The 1200-Calorie-a-Day Menu Cookbook : Quick and Easy Recipes for Delicious Low-fat Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts Paperback – September 1, 1994

This book The 1200 Calorie A Day Menu Cookbook Quick and Easy Recipes For Delicious Low-Fat Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, and Desserts by Nancy Hughes contains a high number of multiple recipes from different categories to include: skillet ham over easy eggs toast ad chilled fresh orange juice, egg and bacon stacks with Dijon cheese sauce, chicken and pepperoncini salad with feta and fresh croutons, baked fish with pasta and Mediterranean salsa and pan roasted pole beans with olive oil, peaches and cream sherbet style, cinnamon steamed apples with caramel sauce, Louisiana blackened chicken salad with toasted Cajun bread, and more. The slight caveat is that there are no pictures/photos to accompany the recipes .

I have had this book for about a month or so and have truly enjoyed the recipes. I have no complaints from the family about anything I have made. It is really handy the way the recipes are separated into categories of how many calories per meal. I can mix and match to use the ingredients I have and make very tasty food. Many of the recipes are good inspiration to get started and keep with a low calorie lifestyle and they do not have a "diet" taste. Also, the recipes do not call for bizarre off the wall ingredients that I have to make a special trip to find! I would recommend this book for anyone looking to have tasty meals that are low in calories.

What I like:I have tried a few of the breakfasts, with tweaks since I do not use synthetic fats like margarine and can no longer eat dairy. Even with the tweaks, the breakfasts are tasty! I get a lot of food and it's only 350 calories.There are a few things I do not like:1. Oven temperatures and time to cook are not stated sometimes. I end up having to guess and I am notorious for over-cooking things.2. The lunch and dinner recipes do have a LOT of ingredients. Most are seasonings to make the food taste good. Sadly, I made a pasta chicken dish that took time and it still tasted bland. Plus, I do not have time to make food with so many ingredients every day or every meal. I understand that each recipe requires a lot of ingredients because, in order to meet daily nutrient requirements, you do have to eat a protein, starch carb, and fibrous carb so that leads to plenty ingredients when you add in the author wants you to actually flavor it.3. Because I do not substitute fake butter for real butter and mayo and such, I am probably eating more than 1200 calories.4. Because of the above, I do not think I am losing weight. All I know is this book is too busy for me to do every day of the week. But, the breakfasts are yummy so I am still happy I bought the book.5. I read some reviews on her 1500 calorie book and bought it as well. People say it has less ingredients. Well, it does...but what it also has is a side panel on each page telling you what side dishes to have. This may or may not create much extra work for the cook. I have not tried them yet.6. I eat 5 meals a day now, so I still have to put in a lot of leg work to try to get my calorie count right. Needless to say, I am going to eat simpler food after my groceries are gone this week. This book still makes it too much work for me.7. Fat per serving and calories are given. Protein count and Carb count are not. I wish they were.

I love that this is set up as a total mix and match system, and for that it is excellent. I have two concerns about the book:a) it is for 4, everything is for 4. I don't know who makes meals for 4 anymore, and if 2 of them are children you would certainlyNOT put them on a CR diet. Kids need all the quality calories they can get. b) some of the recipes call for cooking stuff specifically with an eye to throwing them away, especially when it comes to eggs and egg yokes. I hate wasting food.

Wanted a 400 calorie cookbook and this is perfect. It has regular meals that I can make easily and can stay on the diet I am on that count calories. Just what I wanted.

The copyright of this book is 1994. That is your first clue. It is filled with ingredients I threw out of my cabinets and refrigerator about 25 years ago. Light margarine? Is that even sold anymore? The breakfast recipes use only egg substitute, no real eggs. What is butter flavored Molly McButter? Most recipes have way too many ingredients trying to cover up the fact that they are so bland. There are better cookbooks out there with healthy recipes using healthy REAL ingredients. This is not for me.

I like the recipes here--most are not too complicated or expensive. Good variety. Good tracking of calories, really helpful for dieting.

I have not had a chance to use this book yet but I have looked thru it and found some very good recipes. I think this book will be very helpful in planning meals and keeping the calories in check at the same time. I look forward to sitting down and going thru and make a menu for a few days and see how it works out for me in that way.