Customer Reviews

Weight Watchers Simply the Best All American: Over 250 Regional Favorites from Around the Country

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Format makes it difficult to find what you're looking for. Arranged according to region, you can get lost and forget what you were looking for. Simply the Best, another cookbook by Weight Watchers (now available in paperback!) is a much better buy, with everything arranged in an easy format, such as appetizers, soups, chicken, pasta etc... This book also leans very much toward seafood, so if you aren't a seafood lover, you might not find too many realistic dishes you like.

You can always depend upon Weight Watchers to provide quality recipes. This book lives up to Weight Watchers past books. This book has many tasty recipes, they do not taste like they are low fat. We all know how hard it can be to diet when you have other people you cook for. This book will not let you down. The recipes are easy to read, and easy to follow. With books like these it will be easy to stay on your diet.

I have a collection of seven books from Weight Watchers and this was a disappointment. The table of contents breaks the recipes down by US region. However, there are NO PAGE NUMBERS anywhere in that listing. There are also no tabs or distinctions between sections so the user has to flip through the pages to find where one section ends and another begins. When you do find the beginning of a section, the recipe titles are listed but again, no page numbers are supplied! These faults aside, the recipes are first rate. I loved the Vermont Cheddar Soup as it reminded me of growing up in the Green Mountain State.
If you don't mind taking the time to peruse the book thoroughly, you will like what you find. However, I would recommend an earlier book, Simply the Best. It is well illustrated, simple to use and the recipe collection is outstanding.

This is one of the best Weight Watchers books I have seen and I know that it will easily become one of my most used cookbooks. It's loaded with regional favorites using real ingredients easily found everywhere. There are no artificial sweeteners or strange substitutions that used to plague "diet" books in the past. The book is very clearly outlined by region and beautifully photographed. Recipes are engaging and easy to follow. The recipe headings are informative discussing the region and the local ingredients. The book is peppered with bits of historical food information. From passed experience I know I can count on Weight Watcher recipes to work, the book is friendly and approchable wether or not your looking for lowfat recipes.

I love this cookbook but like some of the other reviewers I found the lack of page numbers for the regions in the opening table of contents was annoying. That is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. It prevented easy access to the regional recipes. I think it was an editing error as other books in the "Simply the Best" series have these numbers. For those of you buying this book or who already have it, I added the page numbers to my table of contents to make finding what I wanted in the book easier. Here they are if you want to add them, it makes the book simple to follow and use:
Chap. 1 New England -2, Chap. 2 Mid-Atlantic-37, Chap. 3 The Midwest-73, Chap. 4 The Plains-113, Chap. 5 The South-143, Chap. 6 The Gulf States-189,Chap. 7 The Southwest-215, Chap. 8 The Mountain West-249, Chap. 9 The Pacific and Northwest-295.
I went futher and added the page numbers on each Chapter contents for individual recipes. If you want those, it will have to be your own project. I had some time to relax and it really is a nice addition to the cookbook. Although it is not really necessary since adding the page numbers by region on the opening table of contents allows you to easily find the regional recipes. Except for this one error the cookbook is great and the recipes are yummy and easy to follow.

I was really impressed with this Weight Watchers book. First of all, it has a wide diversity of Americana; most of the time, American foods get broken down into New England, Southern, Southweast and sometimes California...but they go further. There is a Midwest section, a Mid-Atlantic (Chesapeake) section, etc. There is also a wide variety of foods within each one, though I felt the "Gulf Coast" section that included Creole and Cajun was a little sparse...then again how do you make a low-fat roux?

Within days of getting this, I made the local favorites, peanut soup and Sally Lunn bread, along with pecans with wild rice...all were just great, and low-fat. If you're struggling to find low-point recipes with some diversity, this is the book for you!

I can't speak for all the regions, but the section on southern food is amazing. Having grown up in the South where comfort food is often deep fried, I have really struggled to find authentic lowfat recipes. I can honestly say that the foods in this section were staples growing up (rather than what non-southern people think is southern food). All the recipes I have tried this far have been delicious!
I would recommend this book simply for this section alone, but the foods I have tried from other sections have been excellent too!

This is an excellent cookbook. Meals are healthy versions of homecooked food from the main regions of the U.S. I have already cooked several recipes and my family has loved them all. I have served dinner guests with "untested in my kitchen" recipes. The meal was great! Tonight I am using a fish recipe. Can't wait to taste. With cooking like this, dieting and eating healthy is quick and easy.

The most frustrating thing about this book is that the table of contents has no page numbers. This makes this book particularly difficult to use since it is categorized by region and only categorized by type of food when you get to the regional chapters which -- if you didn't already understand my frustration -- were not numbered in the table of contents. I am really glad that this was a hand-me-down because I would have hated to have paid money for it.

This cookbook is excellent. It has recipes from all walks of life in the way of different cultures. I will surely be enjoying it for years to come with my weight loss efforts.