Emily English's Live to Eat is a delightful, straightforward cookbook which makes healthy food seem like a happy and achievable affair. The recipes are not only tasty but also deeply satisfying! Each recipe is designed around balance and simplicity, with a focus on whole ingredients that keep you full and energized.

The book is organized clearly, with sections that make it easy to plan meals or find inspiration when you’re short on time. The tone is friendly and encouraging, never preachy, and the language feels down-to-earth and practical. It’s clear Emily knows her stuff, but she explains nutrition in a way that feels empowering, not overwhelming. The pictures are vibrant, natural, and appealing, and they all look like something you
could actually make at home. It is the type of cookbook that you will definitely use, whether you are seeking to
reset your habits or just try something new for dinner.

Live to Eat is perfectly balanced between nourishing and indulgent. It is a perfect choice for anyone who wants to eat healthy without sacrificing the taste, fun, and good feelings that come from food.

Live to Eat is full of great looking recipes. They range from savory to sweet - I especially appreciate the wide range of breakfast options. Photos of most recipes are included. The only thing that turned me off about the book (and it's because I'm lazy) is that the list of ingredients for most recipes is really long.

This was a great cookbook. Very easy-to-follow recipes. I can't wait to try these recipes. I would highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I really loved this cookbook.

One thing that stood out to me right away is how Emily talks about movement. She doesn’t just mean going to the gym—she includes walking, dancing, taking the stairs. That really clicked with me. It makes the idea of moving your body feel a lot more realistic and doable, not overwhelming. She also talks about building a routine, which I completely agree with. Small changes that add up over time? Yes, please.

Her thoughts on eating habits were also spot on. The way she explains things makes it feel easy to get started without pressure. Of course, building new habits is always hard—but if you just start with a little of each one, it feels much more manageable. Nothing in this book feels overcomplicated, which I really appreciate.

Now the food—so good. Her Smashed Peas and Poached Egg recipe totally blew me away. I hate avocado, but I’ve always wanted to like avocado toast. This gave me everything I was hoping for in that kind of dish. It’s satisfying, fresh, and peas are honestly so underrated. Plus, it’s a great way to sneak some veggies in at breakfast.

I also loved the Chicken Sweetcorn Egg Drop Soup. Egg drop soup is one of my comfort foods, and I’m always trying to bulk it up to make it more filling. This version nailed it. It was cozy, flavorful, and really satisfying.

Overall, this is such a great cookbook. I’m dying for a physical copy to add to my collection—it’s the kind of book I’ll reach for again and again. I love the focus on protein, how easy the recipes are, and the ingredients are all simple and approachable. Bonus points for using grams—I’m a metric-loving American, and it makes things so much easier for me!

Huge thank you to the publisher for letting me read this. It’s definitely a keeper.

I have been trying to eat healthier and these quick easy recipes were just what I needed. I tried two of the recipes and both turned out amazing. I greatly appreciated while the author is from the UK that she put American names by ingredients in addition to temperature conversions. It made it incredibly easy to follow.

I also appreciated that she had tips on marinades and how to make those in advance.

Truly I give this a 4.5. My only critique is I would like additional nutritional information. I do love that includes protein as that is something I watch but I wish it would provide more.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read an online advance copy.

Quick and easy healthy dishes...

I liked this relatively simple cookbook, that makes healthy dishes attainable. There are a lot of salmon and cottage as ingredients here. None of the recipes are too complicated and pretty well balanced with protein, fiber and fruit or vegetables.

Recommend.

I received an ARC of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful cookbook that is full of delicious and easy to make recipes!

I enjoyed this cookbook and its instructional aspects. As someone who cooks daily and enjoys a healthy meal, it has a few recipes I’ll try and a few reminders of recipes I love. This book is best suited to someone who wants to eat healthy but yummy food and doesn’t know where to start.

This book is clearly not written by an American, and could definitely confuse an inexperienced (American) home cook. However, I found the recipes to be delightful and delicious sounding. I even made two of the recipes and very much enjoyed them (Super Simple Greens Pasta & Spicy Chicken Crunch Bagels). I find providing calories and protein as the only nutrition information to be odd, but I don't particularly care about either, so I did not personally mind. I know that the macros are fully dependent on the maker of the recipe (varies by ingredients used, method of measurement, etc.). For example, one recipe called for "three large handfuls of kale". That is very subjective, and I would have preferred a weight measurement. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I was worried it was going to be overly steeped in diet culture BS, but it was refreshing for someone to not be preaching restriction.

Anyone who wants to improve the nutrition of their food, but doesn’t want to sacrifice their favorite dishes will want to pick up a copy of Live to Eat: The food you crave, the nutrition you need, which is an excellent cookbook with appealing recipes that don’t particularly taste healthy, but are worth eating. The cookbook is written by Emily English, a nutritionist and a graduate of the prestigious Kings College London. If the word “healthy” turns readers off, they will want to reconsider because even though these recipes are made healthy, they are mouthwatering and stand up to other dishes that aren’t so healthy.

English mentions that she likes to use ingredients that are available at regular grocery stores, and that is a real plus – no need to go to a special store to pick up necessary items. The recipes are written in the traditional manner with the ingredients listed first, followed by step-by-step instructions which make the recipe easy to follow. While some of the recipes have a long list of ingredients, they are not hard to gather, and are flavorful and worth making. Both beginning and advanced cooks will find success when following the recipes. There is definitely a British influence in the recipes, which makes it nice for those from other places to add variety to their meals.

One excellent aspect to this cookbook is that most of the recipes are accompanied by beautiful, professional photographs, which will make it difficult to decide what to make next.

All told, this cookbook includes recipes that are not only healthy, but also unique and palatable. Anyone reading the cookbook will find their “must make soon” queue is growing.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Nicely developed recipes with lots of consideration for eating better. Not a diet book, the author provides good reasons to change the way one thinks about macros and even (thank god!) explains why sugar is not the same as added sugar as well why you do need sugar and fat in your daily food consumption.. It makes a difference that the author has a background in nutrition.
A variety of options in each section provides options for all types of dietary desires. Easy to follow.directions for the average cook, although theres nothing fancy or difficult. Photos with most of the recipes provides a nice visual of the foods.

This was so good, the recipes are absolutely delicious and on top of that they’re realistic. I’m so excited to try so many of these and cannot wait to follow the author for more.! This will be one of the best cookbooks released this year!

This is one of those health food cookbooks by a young, rich, beautiful girl who used to be a model. It’s hard for me personally to take health and diet advice from someone who has never been pregnant, overweight, chronically ill or through menopause and who is younger than some of my canned goods. That said, these seem like tasty, healthy recipes. Almost all of them have a photo (often with her looking beautiful and pretending to eat it), though in my ARC the photos came at the end of the recipes, which often took several pages. I sometimes got to the photo and then scrolled back again to read the recipe more closely if it looked good, which is a rather awkward way to read a cookbook.

Limited nutritional information is provided — only calories and protein, not carbs, fiber, fat or sodium. This seems to be one of those instances of a cookbook author deciding what she considers most important and deciding for the reader that the other information is unimportant, which doesn’t work for people who have to track this information like diabetics or people working to up their fiber (which she herself says is important). There are also a lot of processed carbs in the recipes (toast, pasta, etc), though she also says to eat fewer simple carbs.

Time and effort for the dishes is medium. These are from scratch meals with mostly real food ingredients, other than sometimes calling for things like premade gnocchi, so there’s a fair amount of cooking, blending, making sauces and so on. The recipes generally call for relatively accessible and affordable ingredients, though not necessarily the most frugal. It doesn’t generally require specialty stores or expensive meats and seafoods.

The formatting, lack of full nutritional information and carb-heavy nature of the book make it one that I would not use often, but the recipes do seem like good ones and it’s likely to be a good fit for many readers.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

Nice cookbook with color photos. Not really for me in terms of the cooking style but I'm sure others will enjoy it.

I was not aware of the author until I had opportunity to review her new cookbook. Although Emily is a certified nutritionist, the recipes she's put together do not deprive of enjoying comfort foods at all. I was very happy to see feta appear in several different recipes, which were all balanced and simple to make. There is definitely an English twist on things and some ingredients may be more difficult to track down in the States, such as the mix for the fish pie. Overall, I am very thankful to have some new healthy yet delicious recipes to add to my arsenal.