Six Ingredients or Less: Over 500 Quick and Easy Recipes Using 6 Ingredients or Less Review

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(More customer reviews)This is my favorite and most frequently referenced cookbook.
The recipes I've tried in this book are quick and easy to use and I usually have most all of ingredients on hand! Or I can often find a recipe that fits the ingredients I do have on hand. The recipes range from basic to some great but simple serve for company meals. Even my husband will cook using this cookbook!

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The Best Simple Recipes Review

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(More customer reviews)As a "seasoned" cook, I've been down most of the cooking routes: from the French classics, to one-hour gourmet, to complex vegetarian, to severe, healthy cooking by the docs. Now, I lean to this cookbook's style: simple, tasty, fresh and light -- somewhere between poached quenelles and fried tofu. This is a good grouping of contemporary recipes with zip, often with international flair (oriental, Mexican, etc.). Some recipes are updated twists on old faves like Tuna Melt but with artichokes; BLT salad using mayo-smeared croutons; vegetarian chili with corn; Southwestern salmon cakes. Others take classics but ditch the complex and daunting preparation-- like switching paper-thin potato slices for a potato chip mix or skipping the fish-steaming by laying salmon atop the asparagus, or using rotisserie chicken for a flavorful- but quick-chicken soup. Some clever ideas that work! The book has some surprising ingredient combos like kielbasa with potato leek soup. I appreciate the explanatory notes on the thoughtful but concise hows and whys of the recipes, and am impressed with the recommendations of brand name grocery items that they have tested. It's instructive without being pedantic or fussy. For those of us who like to see the cook in action, there are selected photos of some of the techniques and I picked up a few new ones. This is the kind of cookbook you can actually USE everyday, without resorting to the dumbed-down or goofy ones, or those with exotic hard-to-find ingredients or lengthy preparation. It reflects how we cook these days, and I plan to use it often.

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Most quick-recipe collections promise a lot but deliver very little. Bland, uninspired dishes may be fast, but will you make them again? And clever gimmicks sound great, but in reality, they rarely make sense. The team at America's Test Kitchen has created more than 200 easy-to-make 30-minute recipes that guarantee impressive results with a minimum of effort. With our test kitchen know-how (and relentless testing) we found ways to make naturally fast dishes faster, and traditionally slow-cooked dinners a weeknight option. But one thing we never did was settle on shortcuts that shortchanged flavor. Some compromises simply aren't worth making. No matter the path taken, every recipe in this book is foolproof, full-flavores and fast. And they come with our promise to you: Recipes that work. Every time.

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Make Ahead Meals (Good Food at Home) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is another installment in Seller Publishing's Good Food at Home cookbook series has busy cooks in mind with recipes that are formulated for making ahead of time for easier meal preparation and flexibility with an ever-changing schedule. Each recipe has an icon indicating whether all or part of it can be done the morning of the day it is to be used, one or even several days before, or prepared and put in the freezer for a month or two later.
I especially like the idea of making meals for the freezer that can be used later so I'm always looking for new recipes to use in this way. I made the Pizza Potpie which uses the prepared pizza crust that comes in a cylinder in the grocery store dairy case and it was well-received by my family. This particular dish can be made up to a week ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator, or can be frozen for later.
While there are no photos in the book and it doesn't lay open very well, the recipes themselves seem to be tasty, nutritious, and easy to make. For the most part the recipes use ingredients easily found in local grocery stores and even those few that require something unique shouldn't be a problem if one has access to a larger grocery store that has ethnic food sections (Asian, Mexican, etc.). The recipes include everything from drinks and appetizers to main courses, salads, and desserts.
Other recipes I've tagged to try in the near future include Greek Meatballs With Mediterranean Sauced Penne, Tomato-Basil Tortellini, and Chicken Tortilla Soup.
I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher but the opinion of it is my own and was not solicited nor was a positive review required. If I didn't like the book I would say so.

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Real Simple Meals Made Easy Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a "been there, done that" cook. So I use very few cookbooks. If I am baking a cake, sure, I pull down "Joy of Cooking" or better yet, I am likely to make a genoise from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I have about 10 cookbooks, but those two plus "The New York Times Cookbook" are the only ones I refer to. Otherwise, I am making my standard fare most nights. For parties, I pull down my three or four tried-and-true recipes from my card box.
BUT...."Meals Made Easy" is a cookbook I think I will be adding to my slim pile of regulars. Wow! I found page after page of easy but elegant meals, from corn-scallop chowder (a variant on my standard crowd-pleasing corn-potato chowder), and a number of composed salads of great merit like tuna and white bean, Greek Salad. The Greek salad is not the usual romaine-and-feta-and-olive, either. This one has cherry tomatoes, pear tomatoes, cheese, pepperoncini and cucumber cubes. And there were sauces and variants on chops and steak that go from boring to glorified. And there are variations on meatballs, chops, steak strips, stir fry that are a twist on the usual but are absolutely easy. The pictures are appetizing and inspiring, which helps you decide, yes THAT'S what's for dinner.
The book is divided into the following sections:
1. One Pot Meals
2. No Shop Meals
3. 30 Minute Meals
4. No Cook Meals
5. Freezer Meals
6. Shortcut Meals
7. Reliable Sides
There are a few basics like lasagna and roast chicken. There are money saving ideas (from boning chicken breast to those no-shop meals that save a budget-busting takeout night or restaurant night.) There are no desserts. There is a section on suggested kitchen equipment, including the mandoline for fast slicing (I use a version attached to a bowl and I do agree, it speeds up salad and side dish cooking tremendously.)
I think this is a must-give for weddings and graduation-just-starting out. Anyone can enjoy this book (except the passionately vegan) and it's full of easy but beautiful ideas for fine meals whether you alone, you and yours, or with friends for entertaining. I highly recommend this book as a standard for any cookbook shelf.
Joanna Daneman

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