Now eating this....

I enjoy cooking, and although I like having my go-to-know-by-heart-loved-by-the-whole-family recipes, I get bored easily. So, I usually plan on trying a new recipe or two each week. I love cookbooks and I probably own way too many--there are so many that I've only tried one or two recipes out of before I found a new book to tempt me. I also love recipes that come in magazines, and so you'll find dog-eared corners of pages throughout my Runner's World and various fitness magazines I get. I just love great pictures of food and good recipes. I'm not much of a gourmet cook, though, I tend to go for the tastey yet simpler type of recipes. It seems like I've always been on the lookout for nutritious recipes, but lately its been ones that include the nutritional information because I've found it difficult sometimes to figure out the calorie content of most main dishes.

I'm not exactly sure where I saw this book originally, but for some reason it struck a chord of interest, so I ordered it from Amazon a couple weeks ago. It is "Now Eat This" by Rocco Dispirito, where he has taken 150 of America's favorite comfort foods and revamped them to be under 350 calories. I was excited to try it, for several reasons. One, he's a foodie/chef so the recipes are bound to taste good. Two, the recipes are low-calorie. Three, the pictures on the cover looked deeeelicious!

I've folded down several corners of recipes I have to try and I've gotten around to actually trying three of them. His Sweet Potato Fries recipe looks good, but I've tried it twice with only marginal success--mainly because I didn't have the time to follow each step completely. I'm determined to try it thoroughly because the picture looks good and sweet potatoes are so healthy.

This past Friday I made his (Almost) General Tso's Chicken and got rave reviews from everyone in my family. They gave it 4 out of 5 stars and said it rivaled what we get at our favorite Chinese restaurant in town. The kicker? A serving is only 310 calories and it didnt' take me long to cook at all, I think I had dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less (not counting the time it took the brown rice to cook). I will definitely be making that one again!

Finally, I had time this afternoon to try his Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. Let me just say, the picture looked great but once I read the ingredients I was a bit skeptical. Here's the recipe:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocao powder, sifted
1 cup canned white cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons light agave syrup
3 large egg whites
1 1/2 cup granulated splenda
1/4 cup dark chocolate-covered cacao nibs
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Notice anything? Yeah, no flour, no brown sugar. I knew he would've have included the recipe if they totally sucked, so I had to try this. There is only 45 calories in one cookie compared to 210 in the "normal" recipe, that's a huge difference! Plus, I figured if they were good they'd work for me when I go gluten-free. So I whipped up a batch.

They took a little more work than normal ones, and only made 20.

But they looked okay.

So I gave them the ultimate taste test and let the girls each have one first.

They gobbled them up and said they were so delicious, they wanted another one.

So I tried one and agreed with them. They are good. Not quite like regulare chocolate chip cookies (probably because they lack the brown sugar, thats the part I really enjoy on the regular ones) mabye more chocolatey like a brownie, but still good. Good enough for me to eat another one!

I guess we'll have to ration them and eat them slowly since it only made 20, but we definitely will savor them. And I'll probably make them agian. Of course, once my hubby gets home I'll see what he thinks of them!