Weekend Cooking: Cooking That Counts by Cooking Light

One of my go-to sources for good recipes and sane tips for healthful eating is Cooking Light magazine. In all the years I've been cooking from their pages and website, I don't think I've had a miss. Thus I was pretty happy when this Cooking That Counts by the magazine's editors (Oxmoor House, 2017) showed up on my doorstep last year.

I'm a little sorry I didn't write about this cookbook in the fall or in January, because it's great for helping people who made New Year's resolutions to lose weight, take charge of their diet, and generally improve their health.

Neither my husband nor I have any real weight to lose. On the other hand, we've noticed that as we age, we don't rebound as quickly from holiday eating or those occasional indulgences. That's when I really appreciate a cookbook like this, which lets me know at glance the nutritional and caloric breakdown of each recipe.

As you can see on the cover, Cooking That Counts contains meal plans as well as recipes. As with all these kinds of cookbooks, you can follow the 30-day schedule or you can pick and choose the meals that appeal to you (which is my style).

Cooking That Counts is specifically geared to people who need help losing weight, but the focus is on what you can eat instead of what you can't. The idea is that if you shop and plan ahead and have delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes at hand, you'll be less likely to turn to empty calories at mealtimes.

Each recipe is marked with codes so you can see at a glance whether it's dairy free, gluten free, low carb, and/or vegetarian. The calorie counts are also predominantly displayed, as shown on the cover. The recipes and meal plan assume 1,200 calories a day, but Cooking That Counts gives easy adjustments for adding more calories, if you need to eat more.

Many recipes are accompanied by full-page photographs (see the scans for examples), and all list exact serving sizes and cooking times. Throughout the book are weight-loss success stories from the magazine's readers, cooking tips, and shopping tips.

The recipes cover breakfast to dessert, alcohol, and snacks. Shown here are avocado sandwiches (339 calories), pork with an herb sauce (375 calories), lasagna bowl (398 calories), and maple-pecan bars (149 calories). The cookies, lasagna, and pork are gluten free.

The target audience for Cooking That Counts: I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for inspiration for weight loss and/or more healthful eating. In addition, Cooking Light's recipes are always easy to follow and use everyday ingredients, which would be appealing to new cooks and less confident cooks. People who are looking for heart-healthy and diabetic-friendly recipes will also find a lot to love in this cookbook. Busy cooks will appreciate the fact that almost all the recipes can be made in under hour, and a number can be on the table in under 30 minutes (like that pork dish).

Even if you're not in the target audience for Cooking That Counts, you might want to borrow it from the library, because you'll likely find some recipes that will catch your eye (stomach?). If you're new to gluten free or are looking for some low-cal vegetarian entrees, you too might want to at least take a look.

I have number of recipes marked to try, including lemon chicken skillet, slow-cooker flank steak, lemon ricotta muffins, orzo salad, salmon salad, and tamale chicken pot pies.

NOTE: Thanks to the publicist for providing me with a copy of Cooking That Counts for review. All thoughts are my honest opinion. All scans come from the book and are used here in the context of a review. All rights remain with the original copyright holders.

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