Comfort Food Fix promises to take our favorite comfort foods and remake them into healthier dishes.

I have used some of Krieger's recipes in the past and been well pleased with them. However, this book has been a bit of a disappointment. First, I found few recipes that resembled anything that I call comfort food! [I said few... there are some, however.] These were the more sophisticate of choice, evidently! [Perhaps it's simply my own down to earth choice of comfort foods that makes these seem a bit beyond what I like.]

I also found that while fats were reduced in almost every recipe, sodium seldom took more than a minimal dip, with a few exceptions. However, those exceptions substituted other items that totally remade the dish instead of simply allowing the dish to remain as true to original form as possible. [Give me Diabetic Cooking magazine any day!]

The recipes were "okay" that I tried, and I am sure there will be more that I will yet try, I just do not care for the four I picked at random to sample, and I especially can't call them "comfort food".

The layout was superb in the book, and the photography was excellent.

While I did not like the few recipes I have tried thus far, I still have to give this book Five Stars and a Thumbs Up!

****DISCLOSURE: This book was provided free of charge by Amazon Vine for exchange of a non-biased, independent review. ( )

If you're looking for ideas for healthy eating, this cookbook is a good place to start. I'm familiar with Ellie Krieger from her column in Fine Cooking magazine. She creates delicious recipes from scratch (no edible food-like substances here) that don't take forever to make.

I tried two recipes: the Broccoli-Cheddar Soup and the Autumn Vegetable Curry. The Curry was my favorite. The recipe calls for curry powder, onion, ginger, garlic and a touch of cayenne to be whizzed up in the food processor. The resulting puree, with the addition of a little tomato paste, is the base for cooking the vegetables. It takes a bit of time to prep the veggies, but the rest of the cooking is hands-off and the result is delicious.

I wasn't as crazy about the soup. Her method for incorporating the cheese is to make a low-fat bechamel by whisking flour into 1-percent milk, then adding the cheese a little at a time. I thought the bechamel would have been a lot easier and a lot tastier with a half-tablespoon of butter to bind it. I used a three-year aged cheddar and could barely taste the cheese, so pay attention to the "extra-sharp cheddar" designation in the ingredients list.

While it's a good basic healthy cookbook, I think I've got others just as good at home (several of the EatingWell cookbooks come to mind). ( )

I love to cook and eat good food. I have a great interest in nutrition and a healthier lifestyle. I do not cook with artificial ingredients for the sake of saving calories and preparing a "lite" food. The recipes in "Comfort Food Fix", by Ellie Krieger, are comfort foods "made over" into healthier versions. However, they are made with real ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. Real food! With a true understanding of the properties of each ingredient and the cooking techniques that make the most of every morsel, Ellie Krieger serves up scrumptious dishes for every meal--snacks too! The "15 Fix Factors" she uses to formulate these fabulous foods are common sense combined with cooking skill and a thorough knowledge of food usage and preparation. By keeping in mind when to use her three categories of ingredients, "Usually", "Sometimes", and "Rarely", you will learn a new way of eating and cooking that is painless and pleasurable. Check out these tempting treats: "Crispy French Toast Fingers with Blueberry Maple Sauce"; "Shrimp Spring Rolls with Apricot Ginger Dipping Sauce"; "Triple Onion French Onion Soup"; "New Classic Meat Loaf"; and my favorite, "Grandma's Chocolate Pudding". This a gorgeous book--beautifully photographed--and the food is definitely good enough to eat!

Review Copy Gratis Wiley Books ( )

Comfort Food Fix is a beautiful, straightforward, easy to use cookbook - just what I've come to expect of Ellie Krieger. The book focuses on classic family favorite type recipes and both simplifies and lightens them. Everything I cooked out of this cookbook I served to a group of 10 teenagers and 3 adults, so I got some great feedback on the recipes. Here's what I tried:

Citrus Salad with Cherries - extremely simple but the addition of cherries really makes this fruit salad something special both in taste and visually. This one was a hit and would be especially good for brunch.

Smoked Paprika Potato Chips and Triple Onion Dip - Wow! These two recipes make this cookbook a must have. Both recipes were really easy to make, especially if you have a mandolin for slicing the potatoes. These things flew off the baking sheet, I couldn't make them fast enough. The dip was delicious, tasted like that terrible for you store bought onion dip. Guilt free potato chips and onion dip!!

Honey-Mustard Dip - Nothing remarkable, but as she says, why would you serve honey mustard with high fructose corn syrup in it when the real thing is so easy to make yourself?

Creamy Tomato Soup - Another wow for me! This is a ridiculously easy recipe using canned tomatoes, but it was sooooooo good. Of all the recipes I tried this is the one I will make the most, on cold winter nights, to take to work for lunch, or anytime I need something quick, easy and healthy.

Honey-Crisp Oven-Fried Chicken - This is the one recipe I tried that didn't do much for me. The honey brushed on made it too sweet and the coating wasn't crunchy enough. But what do I know? The kids sucked this down, cleaned their plates, and asked for more.

Broccoli Cheese Calzones - Delicious! Hand held broccoli and I'm not sure the kids even recognized what they were eating. The combination of cheeses, broccoli, and sun dried tomato made for a more complex flavor and the pocket made it fun and easy to eat.

Waldorf Salad - Super easy to make and good. Nothing surprising here, it tasted just like a waldorf salad, but a nice way to get fruit and veggies into the kids.

Peanut Butter Cookies - A good, solid peanut butter cookie recipe. As expected these were devoured.

Grandma's Chocolate Pudding - Nice silky texture and a more chocolaty taste than I expected. The kids dipped their pb cookies in it to make that ultimate flavor match.

All-in-all a fabulous cookbook that I will keep handy for when I want a quick, healthy homemade meal. Lots more recipes I plan to try! ( )