The Busy People’s Fast and Frugal Cookbook

The Busy People’s Fast and Frugal Cookbook is going to be available on October 13th but you can get a sneak peek now since I recently received a review copy. Here’s the scoop…

Book: The Busy People’s Fast and Frugal Cookbook by Dawn Hall (Thomas Nelson, Inc., October 2009).

From the publishers… “Perfect recipes for any cook with little time and even less money. Today’s bad economy is forcing people out of restaurants and into the kitchen. But who has the time to cook? Dawn Hall shows home cooks how to prepare simple and fast food that’s as healthy as it is easy on the budget. The Busy People’s Fast and Frugal Cookbook is just the thing for today’s economy minded meal makers.”

The good:

The book offers super fast meals that you can make for less. Contents include all meal areas – appetizers, breakfast, brunch, soups, side dishes, breads, main meals, desserts, beverages, salads, and so on. Hall has a good intro that discusses healthy eating as well as fast cooking with lower cost ingredients. She gives good examples of why she’ll pay more for some foods (low-fat butter) and skip some of the more expensive ones (whole grain pasta). If there’s an ingredient that costs more or less she backs it up with some reasoning.

There’s a handy section on how to save on groceries at the beginning along with info about cooking with egg whites vs. whole eggs + conversions for said eggs.

The book is set up well for easy browsing and quick food prep. For example, she’s got all the recipes sectioned off into 10 minutes or less; 20 minutes or less; 30 minutes or less. She also includes a handy sidebar section (see image above) for each recipe with a supply list for the meal,  a divided grocery list for the meal, plus helpful hints – all of which can help speed up shopping trips.

The not as great:

• Very meat heavy! I don’t think there was one meat-free main dish recipe. Being that I don’t eat red meat or pork and being that my son is almost entirely vegetarian, I of course am not an impartial judge, but still, cutting meat and loading up on veggies, in say, a stir fry is a way to cook fast with more nutrients and less calories so it would have been nice to see some meatless main dishes.
• I wish there were more big images. The pictures were tiny and it’s more fun to have a cookbook with lots of snappy images.
• I didn’t love that the focus was heavy on packaged foods vs. fresh. Canned veggies, canned biscuits, and frozen foods were the main ingredients of the majority of the recipes, which I get because it is faster and cheaper, but I think we really need to focus on fresh whole foods to stay super healthy.

Overall – in spite of a few flaws, I think almost ALL thrifty cooks (minus die hard vegetarians) will enjoy this cookbook. The meals are super speedy, there’s a large variety over the course of the entire book, and how it’s set up will make it very easy for new and experienced cooks alike to whip up a meal. I think it would make a good gift for a newly on their own young adult too – especially one less experienced with cooking because anyone can make these dishes.

Learn more – The Busy People’s Fast and Frugal Cookbook