Amazon.com Review
Hit the Kitchen with Hungry Girl
Just because you’re watching your waistline doesn’t mean you need to go hungry. Recipes from Hungry Girl–like the Fiber-Fried Chicken Strips featured below–feed your every craving without piling on the calories. What’s more, Lisa Lillien’s lighthearted love for food and fun shines through in every recipe, making it easy to follow her healthy example and even come up with your own simple calorie-saving shortcuts.
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13 Comments on “Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World (Paperback)”
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In my years of subscribing to the HG Web site and now using this book, it has occurred to me that there are many different philosophies of dieting and weight loss/maintenance. There are WAY more than two, but for the purposes of this review I am going to boil it down:
1. Eat super healthy, nonprocessed, preferably organic foods. Make whole grains, fruits and veggies the mainstays of your diet. Severely curtail fats, oils and sugar. When you want to indulge, enjoy one small portion of something “real” — i.e. one sliver of chocolate cake, one square of dark chocolate, one cookie, or the like. [And exercise.] People who follow this approach are probably more likely to never snack between meals (or eat only fruits and veggies as snacks), avoid “100-calorie-packs,” eschew artificial sweeteners and diet sodas, etc.
2. Follow the above philosophy to the extent that your time and lifestyle allow, but lean on processed low-cal foods to (a) save cooking/prep time and (b) enjoy modified versions of the “junky” foods you feel deprived of when you are dieting or have to eat low-cal in order to maintain your weight. [And exercise.] People who take this approach are probably the lion’s share of 100-calorie-pack purchasers, more likely to use artificial sweeteners, drink diet sodas, and so on.
What you have to understand about HG author Lillen is that her Web site and book are tools for those who adopt approach #2. She states repeatedly that she isn’t a nutritionist or a dietitian, and she makes no claim for the “healthfulness” of her recipes. They do lean on processed ingredients and tend to contain a lot of sodium, artificial sweetener and chemical ingredients. What they offer is a similar flavor experience to the very high-cal foods lots of people like, with much lower calorie and fat counts (and often more fiber as well).
But for those who would knock this approach (while you certainly retain the moral high ground as organic eating becomes something akin to spiritual cleanliness in more and more people’s minds), please bear in mind that for some of us, our eating is always going to be a trade-off in terms of risk. I speak from experience as someone who has maintained a 100-lb. weight loss for over 10 years. For whatever reason, my body processes food in such a way that I gain weight exceptionally easily. I have to be CONSTANTLY vigilant about what I am putting in my mouth and how I am counterbalancing it with exercise. If I relax my vigilance for even a couple of days, it shows up on my body. As a (reformed) compulsive overeater I struggle with eating just one cookie, tiny sliver of cake, etc., every couple of weeks. (Yes, it is true, I would often rather have a larger portion of something that actually isn’t AS good as the real thing.) And if you think that this behavior is not incredibly challenging to sustain for a lifetime, you just don’t know whereof you speak.
So personally, while I certainly do my best to eat truly healthy, skip sugar, keep fat and meat intake to a minimum, and eat lots of whole grains and fruits/veggies, I salute HG for giving me recipes that allow me to “let my hair down” and enjoy some fun foods along with the rest of the world, without having to lie awake at night and worry about what I ate for lunch.
For the record, among my favorite HG recipes are the butternut squash fries, the turkey reuben and the fettucine “girl-fredo.”
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 2:14 am.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a good book to buy on the Kindle!
I purchased this book on my Kindle, but it was a big waste of money. I will not purchase another cookbook on the Kindle – for sure!
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 3:10 am.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yummy!
This cookbook completely meets my eating style which is small snacks or mini meals throughout the day.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 4:02 am.
I really, really wanted to like this book, partly because of Hungry Girl’s easy, breezy style. I had been forewarned by one of the recipes that appeared on the HG website (for mock French onion soup) that I never made again, but since I am always searching for good low-points WW recipes, I thought I’d give the book a try.
So far, I’ve made a handful of the recipes, all of which have resulted in varying degrees of disappointment as is most often the case when making mock foods. For instance, the mock chocolate peanut butter fudge (a potentially promising combination of brownie mix, canned pumpkin and peanut butter) counts on a tiny bit of peanut butter to mask what turns out to be the much too prominent taste of pumpkin. I admit that one small piece was quite filling, but at the price of sitting in my stomach for hours like a rock. Even the non-mock recipes, like the “Yummy, Yummy Eggplant Goo,” are largely poorer versions of better recipes that are just as low in fat and calories as the HG version.
The cutesy recipe titles are somewhat grating (which would have been easily overlooked if the recipes were good) and the author’s descriptions of the finished products won’t measure up unless you have fairly dull taste buds and an overactive imagination.
If you just want to stuff yourself with mock and/or fiber-filled recipes and don’t really care what the food tastes like, then this is your book. My bet is that most people will try a few of the recipes before deciding that it is better to have occasional smaller portions of real food.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 4:31 am.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hungry Girl : Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World
Very good ideas and chance to incorporate a new way to cook and adjust old receips to be healthy and lower calories.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 10:09 am.
I have mixed thoughts about the Hungry Girl Book. If you like her web site, you will like the book.
The benefit of the book is that it provides one with suggestions for swapping high calorie, high fat ingredients with lower calorie, lower or fat-free ingredients. The recipes are also very quick and easy.
The problems with the book are; 1) It relies on A LOT of processed ingredients with nutritionally empty, artificial ingredients – e.g. it is okay and healthy to eat low-fat natural cheese and a whole grain hamburger bun instead of plastic pieces of Fat free American cheese with an overprocessed, white flour, tasteless low calorie hamburger bun 2) There is an overemphasis on getting the calories down as far as possible – interesting, catchy approach to draw people to the book, but IT IS AT THE EXPENSE OF TASTE AND NUTRITION 3) Some of the recipes are not “recipes” – I do not need to be told to use low calorie bread, fat-fat cheese, and lean meat to create a sandwich 4) The descriptions are overly enthusiastic – they will not taste that good. It eventually makes you less willing to believe what she is selling after a while. 5) Hungry Girl has financial tie-ins with certain food products (I don’t know if I am allowed to name them by brand), like those shirataki noodles (her picture is on them) and muffins (she has her own flavors). This biases her suggestions and swaps – there are better options available. 6) Most of the swaps that she suggests and similar recipes are available already on her web site. If you want to modify one of your favorites, you can find all sorts of swaps on her site or around the internet.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 10:23 am.
4.0 out of 5 stars
interesting
It is a different take on healthy eating. It’s good but sometimes hard to find some ingredients or to keep them on hand.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 11:06 am.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a valuable source
This book is possibly the only book you’ll need to get into a healthful eating pattern. It’s down to earth and sensible loaded with options for all lifestyles.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 2:48 pm.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love this cookbook, use it all the time.
I love cookbooks. But when I bring them home, I typically look through them, get overwhelmed and then put them on the shelf where they remain untouched.
Posted on June 4, 2009 at 8:17 pm.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Great illustrations, not much else!
I love the retro illustrations in this book. But almost all the recipes call for ingredients that I don’t tend to keep in the house — and wouldn’t go out and buy just for the…
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 2:58 am.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lazy Girl
I have so many objections to this book I don’t know where to begin! This is no recipe book. It is an instruction book of how to use artificial sweetener, canned products and…
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 7:39 am.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love Hungry Girl!!!
I have learned so many useful tips for cutting out fat and calories I’m amazed. Hungry Girl Rocks!
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 12:26 pm.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Have Cook book
This book is what every kitchen needs. Recipes that are great for the munchers, without the guilt! I absolutely recommend it! Also try: ‘FINGER LICKING DIFFERENT’.
Posted on June 5, 2009 at 4:08 pm.