Frantic Family Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)The days of the stay-at-home mother who has nothing to do but wait around for the kids to come home from school and her husband to come home from work are long gone (if they ever really existed to begin with). These days most mothers are juggling the kids, at least a part-time job, after school activities, and most of the domestic chores. So, how does she provide for dinner without resorting to the local fast food drive through each evening? The answer to that question is in this cookbook.
The recipes are delicious and you would never know that the cook didn't spend hours in the kitchen preparing it. I say "the cook" because the recipes are easy enough that even I can prepare them. This makes it perfect not only for the frantic mom preparing dinner but also the frantic college student, or anyone else with a desire for a good meal but a shortage of time to prepare one. Some of my favorites include Fragrant Lemon Chicken and Potatoes, Chicken Stir Fry, Caribbean Chicken (for those who like spicy foods), Calypso Red Beans and Rice, Double Baked Cheddar Cheese Torpedoes, and Double-Chocolate Bread Pudding.
One of the things I have to comment on with this book is that it is in ring-bound form, which allows it to lie flat while you use it for cooking. While Champion Press, Ltd. has a wide variety of specialty cookbooks most of them are not spiral or ring bound or anything similar and so are tough to keep open when preparing the food. This one is an exception and is a highly recommended cookbook.

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Ward and June Cleaver don't live here anymore. "The Frantic Family Cookbook" is designed with today's family in mind. Sprinkled with tips and kitchen insight, all the recipes in this cookbook are quick to make and (mostly) healthful--with the added benefit of being cost-conscious.

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Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day: Make-Ahead Meals that Transform Your Suppertime Circus into Relaxing Family Time Review

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(More customer reviews)It does contain many very healthy recipes (which, I know some others do not, so this may be just what you're looking for), however, they're simply NOT things I could get my family to eat.
Spaghetti sauce with mashed winter squash and flaxseed? Besides, I already know how to freeze spaghetti sauce. Then nachos and burritos made from the same spaghetti sauce? Mexican and Italian foods have *very* different flavors in this household, there's no sneaking that past my pre-schooler.
A recipe for a veggie platter "to munch on all week?" I already know how to cut up veggies and offer them as snacks. And, how this is *so* different from the crudites 'recipe' elsewhere as to justify it's own 'recipe' I don't know.
Quinoa and Carrots? Sesame Fish Cakes with Baby Bok Choy? Lentil Quesadillas with Smoked Almond Apple Salad? They don't save me any time if my family has no interest in eating them.
Lots of menu charts and a good work schedule, as well as shopping lists - IF all the recipes pre-choosen for that week work for you. I suppose if you're *really* time crunched (and eat *very* healthfully!) this could be helpful. Since there are few recipes I can pick and choose from in this one, they really don't help me out at all.
It was the Lemony Baked Shrimp recipe that 'lured' me in, and while I still think it sounds great, I wouldn't have bought the book just for that.
I have found Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer to be FAR more family (read: child!) friendly, with MANY more options that appeal to all of us.

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Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day is the ultimate cookbook for today's busy parents. Instead of facing a suppertime circus, it allows moms and dads to prepare meals in advance so they can hurry home to more important things. Author Theresa Albert is a home-cooking efficiency expert who shares her culinary knowledge and organizational expertise-she offers more than three months worth of delicious, nutritious, family-friendly dinners, with plans on how to shop for, prepare, and cook each meal. Since the planning and preparation of each weeknight meal is done in three hours or less on a weekend afternoon, all parents need to do each weeknight is heat things up and get everyone to the table. The thirteen weekly plans feature delicious and affordable recipes for a variety of tastes, such as Chicken Cacciatore, Meatloaf Florentine, Lemony Baked Shrimp, Baked Mashed Potatoes and Potato Skins, Sesame Broccoli Salad, Easy Minestrone, Oatmeal Cookies, and more. With nutritional analyses, itemized shopping lists, great leftover ideas, countless kitchen tips, and "quickie meals from what you've got," Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day offers less stress Monday through Friday, which makes spending time together as a family possible once again.

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Rachael Ray 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds Review

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(More customer reviews)Perhaps Rachael Ray is becoming a bit overexposed as she now has many cookbooks flooding the market, a televison show and a magazine. While I applaud her moxy and industrious nature, I am beginning to think that she is spread too thin. This latest offering, "2,4,6,8 - Great Meals For Couples or Crowds" is not up to par with some of her earlier offerings. The idea is great - menus sized for the number of guests that you are planning on cooking for - and all of this is supposed to be accomplished in 30 minutes as well.
For starters, the recipe lists are long - so that tells me right away that only an accomplished cook will be able to achieve these menus in under 30 minutes. A newbie in the kitchen will struggle to put these dinners on the table in under an hour. Some of the ingredients are a bit exotic - personally, I like that as I cook like that all the time. But again, for a newbie or perhaps a mom with fussy eaters, this could be a problem. The other issue is the portion sizes. I made the "Crab Cakes With A Creamy Grainy Mustard Sauce" with the "Wilted Spinach With Tomatoes" (page 69 listed as Appetizer-as-entrée). This was supposed to be a menu for two - but the crab cakes amounted to a half pound per person. This was WAY too much for myself and my husband! (I ended up taking half of this mixture and transforming it into a crab bisque the next day - it was wonderful!) If I ate like the portions suggested, I would be as big as a house! 1/2 pound meat portions seem to be the standard here. That was very disappointing to me, but I shouldn't be surprised, Ray always states that she is not skimpy on portions.
The menus are clever enough and most will be satisfied with the offerings here. There is plenty of variety: Indian food, Italian, Tex-Mex, Moroccan and more. You will certainly get ideas for your family or guests. I think the book is good overall, but not my favorite. I think her "Express Lane Meals" and "Classic Rachael Ray" are far better offerings.


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If you're like Rachael Ray, mealtime is a time to hang out and reconnect with family and friends. That means you could be making a late dinner for you and your sweetie one night and making brunch for your entire family the next day. No matter how many people join the party, Rachael firmly believes that cooking should be fun, easy–and done in 30 minutes or less.Transforming recipes for four into recipes for two or eight can be a tricky guessing game. If you use twice the amount of chicken will you have to cook it twice as long? Is it possible to make a satisfying pot of soup for two without having to eat leftovers for a week? What's the best–and most economical–way to feed a crowd of eight?With Rachael Ray: 2, 4, 6, 8there's no need to guess, because Rachael has designed right-sized menus for every occasion, with perfect meals for two, four, six, or eight. For date night you don't want tons of food, so Rachael's Croque Madame sandwich with a Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette salad and a killer vodka cocktail strike just the right note.For family dinners, double dates, or those who love leftovers, Rachael whips up classic meals for four like Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza or Grilled Shrimp with Chorizo Skewers. For poker night with your buddies, Rachael knows exactly which ingredients stretch into a 30-minute meal for six, like Uptown Sweet and Spicy Sausage Hoagies. Throwing adinner party is a pleasure when you're armed with stress-free meals for eight like Italian Chicken Pot Pie and Boozy Berries and Biscuits. With complete menus for family dinners as well as easy and impressive meals for entertaining plus lots of super simple desserts that taste like a million, no matter what the occasion, the perfect meal for your crowd is never more 30 minutes away.

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Dinner Party Ideas: All You Need to Know About Hosting Dinner Parties Including Menu and Recipe Ideas, Invitations, Games, Music, Activities and More. Review

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(More customer reviews)I like this book because it's easy to read and have some great tips about how to organize parties and have great times with your friends.

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This book is everything you need in order to host a perfect dinner party. The author put everything she knows about dinner parties into simple, understandable language so you can easily learn all there is to know about throwing great dinner parties. Includes things like:
' Dinner Party Planning Tips: Simple tips that will help your party be a smash hit without any headaches.
' How To Fill the Seats: All you need to know to make sure everyone responds to your invitation.
' What Type of Dinner Party?: See how to pick the best dinner-party theme for your friends and family.
' Music, Mood and Activities: Great ideas to put on a party your guests will remember for years.
' What to Eat? What to Drink?: How to blow your guests away so that they have the time of their lives.
' Great Sample Menus: Great tools to help you create great menus easily.
' Great Table Ideas: Important keys to having a professional, clean-looking table setup.
' Welcoming Guests: How to start your party off right by introducing your guests the right way.
' Getting the Flow Going: Start your course off the right way with appetizers and drinks.
' Where Do I Sit?: Simple tips on properly seating your guests and avoiding confusion.
' Eating Etiquette: There's more to it than just eating with your mouth closed; find out more inside...
' Sending Everyone Home: Great ideas on ending well so that your guests can't wait to come again.
...and much more!
If you are interested in putting on dinner parties, but didn't know where to start, then I encourage you to learn from the author's experience and get started on the right footing. This book contains everything you need to know to help you put on amazing parties!

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The Six O'Clock Scramble: Quick, Healthy, and Delicious Dinner Recipes for Busy Families Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this when I returned to work when my daughter was 10 months old. I initially bought it for the downloadable shopping lists, but instead of going by week, I go by seasons, flip through to find 2-3 recipes that jump out at me, and buy the ingredients for those. The next week, I pick up where I left off. The meals have simple ingredients, interesting flavors, and are easy to prepare. 2 minor things: the meals are 30 minutes to prepare, but may take longer to cook, so keep an eye on that. Also, some of the recommended dish sizes are on the small side, so I sometimes size up (9x13 instead of 8x11, for instance) to make sure that it fits well without bubbling over.

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The Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook is a companion to Aviva's wonderful email-based newsletter service that provides busy moms with easy and nutritious meals for their families.The Scramble is a weekly e-mail newsletter that features: Five flavorful and healthy, tried-and-true dinner recipes with side dish suggestions, emailed to you each week. Easy-to-prepare dinners in 30 minutes (or less), most with fewer than 10 ingredients. Delicious, easy recipes like Asian Turkey Burgers, Tortellini Tossed with Fresh Mozzarella, honey glazed salmon and red beans and rice burritos. Includes an organized grocery list so you can print and shop. Perfect for working or full-time parents, or anyone who wants to make easy, delicious home-cooked meals. From O, The Oprah magazine:Aviva Goldfarb had one of those ideas - incredibly obvious, yet nobody had thought of it - that immediately make the pieces of your brain fit together with a neat click. A wife, mother, self-published cookbook author, and organizational ace, Goldfarb realized that for most people 6 P.M. was too late to start wondering what to cook for dinner. So she started the Six O'Clock Scramble (thescramble.com), a weekly e-mail newsletter with five days' worth of dinner recipes, plus grocery lists. The meals (grilled teriyaki chicken tenderloins one night, baked huevos rancheros another) take about a half hour to prepare and are creative, healthy, unprocessed and kid-friendly without being adult-alienating. A subscription costs $5 a month - a small price to pay for a whole new kind of happy meal. Goldfarb herself is happy, having graduated from the self-publishing business: Next fall St. Martin's Press will release The Six O'Clock Scramble Cookbook.

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Desperation Dinners Review

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(More customer reviews)I admit that I was skeptical when I purchased this book. I was expecting yet another book full of "canned" recipes -- you know the type: a can of this, a can of that, few fresh ingredients. Boy, was *I* surprised!
While the book does take advantage of convenience foods -- pre-chopped veggies, frozen chopped onions, etc. -- it uses mostly fresh vegetables, meats, and readily available herbs, spices, and condiments. I've made several recipes from this book and haven't had a problem yet. My first was the cream of wild mushroom soup -- a heavenly silky concoction made with several varieties of mushrooms that reminded me a soup I'd eaten in an excellent Swedish restaurant some years ago. Outstanding!
And the authors are true to their word -- if you follow the directions, you'll complete each dish in 20 minutes or less. You'll keep busy for those 20 minutes, but you WILL finish. Each recipe is marked to let you know if you need to pre-heat the oven, boil water, etc. -- which aren't usually included in the 20 minutes.
As a cookbook collector, I purchased Desperation Dinners as another example of "quick and easy" cuisine. It's now on my "most used" shelf!
August 2007: It's now six years later since I wrote that review above, and this is STILL my most-used cookbook. I have over 2500 books in my cookbook collection, but this is the one I reach for first. I've made probably 30-40% of the recipes in the book, but I still have my favorites (that cream of mushroom soup, for instance). If you're looking for down-to-earth recipes that use everyday ingredients, but use them in creative ways, this is the book for you. Seriously. It's worth the investment.

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Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Over 280 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are in need of a book for quick meals, Fresh Food Fast by Cooking Light is a nice choice.
I am going to give a quick overview of this book for anyone interested in knowing what to expect from it to help you decide if you want to look into FRESH FOOD FAST by COOKING LIGHT.
The sections are:
SOUPS
LOTS of choices from unique cold soups like Creamy Avocado Soup with Tomato Lump Crab Relish to Sweet Potato Leek and Ham Soup. All soups have a salad recipe with them that the authors suggest serving with it on the same page- I found this handy.
SANDWICHES
Unique ideas like Pear Walnut Sandwiches and Grilled Grouper Sandwiches with Tartar sauce are nice in this section. There are also some standbys like Sloppy Beef Skillet Sandwiches and Grilled Pork Sliders with BBQ Sauce. Many sandwich recipes in this book have an accompanying recipe on the same page for a soup or salad to go with the sandwich you are preparing. Examples of these recipes are Sweet Broccoli Slaw with Cranberries and Minted Pea Hummus
SALADS
Some examples are Taco Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinagarette, Cous cous, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad, and Grilled Salmon and Grapefruit with Blood Orange Vinagarette. Again in this section many salad recipe also have recipes on the same page you can make to go with it, such as Tomato Basil Soup, Greek Style Pita chips. Most recipes, though, have just the dressing recipes on the same page.
This is my favorite section of this book.
MEATLESS MAIN
Examples from this section are Grape, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Pizza, Mediterranean Style Frittata, Creamy Butternut Squash Risotto, and Southwestern Rice and Veggie Cakes. In this section, some of the recipes have side dishes appearing on the same page with them to make with the main meal.......such as....Spicy Tricolor Pepper Stir Fry, Creamy Chipolte Wedge Salad, Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Glaze, and Lemon Balsamic Broccoli.
MEATLESS MAIN is my second favorite section of the book (well, tied with Fish).FISH AND SHELLFISH
Look at some of these recipes- Catfish with Cilantro- Chipolte Rice, Baked Flounder with Dill and Caper Cream, Pistachio Crusted Grouper with Lavender Honey Sauce, Lemon Artichoke Halibut en Papillote and Sunflower Seed-Crusted Orange Roughy. A few side dishes appear with the entrees to accompany them (on the same page again) such as Minted Sweet Snap Peas and Balsamic Grilled Peaches (made to go with Peach-Glazed Salmon with Raspberries).
This is actually tied with Meatless Main as my 2nd favorite section. There are many different fish recipes in here which I enjoy very much.
MEATS
Smothered Pepper Steak, Ginger Lime Beef Stir Fry, and Mustard Molasses Flank Steak are some examples of the beef recipes in this section. Lemon Herb Skillet Pork Chops, Curried Pork and Chai Rice, and Asiago Crusted Pork Chops are some pork recipes in the MEAT section. There is only one ham and two lamb recipes in this book, which was disappointing to me. I would have liked to see a few more lamb recipes, and even some venison or other game meats.
POULTRY
Chicken Tortilla Pie, Fried Panko Chicken Tenders,Cumin Spiced Chicken with Chunky Tomato Sauce and Kalamata Balsamic Chicken with Feta are a few examples of the recipes in this section. The only turkey recipe in this section is Turkey Basil Rolls, and there are two sausage recipes.
KITCHEN SECRETS
Super short cuts
15 minute pantry (how to prepare your pantry to cook quickly)
Speedy Side dishes
Side Staples to have on hand
4 Fail-Safe Sauces
Metric Equivalents
COMMENTS
I found this book to have a wonderful assortment of recipes for quick yet appealing meals in many categories. Many dishes are unique and interesting. The photos are lovely. Each recipe has a photo next to it which is well laid out and very attractive.
The recipes are not for those who like very plain and unspicy foods. Most recipes in here are flavorful and you can leave out the spices if you like, but it might be disappointing.
I really like the recipes in this book. They are fresh, delicious, and easy to make. I usually find that they take 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to prepare, but that is including prep time. I am sure that the 15 minutes is not including prep time.
This is a great book for when you are too tired to think of what to make for dinner and need someone to hold your hand and tell you what to make. Anything I don't want to make exactly as is, I can easily substitute without much thought.
I really like this book.


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With over 280 incredibly delicious flavorful 5-ingredient, 150 minute recipes at your fingertips, you'll discover how simple it is to serve a healthful home-cooked meal on a busy weeknight. Our Test Kitchens experts have paired easy side dishes and desserts with superfast entrées to create over 160 mouthwatering menus. Organized by easy-to-use food categories, including Soups, Sandwiches, Salads, Meatless Main Dishes, Fish and Shellfish, Meats, and Poultry, Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast offers recipes that are great for you and taste great, too! With short ingredient lists, straightforward procedures, fresh ingredients, and delicious results, the recipes and meals in this cookbook will be the most requested, often-repeated solutions in your weeknight repertoire.

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7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a woman "of a certain age" and married for 20+ years, I have been cooking for a long time. I admit, I am far from gourmet: I don't specialty shop; I don't watch the TV cooking shows or reality shows starring angry chefs and their desperate-to-please minions; glossy gourmet food and recipe magazines make me nervous.
I do have skills. I have one small shelf of cookbooks in my kitchen. I can cover the basics, having more or less successfully fed and nourished a healthy family of five for some time now. Culled from a 25-year-old, well-worn copy of the cooking classic: BETTY CROCKER'S COOKBOOK (1987), family magazines and, in more recent years, recipe searches on AllRecipes.com for the iPhone and iPad, I have compiled my very own cookbook: a mish-mash of photocopies, hand-written classics and typed recipes, all carefully preserved in plastic page protectors and haphazardly "filed" in a white, plastic-coated (easy wipe!), 3-ring binder.
However, having said all of that:
Even with my vast and very practical culinary knowledge and experience, I love, Love, LOVE Susan Nicholson's 7-DAY MENU PLANNER FOR DUMMIES! An instant new-NEW classic, this book should be a treasured kitchen bible for every man, woman or young adult trying to prepare and serve nutritious, delicious, affordable and do-able meals for a family, couple or even healthy meals for one.
Susan Nicholson is a registered dietitian and creator of the 7-Day Menu Planner newspaper column, featured in major newspapers and in online syndication, too. She is a culinary professional and a talented writer with a lot of experience and a great sense of humor, which makes 7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies more than just another cookbook.
7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies gives you a year's worth of weekly dinner idea and recipes that "take about 30 minutes to prepare, contain an average of 30 percent calories from fat, and use common ingredients to save time and money." It is a well-organized and simple roadmap for menu planning, offering great recipes, practical instruction and tips, and a very consistent weekly plan of coordinated dinners: Family Night; Kid's Night (not just for children!); Express Meal; Budget Night; Heat and Eat; Meatless Night; and Easy Entertaining. I love the fact that the week's meals are coordinated to use ingredients in common and a central philosophy of reduce, re-use, recycle and re-format throughout the week's plan. (Trust me, *not* repetitious, you will not get bored!)
7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies makes planning and preparing meals less of a chore and more simple, easy, quick, healthy and delicious. Whether you are an old pro in the kitchen or a culinary "noob" (as my kids say), make room on your cookbook shelf for a new classic!
-- Sherri Caldwell, Humor Columnist & Reviewer at RebelHousewife.com
Co-Author, The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!

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Flavorful, nutritious meals that can be prepared quickly, easily, and economically
7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies is the perfect book for any family looking for a structured, nutritional approach to daily meal planning. It contains over a year's worth of weekly dinner ideas and recipes that take an average of thirty minutes to prepare, contain an average of thirty percent calories from fat, and use common ingredients to save time and money.
Features budget-friendly family meals that are both quick and healthy
Dinner for each week of the night is associated with a theme—for example: Family Sunday, Kids Monday, Express Tuesday, Budget Wednesday, Heat and Eat Thursday, Meatless Friday, and Easy Entertaining Saturday

In this time of budget, time, and health consciousness, 7-Day Menu Planner For Dummies gives families just what they need to easily plan the right meals!

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Easy Meals with Just 3 Ingredients: 75 Simple Step-by-Step Recipes for Delicious Everyday Dishes Review

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(More customer reviews)most recipes are meaningful and cookable. i have a number of cookbooks, this is the one i use most. very clear, easy to follow instructions and outcome tastes good. i strongly suggest it...

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A fabulous collection of recipe ideas, each using just three ingredients or fewer for quick, easy and fuss-free meals. The perfect collection for the modern cook with a busy lifestyle who still wants to eat healthy, home-cooked food.

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Saving Dinner: The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently ordered this book from Amazon.com and I have not been disappointed. From the Flylady website I knew that Leanne Ely has some of the most delicious recipes. My family has raved over most of the recipes that I received from Leanne through Flylady. The same holds true for the recipes that are in SAVING DINNER. The food I have prepared using this cookbook has been popular with my family. I love having the menus and shopping lists prepared for me. It saves me about thirty to forty minutes each week in meal planning preparation. I should add that these recipes take thirty minutes or less to prepare.

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Certified nutritionist Leanne Ely has a simple philosophy: "Make it and they will come." Dinner, that is. Take-out, opening a can, or microwave fare shouldn't pass for a nice, healthy meal–and nothing can replace a family's time together. Believe it or not, preparing dinner can be a stress-free endeavor. Even your time in the supermarket can be cut in half!Full of practical tips on simple, healthy meal planning, Saving Dinner is the ideal solution for today's busy parents who would love to have their family sitting around the dinner table once again–sharing stories along with a nutritious meal. Efficiently divided by season, each section features six weeks of menus with delicious recipes, side dish suggestions, and an itemized grocery list that is organized by product (dairy, meat, produce) to make one-stop shopping a snap. Plus the book is packed with helpful hints and short cuts in the kitchen that make cooking easier and more fun.From Big Basil Burgers and Salmon Carbonara to Crockpot Chili and Spicy Apricot Chicken, Saving Dinner will have your family coming back to the table–and back again for seconds!Leanne Ely is considered the expert on family cooking and healthy eating. Between her popular "Heart of a Woman" radio show in Southern California and her weekly "Food for Thought" column on the ever-popular Flylady.net Web site, thousands of fans have already discovered Leanne's secrets to easily prepared, well-balanced meals.

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30-Minute Meals Review

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(More customer reviews)Rachael Ray shows us how to make healthy dishes from basic, fresh ingredients in, ideally, 30 minutes or less. Unlike her later 30 minute meal books, this first in the series does not group two or more dishes into meals which can take less than a half an hour to prepare. This is largely because the book was written before Rachael showed up on the Food Network show of the same name, which introduced the 3 course meal format. In spite of this timing, almost all of the dishes in this book have shown up on early seasons of Rachael's show.
In many ways, the grouping of dishes by type rather than by meal is an advantage, making it easier to match up different pasta and salad courses on different days. The drawback is that you have no hints on how to coordinate your time in preparing the three dishes at one time, although this is not exactly rocket science.
The main chapter headings / dish types are:
Pastas29 dishes
Salads28 dishes, some suitable as main course salads
Take out lookalike 39 dishes, primarily burgers, sandwiches, pizza, Tex-Mex, and Asian lookalikes
Comfort Foods 34 dishes such as chilis, sauces, soups, and casseroles
Full meals 5 menus for small party (8 to 12) quick cooking
Meatballs 5 recipes
I believe it is an important symptom of one of Rachael's main objectives that many of her dishes are named after family members. She presents the great Italian love of food and family together when you don't have Nona and three aunts at home all day to do all the prep work and braising.
One recent book on cooking traditional recipes slowly to recapture both the joy and flavors of this cooking makes the suggestion that Rachael's style of cooking is too hectic and has too little flavor. While the first has an element of truth, I say it does not remove the `Joy of Cooking'. It actually rescues it from the drive in take out window. On the latter point, this author if plainly wrong. I compared Rachael's Caesar Salad to a recipe from Martha Stewart and Rachael's was superior in taste, as Miss Martha really overloaded her dish with raw garlic.
It is very fortunate that the cuisine on which Ms. Ray's food is largely Italian, as the Italian cuisine has spent centuries perfecting the concentration of flavor in foods such as balsamic vinegar, cheeses, hams, and tomato concentrates, all of which are available in first class products at the local American supermarket.
The only drawback to using these products and prepackaged meats and vegetables is that you may be paying more for the same meal than if slower, prep intensive recipes were used. For thirty-something parents who are in the early middle of their career, this cost is probably inconsequential when compared to the benefits. It is certainly both economically and nutritionally inconsequential when compared to the fast food fare.
I have a lot of respect of Rachael's not overloading the book with suggestions for the pantry. Stocking up a pantry without specific recipes is a waste of time and money. I also strongly suggest the reader play close attention to the tips on knife use. Very important.
I'm afraid Rachal's recommendations on equipment are not helpful. One look at her Food Network show and you may see a Dutch oven, two large saute pans, a grill pan, and a blender in action at one time. Don't scrimp on the pots and pans. Do what Rachael does, not what she says in this department. I will give her credit for getting by with just one very good knife.
Rachael is not Mario or Martha or Emeril. She is teaching you how to do it fast, without loosing the fun and the flavor. As always, the price of the book is very right. Enjoy yourself!

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Rachael Ray's fans can't seem to get enough of the wonderful recipes featured on her television show, 30-Minute Meals.

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The Weeknight Survival Cookbook: How to Make Healthy Meals in 10 Minutes Review

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(More customer reviews)I am very pleased with this book: it is simple, the recipes can easily be modified, and best of all: there are shopping lists. I find that a large part of my meal executing woes are caused by not having time to plan and make lists. The foods are very middle of the road: not too gourmet, not too many processed foods. A couple meals a week are vegetarian, but carb watchers can add a fish fillet or chicken or something to the meal easily. Lots of veggies are included too. After purchasing a similar book that ended up suggesting I make "duck tacos" this book is a winner. Tip: take it to an office supply store and have the cover laminated and have it spiral-bound for easy use.

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Most quick and healthy cookbooks define "quick" as 30 minutes. In this step-by-step cookbook, registered Dean Irwin takes the term to Olympic speeds, offering 12 weeks of recipes for healthy dishes, each of which can be prepared in just ten minutes!

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Time for Dinner: Strategies, Inspiration, and Recipes for Family Meals Every Night of the Week Review

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(More customer reviews)I was a subscriber to Cookie Magazine, and found myself greatly missing it when it was taken out of circulation. One of the sections I missed most was the recipes that showed one ingredient (for instance, ground turkey), and then plotted a graph showing 3 different ways to cook that item, with photos, tips and final pictures of the meal. All on one page! Well, this cookbook brings that back, along with fantastic images of a stocked fridge, pantry and cabinets. This is a cookbook with usable recipes, helpful tips and great ideas to encourage family dining. First on my list to try is the ice-cube-tray sushi and the sesame noodles with extras. And one more thing - it is a feast for the eyes, with killer photographs and detailed ingredient lists.

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Whether moms have picky or adventurous eaters and whether they love to cook or just endure it, getting dinner on the table weeknight after weeknight is enough to make a mom throw in the towel. It's a grind that wore down former Cookie magazine editors, Pilar Guzmn, Jenny Rosentrach, and Alanna Stanguntil they made it their mission to figure out all the ways they could reclaim the family dinner. Time for Dinner is that playbook of tricks, inspiration, plans, and 100 go-to recipes. With 250 photographs, it's a visual toolkit of a book that gives every mom the ideas and strategies she needs to get a great family meal on the table night after night without losing her mind (or her sense of humor).

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