Customer Reviews

Weight Watchers Great Cooking Every Day: 250 Delicious Recipes Plus Techniques and Tips from The Culinary Institute of America (Weight Watchers (Wiley Publishing))

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- Most of the meals I cook are solo meals. The recipes in this book are mainly geared for four, but they're easily broken down.
- I'm a fish-eating vegetarian. Despite my diet, I found many useful recipes. Also, many of the meat & poultry dishes can easily be converted.
- I'm not, nor have I ever been, a Weight Watchers follower. I have, however, been morbidly obese (aka REALLY FAT). I lost over 115 lb & have kept it off for over 4 years. No medical aids, fad diets... just water, "diet" & exercise (I'm too passionate to elaborate. I'd write a book if I tried. Just know that you CAN lose weight, as long as you aren't in a rush (the turtle won the race!) Make slow changes & you'll succeed. Time is key). ...Getting back on my original track... I look for books that include nutritional breakdowns of their recipes. This book does that.

What compelled me to add my two cents was my success with their pizza dough recipe. Personally, I have the hardest time with bread (and bread-like) recipes. This one worked to perfection. Though it is simple & requires few ingredients, it is still pretty involved, but it's 100% worth it. Plus, the nutritional numbers for it are very good. It makes 4 freezable servings so I can use one & freeze the other 3. In the end, I not only had a (cheap) wonderful, perfectly sized meal, I was also exhilarated by having made it myself.

Additionally, on the book as a whole, the photos are quite nice & the instructions are very good, & generally easy. Plus, they throw in a lot of interesting info regarding the recipes, ingredients, regions....

At the price Amazon has it at, this book is MORE than worth it! Recipes range from Italian, Asian, Lebanese, Southern, New England... you really can't go wrong, whatever your skill and/or flavor. And all the recipes are good for you! What more is there?

...even if the recipes are often a little involved, meaning that there may be many steps and may take some time to put together. This is really only a bad thing if you are cooking after work for a grumpy hungry crew; the recipes are easy to follow, and unlike some other cookbooks geared more towards the culinary arts than mom's home cooking, there aren't lots of useless primping steps (I'm talking to you, celebrity chefs). The techniques (like de-glazing a pan or roasting vegetables) are sound and widely applicable. I have made a couple of dozen recipes from this book and every one has been delicious. Another nice touch: a single ingredient, like eggplant, asparagus, goat cheese, phyllo or lentils, will have several recipes. That makes it easier to justify springing for the non-standard foodstuffs. I am happy to have found a cookbook that lets me enjoy cooking and helps me get my diet in better shape.

I LOVE this book! It is full of really delicious recipes, and all of them are relatively easy. I never thought I'd eat BETTER food while trying to get healthy!

This is one of my favourite WW cookbooks. I love the concept of WW collaborating with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) to produce a collection of gourmet recipes that are WW friendly and healthy.

You can WOW your family and/or guests with these recipes from start to finish and nobody would ever guess that they're WW and you won't feel as though you're falling off the bandwagon if you're following the program.

A couple of caveats: this book is not intended for people who don't enjoy cooking and/or have little experience in the kitchen. These are a bit more in-depth and require more prep and cooking time. The second thing to watch out for is the # of Points per recipe. Some of the values are as high as 13 Points per serving. In short, if you have a low Point allocation per day, be careful about the recipes you choose to make and/or your portion size.

Outside of that, this is a fabulous book for avid and curious chefs who wish to experiment with concoctions created by WW and the CIA. You will feel like a gourmet, accomplished chef without the guilt of preparing and eating unhealthy and fattening foods. Enjoy..

Full disclosure: I'm not on WW nor am I a good or creative cook. But with this book, I've made great healthy meals that have impressed friends and family alike.

It's my "go to" cookbook when I need inspiration or a recipe to impress. My copy is well loved and has the dog earred corners and sauce splattered pages to prove it.

Would love to see WW do another book with the Culinary Institute. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Has a lot of really good recipes even if you're not watching your weight. Friends don't ever know they're enjoying a Weight Watcher meal.

This is an exceptionally good cookbook, with wonderful photographs, as well as easy to read and follow directions. The ingredients are easily found, and the taste factor is 100%. For anyone on the Weight Watcher's program, and maybe even especially for those who are not, this is an excellent way to prepare meals that are healthy, flavorful and have great eye-appeal.