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Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight!: 150+ Restaurant Favorites to Make at Home
Now you can have take-out tonight and every night and still lose weight!
Craving Chinese, Mexican, Thai, or even Japanese for dinner? No problem and no need to worry about the fat and calories thanks to Take-Out Tonight! Based on the Weight Watchers Winning Points® weight loss plan, Take-Out Tonight! serves up more than 150 mouthwatering recipes that reinvent all of America's most-loved take-out dishes -- all 8 POINTS or less! Few people consider, before they stop in for take-out or pick up the phone to call for delivery, how these made-to-order meals fit into their lives if they're trying to lose weight. Truth is, they don't. So let Take-Out Tonight! help you prepare healthy, delicious meals for you and your family using the smart cooking hints people have come to expect from Weight Watchers cookbooks. Take-Out Tonight! includes:
CHINESE CLASSICS, like Shrimp-and-Pork Wontons, Chinese Barbecued Pork, and Szechuan Chicken with Peanuts • MEXICAN MUST-HAVES, like Family-Style Chicken Enchiladas, Chimichurri Steak with Jicama Salsa, and Nachos Supreme • DELI SPECIALS, like Crunchy Chicken Salad Wraps, Reuben Sandwiches, and Crumb-Topped Jumbo Bran Muffins • TOTALLY THAI, like Shrimp Pad Thai and Coconut Rice Pudding • ITALIAN DELIGHTS, like Pizza with the Works, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Cannoli
Each recipe offers easy how-tos, tips, and complete nutritional information, as well as POINTS per serving. With Take-Out Tonight! there's really no reason to order out -- so get cooking!
Craving Chinese, Mexican, Thai, or even Japanese for dinner? No problem and no need to worry about the fat and calories thanks to Take-Out Tonight! Based on the Weight Watchers Winning Points® weight loss plan, Take-Out Tonight! serves up more than 150 mouthwatering recipes that reinvent all of America's most-loved take-out dishes -- all 8 POINTS or less! Few people consider, before they stop in for take-out or pick up the phone to call for delivery, how these made-to-order meals fit into their lives if they're trying to lose weight. Truth is, they don't. So let Take-Out Tonight! help you prepare healthy, delicious meals for you and your family using the smart cooking hints people have come to expect from Weight Watchers cookbooks. Take-Out Tonight! includes:
CHINESE CLASSICS, like Shrimp-and-Pork Wontons, Chinese Barbecued Pork, and Szechuan Chicken with Peanuts • MEXICAN MUST-HAVES, like Family-Style Chicken Enchiladas, Chimichurri Steak with Jicama Salsa, and Nachos Supreme • DELI SPECIALS, like Crunchy Chicken Salad Wraps, Reuben Sandwiches, and Crumb-Topped Jumbo Bran Muffins • TOTALLY THAI, like Shrimp Pad Thai and Coconut Rice Pudding • ITALIAN DELIGHTS, like Pizza with the Works, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Cannoli
Each recipe offers easy how-tos, tips, and complete nutritional information, as well as POINTS per serving. With Take-Out Tonight! there's really no reason to order out -- so get cooking!
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
5 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 19, 2017
Really great easy ethnic style recipes.
July 28, 2018
I love cookbooks. Everyone who knows me knows this, and my relatives often drop off loads of their old cookbooks for me to read through. Even my local librarians will often set aside interesting-looking ones they spot in their for-sale stack. I was given this book as part of a batch my aunt was getting rid of, and she’s really into trying different diets. She looks great so she's definitely doing something right, but I’ve never been attracted to that kind of thing since the foods have never been appetizing to me (and it doesn't help than she tends to try the ones with strict, strange, dietary restrictions). But two books in this batch caught my eye:
Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight!
and the first Looneyspoons book, which I’d read before and already love (I’m still debating hanging onto it or upgrading to
The Looneyspoons Collection
, which I’ve also read before and is begging to be reviewed.) But even then, it wasn't until I realized I'd cooked my way through most of the Chinese section within a month of owning it that it struck me how amazing it is.
Even if you don’t follow the Weight Watchers program, the food is fast, easy, and (the Chinese section at least) flavorful. The instructions are easy to understand and none are superfluous (I’m looking at you, Butter ). There's a good variety within categories, and it features selections from the deli menu, Chinese, Greek, Mexican, Italian, Thai, and Indian restaurants, and a chapter called 'Beyond Sushi' which is a bit misleading since it took writing this review before I realized it was a Japanese chapter (very little of it has to do with sushi but I didn't think much of it until now).
While there are plenty of choices and lots of delicious food, the chapters are clearly unbalanced. I'm not saying these countries don't all have distinct dishes (or that the Westernized versions are interchangeable either), but you could easily throw together a meal picking and choosing from the Chinese, Thai and Japanese chapters, and nothing would look out too out of place. It's not a big deal to me, it actually works out better since I don't especially care for Greek, Indian, or deli foods, and the countries selected are certainly the biggest ones on the restaurant circuit, so I'm not sure if anything could be done to even it out unless more countries are added (or state-specific fares, which I would have loved to see since American dishes vary so much from region to region; maybe even fair foods could have been thrown in since they technically qualify as take-out).
CLARITY:
The instructions were short and perfectly easy to understand. Most of the recipes (again, in the Chinese section) recycled the same ingredients, so you don’t have to worry about buying something and never using it again. The chapters are separated clearly and colorfully and you can flip the book open anywhere and know immediately which one you're in. Each recipe has a nutritional index and the points per serving, a quick blurb that tells you what the dish tastes like, many have tips that include serving suggestions and notes on techniques, and the book has symbols to mark recipes that are spicy, take 20 minutes or less to prepare, or use only one pot.
HUMAN INTEREST:
About every fourth recipe had a picture, but they were full-page and close-up. The recipe blurbs didn't waste space talking about the recipe's history, which works great as it sets the tone for this to-the-point diet cookbook. In fact, this category doesn't really apply to this book so I'm not going to consider it in the final tally.
MAKES ME WANT TO COOK:
Does it ever! I was even daydreaming about it at work trying to decide which recipe to try next. I was sometimes making two recipes a day because I couldn’t wait until the next day to try the second dish.
THE VERDICT?
I can see myself going back to this one for years to come, everything I've made keeps coming out delicious and it's all so easy to make.
Even if you don’t follow the Weight Watchers program, the food is fast, easy, and (the Chinese section at least) flavorful. The instructions are easy to understand and none are superfluous (I’m looking at you, Butter ). There's a good variety within categories, and it features selections from the deli menu, Chinese, Greek, Mexican, Italian, Thai, and Indian restaurants, and a chapter called 'Beyond Sushi' which is a bit misleading since it took writing this review before I realized it was a Japanese chapter (very little of it has to do with sushi but I didn't think much of it until now).
While there are plenty of choices and lots of delicious food, the chapters are clearly unbalanced. I'm not saying these countries don't all have distinct dishes (or that the Westernized versions are interchangeable either), but you could easily throw together a meal picking and choosing from the Chinese, Thai and Japanese chapters, and nothing would look out too out of place. It's not a big deal to me, it actually works out better since I don't especially care for Greek, Indian, or deli foods, and the countries selected are certainly the biggest ones on the restaurant circuit, so I'm not sure if anything could be done to even it out unless more countries are added (or state-specific fares, which I would have loved to see since American dishes vary so much from region to region; maybe even fair foods could have been thrown in since they technically qualify as take-out).
CLARITY:
The instructions were short and perfectly easy to understand. Most of the recipes (again, in the Chinese section) recycled the same ingredients, so you don’t have to worry about buying something and never using it again. The chapters are separated clearly and colorfully and you can flip the book open anywhere and know immediately which one you're in. Each recipe has a nutritional index and the points per serving, a quick blurb that tells you what the dish tastes like, many have tips that include serving suggestions and notes on techniques, and the book has symbols to mark recipes that are spicy, take 20 minutes or less to prepare, or use only one pot.
HUMAN INTEREST:
About every fourth recipe had a picture, but they were full-page and close-up. The recipe blurbs didn't waste space talking about the recipe's history, which works great as it sets the tone for this to-the-point diet cookbook. In fact, this category doesn't really apply to this book so I'm not going to consider it in the final tally.
MAKES ME WANT TO COOK:
Does it ever! I was even daydreaming about it at work trying to decide which recipe to try next. I was sometimes making two recipes a day because I couldn’t wait until the next day to try the second dish.
THE VERDICT?
I can see myself going back to this one for years to come, everything I've made keeps coming out delicious and it's all so easy to make.
May 3, 2009
Recipes for tasty, easy-to-prepare food, well-written with lots of photos, made with real ingredients (no "diet" substitutions). The results are so flavorful that you'll trick yourself into eating healthy! The focus is on "ethnic" restaurant take-out (including American deli, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Greek, Italian, and Chinese), and we've pretty much loved everything we've made so far. We also have used the cookbook when coming up with creative meals for entertaining--it's that good!
A couple problems: no index (I'm going to write one) and missing some great cuisines -- time for a sequel!
A couple problems: no index (I'm going to write one) and missing some great cuisines -- time for a sequel!
April 29, 2012
I like cookbooks that thoughtfully address how to cook healthy. My conundrum in finding good cookbooks is that our diet here in Hawaii is soooo different than traditional American fare. This cookbook, obviously written for a national audience, focuses upon the very type of cuisine that is part and parcel of my own diet, along with some fun new things to try. Furthermore, I like that I didn't find splenda used in any of the recipes.
March 22, 2013
I love this cookbook! I'm not doing weight watchers but I love the lightened up recipes of a lot of my favourite foods. My personal fav is the pad thai! It is seriously delicious. I have also tried the Greek kabobs (used chicken instead of lamb and holy that marinade is good) and a few of the Indian and Chinese dishes which were all fantastic.
February 22, 2010
Very good cookbook that takes common takeout meals such as General Tso's Chicken, Enchiladas, Pad Thai etc and trims it down fat and calories-wise so that WW members can enjoy healthier versions of these takeout favorites. I was given this for my birthday and it was a very good investment.
June 22, 2011
Really good recipes, all healthy! If you're currently on WW, it doesn't use their new points system, but all the nutrition info is given so you can put that into the website and figure out the new points.
September 15, 2007
My favorite cookbook...I've used it for years.
March 29, 2008
I just made the Turkey Enchilada Casserole tonight for the third time since getting this book.
So yummy.
So yummy.
April 8, 2008
Definitely curbs my cravings without the guilt. Plus the recipes are really fun to prepare and cook.
October 16, 2009
There just weren't a lot of meals I would actually make in this book. It definately fit the weight watcher philosophy but not for my types of food I enjoy.
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February 28, 2010Weight Watchers Take-out Tonight; 150+ Restaurant Favorites to Make at Home by Weight Watchers (2002)
January 27, 2011
Easy and quick recipes. ALthough I would like more pictures.
Read
October 30, 2012This is an excellent cook book for people watching their weight. I have found many recipes that I enjoyed.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews