The South Beach Diet has published several books over the past few years, and the easiest way to distinguish them is by color. The first book is the Blue book, and it describes in detail the principles of the diet, along with sample meal plans and then a handful of starter recipes. From my experience, there are a few really great recipes in this book, like Gazpacho and Greek Salad. But for the most part, the blue book is best for basic information because a lot of the recipes are bland and boring.

The Orange book is the first book in the series that is an actual cookbook, and it's got a lot of gourmet recipes in categories like breakfast, salads, soups, entrees and desserts. The degree of difficulty for just about everything in this book is moderate to high, but if you are adept in your kitchen, you'll be able to tackle most of it with ease. The Eggplant Stuffed with Beef is awesome.

The Yellow Book is a "quick and easy" cookbook, with all of the recipes featuring easy-to-find ingredients and cooking times of under 30 minutes. A few of these recpies are both easy and really great, like the Turkey Swedish Meatballs, Peanut Noodles with Chicken, and even a vegetarian section that includes SB Macaroni & Cheese.

Finally, there is the newest entry, the pink book which is geared toward holidays and entertaining. I dont' have this book so I can't fully comment on it, but I've leafed through it and some of the dishes look interesting, though maybe with a higher difficulty for the average cook.

So regardless of your level as a cook, there is at least one South Beach Cookbook that should suit your needs. The diet works well for a lot of people, and is flexible enough so that you can dine out in most restaurants on all phases. But still, it is easiest to follow (particularly on Phase 1) if you can cook your own meals, and these books give you all the tools to do that and more.