We love to cook at home and we make it a point to limit our dinners out. The cost of going out to restaurants can really add up when it comes to the monthly budget and if you are like me, you tend to splurge a little more when you go out, which is not good for the waistline. It’s spring, so we’re spring cleaning our budget and I’m trying to lose a few pounds before the summer starts, so it was perfect timing that I received two new cookbooks to add to our library—Quick Six Fix by Stuart O’Keeffe and Lose Weight By Eating by Audrey Johns. Let me give you an overview of each of these new cookbooks.

The Quick Six Fix is full of delicious and simple recipes that anyone can whip up, usually with ingredients you already have on hand. I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated when I try and make a recipe that calls for an obscure ingredient that is carried at one store that is about 20 miles away. This cookbook contains 100 no-fuss recipes that have only 6 ingredients, with 6 minutes of prep and 6 minutes of clean up. It’s perfect for a busy family like mine that is juggling more than we can handle most days.

Stuart O’Keeffe grew up in Ireland cooking alongside his mother and learning how to make fresh home-cooked meals efficiently. The dishes he made were minimal, yet full of flavor. He believes that anyone can make great meals fast—with just six key ingredients. Stuart is a professional and celebrity chef that is bringing his philosophy to kitchens all over with his first cookbook that not only includes mouthwatering recipes and 75 full color photos, but also incorporates helpful tips and reminders throughout the book’s pages.

What I really love about this book is the way he sets it up at the very beginning with a helpful recipe key that gives you a quick understanding of what to expect such as whether it’s a vegetarian dish, a one-pot dish, or if the recipe makes a complete meal. The book is divided into sections –Breakfast, Salads, Soup, Pasta, Fish, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Sides and Sweets—and even has a section at the end for sample meal plans. He also provides a list of pantry essentials divided by “must haves” and “nice to haves.” We cook a lot so we have nearly everything on his pantry list.

Another thing that I really like about this book is Stuart’s knack for pairing key store-bought items with homemade items to save us time and money. With these recipes, you’ll be out of the kitchen in thirty minutes or less!

Some of the delicious recipes you’ll find in this book include:

• Goat Cheese Scramble
• Simple Bread Salad
• Bacon, Kale and Potato Soup
• Crispy Salmon with Pistachio Basil Butter
• Cider-Braised Chicken
• Mexican Street Corn
• Churros

There are plenty of wholesome shareable dishes and vegetarian options included in this book and as I mentioned, they are easy to make, so you don’t have to let a busy schedule keep you cooking something wonderful.

Lose Weight By Eating has 130 amazing recipes that focus on giving a guilt-free twist to comfort foods. The author, Audrey Johns, struggled with fad diets and constant weight gain. Audrey tried every major diet, which not only took a toll on her budget, but also left her with no lasting results. That’s when she decided to go back to the basics. She taught herself how to cook from scratch, got away from frozen “diet” meals and transformed her favorite foods into skinny versions. After only a year of eating her new skinny recipes, she went from a size 24 to a size 4, losing over 150 pounds in 11 months. Audrey was even a chef contestant the second season of ABC’s The Taste and I remember watching her cook!

Lose Weight by Eating has such a great variety of recipes in it, along with beautiful photos, from Creamy Mac and Cheese (yum) to Crispy Pan Fried Pork Chops (which is on our menu this week). What I think is so fantastic about this cookbook is that the recipes allow readers to enjoy family staples such as pasta, fried chicken, meatloaf, cookies and even skinny cocktails. The book is full of guilt-free, low-calorie, unprocessed versions of all your favorite foods that are also ideal picky-kids. The only thing you’ll be missing is a huge amount of calories!

I noticed that most of the recipes are fairly easy for just about anyone to make—even me! I am not the best cook and I managed to make the BBQ Turkey Meatloaf for dinner tonight and I even made my own breadcrumbs. I made a few adjustments such as not adding the barbeque sauce to the turkey mixture. I only added it to the top with a little bit of Parmesan cheese sprinkled on the sauce. The meatloaf turned out perfectly, we had some corn on the cob with it and my son even asked me to pack the leftovers in his lunch tomorrow. That’s the sign of a good recipe for sure. I can’t wait to try more!

Other tasty recipes you’ll find in this book are:

• Blueberry Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup
• Game Day Nacho Dip
• Pizza Rolls
• Skinny Chicken Potpie
• Tiramisu
• Watermelon Margaritas

This book offers a great deal of perspective from Audrey about weight loss and setting goals and in the back of the book, she provides six-full weeks of meal planning that has something for everyone from kids to vegetarians or those who may be new to cooking. This is a fantastic book for people struggle with their weight or even just people who want to make a more positive change to a healthier and happier life.

Giveaway: One lucky winner is going to win a copy of each of these cookbooks. They will be mailed to the winner after the giveaway has concluded an a random winner has been chosen.

Giveaway Details: This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or over. You must complete the Mandatory Entry to be eligible. This giveaway will close on June 8th, 2016  at 11:59pm EST Time. No purchase required to enter or win. Please read our rules & guidelines before entering this giveaway (located at the top of our homepage).

Disclaimer: Kristine has personally reviewed the product listed above. She has not received any monetary compensation for her review but did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. Please read our official rules for giveaways before entering. Two Classy Chics is not responsible for shipment of this product