Cooking Light Print Magazine

I have been getting Cooking Light Magazine off and on for well over 15 years and have always found a lot of helpful information, tips, and recipes. The magazine is well-written, and very attractive with plenty of pictures.Some of my all time favorite recipes have come from Cooking Light, in the past, and I still use them regularly to this day. One favorite, from the 90s, was the Shrimp and Orzo with Feta. So so so good and easy to make! Another favorite that I've used for years is the Asparagus with Balsamic Browned Butter.My only complaint has been that they are not big on low-carb AT ALL, which is something that I use in my every day life and I would love it if they did, at least, SOME low carb. I still, however, find that I can use many of the recipes in Cooking Light and find them very enjoyable.For those who are less experienced in the cooking department, the recipes are always easy and use ingredients readily available.

I resisted cooking for most of my life but, thanks to Cooking Light, I am able to quickly learn how to prepare delicious meals with relative ease. The articles and recipes expose me to new ideas on foods, seasonings, safe storage, how to prepare ingredients, etc. The language in articles and recipes are respectful of people like me who new to cooking without being condescending.Frankly, my mother did the cooking for me (a happy mutual agreement) until she became ill and I became her primary caregiver 24/7. I turned to Cooking Light out of desperation. I learned how to prepare delicious meals for both of us. Often, there was little time to dedicate to food preparation but because so many recipes are fairly easy to prepare/cook/serve, my old cooking-related nemesis, time, was no longer an issue. I began cooking with confidence and efficiency. When mother's appetite and foods no longer tasted good, CL was also my resource for preparing foods more palatable and digestible for her.Now, I am re-discovering cooking for my own pleasure and rely on CL with each new food adventure.

Cooking Light used to be one of my favorite magazines because it had genuinely light recipes that were both healthful and tasty. Over the years the recipes somehow got more and more fattening and the articles more boring, but I still always found recipes I liked in every issue. I never liked the "lifestyle" articles as they took up the entire first half of the magazine and were a complete bore, in my opinion. But still, it was one of my favorite magazines.I had let my subscription lapse for several months when I got an invitation from Amazon for a $5.00 rate for one year. It was too good to pass up so I went for it. Well, when I got my first issue it became immediately apparent to me that this was not the same magazine that I had known and loved for so long. I then learned that the entire editorial staff was fired last year and a new one put in its place. That, plus the entire format of the magazine had been completely overhauled.Don't get me wrong - Some of the changes are positive and I think CL can theoretically benefit from some sort of redesign. I like the new color photo with each recipe, plus the type fonts and layout are in general more up to date and pleasant to look at. In addition, the "lifestyle and fitness" section that ate up the entire first half of the magazine is gone and the recipes are more spread out amongst more concise, "bullet point" style one page articles. That to me is both good and bad - The layout is better and the boring stuff is gone from the first half of the magazine, but the information in the new "sound byte" articles is not really that interesting nor informative and at times even the longer articles are just ho-hum. Plus, gone are the letters to the editor and some of the reader input articles that were a part of the old format.On top of that, the recipes themselves show no sign of getting any lighter. In fact they seem to be getting heavier and heavier - That is, more calories and fat in every serving than ever before. And the types of recipes are heavily weighted towards comfort foods, the kinds of which are impossible to get down to anything below 20 grams of fat per serving. 20 grams of fat per serving, people!!! Is this light cooking? I don't think so! At least if you're going to make a magazine about light cooking, give people what you say you're giving them. I can find 20 gram of fat recipes in any cooking magazine. Why do I need this one? I'm not asking for ridiculously low counts, but something hovering about 10 grams of fat would be fine. What made Cooking Light a great magazine is that it was different from all the rest. Now it is just more of the same. Ho hum, I can get that anywhere.The irony of it is that the other day I found the November issue of CL in my doctor's office. Inside was a "sound byte" article encouraging us to "make peace with those few extra pounds". I guess this is some sort of propaganda to justify the higher fat and calorie counts in their supposedly "light" recipes. And the truly ironic part is that if I make those recipes I surely WILL have to make peace with a few extra pounds, LOL!By the way, what's up with people rating the magazine without even having read it yet? I don't get that. If you haven't read it yet, you can't critique it. And by the way, Amazon was very clear that it could take up to 10 weeks or so to receive your first issue. Duh, that is only par for the course with magazines in general in my experience.

Our error this is only sent periodically. Will not renew as more current ideas can be gotten off the internet

I have yet to receive my second issue of Cooking Light, so I'm only speaking from a first impression point of view... And I loved it. For the last several years I've subscribed to Taste of Home, and it's been good--I've always found a recipe or two to try in each magazine, but it wasn't until reading Cooking Light that I realized I've wanted a bit more. More information, that is. For each Cooking Light recipe, there was enough background information or enough article about the recipe to read that compelled me to give the recipe a try. We tried the cover recipe "chili"; the carrot-cake pancakes, the chipotle tacos, and the oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies. And each of the recipes turned out even more kid friendly than I'd hoped--our five and two year old weren't up for the chili, but they enjoyed the tacos, pancakes and cookies--all of which I'd originally thought might be on the gourmet side for them. No complaints, and clean plates.

When Amazon had a Cooking Light subscription for $5, I immediately jumped at the chance. I loved the full colored photos of the food and the layout of the recipes. The sections detailing the benefits of different ingredients or how to prepare a certain type of fruit were especially beneficial. However, the lifestyle portion of the magazine takes up quite a bit space where there could be more information regarding cooking techniques or eating healthy. Most of the recipes I've tried have been delicious, only a few that tasted somewhat bland.