast. There’s also a nice comprehensive index for easy browsing by ingredient, and each recipe is tagged for its benefits such as quick, high fiber and high protein. With a large mix of dishes that just about anyone will like (red beans and rice, oatmeal-raisin cookies and tomato soup), there are also a number of more adventurous and foodie dishes such as Barley Pilaf with Edamame and Roasted Red Pepper, Simmered Coconut Curried Tofu, and Pumpkin Maple Pie. And let me personally vouch for the Balsamic Vinaigrette recipe, which has become a salad standby at FBG HQ.

The only negative thing I have to say about this vegan cookbook is that none of the recipes have specific nutritional information, nor does it tell you how long each recipe takes to make (I love it when recipes tell you how long it takes to prep and cook). But really, for a cookbook that is this fun and makes trying vegan dishes not quite so intimidating? We give this healthy vegan cookbook the FBG Stamp of Tasty! —Jenn