Bored and stuck at home? Check out CCPL’s recommendations for some great Cookbooks. These publications were chosen for their quality of content and accessibility in digital format – so you do not have to leave home to enjoy these great reads! 

Cravings. Hungry for more by Chrissy Teigen

Summary: After the extraordinary success of Cravings, Chrissy comes back with more of her signature wit and take-no-prisoners flavor bombs. This time the 100 recipes are even simpler and more bang-for-your-buck–it’s how she’s cooking now as a new parent, but it’s perfect for all busy cooks. Building on Cravings and the establishment of Chrissy as a major new culinary voice, this follow-up takes us further into her kitchen–a kitchen now marked by new parenthood, a need for some quicker meals, and multi-purpose sauces and condiments, without sacrificing any of Chrissy’s signature need for maximum flavor. Through 100 full-flavored, family-friendly recipes, Teigen shows how to make cooking part of a stylish-but-busy lifestyle

Bobby Flay fit : food for a healthy lifestyle by Bobby Flay

Summary: With a profession that has him constantly developing and tasting new recipes, chef Bobby Flay does not eschew any foods: bread, bacon, and butter are still all on the table. His secret to staying healthy is to have on hand an arsenal of low-calorie flavor bombs—like rubs, relishes, and marinades—to transform lean proteins, whole grains, and fresh produce into craveworthy meals at home. In Bobby Flay Fit, Bobby shares smoothies and juices, breakfast bowls, snacks to fuel workouts, hearty salads, nourishing soups, satisfying dinners, and lightened-up desserts. With fitness tips and a look into the chef’s daily healthy routines, this cookbook is for those who want to eat right without overhauling their pantries or sacrificing taste.

POWERbowls : all you need in one healthy bowl by Kate Turner

Summary: Power Bowls is your bite-sized guide to the tastiest new health food trend. Healthy bowls are delicious, nutritious bowls packed with superfood ingredients to keep you energised all day. Pack your five-a-day into a bowl with 25 healthy bowl recipes that taste great and keep you feeling good. Power Bowls fits in perfectly with your busy lifestyle with clear instructions and beautiful photography. Whether you’re looking for quick eats or healthy dinners, Power Bowls is packed with superfood solutions for every meal, with recipes for breakfast, dinner, and even on-the-go. Get your daily fix of fruit, vegetables, and grains with quick and easy recipes to boost your energy the natural way. Easy-to-make, versatile, and full of goodness, make Power Bowls your next superfood eat.

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook by Thug Kitchen LLC

Summary: Thug Kitchen started their wildly popular web site to inspire people to eat some Goddamn vegetables and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow (“This might be my favorite thing ever”) and named Saveur’s Best New Food blog of 2013—with half a million Facebook fans and counting—Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food. Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell—and most people can’t afford the hype. Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they’re throwing down more than 100 vegan recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks, and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs. (Roasted Beer and Lime Cauliflower Tacos? Pumpkin Chili? Grilled Peach Salsa? Believe that sh*t.) Plus they’re going to arm you with all the info and techniques you need to shop on a budget and go and kick a bunch of ass on your own. This book is an invitation to everyone who wants to do better to elevate their kitchen game. No more ketchup and pizza counting as vegetables. No more drive-thru lines. No more avoiding the produce corner of the supermarket. Sh*t is about to get real.

The complete Mediterranean cookbook : 500 vibrant, kitchen-tested recipes for living and eating well everyday

Summary: Bring the Mediterranean–from Italy and Greece, to Morocco and Egypt, to Turkey and Lebanon–into your kitchen with more than 500 fresh, flavorful recipes. This comprehensive cookbook translates the famously healthy Mediterranean diet for home cooks with a wide range of creative recipes, many fast enough to be made on a weeknight, using ingredients available at your local supermarket. The structure of the book follows the guidelines of the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. You’ll find large chapters devoted to Beans and to Vegetables, the Seafood Chapter is larger than Poultry and Meat, and the Fruits and Sweets chapter, while shorter, is packed with recipes you can truly feel good eating. Recipes include Spiced Baked Rice with Potatoes and Fennel, Tagliatelle with Artichokes and Parmesan, Orzo with Shrimp, Feta, and Lemon, Za’atar-Rubbed Chicken, Greek-Style Braised Pork with Leeks, and Orange Polenta Cake.

500 15-minute low sodium recipes by Dick Logue

Summary: Create great, low-sodium meals in a jiffy while still enjoying all the foods and flavors you love with 500 15-Minute Low-Sodium Recipes! In these pages, you’ll be treated to dishes so delightful you’d never guess they’re low in salt and quick to prepare. Packed with 500 recipes to choose from, you’ll find everything from beef, chicken, and vegetables dishes to international takeout-style recipes, desserts, and more. And with 15 minutes or less prep time on every recipe, staying on track is as easy as pie! You’ll also find a nutritional breakdown on every recipe, making it easier than ever to track your daily sodium intake. Cutting sodium doesn’t mean cutting flavor or variety, or spending hours in the kitchen on complicated recipes. Make staying on course easy-and delicious! -with 500 15-Minute Low-Sodium Recipes.

Forks over knives the plant-based way to health

Summary: For decades, that question has fascinated a small circle of impassioned doctors and researchers—and now, their life-changing research is making headlines in the hit documentary Forks Over Knives. Their answer? Eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet—it could save your life. It may overturn most of the diet advice you’ve heard—but the experts behind Forks Over Knives aren’t afraid to make waves. In his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn explained that eating meat, dairy, and oils injures the lining of our blood vessels, causing heart disease, heart attack, or stroke. In The China Study, Dr. Colin Campbell revealed how cancer and other diseases skyrocket when eating meat and dairy is the norm—and plummet when a traditional plant-based diet persists. And more and more experts are adding their voices to the cause: There is nothing else you can do for your health that can match the benefits of a plant-based diet

Appetites by Anthony Bourdain

Summary: Anthony Bourdain is a man of many appetites. And for many years, first as a chef, later as a world-traveling chronicler of food and culture on his CNN series Parts Unknown, he has made a profession of understanding the appetites of others. These days, however, if he’s cooking, it’s for family and friends. Appetites, his first cookbook in more than ten years, boils down forty-plus years of professional cooking and globe-trotting to a tight repertoire of personal favorites—dishes that everyone should (at least in Mr. Bourdain’s opinion) know how to cook. Once the supposed “bad boy” of cooking, Mr. Bourdain has, in recent years, become the father of a little girl—a role he has embraced with enthusiasm. After years of traveling more than 200 days a year, he now enjoys entertaining at home. Years of prep lists and the hyper-organization necessary for a restaurant kitchen, however, have caused him, in his words, to have “morphed into a psychotic, anally retentive, bad-tempered Ina Garten.” The result is a home-cooking, home-entertaining cookbook like no other, with personal favorites from his own kitchen and from his travels, translated into an effective battle plan that will help you terrify your guests with your breathtaking efficiency.

Martha Stewart’s baking handbook by Martha Stewart

Summary: Combines instructions for a variety of baking techniques, a visual glossary of equipment, tips on storage and make-ahead preparation, and more than 250 recipes for cakes, pies, biscuits, muffins, scones, breads, and pastries.

The everything kids’ cookbook from mac n’cheese to double chocolate chip cookies-all you need to have some finger lickin’ fun by Nissenberg, Sandra K.

Summary: Amaze your friends with the World’s Best Brownies! Scare your siblings with Halloween Spider Bites! Make yourself a delicious lunch with the Make-a-Face Sandwich!

The Everything KIDS’ Cookbook, 2nd Edition has everything you need to get started in the kitchen. Each recipe tells you how hard it is and lets you know exactly what ingredients and equipment you need so that you can plan ahead. You’ll find something you like no matter what you want to cook! There are more than 90 recipes for every meal and occasion, including:

  • Mini bite-sized blueberry pancakes
  • Chicken salad puffs
  • Tasty tacos
  • Parmesan potato fries
  • Cheese-crusted fish fillets
  • Quick-eating s’mores
  • Ultimate peanut butter-chocolate squares

It’s stuffed with trivia tidbits and 30 food-themed puzzles, and you’ll discover what foods to eat to stay healthy and what to do to stay safe in the kitchen. Bring your creativity to the kitchen, and get ready to have fun. You’ll be whipping up masterpieces in no time–it’s as easy as pie!