Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook: A Review

I've been hearing a bit about the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, and what I'm hearing intrigues me, so I jumped at the chance to read and review Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook: Eat Up and Slim Down with More Than 350 Healthy Recipes written by sisters Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison .

The book begins with an introduction explaining a bit about the book and touching on tools and special ingredients, then continues with the recipes, followed by a meal recap and a full index.

The recipes are divided into one pot meals, hearty mains and sides, sunrise eats, sweet treats, beverages, and all things smooth and crunchy.  Each food category is further divided.  For instance, one pot meals is divided into crockpot meals, family skillet meals, quick single skillet meals, family soups, and quick single soups.  The pages are thick and glossy, and about a quarter of the recipes are accompanied by gorgeous photos.  Recipes are labeled according to meal type; S, FP, or E, and some recipes contain variations to make it more than one meal type.

What I liked:

• I love the wide variety of recipes in this book, and felt like I would like to try at least 1/3 of them.  It is rare for me to find a cookbook with so many recipes that I want to try.
• These recipes are good, clean, and healthy.
• I thought it was helpful that the recipes were labeled by meal type on the recipe itself and on the contents page in each section.

What I didn't like:

• Pearl and Serene say that you don't really need special ingredients to make their recipes or to live the THM lifestyle.  They even tell you how to make some of the ingredients, like THM baking blend or their on-plan sweeteners.  However, time after time, I simply flipped past recipes that looked interesting because I didn't want to have to find and buy ingredients such as gluccie or whole-husk psyllium flakes.
• I honestly thought the cookbook would contain at least an overview of the THM plan--something that would make the cookbook useful without having to buy the sisters' first book, Trim Healthy Mama Plan.  It didn't.

Bottom line:

I think the sisters said it best themselves: "the recipes in this book will only be truly understood and work in your trimming favor if you understand the concepts behind Trim Healthy Mama."

If you understand THM, and are following its principles, this book will be an invaluable resource for you.  You can eat very well using the recipes in this book and know that you're staying on plan.  If you are not following THM, you will find this cookbook frustrating and confusing.  If you are not yet, but would like to start, following THM principles, start with Trim Healthy Mama Plan, then get Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.

I received this book at no cost from the publisher through Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.