Rating: 
Summary: Bad format
Review: Format makes it difficult to find what you're looking for. Arranged according to region, you can get lost and forget what you were looking for. Simply the Best, another cookbook by Weight Watchers (now available in paperback!) is a much better buy, with everything arranged in an easy format, such as appetizers, soups, chicken, pasta etc... This book also leans very much toward seafood, so if you aren't a seafood lover, you might not find too many realistic dishes you like.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Southern Foods Section
Review: I can't speak for all the regions, but the section on southern food is amazing. Having grown up in the South where comfort food is often deep fried, I have really struggled to find authentic lowfat recipes. I can honestly say that the foods in this section were staples growing up (rather than what non-southern people think is southern food). All the recipes I have tried this far have been delicious!
I would recommend this book simply for this section alone, but the foods I have tried from other sections have been excellent too!
Rating: 
Summary: Love the book, here are the contents page numbers
Review: I have a collection of seven books from Weight Watchers and this was a disappointment. The table of contents breaks the recipes down by US region. However, there are NO PAGE NUMBERS anywhere in that listing. There are also no tabs or distinctions between sections so the user has to flip through the pages to find where one section ends and another begins. When you do find the beginning of a section, the recipe titles are listed but again, no page numbers are supplied! These faults aside, the recipes are first rate. I loved the Vermont Cheddar Soup as it reminded me of growing up in the Green Mountain State.
If you don't mind taking the time to peruse the book thoroughly, you will like what you find. However, I would recommend an earlier book, Simply the Best. It is well illustrated, simple to use and the recipe collection is outstanding.
Rating: 
Summary: Takes More Time to Find the Recipes Than to Cook Them!!
Review: I have a collection of seven books from Weight Watchers and this was a disappointment. The table of contents breaks the recipes down by US region. However, there are NO PAGE NUMBERS anywhere in that listing. There are also no tabs or distinctions between sections so the user has to flip through the pages to find where one section ends and another begins. When you do find the beginning of a section, the recipe titles are listed but again, no page numbers are supplied! These faults aside, the recipes are first rate. I loved the Vermont Cheddar Soup as it reminded me of growing up in the Green Mountain State.
If you don't mind taking the time to peruse the book thoroughly, you will like what you find. However, I would recommend an earlier book, Simply the Best. It is well illustrated, simple to use and the recipe collection is outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: A little disappointing
Review: I have recently bought eight (!) Weight Watchers cookbooks from Amazon, and this is the first one I have been disappointed with. I have found it easy to buy or substitute ingredients called for in the other books, but less so with this one (elk steaks, anyone?) OK, it is an "All-American" cookbook, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. But this is a word of warning for would-be purchasers living outside the States. And it's puzzling that a few of the recipes call for vegetable shortening (copha). The last time I checked, this was a very unhealthy saturated fat, and definitely not recommend for anyone who is weight - or health - conscious. But my biggest gripe is that the few recipes I have tried so far have been bland or pretty ordinary - which has cetainly not been the case for the other Weight Watchers cookbooks. All up, not really recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have recently bought eight (!) Weight Watchers cookbooks from Amazon, and this is the first one I have been disappointed with. I have found it easy to buy or substitute the ingredients called for in the other cookbooks, but less so with this one (elk steaks anyone?) OK, so it is an "All-American" cookbook, but this is a word of warning for would-be purchasers outside the States. And puzzlingly, some of the recipes call for vegetable shortening (copha). This ingredient is high in unhealthy saturated fat, and definitely not recommended for anyone who is weight or health conscious. But my biggest gripe is that all the recipes I have tried so far have been bland or boring - which is the last thing you would expect from Weight Watchers. All up, not recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Love the book, here are the contents page numbers
Review: I love this cookbook but like some of the other reviewers I found the lack of page numbers for the regions in the opening table of contents was annoying. That is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. It prevented easy access to the regional recipes. I think it was an editing error as other books in the "Simply the Best" series have these numbers. For those of you buying this book or who already have it, I added the page numbers to my table of contents to make finding what I wanted in the book easier. Here they are if you want to add them, it makes the book simple to follow and use:
Chap. 1 New England -2, Chap. 2 Mid-Atlantic-37, Chap. 3 The Midwest-73, Chap. 4 The Plains-113, Chap. 5 The South-143, Chap. 6 The Gulf States-189,Chap. 7 The Southwest-215, Chap. 8 The Mountain West-249, Chap. 9 The Pacific and Northwest-295.
I went futher and added the page numbers on each Chapter contents for individual recipes. If you want those, it will have to be your own project. I had some time to relax and it really is a nice addition to the cookbook. Although it is not really necessary since adding the page numbers by region on the opening table of contents allows you to easily find the regional recipes. Except for this one error the cookbook is great and the recipes are yummy and easy to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Low fat regional food -- gotta love it!
Review: I was really impressed with this Weight Watchers book. First of all, it has a wide diversity of Americana; most of the time, American foods get broken down into New England, Southern, Southweast and sometimes California...but they go further. There is a Midwest section, a Mid-Atlantic (Chesapeake) section, etc. There is also a wide variety of foods within each one, though I felt the "Gulf Coast" section that included Creole and Cajun was a little sparse...then again how do you make a low-fat roux?Within days of getting this, I made the local favorites, peanut soup and Sally Lunn bread, along with pecans with wild rice...all were just great, and low-fat. If you're struggling to find low-point recipes with some diversity, this is the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Low fat regional food -- gotta love it!
Review: I was really impressed with this Weight Watchers book. First of all, it has a wide diversity of Americana; most of the time, American foods get broken down into New England, Southern, Southweast and sometimes California...but they go further. There is a Midwest section, a Mid-Atlantic (Chesapeake) section, etc. There is also a wide variety of foods within each one, though I felt the "Gulf Coast" section that included Creole and Cajun was a little sparse...then again how do you make a low-fat roux? Within days of getting this, I made the local favorites, peanut soup and Sally Lunn bread, along with pecans with wild rice...all were just great, and low-fat. If you're struggling to find low-point recipes with some diversity, this is the book for you!
Rating: 
Summary: A table of contents without page numbers????
Review: The most frustrating thing about this book is that the table of contents has no page numbers. This makes this book particularly difficult to use since it is categorized by region and only categorized by type of food when you get to the regional chapters which -- if you didn't already understand my frustration -- were not numbered in the table of contents. I am really glad that this was a hand-me-down because I would have hated to have paid money for it.
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