Jenny Jones Back, As Cookbook Author

After 12 years on her own TV talk show, Jenny Jones has spent some two years on a very different project, her first cookbook.

The result?

The "Look Good, Feel Great Cookbook," whose title sums up a large part of her personal philosophy.

In it, she shares 80 of her own recipes for easy, healthy, home-cooked meals.

You'll find two of those recipes later in this story.

Jones calls healthy food a perfect match for her healthy lifestyle. She believes you can turn back the clock when you eat better, and she feels beauty and health start from the inside.

The book provides the lowdown on more than 20 "super-foods," including carrots, blueberries, sweet potatoes, and even mangoes.

She also provides easy-to-follow steps, along with 30-minute meal ideas.

Jones understands that we're all busy, but she wants everyone to know that doesn't mean you should only eat fast-food.

Jones

She took a few months off after her show ended, then spent the next two years working on the cookbook. She made the recipes herself, took the pictures herself, and carefully researched the health benefits of every recipe.

The proceeds of Jones' book will be donated to City of Hope Breast Cancer Research Treatment and Education in Duarte, Calif. She's a longtime women's advocate and donated all the proceeds from her autobiography, which was her first book, a few years ago, to UCLA breast cancer research.

Jones is an avid cook who once owned a catering business while she was trying to pay the bills and survive as a young, aspiring comedian.

She says she eats thinking of the health benefit of anything entering her body.

But Jones doesn't' believe in eating tofu and salads to keep trim and healthy.

Her cookbook features "real food" recipes, such as "Prostate Pasta," which is basically pasta with tomato sauce. She says this recipe can safeguard men from prostate and other cancers because of the antioxidants in the tomato sauce.

The cookbook is full of comfort food made with low-fat ingredients and a detailed description of the health benefits for each.Among the healthy recipes Jones touted on The Early Show:

Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
Zest of 3 lemons
1 heaping cup blueberries, washed and patted dry

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch Bundt pan with butter and shake about 2 tablespoons of sugar around the inside to facilitate removal of the cake. Tap out any excess sugar.

2) Into a bowl or onto a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3) In a small bowl or a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla.

4) In a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and oil for 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar and then the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue beating for 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon zest. With the mixer on the lowest speed, alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.

5) Using a large spatula or "spoonula," gently fold in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the Bundt pan.

6) Bake for about 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. It should slip right out. Cool for 15 minutes.

7) Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. Combine the powered sugar and just enough lemon juice (up to 1 tablespoon) for a nice spreading consistency. Drizzle the top of the cooled cake with the glaze.