The HCG Diet Gourmet Cookbook: Over 200 "Low Calorie" Recipes for the "HCG Phase"

I started the HCG Diet January 10, 2011. I knew nothing about the diet. Only that a friend was doing it & her friend had really good results. So..... flying blind, I thought I better do some research. WOW! There is a lot of stuff out there on this diet! I was overwhelmed to say the least. I found this book on Amazon.com. I have to admit the main reason I bought it over the other HCG cookbooks offered here, was that it had the most recipes for the money. When it arrived, I was pleased to see that it also included a lot of information regarding the diet, I call them "The Do's & Don't" of HCG. Very helpful information!! Right from the begining I felt comfortable & confident that I was doing this diet the right way. The recipes are all for Phase 2 of the diet and are easy to follow (most recipes are for single servings) and many include easy modifications for Phase 3 of the diet. All the recipes I made were very good & I felt very satisfied. During my experience with Phase 3 this book came in very handy. I am in Phase 4 right now & I still refer to it. The good news.......I lost 16 pounds in 16 days!! (Please follow the reccommended protocol which says you should be on Phase 2 for at least 21 days & no more than 40 days)....I had to stop the diet early because of personal reasons. Had I stayed on it, I am confident that I would have lost more. I plan to start another round of the the diet very soon. I look forward to using this recipe book again & again to get me thru Phase 2 & 3 again. I would highly reccommend the book to anyone!

Love this cookbook. I'm in R1P2D14 of the HCG diet (down 16 1bs.) and this book is a life saver! It's very easy to get bored with cooking chicken and beef the same way everyday. I'm by no means a chef. As a matter of fact, I NEED recipes in order to make anything I cook edible. This book really helped me do that. I've already circled back around to my favorites. I've also learned something..I don't need to cook with oil...what?! A good non-stick pan does the trick. I've even used my stainless steel pans. Throwing a piece of chicken in some lemon juice or chicken stock cooks it just fine. I'll remember this even after I'm done with the HCG diet. I will probably buy the new HCG cookbook my next round to increase my options even more. The recipes are quick and very simple to prepare. I haven't seen any recipes that call for exotic spices that I can't find at my local grocery store (and I live in a rural area, so my local grocery store is Walmart and Kroger.) My only complaint about many of the recipes was the amount of lemon juice she recommends. I made the homemade ketchup and thought my tongue was going to fall out from the sourness of the lemon juice. I finally got a clue and started reducing it by 1/2 or more. Usually the juice of 1/2 a lemon will suffice for most of the recipes. I highly recommend if you're on the HCG diet.

I am a foodie who also happens to be on the HCG diet. Yes, you can have an appreciation for the taste of fresh, well-seasoned food and still be successful on this diet... I have lost 10.5 pounds in 2 weeks. I attribute much of my success to the collection of recipes in this book. They are wonderful. I suggest that in addition to stocking your fridge and pantry with the allowed proteins, veggies and fruits, that you be sure to equip yourself with the "core" condiments such as Bragg's Aminos, Bragg's Vinegar, fresh lemons/juice and stevia (including the vanilla flavor). Here and there I made very minor adjustments to the amount of spices and herbs to suit my personal taste (e.g., less cayenne, more stevia) but that's what us foodies do. Thank you so much, Tammy. I gave a plug for your book to my physician's office manager. She's ordering a copy for the office!

I am always skeptical about buying products online, that I can't touch and look through. I'm also a little skeptical about product reviews, whether or not they might be planted by the seller. So if you're like me, then rest assured this is a fabulous cookbook and chalked full of delicious recipes. I don't know if I would be able to do this diet without it! Like the previous comments, the food list is VERY limited and a person would burn out fast, if they didn't make them appetizing. This cookbook adds spice and flavor in every dish. I don't feel deprived of eating delicious food, because I am. I also want to mention, not to be intimidated with the word "Gourmet", in the title. You can buy all the ingredients at your local supermarket. These recipes are really no fuss and simple to make. Trust me, I hate to cook and this cookbook has made the task more enjoyable. I really can't say enough POSITIVE things about the cookbook. Even my daughter, who is the pickiest of eaters, wants to eat what I make from the cookbook. It really is a essential staple, if you're doing the HCG diet. Thank you, Tammy Skye for making this cookbook, I'm anxiously awaiting for your second book to come out.

Such a GREAT informative and easy to read book! I would love a companion food diary by this author, but didn’t see one available.

The last reviewer prior to me mentions this so I'm glad I am not the only one that takes exception to this but it really bothers me that there is no "real" index! Any cookbook I've ever bought (especially one for $26.00) is going to have a glossary AND an exhaustive index! To my way of thinking what is called "index" in this book is really just a table of contents of sorts and there is no index.....i.e., "chicken dinners", "beef dinners", etc. all listed by meal....I was really looking forward to being able to look up "fennel",for instance, and see all the ways the author used this veggie. I've discovered this lack of index is really a problem for me. You literally have to sit and read this cookbook from cover to cover to figure out what you might want to use... which is o.k., but only just o.k. to me. I have other books I'd rather be spending my limited free time reading... I want a cookbook to be a reference, a quick guide, not a time waster. Sorry.... my recommendation is quite limited for the lack of index. I do want to add (a week later from the above) that my husband was kind enough to go through the entire book and glance through the recipes while home last Saturday. He found several that are just delicious and will be very helpful to me on this diet. Specifically, the marinara sauce & the sorbet. The marinara is listed as only 3 servings but I used it on five different proteins and the sorbet is 1 fruit but is easily a 2 part dessert.... there are other really great sounding recipes in this book that my husband marked for me and I look forward to trying them. I suppose, in the long run, I will end up just reading the whole book but my original complaint stands... this really could benefit from an excellent index. Cheers.

I rarely write reviews but this book has been a life-saver. I bought it with the intention of WHEN I got bored of the diet I would expand into more creative recipes from this book. Then about the third day I needed a to-go salad and used a recipe from this book. It was really, really good. From then on I started making all my meals from recipes from this book. And they were ALL GOOD! I love browsing and then planning out a couple days worth of recipes. I love to cook and EAT and this has kept my interest in food and the diet high. It's fun to think I can have soups, salads, and more exotic fare such as crab cakes and jambalaya! While at a lunch meeting with my diet group I was eating one of the salads from the book. The ladies that were on the second phase were amazed at what GOOD STUFF I was eating. They admitted they'd not eaten such nice things on their previous diet phase, it had been rather basic (and boring), grilled chicken, lettuce with Braggs, etc. That was getting old fast. Even the doctor facilitating the group was impressed after looking at the book and decided to buy several so her clients could buy them from her along with the drops, etc. Once when invited out to dinner I took my own meal to stay on the program. My lobster salad may have been the better deal from what the others were eating! My two complaints are that there is inconsistency in many of the recipes in that several times I've read an ingredient in the ingredient list, but no where is it listed when the instructions are given. OK, deal with it. If you know anything about cooking it's fairly easy to figure out where it goes. After all there aren't that many ingredients nor are the instructions difficult. Secondly, I think the index is difficult to use for it is not alphabetical under the categories, rather chronological by page number. But that too is easy enough to deal with, since most of the recipe groupings are by ingredient. For example all the crab recipes are grouped into three pages, all the chicken into 10 pages... just seek and yea shall find. And yea shall ENJOY! I rank this book every bit as important to the success of the diet as are the oil-free personal care products. Don't try the diet without it, especially if you love food. This will keep you engaged in good eats!

Great tasting meals to cook while meeting your VLCD and beyond. Everything from soups, main dishes and deserts, even make your own ketchup! If you already cook it is STILL a MUST HAVE! I cook from scratch and enjoy doing so. I have enjoyed this book and the meals I have made from them. I do admit I do not always follow each recipe, BUT I do get ideas for various spices to use. It makes the VLCD easy to plan and actually ENJOY! GET OUT~Enjoying a DIET?!?!?!? Love the Celery soup when I add curry~ YUM. IF you are thinking about doing the HCG Diet, this book is a MUST! The diet is the easiest "diet" I have ever done, AND the most successful. SO Buy the Gourmet Cookbook and get on the HCG diet for Quick EASY weight loss!