by: Giada De Laurentiis

“With nearly 200 recipes here to choose from and plenty of hard-won advice on entertaining and choosing ingredients that deliver flavor without fuss, this is my biggest book yet. And it’s my hope that the recipes and information I’ve gathered will help make feeding yourself and your dear ones as pleasurable as possible,” Giada De Laurentiis.

Happy Cooking is a cookbook that offers so many recipes to help you enjoy your cooking and eating. I am a big fan of Giada De Laurentiis and I love this cookbook. She breaks all the recipes down in a way that is very easy for any home chef to follow. This cookbook inspires me to cook more Italian influenced dishes. Below are the recipes I made while testing this cookbook – both will be going on my regular meal rotation.

Skinny Chicken Parm

Chicken parm is a great meal and one I love to eat. Sometimes you want to have a version that is a little lighter and this Skinny Chicken Parm has all of the flavor of the original. The dish was really quick to make and very satisfying to eat.

I decided to serve the skinny chicken parm with some pasta for a complete meal. This recipe is great for a quick weeknight meal or even a lunch.

Zucchini Spaghetti with
Sun Gold Tomato Sauce

I love pasta but sometimes I want something a little different and I have found that I really like zucchini noodles. The noodles cook quickly and still have a nice bite to them. This recipe wasn’t difficult to make, however, I did have a hard time finding star anise. I finally found it at Whole Foods.

The sauce was really bright and a little spicy. I had some leftover roast chicken that I served with it to make my meal complete.

Italian inspired cooking can be challenging for some home chefs but Happy Cooking makes it easy to create satisfying and delicious meals. The recipes all feel so indulgent, however, a lot of them are the lighter versions of some of the favorites we have all come to love.