After my rant earlier this morning, I though I would post something more fun: a review of a good cookbook! I am a huge fan of Food Network’s Ellie Krieger and her show, which is called Healthy Appetite. More than any other TV chef, Ellie makes food that I would actually make for myself on a day to day basis. Her philosophy is that food should fall into three categories: usually, sometimes, and rarely. Note that there is no “never” category. She builds her recipes around fresh, lean foods and has great strategies for using small amounts of the “rarely” foods for maximum impact. It’s simple, common sense stuff, and the results are very tasty.

Ellie has just come out with a new cookbook called The Food You Crave. I almost never buy books hardcover, but I decided to splurge on this since I’d liked her show so well. I’ve read through it and tried several of the recipes, and I have to say that it’s a winner! Lots of inventive, fresh recipes. So far I’ve tried the whole wheat pancakes with strawberry sauce, the spiced pita chips, the mango lassi, the turkey meatloaf and the greek stuffed peppers…all were delicious. The turkey meatloaf and the pita chips were particularly good.

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that the recipes are sometimes underseasoned to my taste. I rarely follow recipes exactly–I am more inclined to just read the ingredients and start throwing things together–so it hasn’t been a huge issue for me. If I think that the recipe needs a little more salt or herbs or oil, I just add it. But be aware that you might want to add a few more seasonings to the recipes, depending on your palate.

Other than that, I loved the book. If you want to get a sample of Ellie’s style before checking out the book, you can get many of her recipes for free on her Food Network site.