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Cooking that Counts: 1,200 To 1,500-calorie Meal Plans To Lose Weight Deliciously
Cooking Light Magazine presents Cooking that Counts.
557 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2017
About the author
Cooking Light
260 books32 followersCooking Light is an American food and lifestyle magazine founded in 1987. Each month, the magazine includes approximately 100 original recipes as well as editorial content covering food trends, fitness tips, and other culinary and health-related news.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 4, 2017
Great cookbook for helping to maintain or lose weight. It's from Cooking Light who have made it easy to cut out calories from your favorite dishes while still maintaining the integrity and flavor of the dishes. This book also has some original fresh and healthy dishes that I will be trying out.
April 8, 2020
This book has some good looking recipe ideas which I plan to try, and also I like the general scheme of a meal-by-meal calorie budget, however I do have some big problems with the book in general and I would not recommend it for others to purchase.
Frankly, the meal plan is NOT useful. It basically plugs in completely unique recipes for each meal that fit a calorie budget, but without any master plan to repeat or use up the fresh/perishable ingredients you would have to buy for the week.
I don’t see how it’s possible to follow this meal plan unless most of your food goes to waste and/or you have a LOT of freezer space. I’m really disappointed with that aspect because I feel like a good master plan for shopping/cooking while staying on calorie budget is really where the work comes in, and this book doesn’t do any of that work for you. I can already Google all the recipes I want. When I buy a book that touts itself as a “meal plan” then I’m looking for exactly that - a useful PLAN!
My second major complaint with the book is that many of the recipes, in an effort to be completely gluten free, use obscure, hard-to-find ingredients.
Like C’MON - at least give me the OPTION to use regular flour instead of white rice flour + white sorghum flour + xanthan gum! I don’t know how or in what proportions to substitute these things for more typical ingredients, and disappointingly, this book doesn’t include any of that information! If I want to make any of those recipes I will have to do a lot of work on my own to figure out how to make substitutions.
Frankly, the meal plan is NOT useful. It basically plugs in completely unique recipes for each meal that fit a calorie budget, but without any master plan to repeat or use up the fresh/perishable ingredients you would have to buy for the week.
I don’t see how it’s possible to follow this meal plan unless most of your food goes to waste and/or you have a LOT of freezer space. I’m really disappointed with that aspect because I feel like a good master plan for shopping/cooking while staying on calorie budget is really where the work comes in, and this book doesn’t do any of that work for you. I can already Google all the recipes I want. When I buy a book that touts itself as a “meal plan” then I’m looking for exactly that - a useful PLAN!
My second major complaint with the book is that many of the recipes, in an effort to be completely gluten free, use obscure, hard-to-find ingredients.
Like C’MON - at least give me the OPTION to use regular flour instead of white rice flour + white sorghum flour + xanthan gum! I don’t know how or in what proportions to substitute these things for more typical ingredients, and disappointingly, this book doesn’t include any of that information! If I want to make any of those recipes I will have to do a lot of work on my own to figure out how to make substitutions.
April 25, 2018
I saw this book in a post at Beth Fish Reads. Since the food on the cover looked light and healthy, I decided to look at the book at the library, and when I saw that the carb count was included for each recipe, I checked it out. I’m watching my carb intake and recipes with the carb count make it so easy to keep track. All the recipes look easy to make and sound good. I usually eat the same things for breakfast so I’m planing on making a few of the recipes for lunch and dinner. I try to eat 35 g. carbs per meal and most of the recipes for lunch and dinner are that or less.
This is a great book for anyone wanting to lose weight, but also for anyone wanting to keep track of the carbs they eat.
I’d give this book a 5★
This is a great book for anyone wanting to lose weight, but also for anyone wanting to keep track of the carbs they eat.
I’d give this book a 5★
October 14, 2018
Recipes to try:
Lemon curd blueberry oatmeal
Overnight honey almond oatmeal
Breakfast quinoa
Strawberry cream cheese waffle sandwiches
Pancake mix
Peanut shrimp and broccoli rolls
Wheat berry salad w/ goat cheese
Orzo salad w/ spicy dressing
Farro Greek salad
✔️Feta herb edamame succotash
Quinoa brown rice pilaf w/ goat cheese
Orange almond cabbage bowl
Crispy fish w/ lemon dill sauce
Tilapia w/ spinach and white bean orzo
Tilapia w/ lemon garlic sauce
Fried brown rice with shrimp and peas
Veggie loaf
GF pb chocolate chip cookies
Lemon curd blueberry oatmeal
Overnight honey almond oatmeal
Breakfast quinoa
Strawberry cream cheese waffle sandwiches
Pancake mix
Peanut shrimp and broccoli rolls
Wheat berry salad w/ goat cheese
Orzo salad w/ spicy dressing
Farro Greek salad
✔️Feta herb edamame succotash
Quinoa brown rice pilaf w/ goat cheese
Orange almond cabbage bowl
Crispy fish w/ lemon dill sauce
Tilapia w/ spinach and white bean orzo
Tilapia w/ lemon garlic sauce
Fried brown rice with shrimp and peas
Veggie loaf
GF pb chocolate chip cookies
December 3, 2019
Great meal plans! I love how organized and flexible it is.
March 23, 2017
I didn't like this as much as their other cookbooks because it's really pushing their diet. The recipes are all tailored to fit into their meal plan. But while the book works with the diet, they don't give you the information to do the diet (like how many calories you should eat to meet your weight loss goal) in the book. You'd still need to subscribe to the Diet via their website. I really like Cooking Light's recipes, but between the Diet, pre-packaged frozen foods, the new wine club, and the magazine, I feel like their always selling me something.
The recipes themselves are easy to follow, and most of them are pretty quick to make. I thought the sandwich chapter was kind of weak, but the dinners and breakfasts were good. You could check this out if you're not on the Diet, if you're looking for good lower-cal recipes. The only other issue is that I've seen several of these recipes in the magazine recently. So if you're a subscriber, I wouldn't buy this book.
It's still a sound, healthy cookbook. I just don't appreciate the constant push to buy CL products. If you're a subscriber, I'd get this from the library to round out your recipe collection. If you're on the Diet, this may be worth buying, because there are tips for increasing your calories in a complementary way and meal building that would make the purchase worthwhile. You could probably figure out how to make this work with weight watchers or another diet plan, too.
The recipes themselves are easy to follow, and most of them are pretty quick to make. I thought the sandwich chapter was kind of weak, but the dinners and breakfasts were good. You could check this out if you're not on the Diet, if you're looking for good lower-cal recipes. The only other issue is that I've seen several of these recipes in the magazine recently. So if you're a subscriber, I wouldn't buy this book.
It's still a sound, healthy cookbook. I just don't appreciate the constant push to buy CL products. If you're a subscriber, I'd get this from the library to round out your recipe collection. If you're on the Diet, this may be worth buying, because there are tips for increasing your calories in a complementary way and meal building that would make the purchase worthwhile. You could probably figure out how to make this work with weight watchers or another diet plan, too.
June 4, 2018
I like weight loss without a lot of effort, and that's what this book offers. I've been a long-time fan of Cooking Light the magazine, I like it more than its competitor, Weight Watchers. The recipes seem more realistic, easy, and doable without a reliance on hard to find ingredients, fake sugars or butters, etc.
This book delivers. I am a meat-eater. What's on offer here for vegetarians is mostly quiche and variations, plus spiralized zucchini noodles. You've been warned. But if you eat meat, and you're trying to loose weight, this book makes it simple. You can still eat bacon, cheese, and scones. Yay!
This book delivers. I am a meat-eater. What's on offer here for vegetarians is mostly quiche and variations, plus spiralized zucchini noodles. You've been warned. But if you eat meat, and you're trying to loose weight, this book makes it simple. You can still eat bacon, cheese, and scones. Yay!
November 14, 2018
Some really good new ideas, love the quick info if GlutenFree.
November 25, 2021
No guessing what to pair and eat. The meal plan makes it easy to follow. Now the hard part; grocery shopping.
June 12, 2022
Lots of good recipes I'm looking forward to trying!
March 24, 2024
Not many recipes that I would make.
July 31, 2017
Wonderful cook book.
January 8, 2017
nicely done
June 13, 2017
Filled with delicious recipes! I have made many of the recipes from this book, and each one has been scrumptious!
May 2, 2019
I use this cookbook mainly for the breakfast recipes. The smoothies are great also.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews