Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien

Lisa Lillien, better known as Hungry Girl, is a self-described foodologist. She admits to being obsessed with food and is constantly on the look out for great-tasting lower-fat, lower-calorie foods, so that she can still have her cake (and pizza and ice cream) and eat it. Hungry Girl makes it clear that she is neither a chef nor a nutritionist. Her book is simply a collection of fun, easy recipes (with zany titles), and plenty of tips, suggestions and fun-filled or shocking little facts.

Hungry Girl's book isn't for everyone, yet in many ways it's for all of us. It might not cut it if you want to shun processed foods and eat as naturally as possible. But for many women -- and this book, along with other, similar "non-diet" diet books, is aimed more at women -- Hungry Girl fulfills a great need: to have meals and snacks that are slimmed-down versions of the real thing.

Hungry Girl relies heavily on processed ingredients such as fat-free whipped topping, fat-free sour cream, fat-free cheese, liquid egg substitute, fat-free powdered creamer, and artificial sweeteners. Whether that's good or bad depends on your point of view. These may be low calorie or low fat, but not necessarily healthful.

Yet Hungry Girl also has some more natural ingredient substitutions such as butternut squash in fries, and pumpkin in baking. Plus, Hungry Girl is big on fiber.

Hungry Girl makes no secret of some of her favorite brands of foods. House Foods' Shirataki Noodles, whose packages bear her caricature, Splenda, and Fiber One are among her favorites. This at least takes the guesswork out of what to buy.

So if you’re looking to make over some high-fat favorites, see if Hungry Girl's Ooey Gooey Chili Cheese Nachos, Lord of the Onion Rings or Fettuccine Hungry Girlfredo hit the spot.

Feeling a chocolate urge coming on, I decided to make Hungry Girl's Dreamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, which calls for only three ingredients: fudge brownie mix, canned pumpkin and a little reduced-fat peanut butter. This particular recipe had drawn some negative reviews on Amazon because of its flavor and density. Contrary to those reviews, we loved the recipe. There was no overriding pumpkin flavor that some had mentioned (be sure to use pure pumpkin rather than pumpkin pie mix), and if you confine yourself to a square or two, you shouldn't feel weighed down.

Overall, Hungry Girl is a quirky, fun and no-frills recipe book, rounded out with some great tips and survival strategies for when you’re eating away from home. There are some photos in the book, but you can find the rest on the Hungry Girl web site, along with Weight Watchers points.

Published by St. Martin's Griffin

ISBN 0-312-37742-8