Cooking with Trader Joe's Skinny Dish

I found this cookbook at my daughter's book fair at school.  It caught my eye because I already owned Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's and loved it.  As a huge fan of Trader Joe's (it is the primary store I shop at each week), I thought the book was made for me.  As I leafed through the "Skinny Dish" version, I was surprised at how many vegan recipes were included.  It was only when I got home and started reading it cover to cover (literally), that I discovered it was a vegan cookbook!

Author and dietician, Jennifer Reilly, does a great job of serving up a variety of recipes that she doesn't call out as vegan.  She had me at the Foreword by my "crazy, sexy" hero, Kris Carr.  The book is positioned as a "skinny" cookbook for people who want to lose weight...it just so happens that her strategy for eating your way to skinny is with plant based recipes.  She includes a section on "How Skinny People Eat" (5 strategies) and also a "Boosting Your Metabolism"section that gives you a sample schedule and suggested meal plans.  She even includes a 7-day detox plan.

As for the recipes, she's got smoothies and juices; breakfast; appetizers; soups and stews; cold and hot veggies; sandwiches, wraps and burgers; main meals, eight-minute meals; desserts and baked goods, and extras.

This cookbook is one of my go-to's on the shelf.  Here are my favorites...

Sandwiches, Burgers and Wraps: Chicken Salad (this is so amazingly delicious); Hot Chickpea Burgers (my favorite burger, hands down); Broccoli in a Blanket Wrap

Hot Veggies: Garlicky Potatoes and Greens, Simple Spaghetti Squash

Cold Veggies: Blink-of-an-Eye Green Salad; Tofu Feta, Walnut and Beet Salad

Soups and Stews: Gazpacho a la Shepherd Street

Appetizers: Fiery Cashew Dip (I want to eat this up with a spoon); I Heart Hummus; Creamy Artichoke Dip

Breakfast: Mexican Potato Hash (my dad, a big meat lover, loves this recipe) 

Baked Goods: Hot Pants Cornbread (goes great with TJ's organic vegetarian chili)

This is a great book, especially if you are a TJ's shopper and looking for new things to cook up with the store's ingredients.  It is also a good guide for easing into a vegan diet and lifestyle.  The meal plans are easy to follow and quick to prepare.  Get cooking and get skinny!