Featuring “Over 500 Delicious Recipes For The Healthy Cook’s Kitchen” this cookbook comes in a five ring binder with color tabbed and coded sections. This book is designed to be your one cookbook you use while controlling your weight. Designed to be laid open flat and used while cooking, moving between sections can be difficult due to the quality of materials used indicating that regular use will likely result in torn paper and other issues.
After a detailed multipage introduction of the book that includes information on the WeightWatchers organization and their history, their newest points system that is the trademarked “PointsPlus” concept, there is a two page introduction regarding the recipes, what to shop for, and measurement of foods. Everything with WeightWatchers has always been based on extensive and detailed measuring of the contents and ingredients of the food you will eat and that continues in the “WeightWatchers New Complete Cookbook.”
The introductions are followed by the “New Basics” section that opens with a primer on kitchen tools, pantry shelf items everyone should have, basic refrigerator items, tips on food safety and more about the proper way to measure every ingredient in every dish. After a list of web based resources that are aimed toward the folks who have money to spend shipping ingredients to their homes, the section moves into the recipes.
The recipes begin on page 12 with “Classic Tomato Sauce.” Along with details on each recipe as far as what is in it and how to cook it, there is also extensive nutritional information regarding serving size and number of portions, information regarding fat, sodium, etc., how many points it is assessed under their PointsPlus system and a healthy tip on how it could be modified for another meal. In this case, the suggestion is to spoon this sauce over 1 cup of cooked whole wheat spaghetti for each serving. This same format contains throughout the book with a few pictures scattered throughout. This first section is devoted primarily to sauces, marinades, salsas and rubs of various types before closing with various dressings such as “Blue Cheese” and “Thousand Island” both found on page 32.
Second in the book is the section on “Breakfasts and Brunches.” After opening with two different versions of “French Toast” on pages 36-37, the book moves through recipes for waffles, pancakes, various versions of egg dishes along with their suggestion for “Tomato Parmesan and Egg- Topped Pizza (page 47) among other dishes. The section closes with “Breakfast Tostadas” (page 50) as well as two different Quiche recipes.
“Starters and Light Meals” comes next and open with “Classic Guacamole” on page 56. There are many suggestions here such as “California Sushi Rolls” (page 72), or “Roasted Pepper and Tomato- Stuffed Eggplant Rollups” (page 73) as well as a number of Asian dishes. As in the previous sections, most are considered and coded as the “basic” cooking skill level with a few marked as “intermediate.”
Salads in various forms come next in the fourth section with recipes for salads as sides or main dishes. Instead of settling for a simple salad of lettuce, tomato, cheese, etc. one could make the “Beet, Apples, and Watercress Salad” (page 84) or the “Rainbow Slaw” (pages 90-91) or the “Quinoa-Fruit Salad” (page 95) among many other salad possibilities. Potato salad in its German and American forms makes an appearance, as do various chicken, beef and seafood salads.
This is followed by “Soups--Starters and Main Dishes.” This section runs the gamut from basic stocks of various types, to bean soups of various types, to such recipes “Mexican-Style Chicken-Corn Soup” (page 123) or ‘Cioppino” (page 126) that features white fish (halibut or red snapper), clams, mussels, and shrimp among other ingredients. Variety in recipes is evident here as it is throughout the book.
The sixth section of the book is “Beef, Pork, and Lamb.” Steaks, roasts of various types, meatloaf, kebabs, and lamb in various forms are all covered here. It runs from the basics of the “Classic Pot Roast” (page 132) to the more complicated and exotic type things such as “Tandoori Lamb with Almond-Apricot Couscous” on page 154.
“Poultry” gets its own section next that covers various chicken, duck, and turkey dishes. Chicken dishes make up most of these recipes but there are several for Turkey as well as one for duck and one for Cornish hens.
Fish, of course, get their own section in the “Fish and Shellfish” section. As the title notes this section is also on shell fish. The nearly 30 pages included had little interest for this reviewer as I never enjoyed fish or shellfish despite the many who have tried to get me to expand beyond my meat and potatoes ways.
One of the shortest sections of the book is the following on “Vegetarian Main Dishes.” It opens with “Tofu Burgers” (page 228) and end with “Spaghetti Squash with Broccoli and Parmesan” (page 252). In between there are 34 more recipes worth considering in this section, not to mention other vegetarian type recipes scattered in other sections throughout the over 400 page book.
“Vegetable Sides” follows next with “Creamy Mashed Potatoes” (page 256) kicking off the tenth section. In addition to several variations of that, there are ones for “Potato Pancakes” (page 257), “Red Cabbage with Ginger” (page 267) or “Mixed Pickled Vegetables” (page 280) among others.
One knows that vegetables are going to lead into something about beans if they aren’t already included. “Grain and Bean Sides” follows in a section that is primarily about various forms of rice. Bean lovers may be annoyed as out of 27 recipes in this section only seven involve beans.
The twelve pages of “Slow-Cooker Classic” follow with all the usual type suspects. Several stews, soups, and chilies along with a couple of chowders make up this section.
The cookbook then moves on to the 13th section titled “Pizzas, Calzones, and Sandwiches.” The section starts with a recipe for “Whole Wheat Pizza Dough” on page 322 before moving on to a basic cheese pizza followed by variations on that theme using clams, figs and other ingredients. Sandwiches of various types are also here along with two recipes for calzones.
Breads of various types follows with “Yeast Breads, Quick Breads, and Muffins.” As the title suggests, in this section one can find “Honey-Wheat Crescent Rolls” (page 345), “Bran Bread” (page 355), “Yogurt Biscuits” and numerous other bread based treats.
Desserts have always been my personal weight control downfall and they are found here in “Cakes, Pies, and More.” This 15th section of the book opens with “Sour Cream Coffee Cake” (page 368) and closes with “Ginger Spice Cake” on page 402. In between there are forty-one recipes featuring nearly every flavor imaginable whether it is in cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, or something else. If you like chocolate you will find it here along with plenty of other treats to choose from.
The final section is on “Fruit and Frozen Desserts, Puddings, and Sauces.” One can have “Double Apple Strudel” (page 406) or “Double Chocolate Sorbet” (page 416) or “Toasted Coconut Custard” (page 422) among many others, not to mention the “Rich Chocolate Sauce” and “Hot Fudge Sauce” with both recipes found on page 424.
Two indices bring this book to a close. The first nine page index is organized alphabetically and also cross references to photographs. The second three page index is organized by the PointPlus point values assigned various recipes. These indices bring this 448 page cookbook to a close.
This somewhat helpful cookbook is designed to be laid flat for active use in the kitchen by way of the five ring binder system. While my copy is a library copy it became very clear quickly that the pages in the binder would not last long under any sort of regular use. The paper used has a very lightweight feel to it and reminds one of what is used in magazines. Regular use by way of turning the pages is going to cause the page holes to rip and tear. This could be alleviated somewhat by removing the recipe being used during meal preparation and then putting it back later, but one still runs a risk every time the book is opened. My library copy featured pages that were difficult to turn, a binder that was difficult to open, and yet when the book was dropped approximately three feet onto a carpeted floor, sprung open in a flash spilling more than half of the pages.
Additionally, beyond the fact that the portion sizes are mind bogglingly small, nearly every recipe uses oil and often the oil isn’t necessary. Many of these recipes are simply redone ones from earlier books using their new points system. If you already have the materials explaining how the new system works, you can easily modify your own recipes to come up with what they want you to buy in this book.
Overall, a somewhat helpful book, it could have used a better design and considerably more pictures of finished dishes. Typeface is small and light in color tone. This adds to the overall bland appearance to the book despite the color coded sections and occasional color photograph of the finished dish. This results in a cookbook that feels cheap, looks cheap, and is a rehash of their earlier books.
WeightWatchers New Complete Cookbook: Over 500 Delicious Recipes For The Healthy Cook’s Kitchen
WeightWatchers
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
ISBN# 978-0-470-61451-8
2011
448 Pages
$29.95
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011
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2 comments:
That is a neat review but since I'm struggling to reach 100# I think I will pass on getting the cookbook.
;))) Thanks for reading and commenting.
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