Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: 250 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes (Paperback)
May 27, 2009 by TheChef
Filed under Culinary Cooking Books
Product Description
With over 250 incredibly flavorful 5-ingredient, 15-minute recipes at your fingertips, you’ll discover how simple it is to serve a healthful home-cooked meal on a busy weeknight. Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast expert pairings of superfast, super simple main and side dishes provide over 160 simply mouthwatering menus. Organized by traditional food categories including Soups, Sandwiches, Salads, Meatless Main Dishes, Fish and Shellfish, Meats, and Poultry, Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast offers recipes that are not only great for you, but one’s that taste great, too!
With short ingredient lists, straightforward procedures, fresh ingredients, and delicious results, the recipes and meals in this cookbook will be the most requested, often repeated solutions in your weeknight repertoire. Every recipe guarantees success. Each one has been tested at least twice, often three or four times, to ensure that it’s not only supremely healthy, tasty, and easy to prepare, but that it also has the all-important “yum factor.”
If you are in need of a book for quick meals, Fresh Food Fast by Cooking Light is a nice choice.
I am going to give a quick overview of this book for anyone interested in knowing what to expect from it to help you decide if you want to look into FRESH FOOD FAST by COOKING LIGHT.
The sections are:
SOUPS
LOTS of choices from unique cold soups like Creamy Avocado Soup with Tomato Lump Crab Relish to Sweet Potato Leek and Ham Soup. All soups have a salad recipe with them that the authors suggest serving with it on the same page- I found this handy.
SANDWICHES
Unique ideas like Pear Walnut Sandwiches and Grilled Grouper Sandwiches with Tartar sauce are nice in this section. There are also some standbys like Sloppy Beef Skillet Sandwiches and Grilled Pork Sliders with BBQ Sauce. Many sandwich recipes in this book have an accompanying recipe on the same page for a soup or salad to go with the sandwich you are preparing. Examples of these recipes are Sweet Broccoli Slaw with Cranberries and Minted Pea Hummus
SALADS
Some examples are Taco Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinagarette, Cous cous, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad, and Grilled Salmon and Grapefruit with Blood Orange Vinagarette. Again in this section many salad recipe also have recipes on the same page you can make to go with it, such as Tomato Basil Soup, Greek Style Pita chips. Most recipes, though, have just the dressing recipes on the same page.
This is my favorite section of this book.
MEATLESS MAIN
Examples from this section are Grape, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Pizza, Mediterranean Style Frittata, Creamy Butternut Squash Risotto, and Southwestern Rice and Veggie Cakes. In this section, some of the recipes have side dishes appearing on the same page with them to make with the main meal…….such as….Spicy Tricolor Pepper Stir Fry, Creamy Chipolte Wedge Salad, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze, and Lemon Balsamic Broccoli.
MEATLESS MAIN is my second favorite section of the book (well, tied with Fish).
FISH AND SHELLFISH
Look at some of these recipes- Catfish with Cilantro- Chipolte Rice, Baked Flounder with Dill and Caper Cream, Pistachio Crusted Grouper with Lavender Honey Sauce, Lemon Artichoke Halibut en Papillote and Sunflower Seed-Crusted Orange Roughy. A few side dishes appear with the entrees to accompany them (on the same page again) such as Minted Sweet Snap Peas and Balsamic Grilled Peaches (made to go with Peach-Glazed Salmon with Raspberries).
This is actually tied with Meatless Main as my 2nd favorite section. There are many different fish recipes in here which I enjoy very much.
MEATS
Smothered Pepper Steak, Ginger Lime Beef Stir Fry, and Mustard Molasses Flank Steak are some examples of the beef recipes in this section. Lemon Herb Skillet Pork Chops, Curried Pork and Chai Rice, and Asiago Crusted Pork Chops are some pork recipes in the MEAT section. There is only one ham and two lamb recipes in this book, which was disappointing to me. I would have liked to see a few more lamb recipes, and even some venison or other game meats.
POULTRY
Chicken Tortilla Pie, Fried Panko Chicken Tenders,Cumin Spiced Chicken with Chunky Tomato Sauce and Kalamata Balsamic Chicken with Feta are a few examples of the recipes in this section. The only turkey recipe in this section is Turkey Basil Rolls, and there are two sausage recipes.
KITCHEN SECRETS
Super short cuts
15 minute pantry (how to prepare your pantry to cook quickly)
Speedy Side dishes
Side Staples to have on hand
4 Fail-Safe Sauces
Metric Equivalents
COMMENTS
I found this book to have a wonderful assortment of recipes for quick yet appealing meals in many categories. Many dishes are unique and interesting. The photos are lovely. Each recipe has a photo next to it which is well laid out and very attractive.
The recipes are not for those who like very plain and unspicy foods. Most recipes in here are flavorful and you can leave out the spices if you like, but it might be disappointing.
I really like the recipes in this book. They are fresh, delicious, and easy to make. I usually find that they take 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to prepare, but that is including prep time. I am sure that the 15 minutes is not including prep time.
This is a great book for when you are too tired to think of what to make for dinner and need someone to hold your hand and tell you what to make. Anything I don’t want to make exactly as is, I can easily substitute without much thought.
I really like this book.
I have been a Cooking Light reader for years and own two Cooking Light Cookbooks (Cooking Light Complete Cookbook: A Fresh New Way to Cook (Book & CD-ROM) and Cooking Light Desserts) so I was very excited to receive this book. Typically I am the kind of cook that loves spending hours in the kitchen, but occasionally I need a quick meal so I knew I could put this book to good use.
My first impression was that it matches the quality I have come to expect from Cooking Light. It is an extremely visual cookbook with beautiful food photography and lots of great sidebars about ingredients and techniques. I love a lot of photos in healthy cookbooks because it serves as a reminder that healthy food can be delicious and often gets me to try recipes I might have otherwise overlooked.
I also appreciate that there are a lot of unique recipes. Even if you have other healthy cookbooks you are sure to find recipes here that are new and different. The variety of the recipes is similar to what you find in the magazine so if you like that selection you are sure to enjoy this one as well.
Another plus is that it does not seem to simply be a pickup of the recipes in the `Dinner Tonight’ section of the magazine and website, which features the magazine’s quick recipes. I searched on the site for quite a few recipes in the book and they didn’t come up, which leads me to believe most if not all recipes are new, which subscribers will appreciate. I have also had good experiences with the recipes I have tried thus far like a BLT chicken salad with a creamy horned melon avocado dressing and orange chipotle shrimp. All recipes made thus far have been flavorful and easy to prepare. They do rely on some prepared, frozen, and canned ingredients but less so than other `quick fix’ cookbooks I have picked up.
My only quibble with this book is that I wish they provided more details for some of the more `exotic’ ingredients. Even though the cookbook suggested horned melon would not be difficult to find, I couldn’t locate it despite visiting 5 stores including a specialty produce and large ethnic grocery store and looking in the fresh produce, canned fruits, and frozen fruits sections. I understand this happens but would have appreciated substitution information (I eventually Googled this on my own and substituted Chayote) or information on seasonality of the product. I don’t mind making a few trips to the grocery store, but imagine if someone is truly trying to cook a quick meal this would not be appreciated.
Overall I think this is a solid cookbook for preparing healthy and fast food. It lives up to the standards set by Cooking Light and would be a welcome addition to any healthy cook’s shelf.
This cookbook tries to provide recipes that either only have 5 ingredients and/or only take 15 minutes to prepare. It covers your basic meals - soups, sandwiches, salads, meatless main dishes, fish and shellfish, meats, and poultry.
As others have mentioned, the 5 ingredient and/or 15 minute preparation time mentioned in the title for this cookbook is a stretch. Some of the ingredients that they mention I have yet to find in my frozen food aisle. And yes, there are brand names mentioned occaisionally in a recipe as suggestions, which didn’t bother me too much but seemed odd at times (do I need a brand suggestion for sliced roast beef from the deli??).
I loved the layout of the recipes - on one page is a great photo and on the other page is the recipe. I also liked the “Serve with” suggestions - side dishes, drinks, or desserts. The information regarding calories, fat, protein, fiber and so on was helpful, with the serving size mentioned at the end of every recipe. Some recipes included more information about a specific ingredient (i.e. the best season and how to store cherries).
Most of these recipes are original creations (as opposed to light versions of some everyday recipes). For example, you’ll find recipes for pan-seared snapper with fennel-olive topping or pistachio-crusted grouper with lavender honey sauce.
If you’re interested in trying recipes for light different dishes, this cookbook is for you. Personally, while I liked the look of this cookbook, those different dishes didn’t appeal to me and this book won’t be one for my keeper shelf.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great recipes from the magazine all in one place
I’ve made about a quarter of the recipes in the book and they so far all taste great. The best thing about it though is that it collects many of the recipes from the magazines…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Cookbook Ever
The least you need to know: Finally, a cookbook for a health-conscious newbie cook!
Full Review: I was actually excited about this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVE this cookbook ….
I’ve had this book for a little over a month, and I’ve had the opportunity to try several recipes. So far, every recipe has been very tasty, and fast and easy to prepare…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of great recipes….
This book is great. Lots of great recipes. Each recipe has nutritional info. Plus, most recipes are healthy and low in fat.
3.0 out of 5 stars
If you like the Cooks Illustrated/ATK books, give this one a pass
It’s not just that it uses a lot of prepackaged ingredients–I was expecting that. After all, it’s tough to make 250 menus with only 5 ingredients apiece.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully Illustrated
From an appearance standpoint, cookbooks don’t come any better than this. I don’t know the technical term, but the thick cover is treated with a glossy beauty coating that should…
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple prep and clean flavors
This cookbook advertises itself as a 5 ingredient/15 minute collection of recipes that are light and healthy.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good choice for quick, healthy flavorful meals
With the restrictions the book places on most of the recipes; 5 ingredient and 15 minutes there are quite a few shortcuts taken.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tastes Great! Less Filling!
Admittedly, “Cookimg Light Fresh Food Fast” can be a little misleading. There is time needed to prepare the ingredients (chopping, etc.
5.0 out of 5 stars
All new recipes. Lots of photographs. Uses some packaged foods.
I have many books from Cooking Light magazine. I have, at times, been disappointed to find many repeats in books that were already published in the magazine.
Interesting read. Does come in handy when on the go. Anyone else have any to add to this?