Skinnytaste: A Cookbook Review

Have you heard of Skinnytaste? It’s a blog that specializes in skinny-fying recipes that we love. She, Gina, started the blog as a way to help herself loose weight. This is all in the cookbook, but the gist of it is that she liked using Weight Watchers but did not feel satisfied by the food. So she set out to make some of her favorite recipes healthier and still tasty. She needed a place to keep track of all her new recipes and that is how Skinnytaste was born! Now, years later, her blog is one of the leading healthy diet recipe blogs on the internet! And she just released her first cookbook! Which I got yesterday! Here it is.

And the back…

Included are over 300 pages of recipes, most of which have a gorgeous color photo attached, and all of them list the nutritional value (hint: her recipes online also list the Weight Watcher points).

Here’s some more from the book!

Welcome!

The introduction of the book includes Gina’s story, tips on how to succeed, and a “Kitchen Makeover” section wherein she tells you what to, and not to, stock in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.

There are recipes for all meals. Here’s Breakfast!

We even get breads! (Pumpkin Obsessed Scones)

Sandwiches (or Pizzas)

Even desserts!

The Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos and corresponding
nutritional breakdown

I have been following Skinnytaste for a while, and some of my favorite healthy recipes are from her blog! So I had to make something from the cookbook right away! And this was my choice…Mongolian Beef and Broccoli!

She uses common ingredients that most grocery stores carry. (Note: this recipe called for Rice Wine. This is not the same as Rice vinegar! If you can’t find Rice Wine, then use a Sake, cooking Sherry, or dry White wine.)

I had to marinate the meat for 30 minutes first.

I didn’t have a wok, so I just used a large fry pan. I followed all of her directions, even down to the 30 seconds of cooking…no deviating! (Well, except for the broccoli. I had frozen steamer broccoli instead of fresh. So steamed it in the microwave, then carried on with the rest of the instructions.)

And Voila! Looks pretty close, right? J’s first bite got a “mmmm”. This was very good! I’m not very adept at cooking Chinese food, so was super happy to have an easy-to-follow recipe that was delicious! If I do anything different next time, it will be to not salt the meat before marinading. There is enough soy sauce in this recipe that brings plenty of salt! Other than that, it’s a keeper! 🙂