The Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook: 120+ Everyday Recipes for the Healthy Home Cook

This is one of my most favorite cookbooks! I find myself going back to it again and again. Recipes are delicious and filled with ingredients that are nourishing and satisfying. Still making my way through it, but I’ll definitely be cooking everything!

Simple, delicious meals!! I’ve had this book about a month and initially started with a few of the breakfast recipes and just recently tried a smoothie, the soft baked chocolate chip cookies and the tarragon avocado chicken salad made with the easy slow cooker thighs. I’ve gotta tell you this is a great balanced book. I eat gluten free due to celiac but am recently trying to decrease my dairy intake and this book is perfect for that!!Here is a review of what I’ve made so far:Power C sunshine smoothie: bright (citrus), spicy, and creamy due to the coconut milk. I added a little black pepper and cinnamon to mine to make it a little more like a golden milk smoothie (it’s got turmeric and ginger in it). Delicious!!!!Blueberry coconut morning porridge: a great take on overnight oats... again I love it with that coconut milk! Great to make on work nights for a healthy nourishing breakfast.10 minute whipped banana almond porridge: I’ve made this several times now. It’s so creamy and lux. Perfect warming nourishing treat for breakfast!! I always was a sucker for those instant oatmeal’s but this really elevates your game!Carrot Ginger Cabbage Slaw: I’ve never made a version with tahini and ginger... such a creamy cooling yet spicy, nutty blend. Excellent!Scratch slow cooker shredded chicken: great basic recipe to batch cook on the weekends. This chicken is perfect in salads and i would imagine soups, pasta, you name it! Also, I strained the broth and plan on using that in a soup this week.Tarragon Almond chicken salad: creamy and healthier that traditional chicken salad because the creaminess mostly comes from avocado. I didn’t have almonds but subbed roasted and salted pepitas. Delicious and pictured on top of a salad with blueberries, tart apple, onion and cucumbers.The best soft baked chocolate chip cookies: I’ve made these twice this week!! They are gluten free, dairy free and grain free... no one will know or care... they are a snap to bake up a batch!! Maybe my most favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe at the moment. I must stock up on almond flour!! Delicious.There are many more recipes I can’t wait to make like kale & artichoke dip, strawberry shortcake smoothie bowl, pumpkin spice protein pancakes, cashew tahini bread, quinoa lentil pizza crust, turkey jalapeño meatloaf, Asian salmon cakes with sriracha aioli, and more!Get this book if you want simple, whole food recipes!!

In the world of Pinterest and blogging, you may wonder why you should buy this cookbook. Need a low carb casserole recipe? Google to the rescue. But as you have surely discovered, there are some chefs' recipes you know you can trust. Others, not so much. I assure you, Laura Lea's cookbook (and her website/Instagram) are sure to become a go-to recipe source.Growing up, my mother gave me every Ina Garten cookbook upon release. Her recipes are almost always delicious and well-written. However, they are usually not very healthy.Laura Lea has become my "healthy Ina".In my 20s and now early 30s, I've tried to revamp my eating using Dukan, Paleo, South Beach, and my own versions of "low carb". The problem is that none of these eating plans are realistic long-term diets. I travel a lot for work, and have frequent client lunches and dinners. I also have a husband who grew up on meat/potatoes and subsequently has the taste buds of a 3 year-old. All of this makes both meal planning and control of my diet more challenging. What I love about LL is her approach to food - it is all about making healthy choices where you can, and not throwing in the towel when you can't. Her recipes have the paleo/gf/veggie designations if you need it, but her philosophy is as advertised: balance. Not calorie counting, and not adhering to a rigid list of approved foods. Moreover, as someone who has suffered anxiety since I was a teenager, I really appreciate that LL focuses on how food makes you feel and how it manifests itself in your mood and appearance. As I get older, I'm certainly worried about my waistline but also the health of my skin and organs.Enough about me. Back to the cookbook. It is excellent. I have made the roasted beets, BBQ chicken quinoa casserole, cauliflower steaks, and green goddess dip. All have been delicious and easy to follow. My husband skeptically sat down to a plate of the BBQ quinoa casserole last night but soon went back for seconds! Plus, she has tips for leftovers and most freeze well (a MUST for me). I also recommend checking out the LL Balanced website for more recipes (broccoli soup, salsa beef, butter chicken, and her smoothies are faves). Finally, LL posts all kinds of great tips on Instagram that have helped me make healthier choices (for example, I now keep RX Bars and almond butter in my desk at work for that 4 pm hunger pang!)I strongly encourage you to check out this cookbook and all LL Balanced content!

I'm following another nutritionist with the same philosophy on eating this way - feel so much better and getting healthier - delicious recipes to add to the mix with ingredients that are are already in my pantry or easy to find!

Wonderful cookbook - really enjoying making healthy wholesome food from it - the creamy green bean casserole and the wild rice lentil burgers are amazing! 👌🏼💚

Easy, delicious recipes, very nice pictures. Actually it's the first cookbook I have( and believe me I have quiet a few) which somehow has an energy, not just pieces of papers.Definitely worth to buy it, even though there are recipes on Laura's blog also, you will love to have this in hand.

I love this book! Plenty of healthy and delicious recipes. Keeps me inspired 😊 Can't wait for the second cook book from Laura Lea.

Did not enjoy this cookbook. I bought this book because I had heard great things about it without looking at the recipe list. None of the recipes, looked particularly good to me. Made one of the recipes it tasted badly. My main problem with it is that each recipe seems to take a long time to make and requires a laundry list of obscure ingredients. Does not have a long list of meal plans either. Have since purchased different healthy cookbooks, that have quick and healthy recipes.

Lots of nice recipes. Quite of few of the baking recipes use coconut flour, and I'm not a fan of using coconut flour and the resulting texture with all the eggs also used. Overall a really beautiful book that makes me excited to try recipes from it.