Customer Reviews

A Dinner a Day: Complete Meals in Minutes for Every Weeknight of the Year

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The most frequent argument that my husband and I have is "What do you feel like for dinner?" I finally went in search of a cookbook that would give me combinations of recipes to cook, ie: a main course, a salad, and a vegetable. (I am NOT a very creative or proficient cook!)When I found this cookbook it completely exceeded my expectations!!! Not only did it provide the recipes for different dishes, but it actually planned an entire meal for each night of the week, for an entire year with no repeats. My husband and son are picky eaters, but we took the authors' advice and we try every meal, even if it doesn't sound appealing. If we don't care for it, we don't have to cook it again for another year. So far, we have loved just about every dinner! Another positive is that we are eating more fruits and vegetables than ever before, and I am learning how to cook with a variety of different seasonings and spices. It is actually fun to cook dinner now. The shopping lists and the countdowns are also great time savers. What a concept! The authors have provided an incredibly useful tool to working moms and busy families. All of my friends are getting a copy for Christmas.

I've been using this cookbook for three years and I think I know the ins and outs of it. It is incredibly useful for day to day cooking and once you have a pantry stocked with various spices,oils and vinegars, it's not all that expensive. The main problem for where I live is the fish and the seafood. Im landlocked and we don't get much good seafood here. You can sub in a chicken breast, pounded flat, for a fish fillet, you can sub porkchops for lambchops, you can sub canned tuna for crab and shrimp for scallops. You'll save about 60 bucks a week. (and that's no insignificant amount.) The sides dishes, and the variety of vegetables are the main thing. You've never eaten such a variety of produce. If you've ever felt like life consisted of corn, broccoli and carrots, you'll get over it here. Flag the side dishes you like and repeat them at holidays. Your relatives will think you're the worlds' most accomplished cook.All in all, groceries, my once a week groceries which includes cleaning and laundry products, for a family of four is about 175.00. It saves a lot of thinking about things you dont want to think about. Buy a food processor, there's a lot of chopping. One IMPORTANT thing, skip the desserts, the kids will think they are nasty, if they are anything like mine. I mean, stewed fruits? Am I 80 years old? Just buy a couple of gallons of ice cream instead of the dessert menus. You'll save a lot of money for empty calories and the kids will be happy.But, if you can find any cookbook that's more helpful on the mass market for your particualar family, you'll be unbelievably lucky. You could spend a gazillion dollars on a personal nutritionist, who is gonna nail your EXACT needs (for a year). But you could also buy this book, throw out what doesn't work and keep what does. I think you'll be very pleased.

The organization of this book is top-notch. A complete meal on each spread, the shopping list up front, the countdown of preparation steps... perfect. Now, if the recipes were good, it would be my one and only cookbook. I've made about 20 of the meals. Every one left something to be desired, and some were just plain bad. The authors use the phrase "season to taste" a lot, and they mean it. We're not just talking salt and pepper. I usually use more of the herbs and spices they do call for and add others of my own. I've also encountered obvious mistakes in several of the recipes. In their quest for a year's worth of different recipes, sometimes they get a little too wacky with the ingredient combos, too.

I love this book for four reasons: 1) You don't have to plan meals, since the book does it for you; 2) I was in a bit of a cooking rut and this book has solved that problem; 3) The meals are healthy and feature a wider variety of foods than I'd ever managed before, and 4) We're definitely saving money, since we buy precisely what we need. Bravo!

I bought this book, hoping it would help me with dinner planning. I have 3 children under 8 years old, and my mother lives with us. I was having a heck-of-a-time figuring out what to cook to make everybody happy, what to buy at the grocery store, ending up eating out way too much. Now I shop on Sunday afternoons, with the handy-dandy shopping list. Each day I look at the day's menu, seeing what I might have to prepare beforehand. Sometimes, you may have a crockpot meal so you need to start that in the morning. Otherwise, around 4 or 5, I start preparing the meal. The recipes are all on two facing pages, the order in which to prepare the recipes is also included, which really helps me with timing. We are eating such a variety of foods now, and a lot more veggies and fruits, which everybody needs! Not everybody in my family likes everything, but I figure as the kids get older, they will start trying more stuff. I didn't like to use any convenience foods before, but I trade off the cost/health factor because we aren't eating out as much. There is sometimes quite a bit of chopping. The whole meal is supposed to take under an hour to prepare, but I think if you have a lot of chopping, it might take longer. That is my only criticism of this otherwise wonderful cookbook. We have used it for 3 months now. We cook our old standby's on the weekend and eat out once a week now. I have served several meals to company and have gotten rave reviews! I should also mention I tried once-a-month cooking in several forms and that did not work at all. We needed more variety, more fresh things, better-rounded meals. This book solved all of my dinner problems! Now if it could just do laundry, my life would be perfect!

I wish that I could claim to be a 5 Star chef who could proclaim this book fabulous, but alas, I am only a so-so cook, grateful to have found a 5 star cookbook. Fortunately for me, this cookbook makes up for my many shortcomings as a cook. My family finally gets more than my rotating 5 standby meals. Three cheers for this cookbook! Where's it been all my life? Nevermind, I'm just happy to have it now.

I pined over this cookbook for months before I finally got it, I loved the idea of having everything planned for me, including the shopping lists. The book is laid out great and the recipes have fun and interesting titles, and are not the 'same old thing' I had been cooking before.

BUT - I found that many of the recipes took too long to make and were too complicated for me, even though the steps are all arranged. Yes, it did take less than an hour as the authors suggest, but only barely. I don't have an hour to spend in the kitchen every night. Every week at least 1-2 meals were things that just didn't sound good to me, and I'm not picky. I tried a few other recipes that did sound good, and they were OK, but not great. A lot of the side dishes are too complicated for my taste, I'd rather spend time on one main dish and just put it with a salad and pasta. I don't have the time or patience to make my own salad dressing - why bother? And each menu includes a dessert which I didn't want. And the beauty of this cookbook (the shopping lists) is also its downfall - if you make any changes or try to take out anything the shopping list is almost useless. Plus there are some nights when I have classes and such that spending more than 15 minutes in the kitchen is not happening.

I am a person who hates to cook and can't stand anything that takes over 1/2 hr to make. I'll admit my standard are very high, and this didn't live up to them. On the other hand, I gave the cookbook to my mom, and she loves it, so I guess its just a matter of lifestyle.

There's a lot that's great about this cookbook for the hassled and harried family cook. It answers the daily question of what to make for dinner that's nutritious, tasty and doesn't take too long to make. My picky eaters actually like most of what comes from this book. The whole dinner is layed out on two facing pages so you can just prop it up in a book holder and go to it. And, I've been thrilled with some of the new to me ingredient combinations that turn out delicious.
On the other hand, this is not a book for new cooks. It takes a bit of cooking and shopping experience to realize that a can of chicken broth and other ingredients will not fit in a small frying pan, or that a package of yellow rice is a quite adequate and much cheaper substitute for rice made with actual saffron. And, it takes a very large and sophisticated supermarket to find many of the ingredients, especially out of season. So, there are many "corrections" and clarifications pencil marked in my copy.

But, on balance, this collection will often be a godsend for the average family cook.

We love this book! My husband and I love to cook, but often don't like to think of what to cook, so we'd just fall back on pasta. Not anymore! It's gotten us to try things that we wouldn't normally (we'd only go for the sure successes), and while not everything has been outstanding, everything has been good.

I am a single man living in the city. When I was given this book I did not know how to cook very well at all. This book has helped me cook delicious meals every night. And the instructions are easily understood and followed. I did not need to go out and buy a lot of fancy kitchen utensils, just the basics. I loaned the book to a friend, while I was out of town. My friend is a very good cook. He said that he found it very helpful in planning meals. He says the shopping list was very complete and easy to follow and the instructions were precise and fool proof. Well, no wonder I can do it so well - it's fool proof. The book actually leads you through meal planning, shopping, and preparation. I am having so much fun with this book I would recommend it to anyone. roger