Customer Reviews

60 Days of Low Fat Low Cost Meals in Minutes: Over 150 Delicious, Healthy Recipes & Menus That Fit Your Budget

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book imagining how much easier and heathier meal planning could be. What I discovered, after spending $120 for the first week of menus, was that this is not for me. I spent 1.5 hours in the kitchen on the first night of cooking! I am a very busy, working mom. I do not have that much time to spend on preparation, nor the money to spend over $100 per week on food items that I only use a portion of then throw away! I need a meal plan that re-uses leftovers (i.e., most of the english muffins in a bag instead of just one) and is more time/cost conscientious. Hopefully, I will have better luck with my next purchase!

I have used this book steadily for 2 years and I love it. My family will eat the no nonsense meals. With a little flexibility you can take the menus and customize them to use all the ingredients, or learn to purchase the proper amounts necessary for preparation. My eldest daughter recently moved away and requested one of these books for her own. Whenever we have adhered to these menus, our quality of food intake has improved and our weight tends to drop with little or no effort. My entire family loves this book.

This book not only gives great nutritional advice, but provides good recipes the whole family can enjoy. I have 5 yr old & a 1 1/2 year old - they have cleaned their plates each night. There are a few recipes that seem a bit labor intensive after a long day - but they are very good! Most these recipes match what we like to eat - we have stretched on a few & really enjoyed them. This also matches my weight-loss needs since I am working with a program that require I track my exchanges & they are provided for each recipe!! No more guessing. Plus, I love the balanced meals for my family.

The book offered truly low cost ideas without "low taste". I particularly appreciated the recipe for cream soup substitute because it saves not only money but nutritional value as well.

If you're looking for low-cost, you can start by not buying this book. It's possibly the worst cookbook I've ever looked at.

The recipes are filled with errors. The nutrition information with each recipe is wildly inaccurate. Here's an example: The Stromboli recipe (p. 238). It says it makes 4 3-ounce servings. It starts with a "1-lb. loaf of French bread." Those of us who possess rudimentary math skills can see that that's 4 ounces of bread per 3-ounce serving. And that's before you add the ground beef, cheese and other ingredients. Furthermore, it claims each of the four servings will have 332 calories. I calculated it out and it's going to be over 500 (more like 600) calories per serving.

This is typical of the recipes in this book. Another example: Beefy Mushroom and Barley Soup (p. 167). If you made this by the directions in the book, it would be inedible. It has "lean stew beef" as one of the ingredients. The total cooking time is 30 minutes. I hope you're ready to chew for a LONG time.

Save your money and your time. Don't buy this book.

I've made several recipes from this cookbook so far the chili and the crockpot ham and potatos are both absolutely delicious...my husband and kids loved them and didn't even know they were low fat!

I had high hopes for this book and was sadly mistaken, the food is mediocre at best, the portions are very small, i would recommend purchasing "The 1200-calorie-A-Day Menu Coobook" by Nancy Hughes if you really want good food with good portions!! i have also checked out other books by Ms. Smith and I was equally disappointed. I hope you have better luck than me.

After renewing the library's version for the 8th time, I purchased it for my wife.
She is delighted.

My kids were not fond of many if any of the recipes in this book . I don't have the time to cook for just me and not have family style meals. This might be better for a single person or a couple.

I am online searching for a replacement book, because mine is so dog-eared. I've had this book for years, and I always go back to it. A lot of these recipes are definitely old standbys for my family. There is some prep time involved with chopping onions, peppers, etc. Veggies are cheap and healthy; therefore, they're in a lot of these recipes. Chop up a bunch at once and keep them in Baggies, ready for the next time.