Twenty-Minute Menus: Time-Wise Recipes & Strategic Plans for Freshly Cooked Meals Every Day Review

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(More customer reviews)I LOVE this book! This is the first cookbook I've seen that goes through the whole meal from main dish to side dish to dessert and even gives you the game plan on what to do first so all is ready at the SAME TIME! Imagine that? Coupled with the book Quick Meals for Healthy Kids and Busy Parents, it's all you need to feed your family healthy and even more important TASTY homecooked meals everyday! I definately recommend this one! Great as a gift for anyone with kids or who just don't like hanging out in the kitchen cooking all day!

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The Convenience Cook: 125 Best Recipes for Easy Homemade Meals Using Time-Saving Foods from Boxes, Bottles, Cans and More Review

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(More customer reviews)I've had this book for over a year now and many of the recipes have become "trusty standards" that I turn to again and again. An easy and wonderful spinach risotto that my three year old loves, for example, is something that I can make from this book with straightforward pantry ingredients. Most of the recipes are very easy and fairly quick to prepare.
Although this book does use lots of "convenience" food, it is not unhealthy. Frozen vegetables are convenient and healthy, and lots of canned food (such as kidney beans) are healthy too, especially if rinsed to get rid of excess salt. I also find that lots of recipes are very good the first time I make them and then I add a little of this and little of that the next time I make them, and can easily turn them into something that my family LOVES. (Eg. add some tarragon to the spinach risotto, if you have some handy.)
I always have some recipes from this book in my meal plan for the week, so that I don't have to buy fresh ingredients for everything I make each week. (That way I avoid having vegetables etc go bad in the fridge. I use fresh fish, vegetables etc at the beginning of the week, soon after grocery shopping, and then frozen or canned later in the week.) Even if you don't like to cook and/or are a novice cook, there will be plenty of recipes in here that you will find indispensible. Every busy household needs this cook book.
Having said all that, the dessert section is not great. Too many cake mixes used, and the results are not even that good. But you can't get much more convenient than some fresh or canned fruit and a scoop of ice cream, so I don't care much about the dessert chapter not being wonderful. But if you're looking for quick and easy desserts, don't bother with this book.

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How to make delicious meals from prepared convenience foods. Create sensational family meals that taste like they were made from scratch, yet actually use convenience foods -- canned, frozen, bagged, boxed, or from a jar. For soul-satisfying weekday meals to decadent desserts, all you need are common and convenient supermarket ingredients. With the 125 recipes in The Convenience Cook, managing mealtime has never been easier.Take a can of salmon and create an inspired Thai-Style Curry, simply by adding some coconut milk and a few pantry ingredients. Create an Easy Shepherd's Pie by using convenience foods like ground beef, canned beef broth and frozen hash brown potatoes. A dozen recipes use one of the most commonly available convenience foods: chicken. When kids need a quick treat, simply unwrap the crescent roll dough, add some applesauce, dried cranberries, a little sugar and cinnamon and presto! you have an easy and delicious Apple Cranberry Pan Dowdy.Included is a listing of pantry staples and lots of helpful tips, techniques and imaginative variations for each recipe.

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Slow Cooker Ready & Waiting: 160 Sumptuous Meals That Cook Themselves Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a fan of Rick Rodgers (Thanksgiving 101 and Pressure Cooking for Everyone), I nevertheless held out from buying this book because of the polarized reviews. My old slow cooker, one of the nonstick pot sitting on a warming base types, recently died and although I don't do a lot of cooking of this type, I wanted to replace it with an upscale model. I purchased a Rival Smart-Pot that allows you to press the cooking time and temperature and walk away. Sooo...I decided to give this book a try. I find myself agreeing with the 'dump chili' crowd who cite the extensive amount of prep that goes into the recipes and also with the 'kitchen guru' group that praise the book for the results achieved from that much labor. For my first meal, I made the 'Bistro Beef Bourguignon' and I spent the better part of an hour putting the recipe together. Eight hours later, the house filled with the simmering aroma of wine, beef, onions, garlic and spices, I knew without tasting that this was going to be outstanding. This was without a doubt one of the best stews I have ever attempted. Subsequent to the Bourguignon, I have made the Pumpkin Bread and the Hot Fudge Spoonbread. All I can offer to describe them is 'Yum'.
To be honest, I don't see this as a book that I would use during the week. It just takes too much time to build each meal. But I like to cook on weekends so that I can take something other than a cold sandwich to work. Reheating the Beef Bourguignon in a Tupperware container in the microwave almost got me tossed out of the teacher's room at my school. And like most stews, it tasted even better the second day.
I guess my advice would be thus: If you view a slow cooker as a 'toss it in and turn it on' appliance, give this book a pass. But if you don't mind taking some time to achieve a scrumptious result, this book will delight you.

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Hearty stews. Rib-sticking chilis. Tender pot roasts. The real secret is a long, slow simmer at a constant temperature, and no appliance does this better than the slow cooker. If your old slow cooker recipes disappointed you, throw them away! The Slow Cooker Ready and Waiting Cookbook is for people who love good food!

Rick Rodgers has adapted an eclectic array of American and ethnic dishes for the slow cooker. They're all here: fancy fare (Farmer's Market Lobster and Corn Chowder, Sweet and Sour Brisket, Erna's Sauerbraten), everyday favorites (Ground Beef Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings and Herbed Tomato Sauce with Parmesan Meatballs), side dishes (Potatoes Euphoria, Smothered Green Beans, Sugarbush Beans) -- even desserts (Strawberry-Strawberry Cheesecake, Bourbon Bread Pudding, and Lemon-Raspberry Pudding Cake). Ideal for entertaining, the slow cooker keeps crowd-pleasing dips and holiday punches warm from the beginning of the party to when the last guest leaves.

A special section explains how to choose the right-size slow cooker for your needs, how to adapt a favorite recipe, and what can (and can't) be prepared in a slow cooker.

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A Field Of Greens: Gourmet African Slow Cooker Soups And Stews Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book as a gift for my granddaughter who spent four months living in Kenya as part of her International Studies major. She loves the Kenyans and especially the family with whom she lived, and as she is also a pretty good cook, I know that she will try the recipes.
Were I writing this book I would have formatted it somewhat differently (so what else is new?), but it is an interesting read, and many of the recipes look delicious. I, myself, love Ethiopian cuisine because of the spices. I am always open to new foods that do not include rather too esoteric items (brains, eyeballs, insects and peculiar sea life), so this book really fills the bill. It has excellent vegetarian recipes many of which I will copy before I gift the book to her. In addition, there is quite a lot of interesting information about the various areas of the African continent and the people who live therein. That makes it a double bargain.
I am sure that she will enjoy this, and I will ask her to write a review when she has actually tried some recipes.

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Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker Review

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(More customer reviews)Yes, crock pots, once considered a kind of quaint relic of the seventies, are making a comeback. And why not? The basic idea is that you take a bunch of ingredients, throw them into the crock pot in the morning, and by dinnertime, voila--you have something hot, fragrant, and tasty. And what's more, a lot of the foods cooked this way taste even better as leftovers.
The strength of this cookbook is in the sheer volume of recipes provided, and in their overall simplicity. These truly are "fix it and forget it" types of dishes, including a lot of soups, chiles, and simple stews. Surely out of the 800+ recipes here anyone who purchases this book will find enough winners to make it a worthwhile buy.
Potential buyers should be forewarned, however, that this is by no means *haute cuisine*. Lots of the recipes include generous glops of canned creamed soups, dry soup mixes, canned vegetables, "American" cheese, and other gastronomical abominations. The point is, however, that there are so many recipes included that it's easy to skip over those and go on to ones that appear more promising.
The bottom line is that during the short time that I have owned this book, it has proven itself incredibly valuable and useful. My wife and my family are very glad that I picked it up, and that I brought the ol' crock pot out of its previously semi-retired state.

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Who's hungry? EVERYONE. Who has time to cook? NO ONE.Dig out the slow cooker. Add a second and a third if you wish. Fill one with main-dish fixins and the others with go-alongs. Do it in the morning--or between work and after-school events.Come home to richly-flavored, ready-to-serve food.Slow cookers are having a comeback. With good reason. They are friends on a day of running errands. They allow easy entertaining with no last-minute preparation. And vegetarians won't find a better way to work with dried beans.Slow cookers are gentle with the food budget--less expensive ingredients flourish in their slow, moist heat.Fix-It and Forget-It offers the range of recipes slow cookers do well: Appetizers and Snacks, Soups and Stews, Main Dishes (with and without meat), Vegetables and Go-Alongs, Desserts and Beverages.Bring an element of simplicity--and quality--to your pressured life! Let your slow cooker work for you.

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Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (NYM Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love my crockpots (I have two oval ones in different sizes). I have several crockpot cookbooks in my bookshelf and have also read many others which I borrowed from the library. After reading these books, I came to a sad conconclustion that most people who use crockpot are not "real cooks" from many cookbook authors assumption; they write books for those who use a crockpot to make "canned soup+meat+frozen/canned veggie dishes."
I like quick and easy dishes and use canned soup occasionally but I don't want them to be the main item of my cooking.
With this thought, I was surfing the net a couple of days ago hoping to find a crockpot cookbook using fresh wholesome food and I came across this book.
The authors of this book created crockpot recipes for a cook like me (if you agree to my comment above, you will be happy to see this book!). After I read a couple of reviews by other Amazon users and bought this book (along with the Gourmet Slow Cooker Cookbook) from Amazon.
Yes, it requires more prep time and more ingredients but isn't it worth making that much efforts for healthier and tastier meals?! YES!!
Also, most ingredients appeared in this book are common items in my kitchen.
The only minus (4 stars istead of 5 stars) is the lack of photos of the recipes. I read cookbooks for plesure and those sumptuous looking photos are important to me. I know it makes the book more expensive if you have photos but it would be great if there are several pages of photos under each category to show how good these dishes look! I would definitely pay several more dollars for the photos for this book!

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Slow and Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker Review

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(More customer reviews)Slow cookers and crock posts are an invaluable addition to the kitchen of any time-stressed family chef who would like to have dinner ready for the table when their loved ones come home from work or school. Now such kitchen cooks can have access to more than 250 thoroughly 'user friendly' recipes specifically designed for the electric slow cooker or crock pot with "Slow & Easy". This simply outstanding compendium of superb recipes compiled by Natalie Haughton showcase recipes for everything from appetizers, dips and drinks; to soups and chowders; to pasta and pasta sauces; to chicken, turkey and seafood; to beef, pork, and lamb; to one-pot meals; to vegetables, grains, and side dishes; to breakfast and brunch repasts; to great slow cooker desserts; and even preserves, chutneys, and salsas. Ranging from Roasted Red Pepper Cheesecake; French Onion Soup; and Chunky Italian Beef Sauce with Zucchini; to a Hot Dog-Pineapple Bean Bake; Balsamic-Glazed Onions; and Wild Rice with Apricots and Almonds; each delicious and nutritious recipe is provided with service size estimates an a bit of preparation advice and commentary, along with the ingredient list and cooking instructions. "Slow & Easy" is a welcome, practical, and highly recommended addition to both family and community library cookbook collections.

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The Everything Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook (Everything Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Everything Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook is a welcome addition to my cookbook library. Other crock-pot cookbooks I've checked out from the library rely on processed foods and many unhealthy ingredients that I wouldn't want to serve my family, but this cookbook emphasizes fresh produce, dairy, and meat products that I can buy in the grocery store. Amazingly, this cookbook has two vegetarian chapters - one vegetarian and one for vegan recipes (no dairy products, eggs, or meat). There are other vegan and vegetarian recipes throughout the book, too - not just in those two chapters. I really appreciate that because we entertain vegan friends and it's great to have something delicious to serve them rather than the same-old pasta they get everywhere.

I've tried five recipes from this book so far and every one of them has been really tasty and so easy. (Great to use the slow cooker in summer when you don't want to overheat your house.) The Hot and Sour soup tasted even better than the soup at our local Chinese take-out place. The Strawberry Pandowdy is a really different dessert idea for my family and tasted so good with vanilla ice cream. The Turkey White Chili is so good that I made it twice already. I brought Baba Ganoush and Creamy Low-Fat Spinach Artichoke Dip to a potluck and both were huge hits, gone in minutes. I am going to give this cookbook and a slow cooker to my friends who are getting married this fall. I am looking forward to using this cookbook again and again. Highly recommended to everyone who has a slow cooker.

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