Healthy Cooking - A Cookbook Givevaway Event

As a home cook, parent & spouse, I am sure each of you must be striving to achieve that perfect balance between healthy and delicious! As a food critic and a self-proclaimed expert chef, I often find myself in the same dilemma - what to cook that is healthy, will keep us fit, and yet qualify as a scrumptious meal?? There's never enough of Healthy Recipes, and what better way to share, learn, cook and experiment than participate in a Food Blog event that focusses on just that! And this is not just a collection of healthy recipes; we also have a prize, a wonderful cookbook based on the same theme that promotes eating right and staying fit! So what are you waiting for?? Get ready to cook healthy and share with us your favorite tips, tricks and recipes, as the "Healthy Cooking" Cookbook Contest has just begun!!

I actually have to thank Yummr for sponsoring this giveaway, and for giving me and my readers a chance to make this event even more interesting! Yummr is a newly-found community of folks who are passionate about good food and enjoy sharing their obsession and connecting with others. There's a lot of activity to keep you busy, but that's not all! Members can earn "food stamps" which can then be redeemed for cool stuff in their Bazaar such as gift certificates to fine retailers, complimentary dining at fine restaurants, the latest kitchen appliances, and much more! Check them out to see what more you can do! For now, here's a chance for you to win Pam Anderson's latest Cookbook - The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great, which is provided for this event as a courtesy from Houghton-Mifflin Books. It shares her secret for dumping pounds without dieting—and the 250 recipes for her new way of eating.

Fed up with whipsaw cycles of losing and gaining, Pam vowed to change—but not if it involved dieting, hunger pangs, or saying no to the foods she loved. Complicated recipes were out. She streamlined, creating meals as satisfying as they are quick—pizzas that take just thirty minutes, big-bowl combos, and gratifying snacks to forestall cravings. She discovered a few simple habits that make all the difference. Four years later, she's still maintaining her forty-pound weight loss. The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great is a way to eat for life. It's filled with voice-of-experience tips for curbing appetite, no-nonsense shortcuts for getting food on the table pronto, and recipes that could only have been developed by this food-loving pro—no compromises, no wasted steps, just extraordinary results from ordinary ingredients.

If you are someone who'd love to stay healthy and fit, without giving up on your cravings, this is the book for you; and here's a simple way to get your hands on this lovely cookbook. Just follow the rules below to participate in this Healthy Cooking event!

1. Blog about a vegetarian recipe or a dessert that is healthy. It can be anything, a recipe that you concocted or tried from someone else, but modified it to make it healthier.

** Rough Ideas: use whole-grain flour instead of white, olive oil instead of butter, avoid cream and high-fat foods, use more veggies, fruits, salads with light dressings, individual servings less than 300 calories, use oats and nuts, honey instead of sugar on your pancakes, egg whites instead of whole eggs, baking instead of frying, half-&-half instead of whole milk or sour cream, low-fat yogurt instead of whipping cream, use high-protein food instead of high carb or hig fat, etc. Here are som more healthy food substitutions, alternate recipes, and cooking tips to help you out.

2. In your post, please specify why you think your recipe is healthy, clearly stating the methods/ingredients/substitutions/techniques that make it a healthy recipe.

3. Entries can be anything, breakfasts, main course, appetizers, desserts - anything as long as it has NO MEAT or SEAFOOD (cheese and eggs are allowed)

4. Please make a new post for this event and link back to this blog. Only one recipe per blog please. Feel free to use the logo (credit) above and spread the word.

5. Email me at mansibshah[at]gmail[dot]com with your name, blog name and permalink to your recipe, with a photo, if any. Last date to send in entries is 21st July, 2008 Please include "Healthy Cooking" as your email subject.

6. After the roundup, we(me and 2 other judges) will select a winner based on how healthy and tasty the recipe is. In case we find it hard to select one, we'll choose 5 finalists then hold a poll or choose a winner randomly (to be decided)from the finalists. I will personally ship the cookbook to the winner after they provide me with a mailing address.

That's it, there's nothing to do than what you do best! Cook Healthy, and send us the best of your cherished healthy recipe so you can win Pam Anderson's cookbook! And the huge collection of recipes will be an added bonus!! So start cooking to Eat Well & Live Well!