by Beverly Mills, Alicia Ross
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| List Price: | $13.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $9.14 |
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Product Description
Not a penny-pinching cookbook—a "get smart!" cookbook.
No more staring helplessly at rising grocery bills or, too harried for time, shelling out twenty-five bucks for mediocre take-out. The work of two brilliant problem-solvers, Cheap. Fast. Good! cuts through both the budget dilemma and the time dilemma with 275 recipes for great, family-pleasing dishes, most of which take under 25 minutes to prepare and average out to cost less—and usually far less—than $2 a serving.
Home Ec simplified
Saving money in the kitchen is as simple as one four-letter word: Cook. But cooking to save means cooking food you and your family are going to love—and cooking (and shopping) smart. In dozens of time-and-money-saving tips, techniques, strategies, and solutions, the authors show how to make the right choices again and again.
They'll never know you're thrifty
Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Pepper Medley
Stuffed Peppers with Kielbasa Rice
Zesty Chicken Sauté
Bayou Stew
Catfish with Pecan Crust
Cinco de Mayo Skillet
Quickie Cacciatore
Perfect Spinach Pesto Pizza
Moroccan Meatballs Over Couscous
Salmon Pasta with Tomatoes and Dill
...Even when it's time to s-t-r-e-t-c-h
Onion Chopped Steak with Easy Gravy
Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken Thighs
Fall Sausage and Cabbage Sauté
Ultra-Easy Veggie Quesadillas
Pasta e Fagioli
My Beef and Barley Soup
Ziti Mexi-Cali
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Save Money and Wonder Why You Ever Spent So Much, 2008-11-17
I have shelves of cookbooks, and I wasn't going to buy any more, but I love this one because it uses just a few ingredients, which are even available in the Colorado mountains in winter. Too many cookbooks are written by people who live in California where exotic ingredients are easy to find.
A few reviewers have mentioned that some of the quick meals use the results of long-cooking recipes. This is true, but often other options are given that utilize prepared foods. I love the recipes for the frozen meatballs you buy in a bag, for example.
If you have time on the weekend, or in the evening after dinner to prepare the base recipes--the meat mixes used in other dishes--you will be able to whip up daily variations easily. The book gives hints about using the microwave and freezer effectively.
Most of the recipes serve from 4 - 6 people, and hungry teens would just eat them up : ). This is not Nouvelle Cuisine. It's stick-to-your ribs food.
If you enjoy homemade food without putting in hours after work, you might also like an older book.Make-A-Mix Cookery
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Not awful, but not great., 2008-10-09
This is not a bad book. It has quite a few good tips on saving money on groceries and a good variety of recipes. It just didn't really fit our needs. I made four or five recipes from this book and then sold it. None of them were bad, but they were all either a little bland or a little sweet. I imagine this may be a plus if you're cooking for small children or someone who doesn't like strong flavors, but we prefer our food more highly seasoned. I could have adjusted things but the recipes weren't interesting enough to motivate me to do so.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Best BUDGET Cookbook I've found!, 2008-07-14
Who isn't hurting financially? The first thing to cut is always the grocery list. So I started searching the library and bookstores for ways to make good food CHEAP! This is it. ANd it's fast and easy. Gone through at least half the cookbook and havent found a single bad recipe yet. These are foods that my kids will eat! My hubby doesn't complain about! Some great recipes, wonderful advice and many items are things I already have in my pantry or freezer.
Wish she'd come out with another one!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 The title doesn't lie..., 2008-06-17
The authors do a good job of creating a wide variety of dishes that are just what the titles says. And there are some great tips on shopping for the less expensive ingredients needed for the recipes. With food prices what they are, we need all the help we can get to put meals on the table without breaking the bank.
However, my original reason for buying the book was to couple it with 50 Ways to Leave Your Mother, a humorous book of advice for grown kids moving out of the house. I thought that Cheap. Fast. Good! would provide some entry-level recipes for these kids to try once they are having to feed themselves. In that capacity, this book was not a good match. It might work for a young adult with a greater-than-average interest in cooking, but not for most kids who are used to having parents to feed them anything more than a sandwich.
Bottom line? The book does its job: it gives us meals that taste good, and can be put together quickly with economically-friendly ingredients, just as it promised.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
One of the most useful cookbooks, 2008-03-24
This cookbook is wonderful! There are lots of really good recipes that can be prepared quickly and make a lot of food. One of the main benefits I find in the book, though, is the advice regarding saving money on food. There are many suggestions regarding freezing food: buying in bulk, preparing dish components, making your own stock. Not only are these prepare-ahead-and-freeze ideas less expensive, they also greatly simplify cooking during a hectic work week.
The book is invaluable for someone living alone. They have specific advice for that situation, noting that it's easy to buy too much perishable items and have them go bad before you've had a chance to use them.
If I fault the book at all, it's on two fronts. First, there is a strong emphasis on meat; you need to be a little careful regarding meal balance. There are certainly vegetable dishes, and one-pot meals with a good amount of vegetables, but given the level of meal advice in the book, it's surprising that there isn't more about increasing the amount of vegetables in a meat-heavy diet. Second, the directions for preparation are frantic at times, in keeping with the goal of preparing meals quickly. If you do not read the directions carefully, you may miss the point at which an ingredient or two are used. Both of those points are minor quibbles with an extremely useful cookbook.
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