I bought and read The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight but was not impressed. I wasn’t at all inspired and cooked a total of two recipes from it. I was therefore a little nonplussed to receive the follow-up in my Christmas stocking.
This book starts out with a a typical fluffy look at the authors and how well they have done to lose weight. One difference in this one though is that it is clear that they will be indulging and have no plans to become stick insects. In short it gives a more realistic view on life. Lowering calories is only part of the battle. Exercise is another, but isn’t covered other than a vague mention at the back of the book (I’ll get to that). The first section is on breakfast and brunch. Most of them are sensible but I can’t see myself ever making Kedgeree or having salmon for breakfast. That’s just me though. I like the idea of breakfast muffins and eggs are always a good choice. There is also a whole page on oats to prevent boredom. There are then several different sections of main courses which had me salivating. I have eight post-it notes already in place for recipes I will be cooking. Some like the Goulash I plan to eat next week. I’ll have some in a tub for lunch the next day too. This is what I need in a cookery book. The inspiration to cook. This is even more important in a healthy eating guide. There is a really good tip in this section. Half-fat creme fraiche or coconut milk have little impact on the flavour compared to getting better quality spices. For me this means visiting the local market to see the lovely lady and her collection of spices to have a wonderful curry without too many calories.
If you are a vegetarian this is not the book for you. It does have a few recipes and in a couple of instances Quorn could be substituted but not enough to justify missing out on large swathes of this book. Towards the rear of this book are some really useful pages for some very simple basics. Four simple pasta/rice/mash/jacket spud ideas to ensure you have a few basic sides to go with your dishes. Then there is a page containing a list of what quantities of food equate to about a hundred calories. This makes it easy to roughly total your food intake. At the very end there is a page about the Hairy Biker Diet Club. I thought this sounded like a great idea as it looks to have exercise advice as well as additional recipes. Unfortunately it costs money so I can’t give any more details than that.
This is a definite improvement on the first diet book by the authors and has lots of interesting food to stave off that diet food depression. It is well worth a read.
Tony's Thoughts 