Cooking Light Lighten Up, America!: Favorite American Foods Made Guilt-Free

by Allison Fishman Task, Cooking Light, Allison Task

Cooking Light Lighten Up, America! is a celebration and discovery of regional American cooking, and the permission to eat the foods you love-it's the soul of American cooking made light.

This collection of America's favorite fare offers healthy versions of classics new and old, memory-making recipes from all walks of life and regions, and returns the most beloved American dishes to the table.

A Celebration of America Cuisine: A cookbook for lovers of American food stories and our nation's most cherished dishes.

Enjoy lightened up American classics that are often out of bounds for those watching their waistline: it's time to return decadent dishes like fried chicken, barbecue ribs, cherry pie, and macaroni 'n cheese, back to the kitchen.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Also writes as Allison Fishman and Allison Task

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved that this cookbook offered some history on different foods around the world (but mainly the US) and had good recipes too. I will say I thought the sugar content on a few was still outrageous but over all the recipes seemed good. Only a few had ingredients I had never purchased or seen before in my local stores.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great recipes and nice photos

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this cookbook from the library because I love trying new recipes and I love cooking "light" so that we don't have to exercise too much to "pay" for meals. ;)

However... these recipes were not light enough for my taste. Yes, they are lightened up quite a bit from the originals, but still not light enough for day-to-day consumption. Not without elliptical time. I kind of knew it might not be the book for me when I flipped through it the first time and noticed recipes for donuts and "fried" pork sandwiches. Like, we're strict enough in our house that we try to avoid bread as a main part of any meal, and here Cooking Light was suggesting sandwiches for dinner and donuts for breakfast.

The way they lightened up the recipes seems very sound to me, but I didn't actually try any of the recipes to be sure. A lot of the time they took traditionally fried food and baked it. Or they cut out excess sugar in other dishes. Of course, everything becomes at least slightly better for you when you make it yourself from scratch, no matter what else you do.

A positive: I absolutely loved the author's writing style! It's quite conversational, and there's fun anecdotes scattered throughout, and tips & tricks to get the best results. I loved reading about her travels across America and could totally identify with how she tries to feed her family well.

I would definitely recommend this cookbook. Just unfortunately nothing jumped out at me to try at my house.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great cookbook. I am going to buy it. Lots of wonderful recipes.