The Working Mother COOKBOOK: Fast, Easy Recipes from the Editors of Working Mother magazine

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Overviews

In response to reader demand, the editors of Working Mother magazine bring together stylish, flavorful recipes that will satisfy the family and fit into every working mom's busy schedule. With the magazine's no-nonsense, practical approach, this useful, idea-filled cookbook presents inventive new twists and comforting old favorites. The recipes include:

* 29-Minute Meals that truly take less than half an hour to prepare
* Freeze-Ahead Meals to cook when you have extra time, and serve when you don't
* Seven-Day Dinner Plans that take advantage of one-stop shopping and cook-ahead strategies

Filled with step-by-step game plans, time-saving suggestions, and simplifying ideas, this is an indispensable guide to making fast, delicious meals that appeal to the whole family without eating up all your time.

Customer Review

I really really like this cookbook. It not perfect (but what cookbook is?), and I have a number of small issues with it, but I have found it to be an inspiring resource for meal planning, and the recipes are, on the whole very very good. I have had it less than a year, and it is already one of the most well-used cookbooks in my kitchen.

As a measure of how much I like this cookbook, I have already bought a copy as a gift for at least one person, and would do so again.

What I like best about it:

It provides a lot of creative ideas for both quick meals and planning meals in advance, and most of them are relatively straightforward and very good -- with a lot of variety. (Much better than your average "easy meal" cookbooks.) I've particularly enjoyed the 7-day meal plans, and all three I've tried have been all been excellent, and fun to execute. Similarly, there are some very tasty quick recipes, as well as some good ideas for meals that can be prepared in advance. You really can't go too far wrong.

My (very minor) complaints (or, why I gave it only four stars):

-- Some of the recipes in the 7-day meal plans and the master recipes (make one thing, use it three ways) seem a little forced -- things you would never choose to make unless you were trying to use up ingredients from some of the other meals. Likewise, sometimes the "time-saving strategies" are a little silly (e.g. "save 1 TB lemon juice for use later in the week").

-- Overall, I've found the 7-day meal plans to be pretty heavy on premium ingredients and animal protein. For me, 4lbs of beef, 2lbs of lamb and 3lbs of chicken (admittedly the "hale and hearty" meal plan) is really a whole lotta meat for a family of four for a week. (And in our family, only two of us are actually eating these meals.) For smaller families or appetites, you may need to cut back on the quantities, or plan to make only some of the recipes in a week, having leftovers the other nights.

-- Not everything in the cookbook is really that simplified. You have to be a sufficiently experienced cook to know what you're up against, and how much time you really have, and make your meal decisions accordingly. Nothing is really complicated, but you're not necessarily going to be able to whip up dinner in 15 minutes in each case. Plan accordingly.

All that said, if you like to cook good food, but are busy, tired, and uninspired, this is a terrific resource and well worth the investment. The recipes are good, and the meal-planning ideas have been useful as given, and have inspired me to think of other ways to organize our family meals. But you're still going to have to put in some effort -- it's not going to cook your meals for you!

Maybe they meant working PART Time! - Tara L. Robinson - Arcadia, CA United States
I am newly married and now have someone to cook for but find with my hour long commute its just to much to cook at all let alone healthy, inexpensive meals that actually taste good. This book was such a bummer. I went grocery shopping yesterday and ended up in the store for 2 hours. I couldnt find the special bread, or the anchovie paste or the gardeneria salad. I even had the grocery store people stumpped. I substituded what I could but the frusteration is still there. When I got home I started the first meal in the menu. It smelled awful 1 1/2 hrs when it was done cooking. So bad that my husband wouldnt eat it, he ate leftovers from the night before. Now i'm locked into this awful menu (becaue all the food's bought) and not looking forward to the next 6 days. Another note: There are no shortcuts, surprisingly. The recipe for fish and chips has you slicing 8 potatoes into fries and baking them for an hour. It seems to me that its cheaper and faster to buy a bag of frozen fries and cook those for 30 minutes. Sigh. I'm still in search of a good time saving cook book with good food.

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