Thursday, October 16, 2014

Tasty Delights--Cheesy Baked Pasta w/ Eggplant + review (The Skinnytaste)


Gina Homolka is America’s most trusted home cook when it comes to easy, flavorful recipes that are miraculously low-calorie and made from all-natural, easy-to-find ingredients. Her blog, Skinnytaste is the number one go-to site for slimmed down recipes that you’d swear are anything but. It only takes one look to see why people go crazy for Gina’s food: cheesy, creamy Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli with only 420 calories per serving, breakfast dishes like Make-Ahead Western Omelet "Muffins" that truly fill you up until lunchtime, and sweets such as Double Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies that are low in sugar and butter-free but still totally indulgent.

The Skinnytaste Cookbook features 150 amazing recipes: 125 all-new dishes and 25 must-have favorites. As a busy mother of two, Gina started Skinnytaste when she wanted to lose a few pounds herself. She turned to Weight Watchers for help and liked the program but struggled to find enough tempting recipes to help her stay on track. Instead, she started “skinny-fying” her favorite meals so that she could eat happily while losing weight.

With 100 stunning photographs and detailed nutritional information for every recipe, The Skinnytaste Cookbook is an incredible resource of fulfilling, joy-inducing meals that every home cook will love.

Type: Cookbook
Difficulty: easy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Value: Excellent. Well worth the price.

Amazon | Goodreads

If you're going to buy a cookbook...make it this one! The SkinnyTaste is one of the best cookbooks I've seen and it's focus is on healthier lower-cal meals/dishes that don't skimp on the taste. I really loved everything about this one. From the authors voice--she's matter of fact but I liked her attitude towards eating healthier and her approach to tasty meals--to the recipes themselves and the photography. There's a nice opening with the author's experiences and why this is important to her which was nice plus one thing that stuck out...even if you mess up on a recipe sometimes the best dishes are discovered that way. Recipes were easy to understand and simple enough for most to jump right in and try and ingredients easy to find at the local grocery. 


Easy and delicious! There are lots of fresh ingredients involved but looking over things (and the recipe I tried) the vast majority are easy to find. I had to cheese shop for mine but the local grocery had them all no problem. The recipes are laid out nicely, simple and full of explanations/walk through. I had no prob at all. Loved them!


Lovely! There isn't a photo with every recipe but there are a ton spread throughout the cookbook.
They're colorful and inviting and really made me want to try everything.

Everything? This is seriously an awesome cookbook.

Each recipe comes with nutritional facts which is very nice if you're trying to eat healthier or avoid certain things. There was also a quickie guide key so at a glance you can see if it's veggie friendly, gluten free, 30min or less cook time, etc.

I also really really loved that it had an entire section called "Meatless Mains". As a vegetarian cookbooks that aren't deemed vegetarian cookbooks can often leave us out on main dishes which is frustrating. But in addition to main course dishes on poultry, lean meats and fish there was a section of different types of veggie main dishes and not just pasta. Loved that!


Holy cow yall. I marked a TON of recipes. 22. And that was just on my first "MUST TRY" list. There were even more I want to try eventually. Here are a couple...

Cheesy Penne Pasta w/ Eggplant (was delicious! see below)
Banana Nut Oatmeal Muffins
Dad's Jammin' Crepes
Breadless French Onion Soup w/ Parmesan-Asiago Crisps
"Un" Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Caliente Bean and Queso Dip
Skinny Broccoli Mac and Cheese
Spicy Black Bean Burgers w/ Chipotle Mayo
Silky Chocolate Cream Pie
I love eggplant so when I saw this one I just had to give it a go. Cheesy Baked Pasta w/ Eggplant.
There's a handful of ingredients with this one but all very easy to find.

While your pasta is boiling mix together your ricotta/cheese layer.

And get your eggplant and tomato sauce simmering.

Layer everything together---pasta, eggplant/tomato sauce , ricotta layer, pasta, remaining sauce and cheese. So easy!

Bake and serve!
This was incredibly good. Extremely easy to make and pretty darn quick. Hands on time was less than 20 minutes then baking.
And it was delicious. The house smelled incredible while it was cooking too!


Do you have a favorite eggplant recipe?
Or a favorite healthy eating cookbook?

More Tasty Delights on herding cats



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