Shaping up for summer. (Best Ever Recipes: 40 Years of Food Optimising)

Member Name: anwar7

Product:	Best Ever Recipes: 40 Years of Food Optimising
Date:	05/05/09 (444 review reads)
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I have been attending Slimming world for nearly a year now and am very pleased with the results! If you would like to know more about slimming world ,then I have written a review explaining about how it works. However this review is about the latest slimming world cookery book. I already have one slimming world cookery book and have found the recipes easy to make and very tasty, so when I spotted a new book on sale I was keen to get my hands on it.
Slimming worlds best ever recipes has been published to celebrate 40 years of food optimising, that's how long slimming world has been in business. The book has 208 pages and comes only in hardback. The book has a forward by slimming world founder, Margaret Miles-Bramwell, that sings the charts the progress of slimming world from its early beginnings to the multi-million pound business that it is to-day. There is another section that explains the different eating plans that can be followed, with a section about the importance of including exercise, or body magic I slimm9ing world parlance.

The first section of recipes covers soups and starters. There is a lovely recipe for watercress soup and another for pea and mint soup. There are classic recipes for things like prawn cocktail and Waldorf salad alongside recipes for moules mariniere.

The next section is entitled British classics and as you would expect gives recipes for meals such as cottage pie, bangers and mash and a luxury macaroni cheese. There are lots of regional dishes such as my favourite pan haggerty from Northumberland. This section has a great recipe for lamb shanks too.

Next is a section on global favourites. This section has recipes from Italy including spaghetti Bolognese and tagliatelle carbonara. My favourite recipe in this section is sweet and sour chicken. The section also has several excellent curry recipes both vegetarian and meat based. Another favourite is the recipe for vegetable paella, delicious and very easy to make. There is a healthy version of the American hamburger that will save you lots of calories and fat and tastes so much better than any shop bought version!

The final section covers desserts and sweet treats. There are recipes for lemon meringue pie, chocolate mousse, Eton mess and steamed ginger pudding to name a few I have tried. All the recipes contain fewer calories than the ones you will find in other cookery books.

Each recipe gives you the syn value (another slimming world term) on either the green or red day.

The final section of the book looks at the changing shape of Britain and food fashions. It is an interesting section that helps explain why we have an obesity crisis. For example 40 years ago the average person drank11.5 pints of alcohol per year now that figure has risen to 19 pints per year. Our lifestyles have also changed and we now walk 63 fewer miles per year than we did 40 years ago. That's the equivalent of 1 kg of fat gained!

My opinion.
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I like to look at glossy photos when I am using a recipe book; at least then I have some idea of what I am aiming for! This recipe book is short of pictures and they are not glossy. The pictures that there are however clear, there just should have been more of them!

The instructions are very clearly written and all the recipes I have tried so far have been easy to make and have turned out well. Many of the recipes given are a bit basic in my opinion, most people know how to roast a joint of meat and as this is not sold as a beginner's book I think these recipes are a waste!

On the positive side I have found the book really helpful for giving me inspiration. All the recipes are basically lower calories versions of the ones you will find in many cookery books. For example using mashed Swede and carrot to top a cottage pie. Another great idea is to use low fat fromage frais in place of cream when making Eton mess. There are loads more ideas along these lines and for that I think the book is worth the outlay!

The book is available for £9.99 from slimming world groups, go to the slimming world web site to find your nearest local group. Alternatively it is available from Amazon for £10.50. The list price is actually £15.99,so quite a good saving!

Summary: Slimming world recipe book