Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories

I read a few not so good reviews about this book but decided to buy it anyway since I have made some of her recipes that I found online and liked, plus shes a funny gal.I'm not a health and this is my first book review so please keep that in mind when reading this :)First thing I did was pick out enough breakfast, lunches, dinners, and snacks to last me an entire week. I was just starting a new job so I needed to plan out all of my meals and make some ahead of time so I would less likely to grab fast food. I am super picky eater and dislike a lot of vegetables so this book was perfect for me. I should also mention I am diabetic so that is another reason these recipes work well for me.So far I really really REALLY like what I have tried!I am trying to watch my calories, carbs, and fat intake and I have been able to by sticking with recipes like this. A lot of the recipes just make a serving or 2. I am single without kids at home so single serving recipes work for me. I double or triple the recipe if I want more.Yes, the recipes sometimes call for a lot of ingredients and some of the ingredients can be a little more $$ (egg beaters, soy crumbles, etc.) but I just picked out recipes that called for the same ingredients and it went a long way!Here is what I think of a few I have tried:Big fat blueberry muffins-horrible. Sorry.Cheesed-up Pepperoni Pizza Scramble-Good! Made a double batch to heat up the next day and heated up nicely!Never tried Turkey Pepperoni until this recipe called for it and it is really good!Can't even tell the difference, definitely a keeper.Fab-five banana pancake mini's-good! Super quick and easy to make. I tripled the recipe and froze individual servings for later.Cheesy-good breakfast tartlets-fair. Liked them at first but since this recipe makes 4 servings I ate this 4 breakfast 4 days in a row and was tired of them by day 3. Could definitely play around with the ingredients in these and make them very tasty.Mexi-licious smothered taco scramble-LOVE! Instead of salsa I just threw in some diced tomatoes I had hangin' around from some of the other recipes in this book and topped with a bit of sour cream.Cheesy beefy quesadilla-LOVE! I think this is my favorite one. Quick and delicious. I added diced tomatoes and top with sour cream. Possibly my favorite!Mexican bean and cheese dip- addicting! Hard to stick to just one serving so I eat 2 servings, eat with tortilla chips and call it a meal! This does not taste like anything diet, anyone who has tried it with me asks me to make it again! Definitely a fav.Lean bean'n cheese enchiladas-Yum! I used 2 small corn tortillas since I couldnt find any med-large ones and called it a serving. Not sure how accurate that is but I don't care, I love these and its a much healthier version than what I would eat if I went out for Mexican! Another keeper.Big bad burger wrap-good! While nothing can take the place of a nice juicy burger this is pretty decent and filling!I have many more recipes I am dying to try from this book and am definitely going to check into some of her others.

EDIT: After having this book for a few days now, I've tried several of the recipes and wanted to point out that this is NOT a cookbook for the most fantastic-tasting dishes you'll ever savor. In fact, as some of the other reviewers have already pointed out, some of the recipes can be a little bland. Still, I think that HG's cookbook is an awesome resource to have for making smart substitutions, and inspiration for creating your own healthier version of an old favorite. My new fav is HG's pumpkin trifle, but instead of using Fiber One cereal, I use crushed gingersnaps! Perfect for me, but just a slight change from HG's!OLD REVIEW:One of the things that disappointed me about the original Hungry Girl cookbook was the dismal dessert selection. Sure, I'd had some success with the pumpkin cupcakes and brownies, but I have a real sweet tooth to keep in check, so I wanted more dessert suggestions.Fortunately for me, Hungry Girl's follow-up follows through nicely. The format is similar to the origina - a list of recommended products and staples (which are mostly the same), then the best part - more recipes to try! A lot of these recipes call for the same 'Hungry Girl stapes' - Fiber One, shirataki, eggbeaters, so you don't actually have to buy a whole slew of new foods to try out most of these recipes.For the breakfast section, I was happy to find some pretty creative oatmeal recipes - oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes, and oatmeal sundaes. I was particularly excited to try the blueberry muffins - which don't call for a cake mix (yay!) - they turned out nicely, even though I used white flour instead of whole wheat...The foods in this book, though snacks by calorie standards, seem heartier and more diverse. There's a goolash recipe, cioppino(!), cornbread, and buffalo wings.But on to the desserts...There are FOUR chapters devoted to dessert, and two that are mostly dessert. Yay!! First, to satisfy the cupcake fetish everyone seems to have nowadays - there's a chapter devoted to cupcakes, which includes red velvet adn even chocolate marshmallow - can't wait to try that one! Then there's creme brulee, tiramisu, strawberry shortcake, and apple fritters.Like in the last book, Hungry Girl also sectionalizes the last part of the book for specific foods - in this book, that's Cool Whip, Fuji apples, Fiber One, and Vitalicious. The photos in this book also seem better organized - they're organized by chapter, making for easier reference and flipping.As with the first book, my only real gripe with the whole Hungry Girl diet is the use of artificial sugars in a lot of the recipes, as they tend to give me headaches. Even then though, many of these recipes make such good substitutes for the unhealthier restaurant version, that it doesn't hurt too much to use real sugar instead of Splenda, so I can't complain!

Who is this book good for? People that:1) are SUPER busy all the time2) are on a budget3) want to eat healthier but either a) don't know how, or b) have been burned in the past and don't want to lose out on good food and nice portions4) aren't necessarily awesome cooks, but can hold their own (or at least follow directions)As others have mentioned, every ingredient is something you can find with ease at any grocery store. You don't need to go anywhere fancy or spend much money to reproduce the recipes in here. I'll be honest - I don't use this book anymore, but I appreciated it when I was first living on my own and trying to "watch my weight." I admit that the Miracle Mashies (mashed cauliflower) used to be my favorite thing in the book; I think it was one of the first times I saw cauliflower being used in such a unique and delicious way (this was long before they became the cool thing to use in pizza crusts, as steaks, breaded and fried in lieu of buffalo chicken, etc.).

I was really excited about this book after taking a quick look at their website but it was a huge dissapointment! Absolutly awful book.Fistly the book is twice the size of a regular cookbook. At first i thought that the glossy cover and the size meant id got alot for my money...wrong. The book is poorly printed, it almost looks like the color will run because the paper is of such poor quality and the book totals only 16 pictures. Each recipie takes one page (pages are about 7/8ths of A4) and has some purple clipart style picture. The text is huge and the recipies that take two pages leave a lot of space. The huge size of the book is completly unnececary.Secondly, and most dissapointingly, 90% of the recipies call for packaged/processed goods, which are not available in the UK. I did find some substitutes but they made the recipies alot higher in calories. The book is supposed to promote healthy weight loss meals but the amount of packaged/tinned goods called for is rediculous. Its hardly cooking at all and not healthy.They also stretched the recipies to their limits with over 10 varieties of omlette (using no real eggs, instead egg white substitute...not available in the uk).I even wrote to the publisher with my concerns and they replied very rudely, and jokingly that i should ship the book back to them and that the book was amazing.I had to laugh at the 'She's not a nutritionist, she's just hungry' slogan on the back because its the escence of truth...In summary...Buy this book if you love american packaged/processed/fake goods and want to learn to make 10 different omlettes that don't even contain egg, otherwise invest in a book that was written by a real nutritionist.

I bought this as I was on the Cambridge diet and was looking for 200 cal recipes, I was very disappointed when it arrived as I discovered many of the recipes use named American products. . As an ideas book it does give you inspiration but if you want an actual recipe book with set ingredients to follow for the calorie counting I would look elsewhere.

Many of the recipes feature ingredients simply not available in the UK. While it features many ideas I would like to try, I can not get Cool Whip or "Non Dairy Egg White Substitute" from a supermarket. I am not even sure they qualify as food...

Needed a good scrub all over, was really grimy.

advises using liquid egg and zero fat cheese not possible to get these in uk. and i wanted it 200cal meals thought it would be meals for one but when it is per portion and the rest of my family not watching their weight not suitable unless i want to waste a lot of food