Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbooks - mini reviews












I own a couple of Fix-It and Forget-It cookbooks already: Fix-It and Forget-It Pink Cookbook: More Than 700 Great Slow-Cooker Recipes and Fix It and Forget It Vegetarian Cookbook: 565 Delicious Slow-Cooker, Stove-Top, Oven, and Salad Recipes, Plus by Phyllis Pellman Good, and for the most part, I think that they are pretty good.  I've made a dozen or so recipes from each which we enjoyed a lot.

 










I now had a chance to browse and review (4) different ones that came out in 2013 and wanted to share my thoughts on these:

First, in my opinion, these cookbooks are great for beginner cooks and time-crunched cooks. Most every recipe is fast and uncomplicated, and most are made with items that you probably tend to keep on hand. What I liked about these was that there were a good variety of recipes. All of the recipes had simple instructions with very little prep work required.  Of the (4) books, there was a combination of both slow-cooker and oven cooked recipes. Many of the recipes would be perfect to make ahead of time like on a rainy weekend and freeze, and then not have you worrying about what to cook when you get home from work.  One thing I did notice in most every one of these books, which I wasn't crazy about was that canned condensed soups were often called for.  People who are trying to limit sodium intake or those trying to eat more whole/natural foods need to be aware of this.  Below are a few recipes from each book, I either tried or plan to try soon.

Fix-It and Forget-It Vegetarian Main Dishes by Phyllis Pellman Good (Jan 29, 2013)
  • spinach lasagna and the stuffed peppers were both ones I thought were pretty tasty and easy to make
  • Toscano soup, Busy Cooks Stew and chili-taco soup were pretty good, and there were several different chicken soups that I would like to try once the weather gets cooler. 
  • 50+ recipes
  • spicy veggie chili, black bean chili, butternut - mushroom bisque and asparagus-potato soup were tasty as well
  • most of the recipes in this book are soups, with just a few different chili and stew recipes
This is one of my favorite Fix-it and Forget-It cookbooks. Like others in the "F&F" family, the recipes are quick and easy and perfect for beginner cooks and busy people. Here are a few of the recipes I plan to try:
  • slow cooker lasagna, apricot stuffing and chicken, Greek chicken pita filling, Herby French dip
In case anyone wants to check these out, I noticed that all of these were available on Amazon as a Kindle download for under $4.00 each

(eGalleys received via NetGalley/Open Road Media for review)

7 comments:

  1. My daughter got a couple of these cookbooks for shower/wedding gifts and I copied a couple of recipes that looked easy.

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  2. Cookbooks like these are great for young families because they have recipes real families will eat.

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  3. Nise and Kathy, I agree - when you are young, newly married and life is much busier, these types of cookbooks are great, but for myself, when I have extra time, I like to try something a bit more challenging.''I will still refer to these though as we all have those days when we need to cook something fast - this in most cases will be a great reference.

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  4. I give the 5 Ingredients One Dish cookbook to all the "just finished college" kids as they get their new places. I have one I use for emergency back up ideas since I almost always have all the ingredients at hand.

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  5. These sound good. I don't cook much but that's going to be changing soon.

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  6. Thanks for mentioning the canned soup. That's a problem I have with a lot of slow cooker and "quick and easy" cookbooks. I'll throw in canned tomato sauce or a jar of salsa, no problem, but I can't bring myself to buy those cans of condensed soups anymore. Too many soupy casseroles when I was a kid, maybe!

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  7. I have a few of the FI&FI books and love them, especially the slow cooker edition. I'll have to check these out, I'm all about quick and easy.

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