If you’re into eating healthy, but you don’t like all those recipes with weird ingredients (me, I’ll try anything and have all sorts of weird ingredients in my kitchen), this might just be the cookbook for you.

You’ll find healthified recipes for the foods you love — something for most everyone — and a few decadent treats, too. You’ll also learn a little about Andie Mitchell’s food and eating philosophy.

Who is “Eating in the Middle” For?
The short answer is anyone who loves good food.

This cookbook was written by Andie Mitchell, who you may remember from my review of It Was Me All Along  (affiliate link) or maybe you know Andie from her blog.

Andie grew up in a dysfunctional family and overcame a disoredered relationship with food to lose over 100 pounds — and keep that weight off. You can read my book review to learn a bit more about her story.

This book has many healthy recipes, and some not-so-healthy recipes, hence the title “Eating in the Middle” (affiliate link). It’s for anyone who truly loves good food that tastes good and is good to you.

But What’s in the Book?
The recipes in the book are organized by meal:

1. Introduction
2. Starting Fresh (breakfast)
3. Lunchtime
4. Vegetables & Sides
5. Dinnertime
6. For Sharing
7. All Things Sweet

Each chapter also includes some thoughts from Andie on healthy eating or how she deals with that particular meal, or how she used to eat that particular meal and the steps she took to change to more healthy eating.

What I Tried

Peanut Butter Granola
I love that this recipe makes a small amount of granola — most granola recipes use at least 2 cups of oatmeal, and since I typically only use a couple of tablespoons of the stuff at a time, it last forever.

This recipe only calls for 3/4 cups oats. The ingredient list is short and you probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry already (I substituted walnuts for peanuts and almond butter for peanut butter).

It is also everything granola should be: lightly sweetened and nice clusters of granola. I found it to be a bit on the salty side, but I like it that way.

Twice Baked Breakfast Potatoes
Which I enjoyed for lunch today. Because I can eat breakfast all day long.

It always amazes me that you bake a potato, take out most of the middle, add a few ingredients, and suddenly you have a mound of food so big you can’t even stuff it back into its original potato.

I swapped greek yogurt for the sour cream and devoured it all for a super satisfying lunch.

Loaded Black Bean Burgers
Don’t be scared by the long ingredient list. Again you probably already have most of this in your home. Yes, it requires a bit of slicing and dicing. But the end result is worth it.

I could have sworn I took photos — this was the first recipe I tried — but they seemed to have vanished. You know what a black bean burger looks like!

Spicy Tofu Stir Fry with Bok Choy
Another long ingredient list, and this one turned out just okay for me — most likely because I changed things up a bit and took some shortcuts.

No doubt if you actually stick to the recipe it’s much better!

Bagel & Lox Salad
Another recipe I took shortcuts with, but this one was a success despite my alterations.

I left out the capers, because even though I enjoy them, you use so few I’m always stuck with a bottle of capers in my refrigerator forever. I also skipped the pumpernickel croutons, which I’m sure are a wonderful addition, but I don’t eat a lot of bread.

I tried the salad with both smoked salmon from a can (well, actually, I’d bought smoked salmon when we were in Seattle, so it wasn’t actually in  can) and also Nova Lox like you’d put on a bagel.

I really enjoyed this salad and it got me out of my salad rut.

The Ones That Got Away
I did not try any of the desserts. They all looked so tempting, and I’ve no doubt that they’re delicious. They are also not the least bit healthy or lightened. Andie’s take on that is that she wants the real thing when it comes to dessert; that she tried to lighten her favorite recipes and failed, although she was also trying by sugar substitutes and fake fats.

It’s pretty rare these days that I make a decadent dessert. I eat them occasionally — when I go out to eat, when I can share them with my husband and I’m not licking bowls or being tempted by a very decadent dessert in my home.

We all have our limits, and we have to know them. I do still eat desserts, but most of my desserts are much healthier — a small bit of dark chocolate or sugar free dark chocolate (I like Lily’s — affiliate link), greek yogurt with some of that peanut butter granola, protein balls, and so on.

Would I Buy This Book?
A qualified no. I already have enough cookbooks, but there are a ton of recipes in here I still want to try. If you don’t have a ton of healthy cookbooks or are just starting to build your cookbook library, this is a good cookbook to invest in.

So while I wouldn’t have spent my own money on this cookbook, I thouroughly enjoyed it and I know some of these recipes will become staples in my kitchen (yes, PB Granola!).

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

I’m also linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup. Because we all need to fuel our runs.