Skinny Southern Recipes with a Healthy Twist
Skinny Southern is a recipe book full of Southern recipes, but with a healthy twist. Enjoy these fantastic Southern recipes with less (or no) guilt!
Skeptic Yet Curious…
Alright, this must come out. Being Southern myself, I’m skeptical yet excited about this cookbook. One of the things that really is well known in the South is that everything absolutely delicious is full of butter and fat. Bacon grease is on the counter of almost every elder. That’s just what we do. Full flavor. Full fat. Of course, we also do diabetes, obesity and heart attacks so I suppose it’s about time for a healthier version of our beloved foods!
About the South…
If you are not from the South, there are a few things you should know if you ever visit.
- We are crazy friendly. We open doors for people, talk to everyone like we’ve known them for years and we’re helpful. For the most part.
- We will defend our loved ones and typically complete strangers if we feel like they are being wronged.
- We eat. A lot. All get togethers include food, and we love getting together!
- Almost every elder is known for some dish or another. While she may share her recipe, you’ll almost never get the whole thing. She leaves out her secret ingredient so that you can’t make it like her. Good luck.
- All the girls, and some of the boys, grow up in their Granny’s kitchen.
- Also, we all made mud pies at some point. Some of us even got our siblings or cousins to eat said mud pies. Yes, they are made from actual mud.
Those are some things you should know, should you ever visit any of our states. It’s just the norm. Recently a person came down from up North and stayed a while, he could not get use to or understand why everyone was so friendly. His perspective was that it was ‘weird’.
All About Skinny Southern
The book contains nine chapters altogether:
- Appetizers
- Rubs, Spice Blends and Sauces
- Soups
- Salads
- Sides
- Main Dishes
- Breads & Desserts
- Kids in the Kitchen
- Drinks
About the Author:
Lara Lyn Carter is a private chef and won an Emmy for her show Thyme for Sharing. She also wrote Southern Thymes Shared and Skinny Southern Baking. While these are all awesome things. That doesn’t inspire Southern confidence. So, we’ll get to the part that Southerners care about. She is a wife and mother of three boys which means she has to be able to cook, like really cook. In the South, we tend to think that chef’s are a little fancy for us, so this was very important to know.
Things us ladies love to know:
She was inspired to create these recipes because she reached that point in life where she realized it was time to lose weight and get healthier. She went from a size 12 (collective gasp here) to a size 2 (collective wow). So, evidently her workout determination combined with her healthy changes were successful.
Not So Random Thoughts
As I flip through the pages, I’m delighted to see recipes I grew up either eating or seeing other people eat (I use to be afraid to try new things). Also, some of them I simply had no idea they had a ‘real’ name. For example, the Waldorf Fruit Salad has always just been a fruit salad. Just like the food itself, it’s somehow comforting to see images of them. Each recipe holds a short blurb about it. Typically 2 or 3 sentences about what they are or her Southern experience with them.
I’m not from the south, but I love southern food. If you found a way to have the taste of southern food but lower calories… then I have to check out this magical book.
Most of the southern recipes include butter all over the place. I would love to learn some of these same recipes but healthier!
I would love to check this out. I am always looking for new recipes to make.
What an interesting cookbook! I am always looking for healthier recipes and this book would be a great addition to my collection.
always like trying new recipes. these looks like some fun ones.
Even living in Florida people are so much more friendlier than up north!! This cookbook sounds delicious and perfect for those of us trying to lose weight.
I’m all for healthier cooking, especially if it is low fat! New ideas for main entrees are always appreciated.
The Skinny Southern Cookbook shows how to spread southern hospitality by including experiences in the cookbook. I love when you get the same taste as the full-fledged recipe, yet with less calories. I’d probably make Southern Biscuits first.
I am from the south and I hope to be skinny. i would love to try these skinny southern ideas since it is my goal to be skinny and southern.
I would love to try cooking up some of these recipes for my family they sound so good. I like it being skinny that how I’m cooking right now for everyone. Great pictures in the book makes me so hungry looking at them.
Looks like it will be a good book. I want to start trying out healthier recipes.
those lovely Southern cooking! And with a healthy twist..just exactly what I need to add more flavors to my kitchen. I can’t wait to try them myself..
I’m intrigued but skeptical too! So many of the recipes I love are so fat and sugar heavy, which I’m sure is why they’re good but I also never make them for the same reason!
Always looking for a good healthy recipe. Living in the north this would be something very different than we are used to and sure to spice things up!
I do love southern food since I grew up eating my southern grandmothers delicious meals. I would love to have recipes for healthier versions so I can eat them again.
I have always loved Southern food. My grandma lived in the South for a while, and I have missed her cooking since she passed away. Love the idea of this cookbook! It would be nice to have a collection of Southern recipes all in the same place, especially ones that are healthy enough to share with the whole family.
This sounds like an awesome cookbook! I love collecting cookbooks and being able to come up with new and exciting recipes.
I would love to try these recipies! I am always trying to find healthier alternatives to food that is usually more comfort food.
This book looks great. I have been trying to cook more and have been needing some new recipes to try.
Sounds like a great book. Definitely would like to try some of the recipes. Thanks.
I would like to look through this book and get some healthy versions of good southern cooking. Hopefully the recipes will be fairly easy too.
I think this would be wonderful to cook from. I’m always trying to find healthier recipes.
My cousin would love this! She loves cute movies and books 🙂
This looks like a fun giveaway!
Thank you for hosting #omhgww.
I hope you have a great week!
I love the list of what we should know if we ever visit the south. I love that both boys and girls grew up their Grammy’s kitchens! So did this midwestern girl!
I would love to try some of these recipes. They look delicious and they are healthy!
I am really interested in this cookbook. I would love to try these recipes.
My husband is diabetic and recently started taking medicine for it, so I’m trying to be more thoughtful about the way I cook. I wonder if these recipes have less sugar than traditional recipes.
I love Southern cooking. I love the food it is so comforting. I especially love the biscuits
That is so funny y’all just called it fruit salad. When I was growing up in Chicago, we always called it Waldorf Fruit Salad and when I moved down this way no one ever knew what I was talking about.
Ha! I would be one of those people who had no idea. LOL. We shorten everything in the South. LOL
As a southerner who love to cook and we have many great cooks in our family this is our favorite cooking style.
But, many recipes need to be healthier so this cookbook is perfect for our family.
I don’t know if I could cook without lard, lol. I’m from KY and we’ve been told ‘if it ain’t fried, it ain’t food’ for so long, can we unlearn it?? I’d definitely give this a whirl, though!
First up, let me say that this is a very pretty book cover. I have been thinking about making dietary changes. I love that the recipes don’t look too complicated
I love southern cooking but as I’ve gotten older it doesn’t love me back. It would be great to learn how to cook the same dishes and not pack on the pounds!
My mom is from the South so she loves to cook southern cuisine, but she is on a diet currently. This cookbook would be perfect for her so she can continue to enjoy her Southern foods guilt free!
Interested to see what the Breads & Desserts sections looks like since it says gluten-free. I have not found a lot of great GF recipes in my search