Book Review: Supermarket Healthy by Melissa D'Arabian

I love Melissa D'Arabian!  She can take what looks like a complicated dish and simplify it until I really think I can make it, too!  I've really been trying to eat healthier recently, and since I've got a family, I'd like to cook healthier meals for them, since cooking multiple meals is no fun.  Also, have you noticed how much more expensive it is to buy healthy foods?  On top of that, I shop at Kroger.  If there are any health food stores nearby, I certainly don't know about them.  So I got this cookbook that claims it can help me cook healthy meals that my family will eat and that won't break the bank in the process. 

This cookbook uses Melissa's customary methods of using lighter, leaner cuts of meat, bulking up with veggies and combining expensive ingredients with cheaper ones to make great meals for not a lot of money.  All of these ingredients can be purchased at your supermarket! 

This book contains great recipes for every meal of the day from breakfast to snacks, to dinner and dessert and everything in between.  She provides the reader/cooker with plans to change up recipes and make them your own.  Her recipes also include a lot of spices to really increase flavor.  Some of the recipes I want to try are: Moroccan Slow Cooker Chicken Legs and Chickpeas, Caramelized Brussels Sprouts, Pine Nuts and Penne, Roasted Zucchini Lasagna and Roasted Whole Cauliflower with Brown Butter.  And that's only a few!  It remains to be seen if my husband will try these dishes or not, but I think they sound delicious.

So far I have tried one recipe, and it was so good I made it a second time, and it's on my menu again next week!  It's Creamy Brown Rice "Risotto" and it is creamy and rich and only 205 calories per serving!  It is very simple to make, but really tastes like it should be complicated.  I guarantee that this side dish is going to go in my repertoire to be pulled out often! 

Not all of these recipes will be to everyone's taste, but I think nearly everyone will be able to find at least a few that they like.  Supermarket Healthy really makes cooking at home and eating healthy, delicious food possible for those of us who don't even have a Whole Foods Market in our state, much less in our community!  While all of the ingredients may not be things that I typically have on hand, I didn't see one ingredient that I couldn't purchase at Kroger.  I love this cookbook and hope to make many recipes from it in the future!

Happy and Healthy Reading!

Lyndsie