Rocco Dispirito

Rocco's Italian-American
$24.95
In preparation for a long recovery, I ordered several Italian cookbooks. Rocco's book was just the ticket! While others have a better "voice" of the cook, this one actually has recipes that I will try. It contains recipes that most closely resemble my mother in law's cooking which I have been trying to replicate since we lost her to cancer in the mid 80's. Often I'd remember just part of the recipe or some of the ingredients and not be able to make it. This book contains so many of them that maybe now I'll be able to give it a try. It is just what I was looking for. Thanks.

Rocco's Real Life Recipes: Fast Flavor for Everyday
$19.95
I LOVE this cookbook. There are TONS of great recipes - everything I've tried is fantastic - crispy beef and potatoes, shrimp parm to name a few..and even if you couldn't find one recipe in the 175 that are in the book - many of his recipes have given me ideas to make my own. I don't understand how anyone could be disappointed in this book.

Biggest Loser Family Cookbook: Budget-Friendly Meals Your Whole Family Will Love
$21.95
I checked out this book from the library because I wanted some new ideas for some healthy recipes for my family. The recepies are great and they are for the most part easy to follow and all of the ingrediants can be found in any local grocery store. That is a plus because there have been so many times that I have bought a cookbook but have had to shop in a specialty store just to find the ingrediants. Who has the time and money to do all that?

My biggest complaint in this book is the nutrition information listed on page 9. It states to use the following equation to calculate your daily calorie needs in order to lose weight. (your present weight x 7) and then the paragraph below states that you you weigh more then 300 lbs start by eating 2,100 calories a day and if you weigh less then 150 pounds, plan to eat around 1,050 calories a day. That is way to few calories and it is very dangerous to eat this low for weeks or months on end. Sure you will lose weight at first but you will also be starving yourself and as soon as you start eating a healthy amount of calories all that weight will come right back on. 1,050 calories is hardly enough to give the body energy to sit at a desk all day much less exercise as the book suggests doing in order to lose weight.

So use the book for the recipes but discard the nutrition information.

ROCCO DISPIRITO - ROCCO GETS REAL 2010 Wall Calendar
$12.99