Cooking Light Lighten Up, America! : Favorite American Foods Made Guilt-Free

550 Pages·2013·44.53 MB·English

by  Allison Fishman

To the delicious Abraham Lee and Zevin Jones: You’ve
got big appetites like your mama—use them wisely. Thank
you for being the best travel partners I could have hoped
for.
e sent Cooking Light’s ebullient and tireless contributing editor, Allison
Fishman Task, on a mission: to crisscross this great land in search of
favorite regional foods. The result of her road-tripping culinary
W
anthropology is an almost dizzying collection of classic treats from the diners, county
fairs, cocktail parties, and hotel dining rooms of our collective yore. Between the
Reuben sandwiches, Waldorf salads, sweet-and-sour meatballs, red flannel hash, and
apple pie, there’s enough comforting nostalgia here to butter all of New England’s
lobster rolls. But while traveling and eating, Allison also had her eye on a bigger
theme: to lighten these American classics for a country that is starting to think hard
about what it eats, even as it reaffirms what it loves from its past.
At Cooking Light, it’s been our mission for more than 25 years to honor the flavor
values of traditional foods while coaxing a lot of fat and calories out. Nothing gives us
more pleasure than a light cheesecake that has the same swoon-inducing, throat-
catching effect of the Brooklyn original—and half the calories. We love eating and
cooking, but we don’t give indulgent treats like artichoke-spinach dip a nostalgia pass
just because they remind us of the time we snuck big mouthfuls at Mom’s bridge-
party soirée. We see lightening up these dishes as a new sort of cultural preservation:
classic flavors served up for a healthier generation. This is important because the
recent push toward mega-burgers, bacon bombs, five-cheese pizzas, and other over-
the-top glop isn’t doing much to honor and advance our food culture, let alone our
health. We much prefer Allison’s approach—respect the traditions, but improve upon
them. Love what you eat, but do so with a healthy future in mind. And keep an eye
out, as Allison did on her road trips, for the new favorites—the Vietnamese bánh mì
sandwiches, the Mexican fish tacos—that continue the evolution of our food through
the inspirations of immigrant cooks.
This book moves our preserve-but-improve philosophy nicely down the road,
serving up more than 150 recipes that American families can really dig into, happily
and healthfully.
Scott Mowbray
Editor, Cooking Light
CONTENTS

Introduction
Up and At ’Em
Breakfast & Brunch
Lunch Fare
Sandwiches, Salads & Soups
Between Meals
Appetizers & Snacks
Main Course
Entrées & One-Dish Meals
On the Side
Casseroles & Veggies
Beloved Desserts
Pies, Cakes, Cookies & More
Nutritional Analysis
Ingredient Metric Equivalents
Breakfast
Alabama Cat Head Biscuits with Sausage Gravy
All-American Granola
Baked French Toast
Cajun-Style Shrimp and Grits
Caramel-Pecan Sticky Buns
Cranberry-Orange Scones
Egg And Cheese On A Roll
L.E.O. Scramble
Maine Blueberry Cake
Mini Donuts
Monkey Bread
Mushroom, Bacon, and Swiss Strata
Peach And Blueberry Pancakes
Philly Scrapple
Red Flannel Hash
Savory Egg Muffins
Shakshuka
Smoothies
Blueberry Soy
Creamy Mango, Avocado & Lime
Dark Cherry
Fresh Peach
Mocha Java
Pog
Ruby Slipper
Spicy Bloody Mary
Tex-Mex Migas
Lunch
Bánh Mì
B.L.A.S.T. Sandwich
Chimichurri Fish Tacos
Cobb Salad With Green Goddess Dressing