2,179 light recipes

The 2nd place winner in the Chicago Tribune's 1996 Annual Holiday Cookie Contest, a simple brown-sugar shortbread from Sandra Petrille of Naperville, Illinois.

Crunchy twice-baked biscotti loaded with chopped Heath bars, pecans, and butterscotch extract. Makes 36 to 48 cookies that are built for dunking in coffee, tea, or hot cocoa.

Very light, healthy and delicious cheesecake for the weight watchers!

Linguine with avocado pesto: creamy no-cook sauce of ripe avocado, basil, parsley, garlic, and pine nuts blended over al dente linguine. Dairy-light, oil-light, flavor-heavy.

Fluffy drop biscuits made with cake flour for an extra-tender crumb. No rolling or cutting needed, just drop spoonfuls onto a cornmeal-dusted baking sheet and bake.

A scrumptious snack that is fun and easy to make with your kids!

Oatmeal chocolate peanut butter fudge melts together in a double boiler with soy milk, then chills into chewy chocolate squares with peanut butter swirls. Dairy-free, no candy thermometer required.

Coconut haystack cookies with chopped dates and walnuts, bound by a meringue-style egg white and sugar base then baked golden. Chewy, crunchy, and naturally flour-free.

Forget the store-bought granola bars that are always way too sweet and not necessarily as healthy as you think. Making your own is always the way to go, these granol bars are made with almonds, almond butter, chocolate and oats; absolutely easy to make, and they can be a filling, nutritious and delicious grab-n-go breakfast or a handy snack.

Boston cream pie from scratch: tender vanilla butter cake split into four layers, filled with a homemade vanilla pastry custard, and crowned with a glossy milk chocolate glaze.

Checkerboard cookies made easy with a fudge marble cake mix: build a black-and-white checkerboard from vanilla and chocolate dough strips, chill, slice and bake. A showy slice-and-bake cookie without the fuss.

Caramel pecan bars with a buttery shortbread crust topped with pecan halves in a honey-brown sugar caramel finished with cream. Makes 50 bars from one jelly roll pan.

Marbled chocolate cookies with sour cream for extra softness, made by folding melted semi-sweet chocolate into vanilla dough. Baked low and slow so they stay chewy, never crisp.

Crispy oven-fried chicken with a corn flake crumb crust and no oil required. A flour-egg-flake breading delivers crunch comparable to deep-fried chicken with a fraction of the fat.

A puffy, golden oven-baked pancake (Dutch baby) that rises dramatically in a hot buttered skillet. Finished with powdered sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Tortellini tossed in a rich Parmesan cream sauce with sautéed ham cubes. A Northern Italian staple that comes together in 35 minutes with just a handful of ingredients.