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203 of 206 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
THE Go-To Cookbook for Slow Cookers, January 13, 2009
This review is from: Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes! (Hardcover)
With 1,400 recipes, the Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook is the only book for slow cooker recipes you'll need. It will be your go-to cookbook when you're in a hurry for dinner. The recipes are SIMPLE: simple ingredients and simple preparation. You can throw together many of the recipes if you have 20 minutes before you run off to work in the morning. You are likely to have most of the ingredients in your kitchen -- no exotic, hard-to-find ingredients in this cookbook.
You also will save grocery money. Many recipes call for less expensive cuts of meat since cooking at a very low temperature all day will make meats as tender and juicy as the more expensive cuts.
The recipes are laid out in an easy-to-read style that not only identifies the serving number, but you'll know how long it takes to prep the ingredients. The directions are step-by-step and are very easy to follow.
Two features from the cookbook are worth mentioning. Recipes that are healthier and lighter are marked in the corner. You can use these recipes for a healthier meal (or appetizer, soup, etc.), and they are just as convenient and quick to put together as the traditional ones. Another standout feature is the surprisingly helpful little hints that author Phylllis Pellman Good put on the bottom of every other page or so. Though most hints are slow cooker-related, other hints are surprisingly helpful when preparing any type of food. At 658 pages of recipes, you'll find loads of hints -- worth reading on their own.
I also was intrigued with many of the appetizer recipes. Does anyone ever think, "I need an appetizer. I'll pull out my slow cooker"? Not me! But I have to say, "Irresistible Cheesy Hot-Bean Dip" and "Fruit Salsa" were recipes I marked for future party bring-alongs.
People like me who love to cook usually have scores of cookbooks on the shelf, and we probably regularly use only a couple of them. The Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook will be the the only slow cooker recipe book on your shelf. It has all the recipes you'll ever need for slow cooking.
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134 of 136 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Variety, Lots of Unexpected Ideas, February 3, 2009
This review is from: Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes! (Hardcover)
At first glance, this cookbook seems like a bad crockpot joke. Almost every recipe I flipped to requires cream of mushroom soup or a packet of dried onion soup. Seriously. Two of the five recipes for Sloppy Joes call for cream of mushroom soup.
Then it dawned on me. Two of FIVE recipes for Sloppy Joes. I started looking more closely and realized that most recipes in the book offer several different versions. Sometimes it's the ingredients that vary, sometimes it's the amount of preparation, sometimes it's both. You're bound to find at least one version of each recipe that works for your tastes and cooking style. You may find other versions that you're willing to try.
The recipes are arranged by type, and a small icon at the top corner of each page makes it easy to flip through the book and find the chapter you're looking for. There are also clear icons to indicate if a recipe is considered light, or if it's meatless.
The book is in the style of a hometown fundraiser cookbook. Each recipe includes the name and town of the person who submitted it, and some include a brief comment from the cook about how you might want to serve it, or to whom. The author also scatters random little kitchen tips throughout the book.
The recipes are well organized, with cooking times and recommended crockpot sizes clearly indicated at the top. Any recipe marked "light" includes nutrition information at the end.
I'm giving this four stars instead of five because:
(1) I don't love the binding. It's a large cloth-bound volume (think big dictionary) that is awkward to use in the kitchen.
(2) The organization is a little loose. For instance, all hot dog recipes are listed in the pork section, even those calling for all-beef franks.
(3) The definition of "light" isn't really fair. The nutrition analysis assumes you use the smaller amounts in any range and leave off anything listed as optional. This seems reasonable, until you notice that the light recipe for chicken and dumplings indicates that the dumplings are optional.
I plan to try many of the recipes, and to use this cookbook for inspiration for my own creations. The sheer variety of options for each recipe makes me want to experiment with ingredients and combinations I may not have come up with on my own.
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263 of 283 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too many processed ingredients, January 30, 2009
This review is from: Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes! (Hardcover)
This cookbook is huge and full of recipes, and the variety is such that there is something for everyone in it. There are "light" and vegetarian options. However, the vast number of recipes in this book (at least half, I'd say) call for processed ingredients like canned soup and powdered soup mix. A recipe for applesauce where the first ingredient is a jar of unsweetened apple sauce is not a cookbook-worthy recipe by my standards. If you cook this way, you'll love this cookbook. It makes me wish I had had it (and a Crock Pot) in college, when my idea of alfredo sauce was a can of cream of mushroom soup.
Also use your discretion with the directions in the recipes and test your Crock out first. I've made one thing so far and found 8 hours on high to be far too much time for a pork tenderloin. It was done after 4. The book does tell you this too of course. It also is helpful by giving the ideal Crock Pot size for each recipe, with a good amount of variation.
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