Skinnytaste Fast and Slow Cookbook | Review

If you browse your Facebook feed, you are sure to have noticed how recipes by Skinnytaste are shared and reposted a ton.  You may also be a fan of the original blog by Skinnytaste.  I got a chance to check out a copy of the Skinnytaste Fast and Slow Cookbook and I couldn't be more excited to share it with you.

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The cookbook is broken into these sections: Healthy Mornings; Chilis, Soups and Stews; One Bowl Meals; Zoodles, Squashta, Pasta, and Sauce; Taco Night; Poultry Mains; Meat Lover Mains; Fish and Seafood Mains; Meatless Mains; On the Side; and The Sweeter Side.

The whole idea behind the cookbook is that the recipes are ones you can either make FAST (like on a weeknight or in a pinch) or in a SLOW cooker (which most still don't take long to dump in there).  Not to mention, all these recipes are healthy since that is the brain child behind Skinnytaste - big on flavor, not on your hips.

Our family made the following recipes from Skinnytaste Fast and Slow:

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls
My husband is a huge fan of Mexican food...to the extent that eating Chipotle doesn't scare him in the least, even after all of their negative experiences lately.  So when he said he was craving a burrito bowl, I knew just the ticket!


Slow Cooker Beef Ragu with Pappardelle
When my husband thumbed through the book, he picked this recipe as once he was especially interested in.  

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu with Pappardelle

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu with Pappardelle

Slow Cooker Hamburger Stroganoff (Hamburger Helper dupe)
Early in our living together days, we usted to make Hamburger Helper a lot.  It was quick, it was easy, and it was cheap.  Well let me tell you, this was just as easy to dump in the crock pot, didn't cost a ton, and was a hundred times more delish.  Plus it doesn't have all the cruddy additives in it.

Slow Cooker Hamburger Stroganoff

Slow Cooker Hamburger Stroganoff

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Give my husband anything super spicy and he's in heaven, so this was one we had to try out too.  We put them on flour taco shells instead of lettuce leaves, and they still were great.  This is the great thing how you can customize any recipe in this book.

The Skinnytaste Fast and Slow Cookbook is simply amazing and I can't wait to keep cooking my way through it.  All of the recipes we tried were definite keepers, and none of them tasted "skinny" or like we were missing out.  We will definitely be working our way through this, cooking up a storm.  I plan on getting her first cookbook, The Skinnytaste Cookbook: Light on Calories, Big on Flavor, as well.  I will certainly update the blog on that one as well.

I also wanted to mention, there are a good number of vegetarian recipes in here.  I am not a huge meat eater and found these to be very adaptable as well.  For example, for the burrito bowls, I made the meat for my husband but kept mine strictly veggies.  Keep that in mind if you are vegetarian/vegan and make each recipe your own!


A huge thank you to Skinnytaste for sharing a copy of your new cookbook with me.  I can't wait to see what you come up with next!  Check out Skinnytaste's cookbooks on Amazon here and on their blog here.

Disclosure:  Skinnytaste sent me a copy of Skinnytaste Fast and Slow free of charge for my honest review.  I was not otherwise compensated, paid, etc to state my opinions or say nice things.  All my reviews are 100% honest and the above opinions are solely my own.

Summer Infant 3D lite Convenience Stroller | J.L Childress Cargo N Drinks Parent Tray

When we were planning our recent trip to Disney World in Florida, we knew even though baby Beauty was almost four when we went, all the walking was sure to wear her out.  So then we thought about stroller options.  Renting was out - germaphobe central over here wouldn't love that so much.  Bringing our Baby Jogger City Mini GT or Baby Jogger City Select was also a little scary due to possible theft.

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Solution: An Umbrella Stroller.  Requirements: Nothing over $75, in case it did happen to get stolen, but nothing like a cheap $20 that would give baby girl no support and us backaches from bending over it.

Enter: the Summer Infant 3D lite Convenience Stroller

Stats from Summer Infant's website:

The 3D lite® Convenience Stroller is a durable stroller that has a lightweight and stylish aluminum frame and is one of the lightest and most feature rich convenience strollers on the market. With an easy to fold frame and carry strap, you can be on-the-go or stow and go with ease.

Durable, stylish frame (12.0 lbs) with large seat area and 5 point safety harness

Anti shock front wheels and lockable rear wheels

Multi-position recline

Extra large storage basket

Adjustable and removable canopy with flip out sun visor

Rear storage pocket

Easy compact 3-D fold w/ carry strap

I ordered the 3D lite in Carribean Blue on Amazon and it came with Prime in two days for only $63 (it's often advertised for $89.99) - so it fit the bill perfectly!

Summer Infant 3D lite Stroller

The stroller is super sturdy for the price, and our 30-ish pound daughter fits perfectly.  She isn't squished or cramped at all.  Her feet hit the footrest nicely without her knees being up in her face.  The handles are also at a great height for mom and dad (I am only 5' 0") not being super high, but not having to bend over and break our backs either.

Storage is pretty good on the 3d lite considering it's an umbrella stroller and the basket is a nice mesh on all sides.  You can't get into the basket if the seat is all the way reclined, but I don't see that being a problem for us. 

Side View - Summer Infant 3D lite

A big bonus here is the carrying strap, which not all umbrella-style strollers have.  Getting on and off buses or Monorails at Disney, the carrying strap was a huge seller for us.  There is also a handle that you pull up as you hit the disengage button on the right (with your foot or hand) to fold it.  That handle came in handy to pick it up quickly and get on the bus with it.

There are four recline positions, but we always kept it upright because baby beauty was too animated and excited in the parks to sleep!

Summer Infant 3D lite Stroller

The only downside might be the sunshade not being super huge, because we have been spoiled with the size of the sunshades on the Baby Jogger strollers we have.  This shade is still bigger than those on Graco strollers I've seen, or the Jeep stroller we used to have.  There is no peekaboo window to see baby either but that's a non-issue for us.

We tried out the 3D lite several times around our block before we went to Disney and baby Beauty loved it!  By the time we went to Disney, she knew how to pull the sun shade over her head when it was too bright for her and hopped in and out easily.  Baby Beauty find it's very comfy and we are all very pleased with it.  This was definitely a great choice for the trip.

Summer Infant's customer service is also top notch!  I ended up calling them twice as: the first stroller had two same sides of velcro to attach the sun shade; the second stroller they replaced it with had a dirty sunshade.  They replaced the first stroller completely, and replaced the shade the second time.  No questions, and they even knew who I was the second time.  Awesome service; super-friendly people on the phone.  A+ Summer Infant!

Back of Summer Infant 3D lite - with JL Childress Console

The stroller does come with a removable cup holder on the right side, which you can move down to the child's level as well (but can't fold it with it attached at that level, just at parent height).  We decided to add our J.L. Childress Parent Console we had on our City Select where it wasn't the best fit.  On the 3D lite it's PERFECT.  It's like it was meant to be on an umbrella stroller.  It was perfect for our waters that we brought into the parks, our EPCOT Food and Wine Passport where we could check off which kiosks we had tried, and sunglasses for Baby Beauty.

Back of Summer Infant 3D lite stroller

There is a pocket on the back of the stroller behind our parent console, which is plenty big for keys, cellphone, wallet, etc. if you didn't want to add the console.

Overall, the Summer Infant 3D lite Convenience Stroller is a great fit for us and for any parent travelling, or just wanting a quicker, lighter stroller for errands that doesn't take up the whole darn trunk!

Check out the 3D lite here on Amazon!