Prevention's Stop Dieting & Lose Weight Cookbook: Featuring the 7-Step Get-Slim Plan That Really Works

Rating:
Summary: one-stop cooking and lifestyle to stay slim
Review: I look at a lot of cookbooks, and this is one of the best all-around healthy cooking and weight management approaches I have found. It includes lots of charts, guidelines, and hints for healthier eating, plus great illustrations and clear directions. I especially like the vegetarian and fish sections. Each recipe includes a "extra health benefits" section that I found interesting.

Rating:
Summary: good food fast
Review: If only all authors of low-fat cookbooks could have seen this book first. Each easy- to- follow recipe gives a breakdown on health benefits, preparation and cooking time, and a nutritional breakdown. Often times, there are extra chef's hints on shopping tips, substitutions, or presentation. Recipes that take 10 minutes or less to cook have an easy to read "quick" notation. Perfect for the novice chef; recipes are simple yet elegant. Lessons on different food groups give knowledge you can use in the kitchen and at the supermarket. yummy!

Rating:
Summary: Culinary ideas and encouragement
Review: This sensible diet book begins with a pep talk for low fat and outlines a seven-step program, emphasizing menu planning, fat-gram counting rather than calorie counting, and excercise.

Recipes make liberal use of fat-reduced ingredients as well as healthy substitutes for fat. The chicken and grape salad, for example is dressed with low-fat lemon yogurt and a dash of nonfat mayonnaise, and the haddock in creamy orange-basil sauce uses light cream cheese and reduced fat cottage cheese.

Other recipes are naturally low fat - mustard-roasted turkey breast, pork medallions in spiced tomato sauce, pasta with red clam sauce - and rely on herbs and spices for flavor intensity rather than oil.

Sidebars offer nutritional information for each recipe as well as slimming tips. Fat and calorie tables are also included as well as two weeks of menus. A wide ranging, well-organized book for the American kitchen with only the occasional revolting idea such as dry nonfat milk powder in your morning coffee.