75 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for truly busy people, not all that healthy, August 2, 2004
This review is from: Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook (Hardcover-spiral)
This book does live up to its name. If you are truly busy and want recipes that you can just throw into your slow-cooker, this cookbook does provide that. After my daughter was born, I wanted main dish recipes that would allow me to spend a minimum of time in the kitchen but still have something good for dinner.
I ordered this book but was surprised by some of the ingredients. While most of the recipes are quite low in fat, they're not very healthy, at least not by my standards. Several recipes call for "fat-free non-dairy refrigerated creamer" as a thickener. The very idea of putting non-dairy creamer into a main dish repulsed me. Condensed soups, the juice from a pickle jar, and bottled salad dressings are other ingredients used for flavor. The recipe using pickle juice was also just too much for me! I passed that one up.
The author seemed to work hard to make recipes that were low in fat but ended up with a lot of processed ingredients. Personally, I'd rather have more natural ingredients, even if they add some fat. Some of the recipes didn't taste homemade--they tasted like they came from a box--hamburger helper style--because of all the processed ingredients. I was really disappointed to serve a home-cooked meal that tasted like it came out of a box. Some recipes weren't really recipes, in my opinion. Chicken cooked in salad dressing, pork cooked in bottled BBQ sauce--you get the idea. If you're new to cooking, however, these ideas may be new to you and you may find them helpful. The author also has a fabulous way to cook vegetables at the same time as your main dish--so you can truly have your whole meal finished in the slow cooker.
I give the book 4 stars because it lives up to its name--it is great for busy people--and it doesn't claim to be healthy. If you don't mind processed ingredients, you may love this book. If you want more of a natural, whole-foods approach, this isn't the book for you.
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60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very Very Disappointing, July 6, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook (Hardcover-spiral)
I was sooo excited when I got this book. I was really getting into cooking with my slow cooker, as I'm a busy mom, but wanted something more than stews and one-pot meals. When I got this cookbook I read it cover to cover and went out and spent probably $100 on ingredients to make a bunch of the recipes.
Let me interject that I consider myself a good cook -- I am a stay-at-home-mom and take pride in having home-cooked meals every single night. After studying the book I was disappointed to see so many preprepared ingredients and frozen vegetables, but I realize it's a "Busy People's" book and she's trying to save time.
However, keeping that thought in mind, I was surprised to see many recipes that had cooking times from one to five hours. If people are "busy", aren't they likely at work for eight to ten hours (including commute time)?
Also, many of the dishes have the same ingredients with just an ingredient or so different. Perhaps they should have been listed as an alternative rather than a totally separate "recipe" that seemed just to pad the book. Also, many many of the recipes use cream soups which have dairy that one of my daughters is allergic to, so those are out... cream of mushroom soup is used a ton and my husband hates mushrooms, so those are out. Since so many of the recipes are so similar and have an ingredient my family doesn't like, we're out of luck on a good portion of the book. I may have to make my own dairy-free "cream" of chicken soup stock and try using that.
But even with all those problems with the book, I was really excited to get cooking.
So far I've been disappointed with every single thing I've cooked from this book. The cakes are mostly the same -- canned pie filling as the top of the "upside down" part, then cake mix with water, applesauce and a million egg whites for the cake part.
I made the cherry upside down cake, it uses yellow cake mix. The cake part came out the look and exact consistency of a yellow kitchen sponge. Wet and thick and spongy. Not bad tasting but odd enough I'd be embarrassed to serve it to guests. I also had to cut off the entire outside of it because it was overdone, though I cooked it the minimum time recommended and did not leave it in the crock to cool, as I could see it was too dark already.
I made the honey-mustard chicken next. The sauce simmering for hours sort of separated and got grainy and the chicken came out weirdly dry even though it was swimming in liquid. It was sort of nauseating, quite frankly, and I threw out the leftovers even though I try to never waste food. Yuck.
I made the blueberry coffee cake next. The outside was overdone and the underside/middle was uncooked -- I ended up finishing it in the oven and it was quite overdone by the time the middle was cooked enough to be safe.
Still determined to make this book work, I made the "sweet and sour teenie weenies" for a family cookout. The idea of grape jelly mixed with mustard was intriguing, and the taste was interesting, but the reason nobody mixes purple jelly with yellow mustard is because it turns out the exact green color of infant diarrhea. I was embarrassed at the results and ended up abandoning the foil tray I brought them in so I wouldn't have to claim this green glop as mine (no one ate a single bite, nor do I blame them, it looked absolutely wretched!).
I will probably try some other things, I do tend to perservere. But I no longer have high hopes and with every failure I am tempted to throw the book out.
The only good thing about it is the idea of the foil packets to make side dishes instead of everything being in the same liquid. I never thought of that before.
Now, it is certainly possible that my cooker is off in some way, which would explain the overdone/underdone problems. But I've been using it for years to make stews and soups and marinated meats without any problems whatsoever.
Even if the done-ness issue was my problem only, I would not recommend the book. I have not enjoyed anything I've cooked from it yet.
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78 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Really Not A Cookbook, November 21, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook (Hardcover-spiral)
I am very disappointed with this book. Practically every recipe in it calls for preprepared/processed items (pre-pak mixes, cans of condensed soup, seasoning mixes, frozen veggies, Butter Buds, etc.).To me, this is not about cooking. I do realize the point of having a slow cooker is to have convenience and ease, but a few minutes of preparation using whole foods and one's own spices and ingredients at least provides for some of the satisfaction of cooking a meal. A slow cooker is truly fab when one takes a few minutes to prepare what is going to be cooked as opposed to just dumping in a few pre-pak items. I for one, do not find it rewarding to take so many shortcuts. I am sure this book is wonderful for many, but not for those who truly enjoy cooking!
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