Healthy cookbooks for family dinners you'll feel great about serving to the kids. Whether you're trying to lose weight or just increase the amount of vegetables on your dinner plates, these books are practical for busy families.
Trying to balance family dinner can be such a challenge when your kids are little and picky.
On the one hand, you might be looking for healthy recipes that will help you be stronger and fitter.
On the other hand, you need to serve meals that the kids will actually eat and meets their physical needs, too.
When I'm looking for fresh inspiration for our family dinners, these are the top healthy cookbooks for real family meals that I tend to turn to time and again.
Why are these "Healthy" Cookbooks?
When I'm feeding my family, I'm looking for healthy recipes that meet the following needs:
- Real Food: The recipe is made mostly from scratch. It needs basic ingredients that I can pronounce. No artificial sweeteners required.
- Lots of Fruit & Vegetables: I'm always looking for new ideas for getting more produce onto our plates. I cook with fruit in our dinners frequently since they tend to be more popular with the kids than vegetables.
- Fairly Light: I look for recipes that are light on the butter and cream and use more olive oil instead. Bonus points if the books aren't heavy-handed with starchy ingredients like pasta and breaded coating.
- Mediterranean Influenced: Our family eats meat but I do look for Mediterranean recipes because they are known to be so heart-healthy.
- Balance: I believe in all things in moderation. If we have something really delicious on the table like warm, fresh bread, I balance it with something super healthy like a vegetable-filled soup.
I think the best way to stay healthy is to eat all things in moderation and focus on healthy portions. That's why I've loved the 21 Day Fix strategy for feeding my family and myself the same meals.
Healthy Cookbooks for Families
This is one of my favorite healthy cookbooks of all time. I still refer to it for family dinner frequently.
I love the focus on real food, fresh produce, and the lighter calorie count for all the recipes included.
Gina Homolka's popular SkinnyTaste series is filled with best sellers for a reason. All of her books are fantastic, but Fast and Slow is one of my favorites because it is filled with practical ideas for busy nights as well as things we can take our time with on the weekend.
When you want to make better food choices for your family, using popular kitchen appliances, like slowcookers, is definitely a fantastic shortcut that will help you avoid the drive-thru lanes or meal deliveries.
Many appliance-specific recipes can be unhealthy, but I love this lightened up slowcooker book from America's Test Kitchen. So many delicious ways to use chicken and pork!
This popular Instant Pot book is the best in the series because it focuses on much lighter, healthier versions of his popular recipes.
This stunning cookbook was my favorite cookbook purchase last year. It has a wide variety of vegetable-heavy dishes that my family has loved eating.
Not all of the recipes are quick and easy, but you could prep them ahead to make dinnertime faster. This is a perfect cookbook for exploring how deeply delicious healthy food can be.
As I mentioned, our family eats meat but the popular vegetarian books in The Forest Feast series always go over well with my family.
I love how this particular book focuses on simple fruit and veggie side dishes that I could pair with grilled chicken or fish.
No one in our family is diabetic but this whole food cookbook is perfect for families because the recipes are very low in sugar and carbohydrates.
You'll find tons of inspiration on fiber-rich foods with a wide variety of nutrients and whole grains.
Lisa Leake's 100 Days of Real Food is a challenge I think most families should try at least once. The experiment is very eye opening and can lead to wonderful, permanent new habits that improve your health and well being.
We are so much more likely to consistently choose healthy foods if we don't feel like we're eating on a "diet." The recipes in the Well Plated cookbook are real, healthy, and feel like a treat because they are so delicious.
In the last two years before I had a total hip replacement surgery, I tried everything I could to help reduce the significant pain I was experiencing in my joints.
This anti-inflammatory book was so helpful in learning to avoid some of the foods that were triggering my pain. While it didn't fix my issue and surgery still ended up being the final solution, some of the recipes we tried during that phase were so delicious they've become a permanent part of our rotation.
I don't believe in restrictive diets because they are unsustainable for real world family cooking. However, the Whole 30 cookbook is filled with veggie-heavy recipes that my family has loved.
When I want to cook a recipe for ME that I am going to get excited about, I turn to this cookbook by Jessica Merchant. I've loved every last thing I've cooked from it and my family has enjoyed them, too.
Sometimes you just need a super-easy meal for the kids or yourself when you're on the go. The protein smoothies in this cookbook are absolutely delicious and will stick with your family for the long run vs. a smoothie that leaves you hungry in an hour or two.
It is a great way to sneak in some spinach or other vegetables when the strong fruity flavors can help hide them.
I believe that healthy cooking starts when the kids are little. If you're struggling with picky eaters like I did, invite your kids into the kitchen and get them making meals they'll love.
My cookbook for kids is filled withour family's most-favorite family dinner recipes and each one offers suggestions to play with the ingredients list to try new vegetables.
The recipes are not "diet food" in any way but I believe this book will help your kids discover new favorites and help make them a little more adventurous at the dinner table.
Finally, you might be surprised to see a bread machine cookbook on a list of healthy cookbooks, but I firmly believe in balance.
When I'm serving up a cozy soup that is loaded to the brim with fresh vegetables, I'm more likely to get the kids excited about dinner if there's a delicious piece of warm bread to go with it for dunking.
Making your own homemade bread in a bread machine takes 5 minutes or less of prep and the rest of the baking is hands off. You can learn how to make a from scratch honey whole wheat bread, sourdough bread, rye bread, and so much more.
Bonus? Skip all the preservatives and hidden sugars in prepared bread from the grocery store. From scratch bread is so much more delicious and healthy for you.
More Favorite Cookbooks
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We had one of the original Nooks and had terrible luck with it. the battery wouldn't stay charged and even though they replaced the Nook twice it still never worked properly. So I would be excited about the battery life.
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