The Book
A collection of classic Southern comfort food recipes--including seven-layer dip, chicken and gravy, and mudslide cookies--made lighter, healthier, and completely guilt-free.
Virginia Willis is not only an authority on Southern cooking, a French-trained chef, and a veteran cookbook author; she is also a proud Southerner who adores eating and cooking for family and friends. So when she needed to drop a few pounds and generally lighten up her diet, the most important criterion for her new lifestyle was that all the food had to taste delicious.
The result is Lighten Up, Y’all, a soul-satisfying and deeply personal collection of Virginia’s new favorite recipes. All the classics are covered—from a comforting Southern Style Shepherd’s Pie with Grits to warm, melting Broccoli Mac and Cheese to Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie. Each dish is packed with real Southern flavor, but made with healthier, more wholesome ingredients and techniques. Wherever you are on your health and wellness journey, Lighten Up, Y’all has the recipes, tools, and inspiration you need to make the nourishing, down-home Southern food you love.
The Author
Virginia Willis is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, Bon Appétit, Y’all! Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking (Ten Speed Press, 2008). Her latest book, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company (Ten Speed Press, 2011) was rated as one of the top rated cookbooks of 2011. Virginia was also recently named by the Chicago Tribune as one of "Seven Food Writers You Need to Know."
A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, she previously she honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. With MSLTV, Virginia was also responsible for preparing private meals and events for Martha and her guests -- including among others, President Clinton, Aretha Franklin, and Julia Child. As Executive Producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, she traveled the world taping fantastic stories about food - from harvesting capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano to making authentic mustard in Dijon.
Virginia's wide and varied food career started in Atlanta as an apprentice to Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award- winning Comfortable Entertaining. She also spent several years as an editorial assistant with culinary authority Anne Willan on various projects including Cook It Right, an exhaustive tome that documents the various states of "doneness" (and over- and under-"doneness") of everything from whipped cream to braised pheasant.
She is a featured chef in Atlanta Cooks at Home, was a tester and editor for The All-New Joy of Cooking, author of Pasta Dinners 1,2,3, and co-author of Home Plate Cooking. She has been featured in House Beautiful, The Chicago Tribune, and ABCnews.com. She is a contributing editor to Southern Living and her writing has been published in Country Living, Family Fun, and Taste of the South. She has appeared on Real Simple Television, Martha Stewart Living Television, Paula Deen's Best Dishes, and in TV commercials for Duke’s Mayonnaise.
As a nationally recognized culinary professional, her client list includes Calphalon, Char-Broil, The Coca Cola Company, Fresh Express, Olive Garden, and Whole Foods Market.
Virginia is on Atlanta Community Food Bank Advisory Board. She is a past president of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, a member of Georgia Organics, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Southern Foodways Alliance, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, and the American Institute of Wine and Food.
My Thoughts
There are so many places and cookbooks in the world today. The internet has opened up so many doors to cooking. You can find recipes from every culture and ethnicity. I have been a collector of cookbooks for quite a few years now, had to stop because I ran out of room, and I am always looking for new recipes, constantly, on a daily basis. I had the opportunity to review Lighten up Ya'll from Blogging for Books. When my favorite UPS man arrived with the book, I was eager to get started with it.
Lighten Up, Ya'll is not only a cookbook, but a way to enjoy food but doing so in a healthy manner. "Not a diet book but a way of life" and as I was perusing the book I found that the recipes were very easy to follow and from the pictures look so delicious. There are recipes for vegetables, appetizers, meats, soups, baked goods and sweets. So many awesome recipes I won't know where to begin. Good thing I have a hubby who loves when I experiment with new recipes. The author shares what to have for a well equiped kitchen, she talks about good fats and bad fats, and there are a couple pages that is called Ten Tips for Lightening Up. These ten tips include, drink lots of water, don't deny yourself when you are hungry, choosing lean proteins and even a tip that you should eat your veggies first and they should occupy the largest part of your plate.
I have recently lost 60 lbs and I think that the recipes in this book will help me to lose more or maintain. I love fruits and veggies, all kinds. When I thought about Southern cooking, I imagined all the deep fried fattening, of course delicious, foods and kind of shied away from those kind of recipes. The author is definitely an expert in cooking so I think that Lighten Up Ya'll will be my new favorite cookbook to go to when I don't know what to make. Besides that the pictures are gorgeous!!
"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."
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