Rating: 
Summary: BETTER THAN ALL THE REST!
Review: I have read Suzanne's other books and sort of was into them but never really grasped it enough to want to committ to this WOE UNTIL NOW with this new book! It just is wonderful! The ideas for fast food options for somersizing, new recipes, the success stories, the pictures of suzanne and her family and the food are always WONDERFUL in ALL her books but this one here just caught my eye and made a believer out of me and from what I skimmed through makes a WHOLE LOT OF SENSE and I definitely will be moving into the YEAR 2003 SOMERSIZING and saying GOODBYE to all the low-fat mentality that has been drilled in my head for soooooooooooooo many long years! Bravo and hats off to Suzanne for yet another WONDERFUL BOOK and her products she has on HSN are TRULY WONDERFUL! THIS WOE has to be better than others considering the fact that you can eat such delicious wonderful food and you get back to the basics-COOKING and NOT EATING at FAST FOOD JOINTS! This is the true answer to weightloss many of us have been looking for, including me and I'm ready to take the SOMERSIZING JOURNEY IN 2003. THANKS SUZANNE AND KEEP THE GOOD THINGS COMING! ~HAPPY HOLIDAYS~
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Summary: She's done it again!
Review: Not only is this book more of the same delicious food that fits the Somersize guidelines, it's additional information plus the "rules" for Somersizing, which was not in the 3rd book. One caveat, a few of the recipes call for something only available on Suzannesomers.com. It's not a big deal, but for Somersweet you can substitute pure crystalline fructose or saccharin, both of which are less expensive and easy to get. (Splenda, I don't know, I haven't tried it yet, but she eschews chemical sweetners.) I made the Southwest Eggs-In-A-Pan Casserole, and it's fabulous, and easy to make ahead, as is the Spinach "Bread" for Green Eggs and Ham, or any other concoction you'd like. Flexibility is another plus for Somersizing, but if you have been doing this a while, you know that. A lot of pictures of her family, a lot of insight, and as one would expect, a lot of good food. Enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: Not inspiring
Review: Although I am a big fan of Suzanne's 3 previous cookbooks (not her dessert book) I've been disappointed with this one. Everytime I look through it for possible recipes, nothing gets my attention. If you haven't tried her other cookbooks, get them instead of this one.
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Summary: Best somersizing book yet (m)
Review: The recipes are so much better than the last few books. There are things my family are actually willing to eat. "Mac" & cheese, Fettucine alfredo, barbecue sauce, ketchup, even gelatin! Somersizing is a fantastic program. My husband has lost 20 lbs so far and I have lost 14 -- in only 2 months. We're really happy and the food is great. The only negative about this book is that the recipe cooking times seem really off for almost every recipe I've tried. Most times are way too short - for example the Ribs recipe said to cook them 1 hour in the oven. They really needed 2 hours - but tasted GREAT. The only recipe I have tried that I don't LOVE is the "shake it & bake it" coating mix. My entire family had gas so bad after eating that, we actually grossed out the dog!
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Summary: Realistic recipes with concise diet instructions, finally!
Review: This book is like MS Windows 2000 operating system - in essense, several new features, but predominately, a long list of "corrections" to the previous bug-filled version. If you've read and followed any of Suzanne's other diet books, you'll understand that although the food-combination is a great way to consistently loose weight and not feel bloated (even while eating large portions of properly combined food) how frustrating and/or incomplete (we came to find out later) some of her instructions were, and how some of the recipes were unrealistic for an average, working person/family on a reasonable, moderate or working-class budget and/or hectic schedule. To address the latter point, previous books contained delicious, often gourmet, yet time-consuming, ... have-to-shop-in-several-markets recipes. Roast crown pork baked for 13-hrs (yes, that's right) is wonderful I'm sure, as well as some of the other ... beef/pork entrees, but filet mignon is not a normal dinner feature for me, after paying bills after another long, hard day at work. Although I love to cook, and am handy at it, I routinely have neither the time, money nor ambition to prepare salmon with a cream/butter/wine sauce and capers upon arriving home after 8pm traffic! This book finally, gives us working folks, the chance to make tasty and uncomplicated, quick foods like chili and burgers, of course, the Somersize way. She even lists the approximate preparation time, and most hover around 10+ minutes, from pan to plate. A bonus is that she lists her sugar-free recipes for ketchup and her special sauce for burgers, so you don't need to purchase them thru her website or TV. ...P>The former problem is addressed by a 100 question and answer section, to clear up the sometimes complicated food-combination conundrums average folks discovered after reading her books, testing the recipes, and finding out after all that they weren't loosing any weight. Why? Mainly, the correct ingredient info wasn't elaborated upon in the previous books, or mentioned at all, or in a few cases, wrong. This whole section was prompted by VERY frustrated readers bombarding her office with letters/emails asking just for clarification. These are some of the simpler problems: 1. Was it ever mentioned that bottled ketchup, salad dressing or powdered creamer routinely contain sugar? No. She said watch out for hidden carbs, but many of us were not loosing weight because they also contained sometimes as much as 40% sugar!
2. Can you eat pumpernickle bagles? Only if they contain no sugar or white flour. Do you know this if you buy them in the bakery section of the store? No. So you must find a package, so you can read the ingredients. Now that you found the "proper" bagle in a package, which cream/cottage cheese is the right one to choose? Well, watch out for sugar in those, and also, do you eat non-fat, whole or skim?
3. Can you thicken sauces with arrowroot or cornstarch? No. They're both starches. There is nothing on Level 1 to use as a thickener.
4. Can you eat Kashi if it's made with buckwheat and lists itself as a protein and not a carb? Well, IF it has no added fat, it's a carb, if it has fat, it's a funky food, so no, you can't have it. If you can, which milk would you choose? Geesh...DO YOU SEE HOW COMPLICATED THIS CAN BE? As I said, these were examples of the SIMPLER questions. Some of the questions were so complicated "you can have x if y is z, but not if y is zz and has sugar, or has zzz, or has starch and you're eating it with a carb", that I hit a wall and wasn't sure at all if I'd ever once properly food-combined! After 4+ months on the diet, I didn't loose any weight, but fortunately I didn't gain any either. I have now come to find, thru reading this book, that I've had hidden sugar/flour/starch daily. I need to read this entire book from cover to cover, and actually make a menu of combos for each meal, pinning it like a schedule to my kitchen wall, so I am sure what proper combination choices I have. It's very frustrating to find out that you "ruined" your food-combination, by just eating ketchup (loaded with sugar) on your cheeseburger. Or that your "properly combined" carb meal contained hidden white flour and sugar in the bread! Ugh... With all that being said, I still recommend this book. Why, crazy woman, you ask? Because this one thoroughly covers all bases and I know that food-combination works. My sister was just such a frustrated reader, and after 3 babies, and 6 months of Somersizing, still had not lost 1-lb and in fact, gained 5, following the advice in the other books. Now, after reading the questions and answers in this book, she's lost 10-lbs in just TWO weeks, and has 15-20 more to go! My fairy-tale wish would be that Suzanne would provide all of her previous book buyers with a free copy of this book, if we provided the barcode from one of the books. Another of life's little unpleasantries, to spend more money for the info we should have received in the beginning, but hey, this diet works, the recipes are good, and I'm a forgiving soul. Soon I'll be a forgiving soul minus 20-lbs. Hope you are too! One last thing, as you've probably figured out, if you are new to Somersizing, just buy this book, unless you're interested in the "gourmet" recipes in the other books. In that case, sit down with a cup of decaf coffee (find out which milk/cream you can have in it first, and carry some Stevia for sweetner!) in [a book store], and just copy the recipes you want. She owes us that much, wouldn't you say?!
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Summary: As Promised!
Review: Suzanne Somers's "Fast and Easy" is just that: Fast AND Easy. My husband and I love the recipes in this book. The Cheeseburger Pie, Southwest Eggs In A Pan, Cream Cheese Pancakes and others are great staples and are cheap and easy to produce. Having been raised on processed food (Hamburger Helper, Bisquick, ect.), our tastes migrated toward casseroles and anything with white bread/flour. These recipes satisfy us and can usually be stretched for two nights! The Tomato Soup (only 8 minutes) is to die for! Make a double batch on Sunday and eat all week long! Cheaper than Campbell's and better tasting, too. In her previous books, Suzanne has really gone for the gourmet end of the food spectrum. The food was fabulous, but the budget was stretched. "Fast and Easy" takes the food down a notch, but has not sacrificed flavor or texture! As for the constant sales pictch...it's mildly annoying. Although, I can't help but admire her tenacity. Regardless, if you're not interested in buying her products you can find most of the recipes in this book (The chocolate dipping sauce is divine). Also, the conversion chart for Somersweet to Sugar is on her website (www.suzannesomers.com). Since Splenda is 1:1 for sugar, use it once you get the conversions. I wrote them right into the front cover of my copy of "Fast and Easy" so I can look them up as needed. I agree with a previous review on the shake and bake coating. We had such bad gas that our own dog left the room. It was really tasty, though. It's good if you're not expecting company! After being on the diet rollercoaster most of my adult life, this program is a breath of fresh air. Atkins works wonders, but it's not for me. This is sanity! You eat practically everything, only in healthy, unrefined versions. I lost 6 pounds in the first week alone and am skipping right on down the scale. Still, my favorite part of the program is the amazing energy I have. I haven't given up caffeine or chocolate and I've been fine. When the quality of the food improves, the portions take care of themselves. I've counted POINTS and lost weight, but always felt hungry. My microwave is running all the time, but not from a pre-packaged dinners! This cookbook is the ultimate "cook once, eat twice" way for busy people to eat well. The microwave now simply heats up my already-prepared, quality food that I ACTUALLY want to eat. There's reason enough to buy! This is a great book and I recommend it highly, especially to those trying to eliminate carbs and feeling like they're failing. Thank you, Suzanne!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, great recipes!!
Review: My husband & I just started the South Beach diet. Since Somersizing is a very similar concept (similar to Atkins too), I thought I'd check out these recipes. The book explains the concept of cutting out sugar & sugar forming carbohydrates (anything containing white flour). I looked into the other somersizing books & this one really has the best recipes. So far I've only tried a few & they were very delicious. The cream cheese pancakes & balsamic dijon chicken are yummy. I also bought Somersweet, some of the recipes call for it, but you can use Splenda or other sweeteners instead. All of the recipes in this book are appealing as well as healthy. And they are fast & easy to make.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book but a few things to quote upon..
Review: This book is great and fun to read. all the facts are great and the diet does work. You just need to put effort into it. The problem? She advertises her products quite way too much in her book and plus i'm not sure if this is true but i heard Suzanne somers had lipsuction! Why'd she need it if her plan works great?!
Rating:
Summary: A view from a skeptic
Review: Let me start by saying that I was very skeptical when I read about this "new way of eating." My first reaction was "Oh yippee, another star tells us how her private chef and personal trainer helped her lose the weight and keep it off!" I had managed to lose 15 pounds on a traditional low-fat diet, and I was convinced of two things (1) low-fat, small portions was the only way to succeed; (2) there was no way that I would be able to lose any more weight without going hungry and feeling miserable. I was wrong on both counts. Every diet is only as effective as the dieter - what I mean is that any diet plan will only work to the extent that the dieter can stay within the guidelines of the program in the long term without "cheating." I had found that I never seemed to get enough to eat on low-fat diets. I would wind up filling up on low-fat snacks like bread, crackers and diet bars. The sugar content in these foods was so high that I kept blowing my calorie count. I do not have this problem with Somers' diet at all. The recipies are not fast, and they are not easy. They are however very very tasty. Somers does not skimp on ingredients, so this diet will be a challenge for anyone on a budget. However, if you like gourmet food and you are willing and able to pay for it, you will really enjoy this diet. I have lost 10 pounds in one month and I feel great. A word to the wise - you may feel somewhat dizzy or disoriented for the first few days on the diet. I think this is because you are burning through your carbohydrate reserves. Stay calm, keep your caffiene intake low, don't operate heavy machinery and wait for it to pass. It is well worth it.
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Summary: The Answer!
Review: My wife and I read and digested Somers plan, and changed our lifestyles and eating habits accordingnly. We both lost over 10 pounds (about what we needed to lose) and feel better than we have in years. It's a lifestyle change for us. Somer's plan is similar to Atkins, but with a twist. The nice thing about Somers over Atkins is that it allows you to eat fruit and other good foods. Atkins is too restrictive in that area and you get bored with what you can eat. Not so with Somers. My wife got some of her recipes and we are eating good, staying full, craving the good stuff like meat, fruit, and veggies, and enjoying our food more all the time.
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