Not a carrot stick in sight, thanks to the experts
at Weight Watchers who have finally put an end to the
concept of diet food. Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook
is chock-full of delicious recipes that taste and look
nothing like your mother's skimpy diet plate. Today,
Weight Watchers knows that losing weight is about balance
and variety--and Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook
reflects this trend. Whether it's a quick after work
meal, a fancy dinner, a family favorite or an exotic
new entree you crave, Weight Watchers has whipped up
a batch of tasty recipes that combine fresh, wholesome
foods with low-fat cooking techniques in a recipe collection
you'll use for years to come.
Sprinkled throughout Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook
are handy tips for leftovers, the inside scoop on how
Weight Watchers tamed the calories and fat, and helpful
hints for getting meals on the table faster. What's
more, each recipe included POINTS, as well as complete
nutrition information. As a bonus, you'll find basics
on the Weight Watchers 123 Success Plan and great ideas
for helping you on the road to weight loss.
How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles
of Good Food
by Nigella Lawson, Arthur Boehm
Cooking is not about just joining the dots, following
one recipe slavishly and then moving on to the next,"
says British food writer Nigella Lawson. "It's about developing
an understanding of food, a sense of assurance in the
kitchen, about the simple desire to make yourself something
to eat." Lawson is not a chef, but "an eater." She writes
as if she's conversing with you while beating eggs or
mincing garlic in your kitchen. She explains how to make
the basics, such as roast chicken, soup stock, various
sauces, cake, and ice cream. She teaches you to cook more
esoteric dishes, such as grouse, white truffles (mushrooms,
not chocolate), and "ham in Coca-Cola." She gives advice
for entertaining over the holidays, quick cooking ("the
real way to make life easier for yourself: cooking in
advance"), cooking for yourself ("you don't have to belong
to the drearily narcissistic learn-to-love-yourself school
of thought to grasp that it might be a good thing to consider
yourself worth cooking for"), and weekend lunches for
six to eight people. Don't expect any concessions to health
recommendations in the recipes here--Lawson makes liberal
and unapologetic use of egg yolks, cream, and butter.
There are plenty of recipes, but the best parts of How
to Eat are the well-crafted tidbits of wisdom.
Weight Watchers Simply the Best: 250
Prizewinning Family Recipes
If the old saying "butter plus salt equals flavor"
is true, somebody neglected to tell the folks at Weight
Watchers. Simply the Best is a testament that good food
need not always be accompanied by dietary guilt and
that flavor doesn't have to be sacrificed in the name
of health. The book's more than 250 sensible low-fat
recipes cover the culinary spectrum, from entrees such
as Bella Braised Chicken to desserts such as Strawberry
Crepes.
While the book is designed to accompany the popular
Weight Watchers diet program, it can be used by anyone
interested in healthy, delicious, low-fat food. The
prizewinning recipes are contributed by Weight Watchers
members and staff from across the U.S., Canada, and
England. For chefs new to low-fat cooking, Simply the
Best is an excellent resource for learning flavorful
combinations to substitute for traditional high-fat,
high-caloric fare. Most inspiring is the sheer variety
of recipes included in the book and the unique variations
on old themes. While it may sound unconventional to
purists, the Apple Cranberry Pie with Granola Crust
is wonderful, and the Chicken Marsala with Green Grapes
would go well on any table.
How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking
and the Art of Comfort Cooking
by Nigella Lawson, Petrina Tinslay (Photographer)
While the title How to Be a Domestic Goddess may at
first make a modern woman bristle, the book itself is
just as likely to inspire the woman who brings home the
bacon to start baking cakes. And what's wrong with that?
"This isn't a dream," writes British cookery deity Nigella
Lawson in her preface. "What's more, it isn't even a nightmare."
Lawson--the author of How to Eat, food editor of British
Vogue, and star of her own TV cooking show, Nigella Bites--has
been suspected of upholding the woman-laboring-in-the-kitchen
paradigm, but there are lots of hard-working women out
there who derive great satisfaction from cooking, even
after a long day at the office. For those women, Lawson,
who looks more Elizabeth Hurley than Martha Stewart, is
the perfect guide to the wondrous world of baking.
A New Way to Cook
by Sally Schneider, Maria Robledo (Photographer)
Want to eat healthful, delicious food without self-deprivation?
Sally Schneider's A New Way to Cook shows you how. Schneider's
approach is global: not only does she provide 600 recipes
for a wide range of truly satisfying, good-for-you dishes,
she offers a blueprint for better eating and cooking,
no matter the recipe. Her mantra? No need to give up flavorful
fats and the pleasures of salt and sugar, which are intrinsically
necessary to a satisfying diet, she maintains. No food
is excluded in her plan. Applying moderation, portion
streamlining, and a number of unusual techniques--for
example, you get all the flavor and satisfying mouthfeel
of fat without excessive calories if you emulsify it first
with water or other liquids--she offers her better way.
Those of us caught between the need to eat sensibly and
the reasonable desire to derive maximum enjoyment from
food, impulses often at odds, will welcome her cookbook.
