Cookbook Review: America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Favorites

America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook
America's Test Kitchen, 2010

I'm a fan of America's Test Kitchen (and related ventures: Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country). Their recipes work. And they often have recipes for ordinary dishes mixed in with their extraordinary. However, they also are often loaded with fat/calories or take a long time to make. Not so the Healthy Family Cookbook.

This is one of the cookbooks I turn to often for weekday meals and recipes for my family. I have the first family cookbook they put out, but I use this green covered one far more frequently. The recipes in here are not diet recipes, not by any stretch of the imagination. But they are lighter in calories and fat than the America's Test Kitchen standard recipes. This is not simply the red cookbook remade into lighter recipes, either. This book contains entirely different recipes and--nearly unheard of for America's Test Kitchen--contains nutritional information.

There are some great recipes for one pot meals using brown rice (so hard to find!), a good kid-friendly chapter that truly is kid-friendly, and the usual mix-and-match/substitutions features that make these cookbooks so user friendly. The recipes also seem to be a bit more time conscious than many of their other cookbooks' recipes.

All in all, if you're needing a healthy option for your family, check this one out from your local library and give it a test run. It's a great weekday option when it's just you and your family needing a nourishing, tasty meal. We're having stir-fry with one of their stir-fry sauces tonight!