The 1500-Calorie-a-Day Cookbook (Paperback)

~ Nancy Hughes (Author)
Key Phrases: hot sandwiches, crunchy snacks, frozen desserts, Fruit-Based Desserts, Corn Tortilla Wedges Calories, No-Bake Pies (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Eat up. Slim down. It’s just that easy--with just 1,500 delicious calories a day!

From the author of The 1,200-Calorie-a-Day Menu Cookbook, comes all new recipes for when you are counting calories but don’t want to sacrifice flavor, taste, or variety. While most low-calorie meal plans leave you hungry for more, this cookbook serves up a satisfying selection of energy-boosting breakfasts, fast-fix lunches, and delectable dinners--plus two healthy snacks and one guilt-free dessert--every single day! It’s hard to believe it’s just 1,500 calories.

About the Author

Nancy S. Hughes is the author of ten cookbooks and has developed recipes for Weight Watchers, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, Betty Crocker, and Better Homes & Gardens. She resides in Daphne, Alabama, with her husband, Greg.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (November 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071543856
• ISBN-13: 978-0071543859
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Diets & Weight Loss > Diets > Weight Watchers
  #40 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Diets & Weight Loss > Special Conditions > Low-Fat Diet
  #58 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Low Fat

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Recipes; Simplified Meal Planning, November 27, 2008

By	celtic melody "bookfiend" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Everything the first cookbook, The 1200-Calorie-a-Day Menu Cookbook : Quick and Easy Recipes for Delicious Low-fat Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts wanted to be and wasn't. Don't get me wrong; it was fine for its time. This book is just plain better.

Updated recipes with 9 or fewer ingredients and less reliability on fat-free, chemical-laden frankenfoods. (Although there are some!)

The entire meal takes less than 30 minutes--the whole menu complete on one page. Calorie count and other nutritional information provided for each recipe/menu including identifying menus higher in fiber, vitamins A & C, and calcium.

I made the Creamy Pumpkin Pie dip for our dance troupe hafla and it was a big hit! Nothing to take home.

She doesn't provide grocery lists. That will depend on what menus you choose. But, she does offer a brief nutritional introduction (just enough to keep your eyes from glazing over)and suggestions for what to do with leftovers. I'm all about freezing extra portions for later so I don't mind a recipe that serves 4-6.

Those who've read some of my other review will note that I'm a BIG fan of mix and match diet cookbooks. If I was going to buy a companion volume, I'd choose The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for ideas!!, January 21, 2009

By	Whimsy Taylor "artist and avid reader" (Gorgeous New England!) - See all my reviews

I LOVE the premise behind this book!!!!!

--delicious meals in just 30 minutes or less
--nutritious and delicious 350-calorie meals
--150 calorie snacks
--150 calorie desserts

The author is DEFINITELY on to something here!

However, there are a few disappointments here and there that I hope the author will take to heart and revise in a future issue:

1. WAY WAY TOO MANY PORK RECIPES!
In the 6 recipe Poultry- and meat-based breakfasts section, 4 of them have some form of PORK, one is beef, and ONE is for poultry as a turkey sausage dish! The next 7 recipe egg-based breakfasts section have 3 recipes calling for PORK again. Another 3 barely miss this because she specifies using turkey ham in two recipes and turkey pepperoni in one. The 10 recipe Breads, Pancakes ad Grain-based breakfasts section has another FOUR recipes or menus with PORK. She even suggests canadian bacon as part of the menu for one of her fruit- and vegetable-based breakfasts section. My point is, if someone were to follow these breakfast menus for a month, they would be consuming a pork product 12 days out of 30. That's a lot of pork consumption, and that's JUST FOR BREAKFAST. Fortunately, only 3 or 4 of her lunch recipes and 8 of her dinner recipes call for pork or pork products (like pepperoni or sausage). Still, that totals almost 24 out of 90 recipes for breakfasts, lunches and dinner, a whopping 27%, that call for pork products. For the person who doesn't eat pork, that's more than a quarter of the book which is either useless or has to be refigured.

2. WHERE'S THE LENTIL???
I would like to see her include more egg recipes, more chicken recipes, and more meatless recipes. Lentils are a fantastic high protein high fiber and incredibly nutritious food that could have brought a lot more variety to her lunch and dinner offerings. A quick look through her book didn't find one single recipe utilizing lentils. Lentils may very well be one of the cheapest, easiest, quickest-cooking, nutritious but so overlooked foods, and I can't believe a recipe book such as this one, in 2009, made this error. Lentils do not cause the gas that other legumes do, and they cook very quickly. They are truly a dieter's as well as non-dieter's super food. And I am disappointed that I cannot find even one recipe for a dish that includes lentils in this book.

3. Most of her recipes serves 4. Leftovers from lunch or dinner aren't difficult to use on another day, but having every breakfast recipe serve 4 requires reconfiguring for those of us who do not have 4 to serve for breakfast every morning. Breakfast leftovers just do not keep very well. I think it would've been fairly easy to make a note somewhere on each recipe what to do to make each recipe to serve 2. Sometimes cutting it in half doesn't work. Overall, however, this isn't a major complaint. You do have to be careful though. There is at least one recipe which serves 8, so 1/4th of the recipe would actually be TWO servings and not just one.

4. I would like to see just a tad bit more coordination between meals, or at least to have suggestions for a day-by-day meal guide. Otherwise, it's a lot of cooking every day.

5. The lunch recipes, many of them anyway, aren't very conducive to taking to school or work. I would love to see a future edition expand a lunch section specifically for those that have to take their lunch with them.

Otherwise, this book really is a GREAT idea!!! When I have the time, I may sit down and come up with my own 1500 calorie a day cookbook, pulling a few recipes from her book but including many other more nutritious offerings as well, for my own personal use. This book is a good first step, and has some really great ideas. I love that I could choose 3 meal recipes, 1 dessert recipe, and 2 snack or appetizer recipes from this book every day and stay within 1500 calories!!!!

I recommend this book just for the strength of its idea. It could go a long way in helping to plan out some great menus, all within a specific 1500 calorie range. While many of the recipes will be completely useless for me, there are a few good ones in here. Mostly, though, this book is great for the ideas it generates for me.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incorrect Calorie Count for at Least One Recipe, February 7, 2009

By	A Traveler (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This book gets an F because it failed to deliver what it promised.

As an example, the recipe for "On the Run Breakfast Cookies" has a calorie count that is wrong. In the book, the author states the recipe serves 4 with a serving size of 3 cookies each. You can easily tell this is wrong because the recipe calls for 4 cups specifically of Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal. The label on the Kashi box states 1 cup of cereal (the amount in one serving of cookies) is 190 calories. Now add oats, sugar, oil, eggs, and dried cherries and your total for one serving is a whopping 648 calories. Add the suggested apple and milk and this 350 calorie breakfast is actually over 800 calories!!!!!!!

I have made a total of 4 recipes and I will say each one has been delicious. But how are you supposed to trust the calorie count at all?

It's pretty easy to make 1500 calories a day delicious when it's likely 2000 or 2500.