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Cooking myself thin

After the Nigella extravaganza of the past days, I thought I'd do myself a favour and lighten up my meals using another newly purchased cookbook, Cook Yourself Thin. The title is kind of a joke, I mean, usually, if you enjoy cooking, you end up on the podgy side of slim. It is the companion to a TV series aired in the UK, if you click here, you'll find more info about the authors and the programme. You'll see for yourself that the ladies are not too thin, and that the participants in the weight loss challenge may have cooked the recipes from the book, but have also followed a low-calorie diet. Anyway, noone can make you thin but you. And this book has some good ideas and recipes to help at least in a quest for good food with less fat.

This book is aimed at non-cooks who use their busy lifestyle as an excuse not to cook and thus end up eating takeaway meals from Chinese or Indian or whatever cuisine shops they have around the corner. Or heat up ready meals from the freezer. But it's also for people who enjoy cooking but are looking for ideas on how too cook appetizing dishes with less fat than usual. So you'll find soups as well as homemade winners from the takeway shop.

Hence this fried rice with chicken and shrimps, adapted from this recipe.

I have also made a version of this, but subbed ingredients and method as to end up with just lamb, squash and cannellini tagine (cooked express-ly in the pressure cooker).

The book itself is a paperback with cheap paper (not great for real-life cooking -splish splosh...), but it's rather funky, with a girly layout and the pics (not all dishes have been photographed) are quite good and do make you want to cook. Personally, I don't relate to the authors and their lifestyle (my last hangover goes back a long time, and I haven't been to a party in ages). But the recipes are interesting so I guess it's a good investment.

Comments

Anna said…
I need to go back a re-read this book I think.
Most of the recipes on the series looked really good!
xx
Kelly-Jane said…
It's a good little book to help you through a lower calorie day :)

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