Cheap. Fast. Good! [Paperback]

Beverly Mills (Author), Alicia Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2005

Not a penny-pinching cookbook—a "get smart!" cookbook.
No more staring helplessly at rising grocery bills or, too harried for time, shelling out twenty-five bucks for mediocre take-out. The work of two brilliant problem-solvers, Cheap. Fast. Good! cuts through both the budget dilemma and the time dilemma with 275 recipes for great, family-pleasing dishes, most of which take under 25 minutes to prepare and average out to cost less—and usually far less—than $2 a serving.

Home Ec simplified
Saving money in the kitchen is as simple as one four-letter word: Cook. But cooking to save means cooking food you and your family are going to love—and cooking (and shopping) smart. In dozens of time-and-money-saving tips, techniques, strategies, and solutions, the authors show how to make the right choices again and again.

They'll never know you're thrifty
Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Pepper Medley
Stuffed Peppers with Kielbasa Rice
Zesty Chicken Sauté
Bayou Stew
Catfish with Pecan Crust
Cinco de Mayo Skillet
Quickie Cacciatore
Perfect Spinach Pesto Pizza
Moroccan Meatballs Over Couscous
Salmon Pasta with Tomatoes and Dill

...Even when it's time to s-t-r-e-t-c-h
Onion Chopped Steak with Easy Gravy
Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken Thighs
Fall Sausage and Cabbage Sauté
Ultra-Easy Veggie Quesadillas
Pasta e Fagioli
My Beef and Barley Soup
Ziti Mexi-Cali

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The focus in this collection aimed at working parents like the loyal fans of Mills and Ross's "Desperation Dinners" syndicated newspaper column is far more on how to save money than on quality or speed. The authors offer many helpful penny-pinching ideas, such as finding bread outlet stores and getting reasonably priced salad greens. Most of the recipes are quick to assemble, even for less experienced cooks, as long as frozen or canned ingredients are used and not the optional fresh or from-scratch versions. How tasty the food is will depend on the family; almost all the dishes, such as the simple, warming A Chicken in Every Pot, have an unfussy feel to them, which is great for picky kids but may strike some as too bland. The authors make gestures to international cuisine, as with the Moroccan-style Lentil and Chickpea Soup with Cilantro, and Mary's Greek-Inspired Pasta, but to minimize costs they use few spices or special ingredients, often resulting in inauthentic takes on another country's food. But cooks who are too thrifty or frazzled (or both) to be snobbish about the sophistication of what they prepare will undoubtedly relish the authors' familiar, easygoing but expert manner and the satisfying variety of recipes. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

Who doesn’t want to eat cheaper? And who doesn’t want to eat better? And who wouldn’t like to sit down to a dinner of Salmon Pasta with Tomatoes and Dill, or Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Pepper Medley, or Enchanting Enchiladas, or Moroccan Meatballs over Couscous—and know that any one of these meals (for four) costs less than $2 a serving?

In their two previous cookbooks, Desperation Dinners! and Desperation Entertaining!—together with over 330,000 copies in print— Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross showed us how to save time in the kitchen without ever sacrificing flavor. Now the Desperate duo turns to the universally appealing idea of saving money, too. Cheap. Fast. Good! is not a penny-pinching cookbook—it’s a “get smart” cookbook. It’s about planning smart, shopping smart, cooking smart, and, not coincidentally, about eating smart. The work of two brilliant problem solvers, it presents 275 delicious recipes that are thrifty, quick to prepare, and intrinsically family-friendly and healthy, too: Barbecued Chicken and Black Bean Burritos, Sweet Onion Chowder, Bayou Stew, Ham and Asparagus Crostini, Basic Beef Brisket, Perfect Spinach Pesto Pizza, Gayle’s Country-Style Steak, Souped-Up Chicken Stroganoff. Recipes are filled with techniques for pushing flavor, substituting ingredients, and using what’s in the refrigerator or pantry already, and every chapter includes strategies for running a kitchen more economically—The When, Where, and How of Shopping, The Miracle of Menu Planning, Making Your Own Convenience Items, Cutting Up a Roasted Chicken, and more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (December 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761131760
• ISBN-13: 978-0761131762
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected after reading other reviews, August 1, 2006

By 

S. Marcantelli - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheap. Fast. Good! (Paperback)

Everyone seems to like this book more than I do so I took a second look at it. I opened up to the chapter "Everyday Entrees". The first recipe for Gayle's Country-Style Steak does sound good, but it has to simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Not exactly "Fast". Looked at the next recipe Texas Cowboy's Pie and it calls for "shredded already-cooked beef" for which there is a recipe on another page. I took a look at that recipe and it would take more than 3 hours to cook. The 3rd recipe in this chapter is Beefed-Up Chinese Burritos. It calls for "Flexible Mexican Filling" for which there is a recipe on another page. You get the idea. I notice that these recipes that are needed for some of the general recipes are in a chapter titled "Budget-Minded Batch Cooking" that's at the end of all the chapters with recipes for dinners. So if so you decide to try this book, I'd suggest starting with that chapter. Each of those recipes does tell you which recipes require them. The recipes must be good if so many people wrote positive reviews, so take that into consideration when making your final decision as to whether or not to buy this book.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tightwading... for the rest of us., April 19, 2006

By 

Susanne Koenig "mynewwritinglife.blogspot.com" (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheap. Fast. Good! (Paperback)

What's the one household budget variable that gives us the most grief? The mortgage is a set cost, so are the utilities (pretty much) but what really gets us is the food budget. We know we could do it better, but how do we do it? Do we sell the range and buy a wood stove, bake our own bread, and hoe our own rows? There are only so many hours in the day, and coming up with a good, fast home-cooked meal is a challenge, much less looking through the grocery fliers, and store-hopping for the best bargain. We've all heard that advice, and have asked ourselves, can't it be simpler?

It can. That's where Cheap. Fast. Good. comes in. Aside from the fact that it contains quick kid-friendly meals (with a couple of good adult favorites thrown in for good measure) it's contains a brilliant, impressively well-thought out stratagey about how to save money, where and how to shop, and even a section on coupon clipping for dummies. If you're even remotely frugal at heart, you know you have to get a cookbook that is so single-minded on saving you money that it even has a section entitled "How to Eat on $100 a Week".

Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross, authors of the equally useful Desperation Dinners have really outdone themselves in this selection, and it's a great place to start if you are really wanting--or having--to save money. I purchased this book a few weeks ago and find myself reading it even when I'm not needing a recipe, just to ratchet up my on my money saving techniques. The authors include a lot of text and asides to show you how to really save, including how to shop at a day-old bread store, how to store items to make them last longer, and just plain tips for making life a bit easier, such as their really good one for draining ground beef on page 128.

Don't hesitate to buy this book. It's 500 pages of easier, quicker, cheaper for $13.95, and well worth every doggone penny.

See my experiences with this book at moness.blogspot.com. I'm going to review individual recipes and keep at tally of how much they cost, including Shipwreck Skillet Dinner, Bayou Stew, and Camper's Chicken Pockets.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!, January 12, 2006

By 

Lou Ann Bakolia "Cookbook Collector" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cheap. Fast. Good! (Paperback)

I just purchased the cookbook, Cheap.Fast.Good! and love it. I am a big fan of the Desperation Dinners authors and have read their newspaper column for years. I have made numerous of their recipes and many are now family favorites. I have a husband and 2 children and we eat at home most nights because it is cheaper and healthier. Not only does this book have great recipes but it also includes tips on menu planning and how to save money on food. I especially liked the section on a family of 4 eating on $100 a week. I can't wait to try that! I would definately recommend this new cookbook. I know it will be one of my favorites.