Best Cookbooks for Weight Loss
My favorite cookbooks for keeping healthy eating interesting and delicious!
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When you are trying to lose weight or get healthy (which are very intertwined goals, as I always stress), you are a huge step ahead if you make more of your meals at home. When you are preparing your food, you control what goes in it. It also does not need to be difficult. With a bit of foresight and preparation, you can make easy, healthy, delicious meals. Remember that I am not suggesting you cook ALL your meals - life is too short not to go to restaurants.
However, these are my favorite cookbooks of all time. I have had several of them for at least 10 years and continue to come back to them, which is a testimony both to how good they are and how creative they inspire me to be with new recipes. Below please find my forever favorites:
This is the quintessential book on the health benefits of eating the rainbow. This is more of an educational book, but I put it on this list because it also has lots of recipes, each loaded with produce.
Most importantly, this book was foundational for how I created an eating plan to rebuild my body after a doctor in the ER told me I was going to die, so I will tout this book forever. There is a 7 color salad recipe included that is great to keep in the refrigerator, especially during weeks when you will be eating out a lot, during the holiday season, or right after you get back from vacation and want to reset your body.
Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World.
This was my first of the Lisa Lillien books. She has easy recipes with interesting twists focused on low calories and fat with increased fiber and healthy ingredients (for example: pumpkin). It was initially published in 2008 so does not include new-ish miracles like frozen veggie noodles or frozen riced beets, there is still a lot of innovation here. (And you can easily substitute zucchini noodles for the tofu noodles discussed in the book.) Favorite recipes:
1. Buffalo Chicken Choppity Chop. A buffalo chicken salad with a method for “breading” the chicken that is genius. Frank’s Red Hot is high in sodium, so go light on it and watch your sodium intake for the rest of the day. This feels like an indulgence but is pretty healthy.
2. Crazy-Good Turkey Taco Meatloaf. This provides a good dose of veggies (double the amount if you really want to go wild) and a solid amount of protein. Serve over Mexican-style cauliflower rice or mashed cauliflower and a sprinkling of chopped scallions or chives and a dollop of extra salsa.
Side note: I suggest subbing low sodium taco seasoning.
3. Fiber-ific “Fried” Chicken Strips. Another genius breading technique, and this one is heart-healthy and full of nutrients!
From the Men’s Health series Eat This, Not That! It takes restaurant favorites and makes them healthier. In other words, this is a whole health approach to food that aims to truly satisfy cravings while also fueling your body.
Side benefit: it includes recipes for necessities like homemade pickled jalapenos, pickled onions, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, and pepperonata. These are five seemingly simple yet difficult to perfect basics that can take flavors to new levels while also giving you a nutrient boost.
In addition to these…my favorite recipes:
1. Green Chile Cheeseburgers. This is a juicy burger covered in roasted green chiles and cheese than comes in at just over 300 calories, including the bun and is loaded with veggie toppings. They even give you recommendations for the bun! Your mouth will water when you see the picture in the book.
2. Turkey Sandwich with Guacamole and Bacon. A healthier take on a Quiznos sub, this is broiled, comes out all ooey and gooey, and is another example of hearty decadent takeout that won’t weigh you down. It is a sodium splurge though, so go light on sodium for the rest of the day.
3. Blackened Fish Sandwich. Avocado, sriracha, red cabbage, Greek yogurt, and lime are but a few of the stars of this recipe. Hard to eat just one.
4. Butternut Squash Ravioli. It’s hard to sub ingredients in this dish, but they knocked it out of the park. Using wonton wrappers, it’s the perfect blend of savory and sweet and incorporates balsamic vinegar (which is what I think takes it over the top).
Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals.
I bought this for my dad then stole it back from him. You will find fast and easy meals (in her signature 30 minute style), with each recipe also including a shopping list. The quintessential convenient cookbook. Favorite recipes:
1. Turkey Burgers with Horseradish and Cheddar Cheese. Horseradish clears your sinuses, and cranberry sauce as a topper provides an interesting yin-yang balance. My recommendation is to get lean ground turkey and low fat cheddar, and also consider adding sliced onions on top for serving.
2. Good Fennels Pasta. Here is a unique pasta recipes utilizing fennel, which I consider an unsung hero. I don’t like sausage so recommend substituting a different protein or leaving it out entirely (though you might need to adjust how you salt it as a result). Pasta with fennel, cubanelle peppers (another love of mine!), and tomatoes is both traditional and unique.
Weight Watchers 50th Anniversary Cookbook.
This is exactly what you’d expect. It’s a good foundational cookbook for lightened up classics and modern classics. Favorite recipes:
1. White Bean Tomato Dip with Grilled Peppers. I could eat this stuff with a spoon. Its creamy, tangy, savory, and delicious and perfect for those looking for Mediterranean diet recipes. The peppers are an unexpected dipper, and I now use them for pretty much all dips.
2. Creamy White Bean-Parmesan Soup. In case you couldn’t tell, I love cannellini beans. This is a thick, creamy, filling soup that taste decadent but is loaded with protein and fiber. Props also to the use of low sodium broth.
3. Chicken with Lemon Caper Sauce. I love this so much that I adapted the sauce for salmon. I love lemon in everything, both for the flavor and the unabashed nutritional benefits. This particular recipe is versatile because you can make it Italian, Greek or French based on the herbs you use.
4. Salmon Cakes with Red Pepper Sauce. This is a fun twist on crab cakes that gives you a serving of omega 3 fatty acids. The sauce provides vitamin C, calcium, and extra protein thanks to Greek yogurt and jarred roasted red peppers. Its an easy recipe that looks elegant and more complicated than it is. Save this for a special date night, a family holiday, or even as appetizers for a party (just make the cakes bite-sized).
Here Lisa makes a second showing. She really is creative in the kitchen though, and what I like even more about her recipes is that they spark ideas about how to adapt and create interesting meals in a healthy way. Favorite recipes:
1. MMM-azing Mini Mushroom Tartlets. This is a really easy appetizer using frozen phyllo dough shells filled with mushrooms, onions, garlic, and scallions, all powerhouses in the white group of the produce rainbow spectrum. This is a great recipe to add to your winter mix because its filled with immunity boosters. Also, these are friggin’ delicious.
2. Dan’s Snazzy Green Pepper Pizzas. I like to think I’m creative with veggies, but I never would have though of using bell peppers as the base for a pizza. This is basically just a vehicle for produce and cheese, and REALLY GOOD at that.
3. Turkey Reuben Quesadilla. I highlight this one especially since it seems really wrong to put sauerkraut on a quesadilla. Except no, it’s so, so right.
While grain bowls aren’t terrible tricky, the good ones owe that to their dressings to up the interesting factor. That is precisely what you’ll find here. This book includes delicious, unique dressings, humus, and combinations that aren’t necessarly common in the American diet, as evidence by my favorite recipes;
1. Sauces in general: smoky carrot sauce, pomegranate dressing, beet yogurt, chipotly yogurt, and tahini goat’s yogurt. Thes all have beautiful colors (and remember that you eat with your eyes first), with tangy and distinct flavors that make your meal more satisfying. Also there are plenty of nutritional benefits the main ingradients for all of those.
2. Watermelon and halloumi. I’ll bet you usually combine watermelon with feta or goat cheese? Well this is a fun twist.
3. Beet falafel on cauliflower and broccoli rice topped with chipotle yogurt. These recipes provide protein, antioxidants, fiber, and tons of flavor. It’s the interesting flavor profile that is what makes healthy eating separate from deprived eating.
4. Pea and feta omelet. When is the last time pears are the veggie you put in an omelet? But now it’s all you want, correct?
5. Roasted cauliflower and beet yogurt. Cauliflower is the du jour vegetable/vegetable sub for every carb source, so why not make it the star of the show? Especially with a unique and flavorful sauce like beet yogurt!
6. Sweet potato falafel. I am all for any winter root veggie that can be made into a veggie burger (which falafel is essentially a form of). This cookbook make me look at both sweet potatoes and beets creatively!
The pictures in this book are downright artistic, and I defy you to substitute a collection of internet recipes for it. There are many ideas here that you probably wouldn’t even think of, all housed under one proverbial roof.
Feed Your Best Friend Better: Easy, Nutritious Meals and Treats for Dogs.
In case you also have a pup, I had to include something for them! I have a Lab, which as a breed convinces you that they are constantly starving. As a result, I have to be careful with what I feed Colonel Mustard, including being judicious with the treats. This book has some great recipes for special meals for dogs, and even meals that both you and your dog can eat (you get added spices; don’t worry). And it is perfectly acceptable for you to make fun of me for putting this on the list. The Colonel’s favorite recipes are Salmon Patties and Sweet Potato Fries (for your human portion, you add minced onions to the first and salt to both).
Now that you know some of the cookbooks that are timeless for me, do you want more nutrition tips and tricks? Subscribe to my newsletter to get fresh weekly information direct to your inbox!
