I Quit Sugar Cookbook Review

Hot on the heels of the health-changing I Quit Sugar ebook is Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar Cookbook, which she launched last week.

The I Quit Sugar Cookbook has been lovingly crafted by Sarah Wilson with the support of a team of chefs, health nuts and well-known personalities – such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who has her own health site called Goop.

I Quit Sugar Cookbook has over 100 recipes to suit just about every palate, including a good section designed for kids. Everyone from the seasoned quitter-of-sugar through to the newbie health-conscious eater will find plenty to inspire them to get out their pots and pans, and start cooking. I pre-ordered a copy as soon as I heard about it a month or so ago for a couple of reasons:

- I wanted a good source of new, healthy recipes because so many of my cookbooks are outdated, too complicated or covered in bits of crusty food from my cooking exploits
- I was curious to see if the I Quit Sugar Cookbook lived up to its predecessor, the I Quit Sugar ebook – not just in content, but in overall philosophy and practicality.

Here’s what I think:

Philosophy of I Quit Sugar Cookbook

I like Sarah Wilson’s approach to food in general. She rightfully claims that the recipes are simple and straightforward – the kind where you say ‘ooh, I could put that together right now’, rather than ‘holy moly, what the heck is that ingredient anyway?’. I also like her ‘less is more’ philosophy: go for a handful of good quality ingredients that you’ll continue to use, rather than a mountain of new products that are only good for one specific recipe.

General philosophy? Great

Layout and design

This isn’t meant to be a dissertation on graphic design, but it really is refreshing to see such a well laid-out cookbook, particularly one that’s for online viewing. I’ve bought a number of ebooks, including recipe books, and online books often equate to a general laziness: sloppy layout, ill-thought out ideas and untested recipes.

The I Quit Sugar Cookbook is not one of those. The little extras you get with Sarah’s cookbook are extremely impressive, such as the clickable icon to print out the recipe, or the shopping cart icon to add your ingredients into one tidy shopping list. In other words, Sarah makes full use of its online format so it’s a fully interactive experience, as well as being more than adequate if you just printed the whole thing off and put it in a folder.

Layout and design? Fabulous

I Quit Sugar Cookbook Recipes

Let’s get to the crux of the matter…how are the recipes? In two words: Top Notch. There’s an abundance of delightful and intriguing new ideas that are bound to tempt your tastebuds, while none of them are going to require you write-off your entire weekend just to cook an entree.

The recipes are in nine separate sections:

1. Breakfast ideas
2. Smoothies
3. Sweet stuff
4. Savoury snacks
5. Sweet treaties
6. Green + clean meals
7. Sugar free kids
8. Sauces
9. A final cup of tea.

I went straight to the breakfast section, not only due to it being the first section in the book but also because I’m constantly disappointed with breakfast selections in recipe books. It’s all very well for health experts to say “don’t eat your beloved cereal”, but often the only alternative offered is eggs poached, boiled or scrambled with a bit of avocado thrown in. That’s hardly an incentive to do a diet upgrade, in my opinion.

The breakfast section in the I Quit Sugar Cookbook actually makes you want to go to bed now so morning time comes more quickly. Seriously, I think almost every recipe in this section would make even the most ardent breakfast-avoider get up early to ensure they didn’t miss out. Even the cute and whimsical recipes names are enticing: I mean, who wouldn’t make eggy muggins, for example?!

All of the other sections in this recipe book maintain this sort of standard. There are so many tastes and flavours, yet when you look at the ingredient list you realise you’ve got at least some of them in your fridge or cupboard already.

Recipes? Star of the show

Extra stuff in I Quit Sugar Cookbook

I can tell how much work has gone into this recipe book. As well as being quite a monster of a recipe selection, Sarah Wilson also gives you lots of tips and advice along the way. Because she uses ingredients that are quite new to many, she lets you know what to look out for while you’re cooking. For example, coconut flour behaves a bit weirdly, compared to regular flour, and there’s a few things you can do about it; almond meal can be substituted for about 5 alternatives, and so on. She even includes ‘how to poach an egg properly’ – as I only cracked the poached egg code last year myself, this type of advice definitely comes in handy!

Should I buy the I Quit Sugar Cookbook?

The answer is yes, absolutely, and you can buy it straight from Sarah Wilson’s site here: I Quit Sugar Cookbook.

The only thing wrong with this book is the price…it’s a measly 19 australian dollars. Once Sarah realises she’s practically giving it away, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ups the cost, so grab your copy today: http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/i-quit-sugar-cookbook/

By the way, I wasn’t paid or bribed to write this review. I was just so darn impressed that a $19 recipe book could have so much in it, that I decided to pull my finger out and tell you about it right away. Come back and share your experience with us of the I Quit Sugar Cookbook!