Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners: 75 Healthy Recipes for Easy Weeknight Meals: A Cookbook

Half the book is bookmarked to try!
When I get a new cookbook, I first “tag” all the recipes I’d like to make. Some cookbooks look and sound promising but due to the complexity of the recipe or perceived taste of the dish, I end up with only a few tagged recipes. With this book, I tagged about half of the recipes! I’ve made two so far and not only were they easy, but also very satisfying for a weeknight dinner and healthy. My husband also approves. I like that her recipes aren’t all breaded – lots of healthy ingredients, prepared in a fast and crispy way thanks to the air fryer.

I bought both of her books, I’ll tell you which one I like better…
Does one REALLY need an air fryer cookbook? I’m here to tell you, yeah, you do. Or at least I do. I’ve been using air fryers since Philips released the very first model at least 10 yrs ago. Like everyone else, I used it mainly for crisping up frozen french fries and reheating leftover fried foods. As the technology has gotten better (although the Philips brand was excellent as is) and the basket sizes have gotten bigger, I realize that we can now use air fryers to cook rather than just reheat. I confess I’m a cookbook-aholic, owning literally hundreds upon hundreds that I actually do read and use. But I resisted buying an air fryer cookbook for years because I figured whatever I cooked in the oven or stove, I can just throw into the air fryer just the same.Wrong! After 10+ years of air frying, I humbly admit now that there is a technique to it. Not really an “art.” but there’s several factors to consider and several types of foods that will fail in an airfryer unless you employ certain steps (ie, spray with lots of vegetable oil spray, rotate the food during cooking, shake the basket, and cook at very specific temps, to name a few things). Amazon had a Buy 3 for the Price of 2 sale so I decided to pick up 3 air fryer books, 2 of which were by Gina Homolka.I own one other cookbook of Gina’s Skinny Taste books and I have to admit, it’s just kinda “meh.” I know that she has a loyal following and that she takes great care in her recipes and cookbook style, but the recipes in that book didn’t wow me. I mention this to say that I entered this next purchase with a bit of skepticism. Were these air fryer books going to be mediocre like the first book I bought?So I bought the 2 new cookbooks: The Skinny Taste Air Fryer Cookbook and Skinny Taste Air Fryer Dinners. Since this review refers to the latter, I will try to keep my comments mainly about Air Fryer Dinners, although it’s worthwhile mentioning the former in here as well for comparison.Both books are physically small; much smaller in size than the standard cookbook (measuring at 7″x9″), but appropriate, I guess, because these books only contain 75 recipes each. The layout, font, and copious pictures are typical Skinny Taste style, so that is consistent. “Dinners” (as one would expect) only contains recipes geared towards dinner whereas the other book also includes Breakfasts, Appetizers, and Desserts. In light of this, after paging through each book, I realize that it would’ve probably been better to have a book dedicated to each type of meal: For example “Air Fryer Breakfasts,” “Air Fryer Appetizers, Snacks, and Sides”, “Air Fryer Desserts and Sweets” because clumpling all of these things into a small book seems a bit too chaotic. But then again, I don’t mind buying cookbooks. Some people might prefer different meals covered in one single book. It’s just that Ms. Homolka can’t go into great depth with each meal type when including everything in one cookbook.Thankfully, there aren’t repeats between the 2 books although they do contain similar recipes (ie, meatball, burger, lamb chop, and copious chicken tender recipes in both).So yeah, both books are heavy on poultry as a main ingredient.I prefer the “Dinners” cookbook over the other one because the flavors and recipes are more eclectic and global. I am eager to try the eggplant fries! There’s only a few recipes in my rotation that include eggplant and I’d like to eat more of it. When it’s cooked properly with the right flavors, it’s sublime!However, if you prefer more standard, comfort food type recipes, then you might prefer the orginal Air Fryer Cookbook.I did find an editing error on p130 of “Dinners,” though. For the Shrimp Po’ Boy, it says to refer to the Skinny Scoop notes beside the shrimp listed in the ingredients. However, there is no mention of anything about the shrimp in the Skinny Scoop notes.The reason I gave “Dinner” only 4 stars is because there are a couple of recipes in the book that are essentially the same thing with just different seasonings (the salmon recipes and the lamb chop recipes). This is a big pet peeve of mine. If a recipe developer is going to develop 2 or more recipes that are essentially the same in cooking style but using just slightly different seasonings, then my preference is that the author just list a “master recipe” for that dish and then include variations of it on the side. This gives the readers just a bit more ease in deciding what recipe they want to make by seeing all options on one page.Also, I gave it 4 stars because there is just an over-abundance of chicken recipes. Yes, chicken is a very versatile and quick-cooking protein, but that’s why everyone uses chicken. Instead, I wish there were more recipes that included sausage, ground pork, canned tuna, squid, eggs, or other accessible and cost-favorable options.Otherwise, I am pleased with (both) of my purchases based on the creative ways that Ms Homolka has used the air fryer to get approachable meals on the table in a fraction of the time and with less cleanup by using our trusty air fryers.PS. I think adding a king crab claws and lobster tail recipe was a bit pretentious and a bit out of place, but I will forgive that for now since I honestly never thought of using the air fryer for those. So she taught me something new!

Buy this book for the salmon recipe on page 134, Gina has great cookbooks.
Actually, this is the second copy of this book that I have purchased. This one has been gifted to share Gina’s expertise in creating delicious recipes in useful books. This book is a real bonus… all the recipes are “dinner” entrees with suggested sides. Or, just the entree can be made and accompanied by sides of cook’s choice. There is a surprise feature to the book… NO AIR FRYER? Look in the back of the book, pages 171-173, to find instructions for making each and every entree in the book in oven or by another conventional cooking method. I’ve never seen any cookbook done by Gina that is not well worth the price (not so for several others I have bought that were so incoherent as to be useless), and she has many recipes online as well.

Great first air fryer cookbook, easy healthy recipes
I FINALLY bought an air fryer. It wasn’t the one used to test the recipes in this book, but I’ve followed along without any issues. I love the salmon sandwiches in this book! I actually got the air fryer so I would eat fish more often. There are a lot of “breaded” recipes in the book, but I’ve modified by using gluten-free breadcrumbs/GF Panko due to wheat sensitivity and not had any issues. Very impressed with the calorie count in the recipes, a great deal of information and well explained details for each recipe. Gorgeous pictures.

It’s a USA book so in Fahrenheit and the specific brands mentioned don’t apply. So I gave it 4 stars for South Africa but one quickly learns the temp settings. Each recipe includes calorie,protein etc breakdown and has lovely coloured pics. An interesting range of contemporary style recipes with clear instructions – I do find there’s more preparation involved for many of the recipes than I like but her marinating of chicken, for example, adds moisture and flavour.

Recipes are nice and easy to follow with pics…..