Cook This Not That Kitchen Survival Guide

I’ve always enjoyed the Eat This Not That series of books by David Zinczenko & Matt Goulding. They are small, attractive, and easy to use food comparison books.  One of the newest offerings is Cook This, Not That Kitchen Survival Guide.

I was immediately surprised by the Who blew up the Food chart in the introduction that compares common foods like  pizza by the fat and calorie counts of the average restaurant, supermarket, and home cooked versions.  Prepared supermarket foods were often as high in fat and calories as restaurant foods, sometimes even higher.

Like the others in this series Cook This is filled with many attractive color photos of the dishes being compared.  One of the things that make this book so special is the easy to follow recipes for the home-cooked dishes alongside the restaurant alternatives with a comparison of how much calories, fat, sodium, and cash $$  you save by making the dishes at home.

Cook This Not That doesn’t just stop at giving you recipes, there are a number of grids that tell you how to build a healthy dish by mixing and matching ingredients such as the Crock-Pot Matrix or Wok Matrix that have you choose:

• protein
• vegetables
• braising liquid or sauce
• flavor enhancer
• garnish

This isn’t so much a diet cookbook as a primer about how much healthier taking the time to cook at home is in comparison to the convenience foods wherever you find them.  You can find copies of Cook This Not That in our Express and New Books sections.