My wife and I have use those recipes and to our surprise the food look visually appealing as well as delicious!
We have found the recipes easy to use. It took significantly less than than other vegetarian cookbooks (some of which are loaded with fat) took about 2 hours to make. On average, we found it took from 1/2 to 1 hour to prepare.
I also highly recommend reading Part One in Ornish's earlier book, "Eat more, weigh less". That essential section laid out, in depth, the foundataion for this book.
Critics who said Ornish's program is extreme or hard have obviously NEVER tried out any of the recipes in THIS book!! The critics also failed to provide evidence for this purported "difficulties." If you are still skeptical, go to the library to try out the book before buying. (I'm not sure if the libraries carry these type of books) What have you got to lose?