Customer Reviews

The HCG Diet Gourmet Cookbook: Over 200 "Low Calorie" Recipes for the "HCG Phase"

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When we looked at the limited food list associated with the Hcg diet, I couldn't imagine how I could keep meals interesting.

And then I found Tammy's Hcg cookbook, which at the time, was only avaialble in an e-book format, so after some pondering, I plunked down my credit card and bought it, printed it out, and put the pages in plastic sleeves in a 3-ring binder.

We have been so very pleased with every single recipe we have tried from Tammy's book. Some of them we will continue to eat past the very low calorie diet (VLCD) portion of the diet, because they are so scrumptious!

My husband even commented on how it didn't seem like we were eating "diet food." Well let me tell you - if I hadn't had Tammy's book, it sure would have seemed like we were eating diet food, that is for sure, because my creativity does not go nearly as far out as Tammy's does. Thanks Tammy, for providing us with wonderful, fulfilling meals during our first round of the VLCD!

For those who are overweight, obese, or morbidly obese, the HCG diet, which you can easily do yourself at low cost, with tremendous online support from yahoo groups such as HCG Dieters and HCG Maintenance is life changing. The diet is strict, but Tammy's cookbook makes it actually enjoyable by providing yummy varied meals that are totally compliant with the Very Low Calorie Diet phase of Dr Simeon's Pounds and Inches Protocol.

The protocol totally works if followed. Unfortunately there are a lot of "HCG Cookbooks" out there that lead folks to believe they are compliant with the protocol but are not. THIS COOKBOOK IS COMPLIANT and works with the protocol. As others have said, thank goodness for Tammy's book!

Thank God and Tammy for this fantastic cookbook! It got me through 70 days on the second "phase" of HcG protocol and I really enjoyed every tasty meal! Lots of ideas on how to make the select few ingredients that are permitted taste so good. Everything was very easy to prepare and the directions are clear and precise.

This is the book you want to have on your kitchen counter before you even THINK about doing the weight loss program. It will ensure you succeed.
The helpful tips on the actual protocol and the way to make phase 2 recipes able to be used on the next phase was a nice bonus.

Thank you again Tammy! I hope you have another book dedicated to the next phase of the program coming soon because I will be first in line!

The title should more accurately say "over 100 low calorie recipes". Some of the recipes in this book are wonderful, but seriously a lot of them are a waste of paper (and money). Some are just common sense. For example, a Strawberry Smoothie consists of strawberries, sweetener and ice blended. Melba toast with crush strawberries consists of, well, crushing strawberries and placing on top of melba toast. Iced tea in another example--basically take tea bags and add hot water and brew.

Seriously, if you haven't learned to boil water to make tea then you may find the entire book worth the money.

Another gripe is I am not sure if this book was even edited. For example one recipe calls for "...simmer until cabbage and chicken are fully cooked" only cabbage isn't listed in the ingredients.

I do like some of the recipes are they are unique. But overall I just feel cheated. If I had perused this in a book store, I would not have purchased it. Less ridiculous filler recipes could have made the book less expensive.

I have mixed feelings about this cookbook. The last thing I want to do when I'm on any diet is *think* about food, so in that respect, this book is helpful. It is full of ideas for meals that fit the hcg protocol, and it has helpful calorie counts for each recipe. I love the Cucumer Strawberry Salad and the Crunchy Sweet Chicken Salad, which have been lifesavers for me!

That said, this book is in SERIOUS need of editing! Several recipes call for ingredients in the directions that were not listed in the ingredient list. You'lll have to guess how much you should add. If you are a decent cook, you'll also need to use your common sense and NOT follow the directions, since many of these recipes are ridiculously flawed. For example, the Savory Onion Carmelized Shrimp recipe tells you to cook the onions and shrimp together and deglaze the pan a few times to make the carmel sauce. Any cook knows that onions take quite a while to carmelize properly, while shrimp take only a very few minutes to cook. If you followed these instructions you'd end up with rubbery shrimp or uncooked onions! She also recommends making an orange sauce by cooking half an orange in boiling water until the pulp starts to fall out of the fruit. The taste is bitter, of course. A much better procedure would be to remove the peel from the fruit, cut the pith from the fruit, add the fruit and peel minus the pith to the water and procede with the recipe.

Mostly this book takes a few good combinations and repeats them using different proteins. It would have been much more helpful if she'd edited the recipes appropriately for each of the proteins. These errors and editing problems are what cause me to question the price.

Enough of my gripes about it. It is helpful and I use it every day. I love the calorie counts because it saves me a lot of time. And while I'm dieting, it saves me from having to think too hard about what to put together. I recommend you try to find it used or some cheaper format.

This book has been so FUN!!! I never knew eating healthy could taste so good. The recipes are easy and I found I had most of the ingrediants at home. Once I seved my family....they no longer felt bad I was on 500 caleries per day. Do yourself a favor, buy the book and start to enjoy meals as they are meant to be enjoyed. Good Luck!!

I've tried the HCG diet a couple of time and always ended up cheating cause I was so bored of the same food. This is a must for doing the HCG Diet!!!

The last reviewer prior to me mentions this so I'm glad I am not the only one that takes exception to this but it really bothers me that there is no "real" index! Any cookbook I've ever bought (especially one for $26.00) is going to have a glossary AND an exhaustive index! To my way of thinking what is called "index" in this book is really just a table of contents of sorts and there is no index.....i.e., "chicken dinners", "beef dinners", etc. all listed by meal....I was really looking forward to being able to look up "fennel",for instance, and see all the ways the author used this veggie. I've discovered this lack of index is really a problem for me. You literally have to sit and read this cookbook from cover to cover to figure out what you might want to use... which is o.k., but only just o.k. to me. I have other books I'd rather be spending my limited free time reading... I want a cookbook to be a reference, a quick guide, not a time waster. Sorry.... my recommendation is quite limited for the lack of index.
I do want to add (a week later from the above) that my husband was kind enough to go through the entire book and glance through the recipes while home last Saturday. He found several that are just delicious and will be very helpful to me on this diet. Specifically, the marinara sauce & the sorbet. The marinara is listed as only 3 servings but I used it on five different proteins and the sorbet is 1 fruit but is easily a 2 part dessert.... there are other really great sounding recipes in this book that my husband marked for me and I look forward to trying them. I suppose, in the long run, I will end up just reading the whole book but my original complaint stands... this really could benefit from an excellent index.
Cheers.

This book has been my bible, or i guess more appropriately, my hymnal (Pounds & Inches by Dr. Simeon would be the bible) for the past 6 weeks as Ive worked my way through Phase 2 of the HCG Protocol. I have been carrying it everywhere with me and when people ask me what I can eat while on the diet and how I can survive on 500 calories alone, this book, along with a brief description of HCG and its function is presented to them. There eyes glaze over when I describe the injection of the hormone, and how it causes the body to release stored deposits of abnormal fat, but they latch on to the recipes in the book and often comment on different meals that they want to try!

There are several hundred recipes in it and I found out several new foods that I never knew I liked through it. Ive got several friends starting the diet shortly and Ive told all of them that this book is essential! I recommend making the sauces in large portions and canning some so that you've got a large constant supply to use on your food. The only difficulty with this book is that it is slightly off-protocol. In Pounds & Inches, Dr. Simeons says that vegetables should not be mixed during meals, however, most of the sauces, soups and vegetable recipes require the mixing of onions and tomatoes and celery and such. I decided to make exception to the protocol and follow the recipes and I'm glad I did! Very good food and its had the desired effect. By my last injection, day 40 of Phase 2, I had lost 28 pounds!

I've said it before... I don't know if I could have done it without this book!

I purchased this book after being on the diet for 2 weeks. I was getting tired of grilled meat and salad. This cookbook has made it easier to stick with the plan. Each time I cheated I gained 3 pounds. This book will help to eliminate the cravings! I was also growing tired of eating apple after apple. Never thought to make "applesauce" out of it. Highly recommend!!!!!