Better Homes and Gardens 365 Last-Minute Meals (Better Homes & Gardens Cooking) [Hardcover]

Better Homes & Gardens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Better Homes & Gardens Cooking | Publication Date: October 2, 2007

• 365 delicious, fast and family-friendly recipes.
• Recipes are divided into spring, summer, winter, and fall sections so readers can quickly find ideas that sound just right for the season.
• Each recipe has 7 or fewer ingredients to minimize shopping and prep work.
• Included with each recipe is a menu showcasing super-easy side dishes. For example, transform bagged lettuce by adding strawberries, blueberries, sliced almonds, and bottled balsamic dressing.
• Two 16-page sections are packed with appetizing color photos of many of the book's recipes.
• Includes a helpful list of items to keep in the pantry for the quick-and-easy serve-along side dishes.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Spi edition (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0696235323
• ISBN-13: 978-0696235320
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and Quick Meals, December 15, 2011

By 

Gerdie's mom - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens 365 Last-Minute Meals (Better Homes & Gardens Cooking) (Hardcover)

I first borrowed this cookbook from my local library and ended up falling in love with it. I love that the book is divided by season and then furthermore divided by type of meat/no meat for that season. It helps come up with ideas for last second meals, too. Every recipe so far has had less than 10 ingredients and we have loved everything we have made.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, fast and cheap, October 18, 2010

By 

Jared - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens 365 Last-Minute Meals (Better Homes & Gardens Cooking) (Hardcover)

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer that this cookbook results in expensive or bland meals. Even if you throw out the cherries or pineapple that is unused, that costs what, $2? We are now on our fourth meal from this cookbook and they have all been excellent. In addition, this is for less $$ than we were spending before.

For the last few months while trying to keep our expenses down we subsisted entirely on frozen skillet meals, hamburger helper meals, or other packaged pre-prepared meals(like costco might sell). Looking at this book I doubted that a person could consistently make a tasty meal in 30 minutes and spend a lot less money than we were spending on skillet meal style dinners.

But now I'm a believer. Even on meals that require expensive steak tenderloins(fillet mignon) it is costing less than we spent previously, although granted the fillet mignons were on a great sale. For example the meal we are eating now:

Chicken - $5
Condensed minestrone - $1.5
Biscuits - $3
Cream Cheese - $2 - Used 1/3 package, so technically $0.67
Milk, Flour - < $0.50

= $12 - $10.67 if you can re-use the cream cheese, which you should be able to.

This produced enough food for 4 people(us + the next days lunch), so $2.60 each. And it tasted 4x as good as a $2.50 frozen meal, with more food.

Other meals are similarly priced, particularly if you can get the main ingredient on sale(Fish, Turkey, Steaks, ground beef, etc.)

The genius of this book is the "short cut" ingredients, like the above mentioned condensed minestrone. This recipe results in a variation of chicken pot pie, and minestrone contains most of the ingredients for this in one quick step. The previous recipe we used had us use some chili as the short cut ingredient.

Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast & interesting meals, with menu suggestions!, March 30, 2009

By 

Judith Taylor (Honolulu, HI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens 365 Last-Minute Meals (Better Homes & Gardens Cooking) (Hardcover)

I love quick & easy recipes with clever and delicious menu suggestions. This book really filled the bill. I can grab the ingredients on the way home, (some items don't need cooking), put them together in a hurry, and I'm dinner party ready. Plus, I look like an inventive cook to all my friends. P.S. These menus will appeal to families, too.