Cooking that Counts: 1,200- to 1,500-Calorie Meal Plans to Lose Weight Deliciously Paperback – January 3, 2017

This has to be the best Cooking Light cookbook ever. Using this book as the main recipe provider, I lost 50 pounds over the last year while eating delicious food. My family never felt hungry and asked for repeat meals like pork with magic green sauce. The Greek farro salad, using red and yellow cherry tomatoes is good enough to take to a dinner party. In our house the book is well worn and has a plethora of scrap pieces of paper marking our favorate recipes.

My sister in law kept making all this great food, and almost every time I asked where she got the recipe, it was from cooking light. So when I decided to cut calories and be a more portion conscious, I was thrilled to find this cookbook. I went through it this morning, and was starving by the time I was done. Everything looks so good! And a good majority of the ingredients are things I would keep on hand anyway. My favorite part about many of the breakfast meals is that even though the “calorie count” at the top of the page says 300 (or whatever), the entree they’ve made is almost always meant to be supplemented by 20 to 50 calories to reach that 300. So besides the breakfast quiche (as an example), you also get to have fruit or coffee with cream to actually hit that 300 calorie mark. If you want a totally guided meal plan, there is a 30 day breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack meal plan at the front of the book. Everything in each meal section has similar enough calorie counts that you can easily swap whatever you want. There’s also a list of staple foods you should have on hand (so that you have no excuses when it comes to whether you can cook a delicious meal from scratch). Each recipe also includes suggestions on how to supplement your entree for increased calories (if you should be eating 1300, 1400, or 1500 calories a day instead of 1200). There are plenty of options for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. I can’t wait to get cooking.

Although this book is intended for those who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle and lose weight, the recipes are really for anybody. "Cooking That Counts" guides the reader to a healthier lifestyle by encouraging the cook to prepare real food and eat realistic portions.In the text, there's a section on a list of staples that should be in everyone's pantry and another section on the 1200 calorie 30-day meal plan that provide options to increase calorie intake if desired.I made two recipes so far and will be making a third.I made the "Grapefruit, Avocado, and Prosciutto Breakfast Salad" (page 60) for one which was quick to make. It took me 30 minutes which is 20 minutes over the time specified. The first picture is of the finished dish. Please ignore the pink stuff on the plate; I had trouble sectioning the grapefruit and wound up shredding it to pieces. Those are supposed to be grapefruit sections. That's my fault, not theirs. Their picture in the book is so much better. The dish was flavorful and had an Asian flair with the addition of the sesame oil. I actually didn't like the dressing because the sesame oil is too strong and because I usually eat salad dry. Nevertheless, this was a good meal.I also made the "five-bean chili" (page 233) - see second picture attached. Note that there is no picture in the book of the completed recipe. This dish took a couple of hours for me to make if I include prep time. All the bean and tomato ingredients are canned. It even calls for pre-chopped onions but I chopped my own. I did add an additional cup of vegetable broth than called for in the recipe because after adding the kale, it did not look as if there was enough liquid. The resulting dish was flavorful with a little bit of heat. It tasted both healthy and delicious.WHAT I LIKE- I like that there is something for everyone in this book.- The recipes vary in size as some are for one and others are for eight people or servings.- The recipes really do not require a tremendous amount of time. Although not everything is from scratch, I consider the items that are in cans, like beans, good substitutes when one doesn't want to cook for hours or soak beans overnight. I do think it's a bit ridiculous, however, when the recipe calls for pre-chopped onion.- Some recipes are dairy free, gluten free, low carb, and vegetarian and noted as such. Also, all calorie, serving size, protein, cholesterol, etc. is noted at the end of each recipe.- Most recipes have beautiful pictures of the end result. However, note that some pictures include the recipe with additional sides. For example, pages 166 and 170 show meals that include additional calorie sides on the plate besides the recipe being made.MY MAJOR DISLIKE is that there are too many bar recipes for dessert (nut bars, energy bars, etc.) I hate most bars and really don't want that as a dessert. There are some other 150-calorie snack ideas on page 245 but I also wouldn't consider this dessert. There's definitely no indulgences in the dessert section.Overall, this is a great complement to a well-stocked cooking library that is geared for the health and calorie conscious.UPDATE Dec 25, 2016 - I made the "3-ingredient pancakes" (page 48) and it was delicious. It was more like dessert to me than breakfast (see third picture). They should have called it banana pancakes since that is the main ingredient. The picture in the book and my picture include additional toppings that are not part of the 1200 calorie plan. I added blueberries, walnuts, and a little bit of maple syrup. The book's picture includes the same except they apparently use a yogurt mixture instead of syrup. Also, I did oil the non-stick griddle which is not specified in the recipe. The pancakes would have stuck otherwise and even were sticking a bit with the oil. All this adds to the calories. For those on the 1,200 calorie diet, all you would be able to eat is the pancakes without the toppings and no use of oil on the griddle.

I have OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). I have the CPAP machine, the Darth Vadar style mask and O2 supplementation. It helps folks like me get off the nightmare of "gain weight while you sleep diet."When you add walking, stretching and meditation with a great low calorie set of meals like the ones in this book, you will drop weight. Guaranteed. I'm a chef and a developer of AR / VR systems. I spend 10+ hours in a nice Herman Miller Embody chair, but I have to eat and drink, too. My RX: Drink 5 cups of coffee daily. It boosts your body's ketones (and Dr. David Perlmutter says so, too). But you have to watch the carbs. Drop the sugars and do not ever cook or eat the crap foods with white breads. This turns to simple sugars in the blood stream.Note this book did use the word "diet" on the cover.Let's face it: The first three letters of DIET are painful: DIE -- because this is what most of us feel like. Eating DIET food makes us want to DIE for food that tastes good. Well, this book has a lot of yummy and simple to follow recipes that anyone can follow. It's not a diet. It's good, healthy food that can help any idiot lose the weight.

My whole family has loved each recipe I’ve made from this cookbook. And it has greatly contributed to healthy weight loss. I really appreciate the suggestions of what can be paired with each meal. And the veggie recipes are very tasty!

Disappointed I didn’t realize it was a diet cook book