Customer Reviews

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook

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The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook is an unassuming little cookbook with a misleading name but some excellent recipes. I think this book sometimes veers more toward the quick and inexpensive rather than true "frugal foodie" territory, but the recipes I tried were nonetheless really delicious! While some of the recipes seem a bit out of place on the basis of "frugal" (pork chops and beef tenderloin instead of cheaper and more time-consuming cuts of meat) or "foodie" (imitation Egg McMuffins), those I did try were well worth the effort.

The fruit crisp in the "Brunches" section was so tasty that I made it twice, once with a mix of blueberries, blackberries, plums, nectarines, and pluots, and another time with a variety of stone fruits. Although I thought I'd tried pretty much every variation on crisp, crumble, and cobbler, this one used a different technique: the "crumble" part is made with egg as the only fat and then melted butter is drizzled over the top. This is nice in that it skips an annoying step (cutting in the butter) and also yields a tasty and crisp topping. My only issue with this recipe was that it calls for about twice as much butter as is really needed. When made with half the butter, though, this crisp recipe is definitely a keeper.

The second recipe I tried was the lemon-and-asparagus pasta. This is again one of those dishes that I've made many variations of, but Frugal Foodie presented a new and tasty version. Lots of butter coats the intensely lemon-y pasta, and cooking the asparagus in a bit of vegetable stock results in tender and flavorful veggies. We added dots of goat cheese on top for a little tang, but either way this is a very yummy pasta dish that I'll be adding to my summer repertoire.

Finally, I tackled the apricot preserves. I've always been really intimidated by canning, but when I saw three pounds of apricots on sale for ninety-nine cents at the grocery store, I knew this was the time to be daring! I messed up the recipe, accidentally leaving out the last-minute addition of lemon juice until the jars were already in their hot-water bath, so the jam had to be refrigerated or frozen to be safe to eat. However, even with the error, the preserves were still absolutely delicious! I definitely look forward to doing more preserving in the future...and next time, hopefully I'll get it right so I can have shelves lined with beautiful jars!

Plusses of this cookbook include some truly delicious and creative recipes, as well as more typical recipes that are likely pretty reliable and tasty if my recipe testing is any indication. There are also various tips sprinkled throughout the book that might be helpful to those just starting to try and cut down on their food budget. A negative is that the selection of truly unique recipes is padded with quite a few basic recipes like oatmeal and eggs. These may be helpful for a college student or beginner cook but are probably not really necessary for someone more seasoned in the kitchen. The book also lacks any photos and is sprinkled with distracting quotations that don't add much to the reading experience. Overall, I think this book is geared more toward busy moms or students than foodies who want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen getting the most out of inexpensive ingredients, but it likely serves that group well and definitely includes some culinary gems.

Photos of the recipes I tried are here: [...]

Frugal Foodie Cookbook by Lara Starr w/Lynette Shirk ISBN 978-1-57344-363-0
Review by Chris Phillips
A small book like this, at 6.9" x 6", will be lost on many a cookbook shelf. However, there are plenty of reasons to keep this one on the counter and handy. Printed in the style of the "Dummy" series books, there are tips, hints and quotes interspersed throughout this delightful collection of recipes and more.
Starr and Shirk have found and included many recipes that most cooks will be looking for at times when running short of specific supplies or ingredients. From the "3-in-1 Eye-Opening Mix" (pg. 18) through "Best Dressed Salads" with a chart to show how to mix herbs together (pg. 62) and to "Cents-able Solutions: Savvy Substitutions" (pg. 114, 115) with a chart showing common substitutes for things that might not be in the pantry. There are recipes of all qualities and styles where the gourmet can vary ingredients for that special taste or the rushed mom can have things already prepared for immediate serving up for dinner.
There are tips in marquee boxes like "Processor Points" delineating how to clean the blade and how to really clean the compartments. There are "Cents-able Solutions" like the one mentioned above in a different style of marquee box. Interspersed throughout are short quotes from famous and infamous persons. Zsa-Zsa Gabor - "I'm a marvelous housekeeper, every time I have a man, I keep his house." To by M.F.K. Fisher - "Almost every person has something secret he likes to eat".
The recipes are good and easy to follow. The ingredients are listed first so the pantry can be checked before starting. However there is no index or cross reference to help find something specific. Even the chapters and entries in the table of contents do not provide any type of sorting, just titles of the sections are referenced there.
This book will help anyone trying to save money by trying to use what is already in the pantry. The recipes are simple enough to follow and there are tables and charts throughout to help with substitutions and changes. However, this is not the book for someone who already does this on a regular basis. With the odd size of the book, the missing index and references to items in it, and the odd and limited table of contents it could becomes harder to use than others that are available.
[...]

Not since "The Supermarket Handbook" by Nikki and David Goldbeck has there been such an invaluable and highly recommended guide to making the most of one's food purchasing dollars. But just in time to deal with the budgetary pressures of increases in food costs combined with the currently dismal economic conditions of the country is Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk's "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook", A compendium of practical, useable advice on stretching the food budget by the creative (and delicious!) use of ingredients and left-overs. Of special note is that at the end of each chapter of thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' recipes, are tips for saving money at the grocery story, the restaurant, and when dining at home. Enhanced with recipes for beauty treatments that can be inexpensively created at home for pennies on the dollar of what those same treatments would cost 'store bought', "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook", with recipes ranging from Sweet-and-Sour Glazed Meatloaf", to a Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza, to Ted's Grilled Cheese Sandwich, is the perfect addition to the cookbook collections of budget stressed families.

I love The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook. It's fun to read, and the recipes are both frugal and doable. In fact, many of the recipes are time-savers as well as money-savers. The book is divided into chapters by mealtimes and occasions: breakfast, lunch, dinner, parties, snacks, and so on.

Nearly all of the recipes use "from scratch" ingredients, and some are homemade substitutes for pricey convenience foods. Here are some examples of the recipes that are included:

-Coffee drinks, like lattes and mochas
-Casseroles and quiches for brunch
-Homemade candies
-Dirt-Cheap Self-Filling Cupcakes (Yum!)
-Exponential Chicken (one chicken feeds two people for five days)
-Baby and toddler foods
-Thrifty gifts - fancy soaps and foods that make frugal, lovely, handmade gifts

The pages also contain quotations, kitchen tips, trivia, and household tips. This book has earned a place in my kitchen.

Starr and Shirk have written a great cookbook! My daughter, who is 7, decided that Gingerbread Cupcakes must be shared with her school friends. Now I cannot keep enough in the house and am telling the other Mother's to purchase the book because I sent in my resignation as the weekly Gingerbread Cupcake maker, only because life is a little busy. There are so many great ideas as well as recipes. Today I are making apricot preserves and the Friendship Bread Starter in preparation for holiday gifts. Thank you for a fun, useful and delicious book.

I just received my copy in the mail today, and I love this book! The recipies sound delicious, but even more, I like the way the author writes. Girlfriend chatty, funny, and a great sense of family. I'm buying more copies for my friends.

This book helps my belief if you can improve what you eat
without spending more at the check out, do it.

I bought this book because I had a gift card and I am SO glad I did. It may not be gourmet, but it's about making things for cheap that don't taste cheap and it's perfect at it. It's got some really basic recipes, which are there, I think, because they're part of the tips. All of the recipes are clever and have come in handy on many occasions, even if some of them are just putting together things that no one thought of, but make sense. All in all, it's a great book and I definitely recommend it.

I bought this for my mom for Christmas. She had heard about the book and asked for it. I looked it over and thought it was very neat. There were lots of tips about saving money on groceries and eating healthy. Nothing was complicated. It is a good buy!

I intended to give this book to my daughter,but kept it myself.There are many good ideas for singles,and some very interesting recipes.I'm really enjoying usiung it!