EatingWell: 500 Calorie Dinners

Okay. What do I have to do to make you buy EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook? Name your price. What makes me so desperate? Sure, I want you to have an outstanding cookbook FILLED with healthy, delicious recipes. Make no mistake about it, I want the best for you!

But I have an ulterior motive as well. See, the way I figure it, if this cookbook sells like hotcakes, they’ll make another. Then another. Then another…

Yes. As a matter of fact I love EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook so much I already want sequels. I’ve made many of the recipes already – in fact, I’m cooking my way through the entire cookbook and loving every single second. Last night, while making the Black Bean Soup (page 42), I thought, “This is such a fun recipe, I don’t even care if it tastes good!” Fortunately, the soup was extraordinarily delicious – better than any Black Bean Soup I’ve gotten in any restaurant.

I was sent EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook to review on this very food blog and I’ll never be able to repay their kindness.  I do promise to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about them each time I reach for the cookbook – which will pretty much be everyday.

That’s a lot of warm fuzzies.

If Eating Well 500 Calorie Dinners were JUST another great cookbook, filled with beautiful illustrations, priceless cooking tips, and page after page of wonderful recipes, this review would still be a glowing review.  The recipes, themselves, can stand on their own.  We’re talking extraordinary and creative recipes, here.

Recipes that Include:

• Middle Eastern Tuna Salad (made it today)
• Thai Beef Salad
• Black Bean Soup
• Banana Pudding  Pops
• Chicken Tetrazzini
• Southwestern Rice & Pinto Bean Salad
• Southwestern Tofu Scramble
• An entire chapter is devoted to vegetarian meals
• Cucumber Herb Vinaigrette (I’ll serve it with supper tonight)
• Skillet Gnocchi with Chard & White Beans
• Risotto with Broccoli Rabe & Red Pepper
• Grilled Pork Tenderloin Marinated in Spicy Soy Sauce
• Roasted Onion Soup
• Artichoke Scrambled Eggs Benedict
• Smoky Corn & Black Bean Vegetarian Pizza
• Baby Tiramisu’ (you should see the picture!)
• Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I could go on, but frankly I’m getting hungry. It was the Grilled Pork Tenderloin that snapped my concentration.

As you see, if it were JUST a regular cookbook, I’d still be jazzed about it.  But it’s more… so much more.  We’re all trying to eat healthy and count our calories.  In the day of The Biggest Loser, we’re all very mindful of “Calories in… Calories out.”  We know the ugly truth:  When the balance isn’t right, the jeans get tight.

But who wants to count calories and even attempt to keep a running tab when filling your plate?  Math and I don’t get along nearly well enough for that.

Here comes the beautiful thing that separates this cookbook from the rest:  The saintlike authors have taken the “ciphering” (as Jethro would say) out of it.  They actually put together outstanding menus for the reader – complete with the main dish, sides, and dessert.  They tell you how much of each you can eat and still stay inside your caloric goal.

See? Saintlike.

What’s even better is this: The wonderful recipes in EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook are wholesome and nutritious, meaning you can actually have more food for less calories. This is where we foodies stand and cheer.

Book Description

Do you love food but hate “diets”? Do you want to be healthy and fit but find yourself too busy or simply at a loss about what to make for dinner? Then this book is for you. EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners takes the guesswork out of healthy cooking by providing delicious, easy recipes and menus for dinners that come in at about 500 calories, an amount experts say will help most people lose weight without feeling deprived. Once you try the meals in this book you’ll be amazed at how well you can eat for 500 calories. One night you’ll have a steak sandwich with grilled peppers and a garlicky aïoli served along with roasted red potatoes and a green salad with a tangy vinaigrette, the next night braised chicken in a paprika-spiked sauce over egg noodles with snap peas tossed with a creamy tarragon dressing. Want a glass of wine with dinner or a dessert to end the evening? We’ve included those in our menus too. Try pork chops with an orange and fennel salad along with a side of quinoa and a dish of strawberry frozen yogurt.

And this book will help you to do more than just trim your waistline—it will help you to improve your heart health and reduce your risk for diabetes too. It provides solid advice from EatingWell Magazine’s nutrition experts on what foods should be included in any healthful diet, how to figure out how many calories you need, how to determine appropriate serving sizes and estimate calories (without carting around a kitchen scale everywhere you go) and how to lose weight while still feeling satisfied.

In this book, you’ll also find:

• 140 delicious recipes that use simple techniques and easy-to-find ingredients
• Quick dinners: over 100 of the recipes are ready in less than 45 minutes and many take less than 30 minutes
• Secrets of successful weight loss from renowned weight-loss researcher Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino, chair of the University of Vermont’s Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook The EatingWell Diet
• How to eat all day and still lose weight, including what a 1,500-calorie day looks like and easy ideas for breakfast, lunch and snacks
• Diet tips to maximize flavor and satisfaction while minimizing calories
• 256 gorgeous color illustrations

Back Cover Reviews:

I always say, ‘Life is hard…food should be easy.’ EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners makes deciding what to have for dinner easy and delicious! With nearly 100 dinner menus that are satisfying and nutritionally balanced, this book is a great tool for anyone who’s trying to get—or stay—slim. (Joy Bauer, MS, RD, CDN, bestselling author of Your Inner Skinny )

I’ve been cooking East-West food my entire life, and one of the things I love about it is that the ingredients and techniques used most often are all inherently healthy. You can feel good about eating it and it tastes good too. The recipes in 500-Calorie Dinners deliver that same great promise—healthy food that’s actually tasty. And simple too—one of my favorite things! (Ming Tsai, chef/owner of Blue Ginger )

EatingWell has done it again! This book is packed with mouthwatering, inspiring and accessible recipes that make you want to get cooking right away. They do the calorie counting for you so you can relax and enjoy every bite. (Ellie Krieger, RD, author of So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week )

The deputy editors at the EatingWell Media Group, publishers of the 2008 James Beard Award-winning The EatingWell Diet, are back to help dieters prepare healthy dinners with yummy recipes designed to fill up the tummy while keeping the calories low. (Library Journal )

For some of the most delicious recipes you’ve ever seen – plus priceless tips about eating healthy – please do yourself a huge favor and grab a copy of EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners Cookbook right away.

You really, really, really don’t want this one to get by you.