When I first heard that I was getting to review Cooking Light The Gluten-Free Cookbook: Simple Food Solutions for Everyday Meals, I was very excited! I am always looking for new recipes and ways to get healthy, tasty gluten free food into my allergic family. I especially appreciated the subtitle; “Simple Food Solutions for Everyday Meals.” Who doesn’t want dinner time to be simple everyday? I was all over this book.

The first part of the book starts off with a section that attempts to give a gluten free 101 class. It lists different sources of gluten, types of gluten free products, foods that are safe to eat, foods to avoid, and food that are questionable. It goes into types of gluten free substitutes and flours, and how to keep a safe kitchen when some people are gluten free and some are not. For someone who is brand new to going gluten free, this section would be very helpful.

Another feature that I appreciated throughout the book was the {Check for Gluten} phrase listed next to ingredients could be questionable, making sure that someone who is new to going gluten free double checks these ingredients to be sure they are safe. Some recipes are also identified by a Dairy Free icon. This is important, because many people who are allergic or cooking for someone allergic to gluten are also allergic to dairy. Although the book is most certainly not catered towards dairy free or multiple allergic people. There aren’t a lot of dairy free recipes. If someone has multiple food allergies, they will find themselves making a lot of substitutions. However, someone newly diagnosed as only needing to avoid gluten will find this book to be perfect for their situation.

The very first recipe we made, at my five year old’s request, was the Strawberry Muffins. Absolutely delicious! We substituted the fat free milk for coconut milk, and the butter for ghee to make it dairy free, and they came out wonderfully moist, which anyone who has done any gluten free baking knows is much more difficult to achieve.

The next recipe we tried was the Banana Breakfast Smoothie, against substituting the fat free milk for coconut milk, and the Greek yogurt for coconut yogurt. Again, another hit! Smoothies will definetly be a regular in the mornings around this house! So simple and so healthy for a delicious breakfast.

The other recipes that my family enjoyed from this cookbook were the Old-Fashioned All-American Meat Loaf, Herbes de Provence-Crusted Lamb Chops (my favorite), the Chicken Tacos with Mango-Avocado Salsa (my husband’s favorite), the Fresh Tomato, Sausage, and Pecorino Pasta, the Roasted Butternut Squash and Shallot Soup, and the Quick Chicken Noodle Soup.

The recipes ranged from super easy (like the smoothie), to more difficult in terms of locating the ingredients. I had never heard of Herbes de Provence before, and I had to wait a few weeks for them to arrive in the mail since my local stores did not carry this specific herbal spice combination (but it was worth it)!

I would absolutley reccommend the book to someone with no other allergies, who is brand new to going gluten free. There are a lot of excellent, varied options for every meal of the day, including some old favorites (like the meatloaf and chicken soup) modified for a gluten sensitive individual.

Availability: Amazon.com

Retail: $21.95

Review by: Ashley Kolod-Hang

* The product for this review was provided to us free of charge for the purpose of product testing. This does not effect our opinion of the products in any way. We only write about products we personally like and use, regardless of how they were acquired.