Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World

by Lisa Lillien

Book Overview

Do you want to eat burgers, chocolate cake, frozen margaritas, fudge, and French fries--and still fit into your pants? Is life not worth living without brownies and onion rings? Do you want a surefire... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312377428
• ISBN13: 9780312377427
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

B+ for taste and A+ for low cal/low fat

These recipes are absolutely amazing for what you are eating. You see "fat free" this and "lite" this in all the ingredients but when combined the taste is so amazing you honestly do not realize what you are eating is healthier than the alternatives. I just made the "Dream Puffs" tonight and I was floored - so freaking good. Sweet, puffy donut-like pastry with cold creamy filling for only 45 calories and 1.5 grams of fat? Ridiculous! (As long as you don't eat the whole tray, lol) I also tried the imitation recipe of the Taco Bell crunch wrap supreme and was equally impressed. You get a pretty big portion of (delicious) food that filled me up and was only 220 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. One thing I noticed is that there are a LOT of common ingredients amongst the different recipes, so you won't find yourself buying a whole huge thing of vanilla soy milk and going what on earth am I going to do with the rest of this? Finally.... I'd recommended this to the single or the couple. I live by myself and half the time I don't feel like cooking because 1. most recipes just make too much and 2. I'm too lazy. A lot of these are written for one or two servings so that is very convenient for me and almost all of them are really simple.

Fun and informative, plus you can find pictures of all the recipes online!

I subscribed to the Hungry Girl newsletter about a month ago and it's one of the few newsletters I actually read all the way through! Hungry Girl is really funny and she dishes out so much good info on new products and new ways to try recipes. I got this book today and I can't wait to try some of the recipes out, they all look so yummy. The only thing I was a little disappointed about was the fact that there weren't that many pictures. But this disappointment quickly faded when I realized that pictures of all the book's recipes can be easily found over at hungry-girl.com/book. What a great idea! It's probably really expensive to include a lot of glossy photos in a book, especially for a first-time author, so having them available online is a really smart way of getting around this.

My favorite cookbook so far this year

As soon as I saw this book at a bookstore I knew I had to buy it. It's filled with food I want to eat! Its 160 recipes are easy to make, delicious (at least every one I've tried) and guilt-free. In other words, this book is a treasure, and my favorite cookbook so far this year. As author Lisa Lillien writes, she's not a nutritionist or a doctor, she's just hungry! She's also funny, with the wit of a teenage goofball. The author's photo on the back cover shows her sitting on the floor wearing a Cookie Monster T-shirt. That informal, silly tone is everywhere. Recipe names include the Ginormous Cereal Bowl-Anza, I Can't Believe It's Not Sweet Potato Pie, Lord of the Onion Rings and My Big Fat Greek Pita. There are lots of extras. Each recipe lists the calories, grams of fat, sodium, carbs, fiber, sugars and protein, and the front of the book has a long list of recommended name-brand products to use for ingredients. Many recipes include Fun Facts (for example, chocolate syrup was used to represent blood in the famous "Psycho" shower scene) or what the author calls Happy Girl Shockers, trivia tidbits scattered throughout the book. Did you know that Taco Bell's Fiesta Taco SALAD has a whopping 840 calories? In the middle of the book is a full-color, eight-page photo insert, which shows 27 different dishes with the page numbers where that recipe appears. There are photos of all the recipes in the book on its companion website. Here is the chapter list: 1. Rise & Dine 2. Chop `Til Ya Drop 3. Souper Douper 4. Let's Do Lunch 5. Junk Food Junkie 6. Manly Meals 7. Party Time 8. Chocolate 911 9. Fruity Call 10. Oven Lovin' 11. Zappuccino 12. Happy Hour 13. Fun With... 14. Survival Guides My other new favorite cookbook: The Most Decadent Diet Ever!

I heart HG!

These recipes rock! This book is especially good if you are on weight watchers and want to indulge in your favorite foods without sacrificing all of your points. It is also a good book for anyone who wants to find a healthier version of a favorite recipe. And they actually TASTE GOOD!

Supportive, Humorous, Just Right!

This is an absolutely charming, informative and imaginative book for anybody, female or otherwise, looking to eat better. Hungry Girl started out as a helpful website and just exploded from there and the excitement of having a new book to reach and assist wider audiences is present throughout the work. The usual standards of recipes - soups, salads, entrees, party foods, desserts, etc. - are there, most with information on just why this is better for you than the standard recipe. There are also plenty of tasty vegetarian recipes available for those who can appreciate the endless appeal of butternut squash. Along with the recipes are also tips and helpful guidelines for lots of situations - eating at work, going to a party, taking a cruise, in line for fast food, etc. - many of which really made me stop and think about what I've been eating and how I've been eating it. She's got a lot of really great tips that I honestly had never considered before. There are selections of color photographs but most of the recipes have small drawings along with them. I really enjoyed this because it allowed the book to be packed with information rather than tantalizing pictures. And in the end, it's the ingredients that are important, not how it looks. Hungry Girl is also endorsed by Weight Watchers and so all the recipes have their points value available online. Lastly, and most importantly for a lot of people, none of the recipes in this book are overly complex or require lots of crazy ingredients. I'm just learning to be confident in the kitchen and I haven't come across a recipe yet that seems out of my skill range. Her enthusiasm throughout the book gives a fun feeling to the recipes, like you're not cooking but embarking on an adventure to eat better. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the obvious effort put into it. There's something for everyone it its pages.