Weight Watchers Book of Recipes - Becky Et Al Johnson

Author's product rating:   

Degree of Information	Medium
How easy was it to read / get information from	Very easy
How interesting was the book?	Mildly stimulating
Would you read it again?	Absolutely
Value for money	Good

Advantages:	Simple to follow, interesting ideas
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I think this is a really good book with lots of easy and tasty recipes. I brought this book because I had heard friends talk about Weight Watcher clubs and how effective the programme had been in helping them lose weight. However, since I didn't really feel confident enough going along to a club myself, I found the book to be a useful way of following the programme. I have been able get a basic idea about the points system from this book without going to a club. All kinds of everyday meals are covered. There are lots of simple, traditional meals such as chicken pot pie, rustic bolognaise and fish pie, plus meals for special occasions, such as peppered sea bass with saffron mash (I made this for a dinner party and it was very well received), and Thai fish curry. There are also quite a lot of really nice vegetarian recipes, which I'm interested in because I keep reading about the high carbon footprint of meat. One that I tried was the jungle curry, made with fresh crunchy vegetables - this is something that can be easily adapted to include your preferred ingredients or whatever is in season.

I followed the recipe for chocolate orange brownies, and I actually preferred them to other non-diet versions because I usually find them too rich and sickly (although a true chocoholic may feel cheated). There was a large section on meals for one and two people, which is useful if you don't want to have to divide up quantities of ingredients given in recipes for the average four to six people.

All the recipes I have made went quite well and turned out as I expected. Considering they were supposed to be diet meals they were surprisingly nice and satisfying. The ingredients were easy to get hold of and the cooking process straightforward. Once you have learnt a lot of the basic tricks and substitutions involved in making traditional recipes lower in fat and calories then you can start applying them more widely in your cooking. This book has been one tool among many in my mission to lose weight, which has so far resulted in just over a stone of weight loss. My advice is don't stick to one diet plan as it gets boring - gain inspiration for healthy meals from lots of different sources to keep things interesting.