Customer Reviews

Now Eat This!: 150 of America's Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories

5 star:		(139)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I checked this book out from the library and intend on buying it. So far we have tried the Mac & Cheese (w/ Onion & Garlic Puree), Spaghetti Carbonara, Deep Dish Pizza, Nachos, & Brownies...all pretty much exactly as written and all in 3 days. The 1st three were AMAZING!! The Nachos were okay but I couldn't follow the recipe exactly due to our not having the black bean dip (subbed drained and rinsed black beans and green chilies)...if we'd followed it exactly I am certain that it would have been wonderful, as our version was "missing something". I am looking forward to trying the Indian Beef Curry and French Onion Soup soon. I LOVE that he incorporates Greek Yogurt into a lot of his recipes...such a wonderful healthy ingredient with a great texture, especially Fage brand.

I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could, but the scoring would not allow. The reason being is that there is an insane amount of artifical sweeteners in this book. I understand that he is trying to keep the recipes' calories and fat grams under certain amounts but I have a hard time believing that he, as a world-reknowned chef and serious athlete, would use Splenda & sugar-free chocolate syrup, etc as a normal part of his diet. I was really hoping that he would have included more of the "whole food, nothing artificial"-type recipes, like those that he had on the Biggest Loser. For example, the Brownies, which are supposedly the "star of the book" according to an interview that I read, had a "chemical" finish. I really wanted to try the chocolate chip cookies but haven't been able to find the chocolate nips in the recipe, so I opted for the more accessible Brownies. Please note that I have been making whole-food black bean brownies and white bean chocolate cookies (LOVE THESE!) for YEARS, including a bean brownie that is 79 cal/piece (8x8 pan, 16 pieces), so I am quite familiar with and accepting of the flavor and texture differences between these and the "real things". I just wish that the desserts were more "whole food" and less "fake" ingredients. It IS attainable. I do not give my kids artificial sweeteners, so most of these desserts would be off-limits for them.

All that being said, I LOVED the other recipes and look forward to trying more. I LOVE the variety of classic dishes from around the world. Thank you for this book, Rocco.

I have to be honest and say I am not a cook. I am devoted to my takeout menus. There is a reason I laminate them and keep them in a folder. I have tried losing weight eating. I ate low fat, no taste food and it only left me feeling miserable and desiring meat dishes and sweet desserts.

My doctor suggested that I get healthy (translation: lose some weight or your heart, kidneys and other organs are going to quit on you.) He compared my body to a toxic waste dump and said the only thing that would help me was a return to eating real food I prepared myself. Enter Rocco's cookbook.

Rocco was a guest chef on the Biggest Loser. After that show, he was encouraged and inspired to write a cookbook with real food and recipes that anyone could eat and still lose weight.

This book includes all my favorite comfort foods that I tend to eat over and over again at fast food joints, order for takeout and at local shopping malls and restaurants.

I am adding one new recipe a week to my meal plan. Here are a few of my favorites and how many calories and fat grams Rocco reduced in each recipe:

1. Chicken Alfredo (made with whole wheat linguine) cut out 920 calories and 65 grams of fat.

2. Chicken Cordon Bleu cut out a 1,000 calories and 75 grams of fat.

3. Filet Mignon Béarnaise with Roasted Cauliflower -cut out over 400 calories 33 grams of fat

4. Loaded Baked Potato Skins - cut out 450 calories and 33 grams of fat

These recipes use fresh ingredients, sometimes cooking spray (you could substitute olive or canola oil), and sometimes natural sweeteners like stevia, etc.

The taste is incredible. The portions for some recipes may seem small, but I offer this suggestion. Turn off your TV and computer. Sit and eat at your dining room table without distraction. Savor every bite. Not only will you enjoy your food more, you will actually taste it, and realize when you are full a lot faster.

Bon Appétit!

Every time I grab a "triple chocolate chip" cookie from Rocco's book, at first I feel that twinge of guilt you feel when you are eating food you know you shouldn't eat, then I remember that they contain no sugar, no flour, their main ingredient is white beans and they are only 40something calories (even less sometimes cause I can get 30 cookies out of a batch instead of the 20 the book recommends) and about 1 gram of fat!! I then sigh with relief and eat 2! They are sooo delicious!!

After trying many of Rocco's superb recipes in Now eat This! I have come to realize that if this book existed 20 years ago America might be in better shape physically. It's long overdue but I'm glad it's finally here.

Other than the triple choco chip cookies some of my personal faves are:
Lobster bisque: tremendous lobster flavor and easier to make than the original
Peach and blueberry cobbler: his use of Bisquick is so smart
Turkey enchiladas: green salsa is so flavorful you don't notice the low fat cheese
Steak au poivre: I never need to eat the 1300-calorie version ever again
Berry pops: not the most original idea but best tasting yogurt pop I ever had
Onion rings: pure magic, I can't believe how crispy they are & with a little Tabasco the Smokey mayo sauce is mind blowing

There are a couple of dishes I liked less but there is so much room for personal preference you can make these your own w/o adding too many calories. For example, I can't eat a brownie that doesn't have chocolate chips and walnuts in them so I sprinkled a few in the batter and they still came out below 100 calories and were truly delicious!

Personally, I'd like Rocco to makeover every dish in America!

Purchased at a retail book store for much more than I would have paid on Amazon... boo-hoo for me. Regardless, my initial good impressions have progressively soured... or more to the point, gone bitter.

I've made all my family's dinners this week (and one dessert) out of this book.

I made a good choice by cooking the chicken & dumplings Sunday - it was actually quite good.

Monday was chicken burritos... ok, but if I do it again, I will substitute lowfat sour cream for the greek yogurt.

Tuesday was fettuccine alfredo - the yogurt was the issue again, it overpowered the dish - I think I could come up with a better recipe using lowfat milk and lowfat parm.

Wednesday (last night, St. Patrick's Day 2010) was shepherds pie - YUCK! for only a few more calories, real potatoes instead of cauliflower would have made a world of difference. The extra cal's from potatoes would have been offset by using a fat free gravy instead of the chicken broth based gravy called for in the recipe. Anyone who feels that cauliflower in a food processor is any kind of substitute for mashed potatoes must be completely without tastebuds... did I say YUCK yet?

So to follow up this terrible St. Patty's Day Irish non-treat (shepherds pie is an Irish dish), I made brownies. THE BROWNIES ARE TERRIBLE - JUST PLAIN AWFUL - the picture on the brownie page is no way, no how the brownies from the recipe. They were bitter, the espresso powder overpowers the chocolate and the black beans give it a very strange texture that is not at all pleasing.

Tonight (Thursday) was going to be his Sloppy Joes, but forget it - chalking this book up as a $20 loss and moving on with my life. Do yourself a favor if you think this is a cookbook for you: ask to borrow a friend's, borrow it from the library, or find another way to try out some these recipes for free before you waste your money.

I was very excited to try this book out. I read the details and the reviews and I figured I could live with the bad desserts as long as the actual meals part turned out good. The pictures looked amazing and the ingredients weren't too difficult to find in my area.

I consider myself to be a pretty good cook and have made other meals from many other Chefs' recipes with great success.

I made the penne alla vodka, the calamari, the mozzarella sticks, the artichoke dip, General Tso's chicken and the chicken fried steak. I also made the marinara sauce to go with the pasta dish.

Artichoke dip was fine, no complaints but it also wasn't that great either.

Penne alla Vodka using his sauce. It was time consuming, messy and terrible tasting. The sauce was bland. I didn't even let my husband try it as I threw it all away.

Mozzarella sticks. The time is wrong and the measurements are off. I made this the first time and the mozzarella sticks melted through (as he has you make them on a wire rack on the baking pan. He stated, I believe, 15 minute cook time. It was done in 5. I tried again after watching Rocco in a video clip from Rachel Ray. I thought it was a funny because the ones he prepared in person looked just like the ones I made, but the ones that came out of the oven were double breaded. I double breaded them and then the cheese stayed in but again, done in 5 minutes.

General Tso's chicken. The combination of the vinegar in the sauce made it so sour. I had to again throw it all out.

Calamari and Chicken Fried Steak are both plagued by the same problem. Rocco is not specific in the amount of seasoning needed. I tried these with more seasoning but in the end the result is the same, the whole wheat flour with the whole wheat panko breading just lends to an overly crunchy and bland taste. This is a reason that most of his dishes are served with some sort of sauce or gravy to compensate for the bland breading.

I don't think I'm picky and I truly hate throwing out food. For me to throw out food that was expensive and time consuming to prepare it is not worth it for me to try any more recipes. My husband won't even try to taste the food from this book anymore.

Another main complaint I have (and book editors that I have read) is the exaggerations in the calorie counts. The before seems to be a little inflated and the after doesn't seem realistic. I'm sorry I don't know anyone who eats just one mozzarella stick after preparing 8. That is the serving size of the recipe.

For those who want to cook good tasting and low calorie plus healthy foods, try Devin Alexander instead. In her most recent books she has even started using all natural products including sweetners instead of the artificial ones. Her books have many of the same recipes and ingredients but they just combine better. Please note many of her recipes are from 2006 forward (before this book existed).

An addional note on Truvia, it is not 100% stevia. It also uses Sugar Alcohols. I recommend sun crystals instead, that uses a blend of cane sugar and stevia that is less processed.

I'll be the first to admit I was skeptical when I found out about the low-cal focus, even though I am a long time Rocco fan. Beans in brownies don't exactly give me a warm, fuzzy feeling. But the more recipes I try, the more I like it! Essentially, this is about using some alternate ingredients and preparation methods to cut down on the fat but not sacrificing taste.
Favorites so far have been the Faux-Fried Onion Rings (crispy and delicious!), Crispy Mozzarella Sticks, Tuna Burgers, & Fettuccine Alfredo. Turkey Tacos are a family favorite that have become the staple of our Taco Tuesday tradition.
The Macaroni & Cheese is surprisingly savory without being too heavy. The Strawberry Graham Cracker Tarts are easy to make and have a rich, creamy flavor. My two girls really like these,and the Macaroni & Cheese.
I especially appreciate the 'Cook for Yourself' section of p. XIV and the fact that Rocco is encouraging people to cook at home and providing recipes that aren't overwhelming or overindulgent.
I haven't been brave enough to bust out the Brownies yet, but have heard from trusted sources they are not to be feared and are, in fact, quite tasty! I think they may be next to try!

I just spent about an hour reviewing Now Eat This! 150 of America's Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories, by celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito. As a former chef and avid cook, my passion is cooking healthy and delicious meals. So, it was with interest that I read this book, as I wanted to see how Rocco brought flavor--not calories--to America's favorite comfort foods.

The trick to cooking flavorful, healthy and low calories meals is using--no surprise--flavorful, health and low calorie ingredients and understanding how to combine them to make a dish that satisfies. Using such ingredients is how Rocco achieves this. He uses aromatic herbs and spices that are packed with flavor, for example. Another great substitute that Rocco uses for butter, sour cream or cream is Greek yogurt--yum! If you haven't tried Greek yogurt, you're in for a treat. I substitute it all the time in dishes and don't miss a thing.

Rocco was inspired to write this book after being a guest cook on The Biggest Loser. He was asked to turn traditional comfort foods--laden with fat and calories--into low calorie, tasty and healthy dishes.

The book itself is eye candy--bright, beautiful colors and lots of sexy photos of the dishes.

To keep the calories at a minimum, Rocco uses cooking spray. Cooking spray is great for faux frying and in some other instances, but I would use a bit of extra virgin olive oil in some of the other recipes. Olive oil is a "good fat" and is good for you. Sure, it adds calories, but it also adds flavor and gives the diner the feeling of satiation and satisfaction. (I can't help but believe that some of these meals are so light in calories that they would lead to hunger an hour or so later later and a possible unhealthy binge! For instance, his macaroni ann cheese recipe calls for 4 ounces of pasta for 4 servings!I do not know any pasta lover who could eat 1 ounce of pasta and be satisfied...)

That said, these are terrific recipes if you are trying to lose weight! Instead of the same old boring diet dishes, this book could keep you on track because of the variety in the dishes.

If you just want healthy and tasty meals, this cookbook is still fine. You can always eat a bigger portion or add some olive oil! :)

Overall, I like this cookbook and have earmarked several recipes to try very soon.

Author, HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT & SELL YOUR HOME FAST

I think everyone can relate to the desire to eat fatty, unhealthy, sugar filled foods! Why? Because they taste sooo good! But, in the long run, these foods will ruin our bodies and prove to be very dangerously unhealthy. That's why I decided to purchase Rocco's new book. If we can eat the same foods we love, get the same great taste, and ingest half the calories, why would we not? So far I have cooked a few recipes from Rocco's 'Now Eat This' and I am so impressed. Fried chicken actually TASTES like fried chicken! But, the best surprise of the book are the brownies. I have always had a sweet tooth, and these brownies taste so good that I might actually pick them over the regular. Knowing I am ingesting only 53 calories per serving, and eating NO sugar and NO flour, makes these brownies unreal. I can eat as many as I want and not feel guilty. I am looking forward to making the other desserts as well as the burger and enchiladas. Thank you, Rocco. This book will keep me looking slim, healthy, and feeling great!

Just received the book and tried the Mac and Cheese and Fried Chicken recipes. The Fried Chicken was Oh My God good and for under 300 calories???? Can this be real? I usually don't like Mac and Cheese...made it for the wife and I really liked it. I am looking forward to trying all the recipes in here!

I heard about Rocco's new book at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and was eager to get a copy and test the recipes. Favorite foods redesigned to be healthy and low in calories - this sounded too good to be true. The first thing I tried was the brownies. I couldn't believe the taste! No flour, no sugar, only 53 calories and they tasted amazing. Rocco has created ingenious substitutes for familiar dishes that actually taste like the originals. Aside from the obvious food results, here are some other things I like about Now Eat This!:

Before and after fat/calorie comparison for each recipe
Explanation of healthy cooking techniques
Tips about ingredients and preparation
Lead description of each dish
I also enjoyed Rocco's introductory essay about his personal quest for a healthy lifestyle. This book is going to change a lot of bad habits. I recommend it to anyone who eats.