SIMPLY LIGHT COOKING: 250 Recipes From the Kitchens of Weight Watchers

The introduction to this latest Weight Watchers compilation promises ""something for everyone,"" ""variety and flexibility...to fit your unique life-style."" Which is just another way of saying that this is one more characterless Weight Watchers mishmash of convenience, contrivance, and cliche. Several potato dishes, including ""creamy mashed,"" are made with instant potato flakes. Fence-sitting and substitute ingredients such as light cream cheese and margarine abound. Several high-cheese dishes, such as white pizza, give more than the recommended 30% of calories from fat. Brown rice and veal dishes coexist, to the advantage of neither, as do various ethnic accents--but few if any genuine ethnic dishes. And all this comes larded with a self-congratulatory text that gushes about ""today's"" taste and health consciousness, though scores of other cookbooks have better served that consciousness for decades. Sure, there are some perfectly decent low-fat recipes here--but in an age when perfectly decent low--fat recipes crowd our shelves, that's not enough.