BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Home Cooking Hello! This is my first post here.

Hello! I just joined this site in hopes of communicating with other enthusiastic home cooks (I actually tried to post last night, but I don't think it went through). I have been preparing dinner at home for the last couple of years, and before that I rarely so much as boiled pasta. The problem now is that I am growing tired of the same old cookbooks, as great as they are. Can anyone recommend cookbooks I ought to check out? Which ones have you found the most delicious and/or reliable? I am interested in general, all-purpose cookbooks (of which I only have one) as well as more specific cookbooks. In particular, I am looking for books that feature lots of dinner ideas and entrees (as opposed to breakfast, snacks, etc.) as well as books that have healthy and nutritious recipes (my husband and I are not "on a diet," but we are trying to eat well and get fit). Thanks in advance for all your suggestions!

I love INA GARTEN. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> She cooks from scratch but it's not low-fat. She's wonderful though. I also like Rachel Ray for meals in a hurry.

Do you watch the FOOD NETWORK? I got out of my rut just by getting cable. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Also, if you're looking for recipes online, my favorite is www.allrecipes.com.

My husband just got me the new Taste of Home Cookbook for Christmas. It's absolutely MASSIVE and has tons of recipes for all three meals of the day, snacks, appetizers, desserts, etc. They even have a Light and Tasty section with lower fat recipes, but all the recipes have nutritional information listed with them, and many of them are easy to lighten up. There's also a lot of cooking tips and tricks, and substitution lists.

The recipes are submitted by home cooks just like us, not chefs, so the recipes are not intimidating, and the ingredients are easy to find.

Also, my cookbook came with a coupon inside for a free year's subscription to the Taste of Home magazine.

I also recommend the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, the classic red and white checked one. That's the cookbook I started off with.

I get the Taste of Home magazine!

hello gracejoy, welcome, i can;t cook but i want to welcome you anyway

I get the Cooking For 2 magazine that's published by the same company, but the little introductions to the recipes really annoy me. They're poorly written. I hope Taste of Home isn't like that too.

I have to say that I REALLY like the cookbook, though!

Thank you all for your kind replies!

Welcome! You might check your local library. Ours has a whole section of cookbooks. This way you don't end up buying something you don't like and if you do like it then you could look into buying it!

Hi, I just joined today so I'm new too-I also love Ina Garten and Paula Deen is great as is the Delaurentis[sp] woman-but I find some of the best cookbooks around here are made by churches-for fundraisers and such-mostly down home cooking-is where I cook some of my best dishes-by that I mean the ones my husband and kids ask for over and over again-hope this helps.