The Wonderful World of Cookbooks

For the past few months, I've been discovering the joys of having complete control over what I eat. From planing to purchasing, its all me (with input from my hubby of course!). I love this freedom to pursue a super healthy diet and to create delicious and satisfying meals in my kitchen.  And although its fun to create my own recipes, sometimes you just need structure. Ok, maybe most of the time. This brings us to the wonderful world of cookbooks! I L-O-V-E cookbooks. I'm talking all kinds of cookbooks, from the classic Betty Crocker to the brand-new The Best of Clean Eating 2. The cookbooks below are the ones I rely on in my kitchen. Some you may know intimately, but I'm willing to bet at least a few will be new friends for you to discover!

1. The Best of Clean Eating is hands down my favorite cookbook right now. The recipes inside these pages are delicious, healthy, and (mostly) uncomplicated. I highly recommend adding this one to your bookshelf- it's well worth the money!

2. Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free* is another well-loved cookbook in my house. When I purchased this cookbook I was living at home and my mom was living gluten-free for health reasons. Right now the hubby and I aren't living a gluten-free lifestyle, but I still rely on SS&GF for go-to recipes like the Make-Ahead Chicken I made Monday night. It's full of healthy recipes for entrees, salads, and side dishes not to mention desserts! And if you are trying to live gluten-free or even partially gluten-free this book is a MUST! *Just a note- she does use dairy in her recipes. I've found that its very simple to substitute a non-dairy milk or just leave out the dairy in most of the recipes without issues.

3. In our house the Betty Crocker Cookbook comes in handy whenever meats are for dinner. The handy charts that tell you exactly how to cook any imaginable type of meat are a MUST! Most of the recipes are fairly healthy or easily adapted to fit a clean eating lifestyle.

Those are my top 3 at the moment. I also have a few others that I am currently getting to know, but the jury is out on whether I love them as much as the first three:

4. The Best of Clean Easting 2 just arrived from Amazon last week. I haven't had a chance to really sit down with it, but after a quick skim it looks promising!

5.  I've had the Master Your Metabolism Cookbook for a while, but I never needed a cookbook until I was married and so it just sat on the shelf. I pulled it out Sunday and made a killer batch of Blueberry Banana Muffins. I guarantee this will become a favorite. All the recipes are clean and natural- what else would you expect from Jillian Michaels?! ;)

There is one more...but you'll have to stay in suspense because I have a special post planned for this baby. :D