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Cookbooks offer light, flexitarian, family dinner meals

 
Published May 5, 2014

.TITLE: Make It Lighter — Healthier Versions of Your Favorite Recipes by Angela Nilsen (Hamlyn, $24.99, 224 pages)

GENERALLY SPEAKING: Cooking lighter never looked so good. The full color photos are deliciously inviting and will make your mouth water. Many recipes have multiple photos of the cooking process making it easy for even novice home cooks.

FOR: Anyone looking to lighten up classic recipes or find some new ones.

RECIPES: Shepherd's pie, chicken cacciatore, spaghetti carbonara, coq au vin, lamb tagine, blueberry trifle, apple and blackberry crisp, Thai green chicken curry, pizza Margherita, burgers with roasted red pepper salsa, fish chowder, quiche Lorraine, beef Wellington, chocolate tart, coffee panna cotta, risotto primavera, coffee and walnut cake, onion tart, Spanish omelet, and salmon teriyaki.

. TITLE: The Flexitarian Table by Peter Berley with Zoey Singer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.95, 304 pages)

GENERALLY SPEAKING: The recipes in this cookbook are full of flavor. It is apparent many recipes are influenced by Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or Asian cooking. The full color photos of select recipes. Some recipes have a lot of ingredients, some of which may be challenging for lesser experienced home cooks. Start with the less intimidating dishes.

FOR: Those households that have members that eat differently, some vegan, some vegetarian, some meat. A flexitarian is someone who eats a little bit of each. Basically primarily a plant-eater with some meat occasionally.

RECIPES: Summer vegetable simmer, couscous with dried fruit and pine nuts, rice with herbs, goat cheese frittata with spiced red onion marmalade, lemon thyme tofu, chestnut apple soup, penne with beets, beet greens, goat cheese and walnuts, roasted broccoli with Parmesan, white bean shrimp with brown butter and tons of herbs, lasagna with fall vegetables, Gruyere and sage bechamel, pan-seared lamb steak with thyme, lemon and mustard, carrots with black olives and mint, Autumn stew with miso and duck/tofu and spiced lamb croquettes.

. TITLE: The Good Housekeeping Cookbook — Sunday Dinner Collector's Edition1,275 Recipes from America's Favorite Test Kitchen (Hearst Books, $25, 752 pages)

GENERALLY SPEAKING: Many have happy memories of family meals while growing up. Today's busy lifestyles make family meals difficult to plan but this new collection from the Good Housekeeping test kitchens offers a plethora of recipes suited to every taste. There are Spanish, Asian, Italian, Southern, Mediterranean, Mexican recipes and more. You'll find classic and traditional dishes along with more modern recipes. Throughout the cookbook there are many boxes with helpful information such as how to carve a rib roast, how to pit an olive and more.

FOR: This cookbook won't find the time for your family to sit down to a meal together but the recipes will certainly inspire you to make an effort. There are recipes for all skill levels.

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RECIPES: Corned beef hash, Mexican meatballs, pasta with tuna puttanesca, quinoa and corn, golden sauteed plantains, double-cheese batter bread, sticky toffee pudding, vanilla chiffon cake, chicken saute with artichokes, lemon and mint, ham steak with creamy cheese grits, chipotle skirt steak with avocado salsa, country pot roast, chicken mole, trout meuniere, spinach strata, flank steak with red onion marmalade and pork medallions with melon salsa and grilled limes.