Rating: 
Summary: Effective recipes for weight loss
Review: I am giving this book 5 stars for one simple reason: I have lost weight since I started cooking regularly from this book. Gripe all you want about the author's writing style, the layout, the lack of nutritional information, but at least give the recipes and advice a chance. Some key takeaways: always include lots of veggie sides in your meals (lots of good calories to take up space on the plate), try a light meal once a week (soup or salad), keep dinner simple so you don't feel overwhelmed and order take-out. Pretty easy ideas that have really delivered results (about 20 pounds in 4 months - not fast but really painless) and that I can apply when cooking from other books too. The recipes I have tried are, for the most part, pretty tasty, though maybe not mind blowing. Good, easy to prepare fare for a weeknight. A couple things have been great, a couple not so successful. She does have a couple "special occasion" recipes, but even these are greatly reduced in calories from the original versions. I think she makes these comments so the reader will understand that you can't lose weight eating chocolate frosting all the time, even if it is the low-fat kind, and if you just need to have it, then here is a healthier version. But for those folks who gripe about the inclusion of "special occasion" recipes, the vast majority of recipes are for everyday foods. Try them, especially the veggie sides chapter, and you will be healthier for it.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Effective Way to Loose Weight and Keep it Off
Review: This book is a must-have for Americans who want to loose weight while still enjoying food, one of this country's most misunderstood pleasures. The author is well-informed, intelligent and practical in her approach. It is worth pointing out that her overall philosophy towards weight loss mirrors certain European nations, where better quality of food promotes thin bodies. I had the wonderful opportunity to live in Switzerland for several months, where I lost several pounds. When I returned to the US, the weight just returned. Kathleen helped bring me back to the lesson I had forgotton. Like Kathleen, the Swiss never counted calories or obsessed over food; they just made better choices when eating while not sacraficing taste and even quantity (Kathleen reminded me how a large and interesting salad with a smaller portion of one's usual pasta dish works wonders). Kathleen's book mirrors the truth I learned while living abroad: If we eat better qauilty foods (no more fat-free things and quick-fix diet foods), we will have better bodies. Her book helps outline a true way of life. I agree with the PHD/MD guests she has on her show when they say: Diets make you fat, and a good lifestyle of eating is the answer. Kathleen has truly found it!
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat Disappointed
Review: I love Kathleen's Food TV show so I thought the book would be a winner. I have to count calories and nutritional values and found it disappointing that the recipes do not include values. I know the recipes are low-fat and low calorie but the values would have been nice. The recipes are okay but nothing real eyecatching. I guess I'm glad I bought it at a discount.
Rating:
Summary: Real-life, sensible advice and great recipes
Review: This is a great book for anyone who wants to lose weight and eat healthier. Kathleen's advice is funny and down-to-earth. She pulls no punches because she has done the hard work of losing weight herself and knows it can be done. She knows it's not easy, but she doesn't leave room for excuses, either. The tips will seem familiar to those who watch her terrific show, "Cooking Thin," on the Food Network, but fans of the show will find plenty of new things here, too. The recipes are really great. They are easy enough for even a beginning cook, and they taste wonderful. The fat and calories are reduced in most of the recipes, but you won't miss them because all the food is still packed with flavor. This is spa food without spa prices or impossible-to-find spa ingredients. There are lots of practical asides on how to use the leftovers from one dish to create another meal the next night. Best of all, this book will inspire you to expand your horizons and try new things, making cooking and shopping fun again.
Rating:
Summary: Creative Approach to Healthy Eating
Review: If you are looking for creative ways to start cooking and eating healthier, this is the perfect book. Along with great-tasting recipes, Kathleen also shares her story, ideas, coping skills and a beaucoup of tips for healthy cooking. Although her book does not include pictures or nutrition info, she includes enough extra details for cooks to make intelligent decisions. Come on...this isn't rocket science. We all know beef has more calories than chicken. Sugar adds a lot of calories and no nutrition. Anything with cream cheese should be eaten sparingly... Personally, I'd rather have 200 recipes with no pictures than 40 recipes with glossy pictures. You can't eat those pictures and they cost big bucks to produce. More specifically, if cooks read Kathleen's book in entirety, they can develop better healthy eating/exercising strategies. Kathleen encourages us to try new veggies, work out, read the labels, and make food healthy and delicious. She writes that she didn't get where she was by weighing food and counting calories, so it's no surprise her book does not encourage that mentality. All in all...this is a great book for cooks who want to improve their health while savoring wonderful tasting food. She includes plenty of ways to jazz up her recipes and lots of hand-holding for new cooks.
Rating: 
Summary: Actually Threw This Book In the Trash
Review: I can't describe how disappointed I was in this book. I read some of the other reviews and was so excited when I got it for Christmas. But, my exitement quickly faded. I thought the book was way too chatty, and I hated the guy-o-meter. I'm sticking with Cooking Light for healthy cooking.
Rating:
Summary: Her philosophy allows for life-long success.
Review: At age 40, after a life of yo-yo dieting and gaining more and more weight, I ejected the word "diet" from my life. I started making changes toward a healthier lifestyle...and I HAVE made changes, just not enough of them. So KD's book (and support and guidance from the Cooking Thin discussion board) was really instrumental in helping me take that next step. Kathleen has been there...she's been heavy, she's lost it, she's kept it off. Is it easy for her? No. But she keeps at it. Her philosophy is to change your life in baby steps, to eat foods in moderation instead of completely denying yourself the foods you love and, of course, making exercise a regular part of your life. These things will increase your chances of making a PERMANENT shift to healthier eating and living. I'm not much of a recipe person (I tend to make things up as I go along), but I have already learned a lot from her book. Because I am a very picky eater, I usually look at most recipes and go "Nah, I wouldn't ever cook that." or "Well, MAYBE I could cook that but I'd leave out a lot of ingredients I don't like." But when I paged through KD's book that first day...I was amazed to find that I would want to eat most of what was in there. Now THAT surprised me. Granted, it doesn't have nutrition information and that would have been helpful but, to me, this book is valuable enough to stand without it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good lowfat recipes, but not many of them
Review: I bought this book because I have to keep a close watch on my food intake because of my low (hypothyroid) metabolism. I was hoping for great, low-fat or nonfat recipes. The ones that are in here are good, but too many of them say they're "special-occasion calories" or desserts to be eaten only occasionally. I can get special occasion calories in any good cookbook and I didn't need them here. Also, the book is heavy on desserts, whereas there are not enough vegetable and fish recipes (not one spinach recipe!). The author also doesn't give a nutritional breakdown (including calorie count and serving size) of her recipes, which is frustrating, because her whole philosophy revolves around splurging calories here and watching calories there and controlling portions. What kind of a book on losing weight and eating healthy does not even provide information on nutrition? For someone who really doesn't have the vaguest notion of how to start eating healthy and exercising, this book may be a good start. But it doesn't have enough information and doesn't have enough healthy recipes. The narrative is sometimes funny, sometimes just obnoxious.
Rating: 
Summary: Effective, Easy to Read Strategy and Tactics for Weight Loss
Review: This book's title is based on the author's Food Network television show, where Ms. Daelemans concentrates teaching basic lifestyle changes rather than major diet changes for quick weight loss. As such, the premise of this book is immediately more attractive than just about any past, present, or future fad diet you care to name. In that theme, the book is also much more than just a cookbook. It begins with over 75 pages of easy to follow, common sense advice, presented in a breezy, easy to digest style. It is no great surprise that the very first suggestion is that fad diets don't work. As you see from Ms. Daelemans' TV show, she is in a good position to know this, as she had a long struggle with overeating herself until a career turn forced her to find 'the true path' to healthy eating. It may a little presumptions, but I suspect her message may boil down to 'eat all different kinds of foods, but in a carefully considered moderation'. This is not to say that simply eating in moderation is easy. I found that out in a big way when I discovered that a typically oversized New York bagel, cream cheese, and lox had half again as many calories as I should eat in a normal day. Thus, you cannot eat in moderation unless you know the facts about what you are eating. That's why another early rule is to pay close attention to the nutrition labels of items at the grocery store. You may find some surprises like when I discovered that turkey hot dogs had higher sodium and cholesterol levels than their deli style beef and pork franks in the neighboring bin. An amendment to the rule of moderation is to eliminate junk calories. In her introductory chapters on good eating strategy, I'm sure Ms. Daelemans doesn't cover absolutely everything you need to know about healthy eating. For example, she does not really deal much with nutrition in general or with exercise and nutrition. But, I am also sure that nothing she says will lead you in an unhealthy direction and you will have a very good chance of loosing weight over the long run, without feeling especially hungry or deprived of tasty food. Now to the recipes. The recipes are divided into very conventional, easy to access chapters entitled: Breakfast
Soups
Sandwiches, Pizzas, and Frittatas
Side Salads and Savory Slaws
Vegetable Sides
Pasta, Polenta, Beans, and Rice
Sauces, Condiments, and Other Really Cool Things you Ought to Make
Light Meals, Vegetarian Entrees, and Entrée Salads
Fish Meat
Desserts As Ms. Daelemans apprenticed with Judy Rodgers of the famous Zuni Café in San Francisco, she certainly knows what she is doing when it comes to putting together a tasty dish. Most of the dishes are slimmed down variations of classics, without the conceit of using the classic names when the changes in the recipe really mean you are looking at a new recipe. A good example is her 'BLT Salad' which a less honest person may be tempted to label a Panzanella salad. A quick look at the 'Light Meals' chapter tells us that Miss Daelemans really likes her potatoes and other winter vegetables. This at least should offer some comfort to those who may be afraid of being deprived of tasty food. The variety in this section covers a wide range of classics, with a heavy influence of preparations from Italy and Provence in France. As a true disciple of Judy Rodgers, Kathleen opens her soup chapter with two different recipes for chicken stock, without all the fussiness from Ms. Rodgers, which is proper to a first class commercial kitchen, but not necessary in the average home kitchen. I am especially fond of Kathleen's instructions for making a vegetable stock. It is a greatly improved version of the hundreds of suggestions you see for saving your vegetable scraps for stock. In general, the Soups chapter also has a strong western Mediterranean flavor to it, as it is heavy on the beans, tomatoes, and cabbage. The chapter on homemade pizzas is almost worth the price of admission. The Salads chapter continues the love affair with the potato and the tomato. I confess I sometimes wonder if there is a touch of evil in cookbook authors' minds when they load their books with recipes using fresh tomatoes, when this product is available with acceptable quality for two or three months out of the year. There are occasional tips on shortcut cooking. I read them, but do not dote on them. I use them when they make sense to me, but they are not a compelling reason to buy the book. I think the 'Guyometer' ratings are a complete waste of space. I have yet to find any that are usefully negative.' This is a healthy eating book that is fun to read, which provides tasty dishes to eat, and which has a fighting chance of helping you loose weight. I would recommend this over most others and I wish the Food Network would find a way to commission more shows from Miss Kathleen. Those same old 16 shows are wearing a little thin. Highly recommended. Miss Kathleen is not preaching to you. She is in the fight with you.
Rating:
Summary: Good, only one disappointment
Review: I love the book for the variety. My only complaint is that my favorite thing in the book (apple butter) was a complete failure. The directions for the apple butter were either incorrect or just simply do not work. My APPLES TURNED INTO LUMPS OF COAL. Besides that, the book is very good.
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