Great Cake From A Box? Oh, Yes

For me, cooking and baking are like writing or photography: Another way to create. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to bake, and usually when I do have time, I don’t want go to too much trouble. I want the rush of creation without the effort. I’m OK with this. What I am not OK with is mediocre cake. If I’m going to ingest those calories, they’d better taste awesome. Enter The Cake Mix Doctor.

I discovered this book years ago and it remains one of my favorites because every cake I’ve made is a winner. And all I need are a box of cake mix and few extra ingredients. Author Anne Byrn adds a little of this and a little of that to help take away that “mix” taste and make your cakes (and cookies and bars) taste like homemade with much less effort. Who knew that a container of sour cream, some vanilla or a bit of instant coffee powder could transform ordinary cake mix into a homemade favorite? Apparently Anne did.

Not only will get recipes, you’ll also get tips and tricks so you go out on your own and improvise. But if you’re like me and aren’t good at improvisational baking, there are more than enough recipes in this book to keep you happy for a long time to come.

Three Of My Favorite Cake Mix Doctor Recipes

1. Lemon Buttermilk Poppy Seed Cake – Lemon juice, buttermilk, yogurt, poppy seeds and lemon zest turn plain white mix into a the perfect springtime cake. You can also get rid of the lemon and the zest and use pure almond extract for a yummy almond poppy seed cake.

2. White Chocolate Pound Cake – Plain white cake meets white chocolate, butter and vanilla to become two loaves of pound cake that will make you forget you ever knew Sara Lee.

3. Incredible Melted Ice Cream Cake – Add the melted ice cream of your choice to white cake mix and top with chocolate marshmallow frosting (recipe included) and you will become an instant rock star to whoever tries a slice.

Ann also includes recipes for wonderful homemade frostings that will put you off the canned stuff for good. Quite a bargain for about $9.00.

Wanna try before you buy? There’s a Cake Mix Doctor Web site that has a few recipes you can dig into.

I love the stuff in this book, but lately I don’t get to make as much of it as I’d like because my husband has a gluten sensitivity. I discovered that Anne has worked her magic on gluten-free cake mix, too. Oh happy day!

Cook This, Not That: Eating Healthier And Liking It

I do not diet. I do not like diet food: fat-free this, light that. Yuck. And really, most of that stuff is so chemical-laden that it negates any calorie benefit it might have. Over time I have discovered that the key to eating healthier is making better choices and watching portion sizes. This is where Cook This, Not That comes in. It’s a cookbook that will help educate you on how to make better food choices and give you some awesome recipes in the process. It was written by the editors of Men’s Health magazine.

The book calls itself the “No Diet Weight Loss Solution,” but you should be aware that they are basing this statement on the fact that many of us eat out way too much and that restaurant food is, on average, horrible for you. It gives you homemade alternatives to some popular restaurant dishes—alternatives that seriously slash calorie counts. If you eat out a lot and stopped doing that and ate from this book instead, you would lose weight. That being said, if you are trying to lose weight overall, you’ll still need to keep a good eye on your calories, etc.

But for those of us who just want healthier food that tastes good, this is a godsend. Seriously. I’ve had this book for a few months now and don’t think I’ve had a bad meal from it. It has everything from appetizers and snacks to dessert. It gives you some great ideas for branching out on your own and making healthy choices while doing it. I love this book so much when I found out they had a new, 350-calorie version, I had to have it. It’s been a few weeks and so far, I love it.

What I like best? The recipes use real food and not weird-tasting substitutes. It educates you about healthy fats and portion sizes and how to eat to stay fuller longer so you don’t binge on things you shouldn’t. It’s the healthy eating information most of us probably knew back in the day before the fat-free revolution loaded us up on sugar and chemicals. This is eating more like people ate back when I was kid. Nothing was completely out of bounds, but people didn’t eat out for every meal and they didn’t eat hamburgers the size of their heads.

For me, this is a return to eating sanity. I heartily recommend both of these books; they’ve become household staples for me. My son even likes the stuff. Go figure.

Wanna learn more? Follow Eat This, Not That on Twitter at @EatThisNotThat and check out their Web page.

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner (by Cooking Light)!

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a cookbook.  I have way too many of them, some of which I never even use.  I always buy them with the best of intentions, but more often than not they only turn out to have a couple of recipes in them that I actually want to attempt because they’re either too time consuming or they have a hugantious list of ingredients.  Chicken, by Cooking Light is not one of those cookbooks. I use this book frequently and every recipe I’ve tried from this book has turned out to be a winner. I can easily find a quick weeknight recipe or a more elegant chicken dinner to serve guests and be confident that it’s going to work out.

Chicken by Cooking Light is a small, hardbound book with only 144 pages, including the index, but it’s packed with easy to read instructions and colorful photographs.

In fact, every single recipe in this book includes a full-color photo.   I love that because I want to see what a dish is supposed to look like before I cook it.   I’m a visual person so if a cookbook doesn’t include a photo of the dish I want to make, I’m a lot less likely to actually make it.  (Weird fact about me #857.)

The other thing that I love about this whole Essential Recipe Collection series of cookbooks is that it includes nutritional data for each recipe.  We’re pretty careful about what we eat in my house and having the nutritional data listed right on the recipe saves me the step of calculating it myself.

Chicken by Cooking Light is broken down into six sections:

• Essential Chicken
• Jump-Start Meals
• Dinner Tonight
• One-Dish Meals
• On the Grill
• Casual Entertaining

Each section has something for everyone.  Some of my favorites are Old-Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken with Provencal Sauce, and Chicken with Lemon Caper Sauce, but my ultimate most favorite recipe in this book is the Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup.

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup uses leftover chicken or a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store if you don’t have any, so it comes together quickly since you don’t have to worry about cooking the chicken.  It’s loaded with carrots, potatoes, and noodles in a creamy well-seasoned broth that is comfort food at it’s finest while still managing to keep the calorie count at 247 calories per serving.  And it only takes a little over 30 minutes to prepare.

If you’re a fan of Cooking Light publications like I am, you will notice a couple of duplicates from other cookbooks.  Some people don’t like this, but I don’t mind because this book is in my top 5 that I use all the time so it’s nice to have them in one place.

The thing about Cooking Light recipes is that they are usually pretty reliable.  Once in a while you come across a stinker, but I haven’t found one yet in this book.   Everyone’s tastes are different, so your mileage may vary.

Out of all the cookbooks on my shelves – and there are many – this is one that I reach for the most. If you like chicken and are looking for easy to follow recipes that your family will love, I think you will like this book.  It’s available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, among other retailers in your neighborhood.

Cookbooks: The best of the best with Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

On principle, I rarely suggest cookbooks as gifts for women.  I also don’t want a vaccuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day or a new ironing board for my birthday, thanks.  Apparently, I have a little feminist rebellion in me after all.

And yet, one of the best wedding presents I received was a cookbook I got from my Nanna.  A cookbook as a wedding present?  Sure, it’s a little cliche.  But I think every kitchen has to have this cookbook in it.

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