The 400-Calorie Mediterranean Diet Cookbook

• Author: Peter Minaki
• Genre: Cookbook
• Publication Date: September 14, 2021
• Publisher: Adams Media

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am offering my honest opinion voluntarily.

Enjoy the amazing flavors and health benefits of the Mediterranean diet while effectively managing your weight with 100 recipes—all 400 calories or less.

Doctors, nutritionists, and health experts all agree that the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest way to eat. The Mediterranean diet not only reduces inflammation but also protects against chronic disease, lowers cholesterol, and can aid in weight loss making it one of the most popular diets out there.

In The 400-Calorie Mediterranean Diet Cookbook you can enjoy all the benefits of the Mediterranean diet without sacrificing the delicious flavors that you love. These 100 healthy recipes are all under 400 calories so you can lose weight while enjoying satisfying portion sizes. With photos throughout and recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus good-for-you snacks and low-calorie desserts, you will find everything you need to manage your calorie intake while enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, seafood, and lean meats and nuts. This healthy cookbook makes losing weight and improving your health easier and quicker than ever!

The book starts out with a full chapter about the Mediterranean diet, and how it can improve your health. It provides some scientific information, although there weren’t any links to the information that was cited, unfortunately. Some general, common-sense information is offered as well, including how incorporating more exercise and making slow, gradual changes can be easier to maintain. The author also focuses on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet’s focus on not eliminating any food groups, incorporating larger portions of plant-based fiber, and healthy fats. I’m always interested in new and intriguing ways to incorporate more vegetables into my meals, so this seemed like the perfect book.

Recipes are divided into chapters, including breakfast, soups and salads, appetizers and snacks, side dishes, chicken and poultry main dishes, beef and lamb main dishes, pork main dishes, seafood and fish main dishes, vegetarian main dishes, and desserts. While there aren’t as many pictures as I would have liked, the ones that were included had my mouth watering. The vast majority of the ingredients are common and available in a local supermarket, while only a few would require a trip to a specialty supermarket. 

I bookmarked so many pages, since the majority of the recipes sounded delicious. I could easily see myself making and enjoying these recipes. Part of what I loved most about them is that they incorporated fresh ingredients and vegetables. The recipes are easy to make and I can already tell that they’d be filling without being heavy.

I wish that there were more pictures of the finished products, since a lot of them really sounded good and I love to see what they should look like. Especially since my versions don’t always look as pretty, haha! My other complaint, aside from the lack of cited sources, is that the calorie counts were included, although the serving size often wasn’t. The recipe would provide calorie counts per serving, but it wouldn’t specify what a serving size is. For a book that is so focused on calorie counts and portion size, I’d have expected the actual portion size to be listed clearly for the recipes. Other than that, I am quite excited to give some of these recipes a try!