A giant collection of guilt-free recipes comes in Lisa Lillien's cookbook, "Hungry Girl to the Max!"
Boasting 650 recipes, this is a collection that will feed your need for yummy food, but not your waistline. There's also a variety in recipe sizes, from simple dishes to serve one or food to serve a crowd.
The book is divided into 16 chapters: Egg Mugs and Egg Bakes; Growing Oatmeal Bowls; Parfaits; Pancakes and French Toast; Faux-Frys; Swappuccinos and Shakes; Foil Packs; Crock Pots; Pasta; Pizza; Mexican; Burgers & Fries; Chinese; Comfortably Yum; Party Foods, Cocktails and Holiday and Sweet Stuff.
Egg Mugs and Egg Bakes starts breakfast off right with recipes like Bacon-Cheddar Egg Mug and Cheesy Bacon-Apple-Bella Egg Bake.
Growing Oatmeal Bowls spices up boring oatmeal with dishes like Banana Split Oatmeal and Pina Colada Oatmeal.
Parfaits give breakfast a kick with Bananas Foster Oatmeal Parfait and Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Parfait.
Pancakes and French Toast cut the fat but not the taste with Crazy-Good Carrot-Cake Pancakes, French-Toasted Waffles and Cookies 'n Cream French Toast.
Faux-Frys brings favorite fast food tastes with less fat like Jalapeno Swappers, Lord of the Onion Rings, Ranch-ifed Chicken Nuggets and Buffalicious Shrimp.
Swappaccinos and Shakes cuts the calories on your favorite coffee drinks with Vanilla-Chilla Coffee Float and Salted Caramel Cocoa-ccino and PB&J Super-Shake and Caramel Apple Frappe.
Foil Packs bring a great main dish taste with easy clean-up with Fajitas in a Foil Pack, Crazy Pineapple Salmon Teriyaki, Spinach Artichoke Chicken and more.
Crock Pots can cook up great, low calorie dishes like Zesty Garden Zuppa, Slow-Cookin' BBQ Chicken and Cheeseburger Mac Attack.
Pasta recipes include Steak Lover's Girlfredo, EZ Cheesy Lasagna For Two and Cin-sational Cincinnati Chili.
Pizza recipes can be on tortillas like EZ Thin-Crust Pizza or on mushrooms like Sausage-Loaded Pizza-bellas.
Mexican recipes include Shrimp Cocktail Tacos, 7-Layer Burrito Blitz and Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla.
Burgers and Fries recipes bring big tastes like Cobb Burger, Portabella Guac Burger and Unique Greek Turkey Burgers.
Chinese dishes are just as tasty as what you can get from takeout like Veggie So Low Mein, Veggie-rific Fried Rice, Mmmm Moo Shu Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken 1-2-3.
Comfortably Yum provides comfort foods for less fat with Corn MegaMuffins, Big Beef 'n Bacon Meatloaf, Loaded Hot Dog Casserole, Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash, Chicken Pot Pockets and Mega Mac 'n Cheese.
Party Foods, Cocktails and Holiday is special occasion treats like Hip-Hip-Hooray Chicken Satay, BLT Wonton Crunchies, De-Pudged Pigs in a Blanket and drinks like Chilly Chocolate Mudslide, ChocoMint Martinis and more.
End things on a sweet note with Sweet Stuff like Chocolate Marshmallow Madness Cupcakes, Holy Moly Cannoli Cones, Gooey Caramel Coconut Brownies, Upside-Down Chocolate PB Cheesecake, Scoopable S'Mores Bread Pudding and much more.
The girls love chicken and dumplings so I made Hungry Chick 'n Dumpling Surprise. It made use of fat-free chicken broth, fat-free cream of chicken soup, veggies and Bisquick Heart Smart baking mix to make the dumplings. The girls thought it tasted just as good as the real thing and the dumplings were great!
There is plenty to tempt your tastebuds in the bountiful book.
"Hungry Girl to the Max" is published by St. Martin's Griffin. It is $27.99.
* * *
Contact Amy Phelps at aphelps@newsandsentinel.com
