Customer Reviews

The Good-to-Go Cookbook: Take-along Food, Quick Suppers, and Satisfying Snacks for On-The-Go Families

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the title implies, this cookbook would be useful for folks looking to prepare meals without simply resorting to microwaving frozen dinners. Some of the included recipes are the sorts of things that you might find in a club recipe book and in fact, I've seen variations of several of them. This is not a
"whole foods" type of cookbook: it makes heavy use of processed foods. For example, there is a recipe for a "pizza" which uses canned biscuit dough for the crust. The recipes are devoid of nutritional information so you'll have to use your own judgment in that regard. If you already have a collection healthy, quick meals, then this cookbook is not for you. On the other hand, if you are at a loss for how to feed a family that's frantically on the go, this book might be for you.

Designed for working families busy with school and after school activities this book encourages folks to bypass the fast food places and frozen foods section of the grocery store. Instead of paying for convienice, plan ahead for a week, shop once, and make your meals at home. The usual advice seen in many such books and stuff we have all heard many times before. In our case, much easier said than done.

After an introduction that is filled with tips on meal and menu planning, getting your teens involved in the kitchen beyond doing dishes and instead actually cooking, (which should also serve as reminder to check those smoke detector batteries and the expiration dates on the fire extinguishers) organizing your kitchen and pantry and other basic matters, the book in a chapter by chapter format covers all meal times and snacks.

Fittingly, the first chapter "Fast Break for Breakfast" covers the meal which is still the most important of the day. Mom was right and didn't need a government study to confirm it. After a brief commentary on encouraging teens to eat right and what breakfast foods to eat and what to avoid, the recipes finally begin on page 17. Leading off is "Fresh Fruit Cups" consisting of strawberries, bananas, apples, cherries, grapes, kiwi, etc, sliced and diced before being placed into waffle cones. If that doesn't work for you, the "Breakfast Pizza" (p.22-23), Waffle Sandwich (p. 26), "Muffins Made Easy" (p.31) or any of the others might work for you.

Chapter Two is about "Super Snacks" which are teen friendly and teens are encouraged to make. Smoothies and floats of various types start off the chapter before moving into such things as "Fruit Kabobs With Yogurt Dip" (P.45), "Aunt Mary's Cheese Ball" (p. 53), "Macho Nachos" (P.57), "Great Granola Crumble" (p. 69) and many others. Like the opening chapter, the recipes here are relatively easy to make with some a little more complex than others. Ingredients and easy to follow directions are the mainstay of these recipes along with the occasional tip.

"Grab and Go" is the theme of Chapter Three aimed for that rushing period when you have to get everyone ready right after you get home to get to the game, mandatory band practice or other after school activity. Not only things that you can eat in the car, but anytime foods and stuff that is good for you is the focus here. After some more generalized helpful tips, this chapter opens with "Tom's Turkey Roll" (p. 78) moves on to "Ham Pockets" (p. 81) and "Southwest- Style Cheesy Bread" (p. 89) among many others.

Working off of "Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches" is Chapter Four titled "The Lunch Crunch." Ease of preparation, speed and nutrition remain the key factors in a chapter that opens with "Texas Corn Chowder (p. 94). Many recipes follow including "Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad" (p.101), "Simple Stew "(p. 109), "Ultimate Travel Sandwich" (p. 125) which uses French bread to serve as a basis for a sub, and "Open Faced Pizza Hoagies" (p. 126).

The next several chapters work on the problem of dinner from a time angle. Chapter Five starts this part of the book with the idea of "15-Minute Dishes." These recipes work for a main course and can easily be doubled for company. Or doubled because you have a teenager that doubles as a human vacuum cleaner sucking up anything edible in sight. "Salmon Burgers" ( p. 130) starts things off before giving way to "Hamburger Crumble" (p. 136), "Quick Tuna-Noodle Casserole" (p. 139), "15-Mminute Chicken and Rice" (p. 182) and others.

"Thirty-Minute Dishes "comes in the next chapter for those with just a little more time. Whether it is "Grilled Spicy Chicken Stix" (p. 151), "Quickest Meatloaf In The West" (p. 163), "Savory San Antonio Pork Cutlets" (p.167), "Red Bean Burgers" (p. 175) or many others you are sure to find several that will work for you and your family.

Chapter Seven is aimed at "Family Meals and One-Pot Deals." Recipes designed for the family meal that involves everyone these include such recipes as "Chili-Baked Chicken" (p. 185), "Pizza Steak" (p.195) and "Classic Williams Pot Roast" (p.201) among many others. Cooking times (which does not include preparation time) run from thirty minutes to a couple of hours with each recipe having a number of preparation steps. While these are all easily done (like the others in this book) the preparation and cooking times are longer and they are aimed for that time when you have more time to eat with the family. Also included in this chapter are several marinades and dry rubs that can be used for other recipes.

"Pasta Please "is the theme of chapter eight which revolves around make things everyone will eat. The trick here is to get the pasta cooking while mixing other ingredients in a way to efficiently use your time. Surprisingly, an obvious choice of "Spaghetti" isn't in this chapter or in the book for that matter. Instead, recipes for "Caesar Pasta Salad" (p. 233) "Rotini Mexicalli" (p. 237), "Kids-Love-This-Pasta Pasta" (p. 240) which includes Broccoli (something my sons feel that having to eat is a part of the Spanish Inquisition) and "Sausage and Mozzarella Lasagna" (p. 249) among others.

"Simple Side Dishes" follows with things like "Greens and Cheese" (p. 256), "Cheddar Onion Pudding Pie" (p. 261), "Quick Potato Bake" (p. 267) and others. Forget just sticking a potato in the oven to cook like Mom used to do and the garnish was butter. No, here the garnish is sour cream, butter, cheese, chives, etc along with feta cheesy bread crumbs, green peppers and other things.

If, somehow, you have any room left there are the recipes in "Desert On A Dime." This final chapter covers things like "Chewy Chip Cookies" (p. 282), "Fool's Strawberry Cheesecake" (p. 237), "White Jersey Pizza" (p. 295) and many others.

A metric conversion chart and a seven page index bring this 327 page cookbook to a close. A cookbook filled with plenty of easy to follow recipes that will consistently create good food for any time of the day and schedule.


However, there are two drawbacks. The less serious one is the fact that unlike many cookbooks, this one has zero pictures. There are not any pictures of the finished dishes or of any step in the cooking process so that one can know if he or she is on the right track. With the book promoting heavily the involvement of teens, pictures would have been a nice touch to help them especially since they don't have the cooking background and experience many adults have.

The other issue is more serious. While each recipe does tell you how many it will make, it doesn't tell you the fat count, salt, etc. Considering that the entire book is guided by the idea of providing nutritional meals and avoiding high in fat/salt, etc. frozen dinners, and fast food, the omission of such information is surprising. One would expect such information to be included automatically in any cookbook these days and the fact that it isn't hurts the overall usefulness of the book. It should be noted that many of the recipes call for adding prepackaged sauces and the like which usually will be heavy in salt, fat, etc. The use of such items does seem contrary to the idea of nutrition being so important in the book but the use of such items will give you a starting point in gauging the recipe from a fat, salt, etc content.

Despite that huge and glaring flaw, the overall cookbook is a good one. Filled with plenty of simple practical recipes for good food, easy to understand tips, and other useful info, the book works well and is a good one to have in your kitchen. Unfortunately, because of the omission of actual nutritional numbers and pictures, the book isn't as good as it could have been.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2009

You don't have to be Martha Stewart to prepare healthy meals at home, so says Kathleen Hanna in her introduction and after just a quick flip though this book's pages, you'll see that's true.

Mrs. Hanna advocates getting organized by making a plan for your weekly meals and to plan your meals around your families activities. This is, after all, a cookbook for families on the go. She also advocates having your teens cook some of the meals with you. That seems like a good idea. Also, she gives plenty of hints on how to shop, so that you save money and that's always good. There is also a chapter on fast breakfasts and another on snacks, both aimed at the family with teenagers in the house. It's good to get some food in them before they rush out the door.

But the essence of any cookbook is the recipes themselves. Many of these can be made in under thirty minutes and that's important for busy families. We've done the Texas Ranch Steak and the Cheesy Linguine and they did come in under a half hour and they both came out just fine, I'll be making them again.

And there is a chapter on 15-minutes dishes, half the time of the 30-minute recipes I mentioned above and I tried the Barbecued Salmon Fillets and it did take me a little longer than 15 minutes, 19 to be exact as I had to light the grill and wait for it to heat up. There's a whole gang of these 15 and 30 minutes recipes, so if you are in a family that's always on the go, this just might be the book for you. It's way better than KFC or Mickey D's any day of the week.

This cookbook is well thought out and neatly organized into 10 easy to use chapters: Fast Break for Breakfast, Super Snacks, Grab and Go, The Lunch Crunch, 15-minute Dishes, 30-Minute Dishes, Family Meals and One-Pot Deals, Pasta, Please!, Simple Side Dishes, and Desserts on a Dime. There's even a Metric conversion chart on page 319.

I like the author's emphasis on preparing simple, healthy foods rather than resorting to convenient, junk/fast foods that most families are guilty of. Well, even the author recommends "dial-a-pizza" for kids' post-game snacks when she didn't have time (carefully avoiding the greasy pepperonis, sausages, bacon, etc). Most of the dishes are simple to prepare (kids will need adult supervision, of course) and the clear format makes it fun and easy to use for almost everyone in the family.

So far we've tried the Chicken Caesar Pitas which took less than 10 min. to prepare and everyone liked it. The author also provided tips for using different dressings or making this into a veggie meal. Point is: use your imagination and have fun!

I have a lot of cookbooks that I don't use but this one will be on my counter frequently! It already saved me from doing take-out tonight - we had a busy evening and I was sure I didn't have time (or the energy) to make dinner. I pulled out this book and found a quick recipe for salsa corn pasta that was easy, quick and everyone actually liked it. The recipes and ideas are simple and easy to put together. They also use "real" ingredients and not the kind of specialty items a lot of other cookbooks call for.

One of my favorite things about this cookbook is the attention given to families with tweens and teenage kids. So many family oriented cookbooks are all about toddlers and little kids but this one is geared toward an active family that is on the go with their kids as well.

I like the organization of this book as well as the contents. The cover is bright and cheery and there are interesting bits of text included with many of the recipes from the author.

Well worth 5 stars in my opinion!

I have sat down and throrougly read through the recipes and am pleasantly surprised. They seem to have geared this book to home with teenagers, but I still snatched it up because I have a 2, 4 and 6 year old in my home. It gets very tiring and repetitive trying to feed little ones daily. They get tired quickly and the less messy the better for us.

The recipes seem very healthy and wholesome. The author pushes for whole grains, which is a great thing for young and old families alike. Every aspect of meals is covered from: Snacks, lunch, brunch, dinner, one-pot meals, 30 minute meals, microwave meals, desserts, breakfast and even breakfast on-the-go. I also couldn't leave out the smoothies and drinks. The cookbook is put together wonderfully with a very easy to read format. Another great thing is that under each recipe there is a QUICK TIP with very useful information pertaining to that specific recipe.

There are recipes for lean beef, chicken, turkey and even come vegetarian meals. Very well rounded that I feel it can even satisfy the pickiest of eaters. This books is great for teens because they can follow the easy-to-read format and cook for themselves if necessary.

My one only gripe is that I wish the books was in spiral format with actual quick-lift tabs for all of the many individual sections. You could just quickly flip to your desired location and get going after a busy day for a quick meal.

Highly recommend and I have been cooking for about 17 years.

SAMPLE RECIPE FROM BOOK:
CHICKEN CAESAR PITAS
This recipe is easy to make and can be wrapped and carried just about anywhere.
Prep Time: 5 minutes Yield: 4-6 servings

2 cooked chicken breast halves, thiny sliced
3 cups finely chopped salad greens
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablesppons Caesar salad dressing
1 handful grape tomatoes
2-3 pita breads, halved

1. Combine the chicken, salad greens, Parmesan, mayo, salad dressing and tomatoes in a large bowl; toss to coat all of the ingredients.
2. Fill the pita halves and go.

QUICK TIPS
~Italian salad dressing may be used in place of the Caesar salad dressing.
~See pages 10 and 11 fo easy ways to prepare chicken for recipes such as this one.
~To make this a vegetarian main dish, replace the chicken with a can of drained garbanzo beans and serve with baby carrot sticks and Seasoned Pita Chips (page 66).

This is a great cookbook for families who are running constantly. The recipes are designed to be easy, quick, and relatively nutritional, although the focus of the book is more on easy & quick. With over 300 recipes within 10 categories, author Katheen Cannata Hanna has provided many choices for even those hard-to-please kids. As a family with three teen-age girls there are times when this will come in handy. Already two of my daughters have picked out recipes that they want to cook which will make my life a little easier.

I will say, though, that I was a little surprised at the use of the microwave on a select group of recipes. I personally use the microwave only to re-heat meals and never to cook so that was a little bit of an issue with me. And although I understand on some it's about cooking within a limited time frame there are some receipes where there really is no reason to use a microwave. One recipe in particular, the "High Protein Tomato Soup", which happens to be something I've made for years, says to combine a 10.5 ounce can of condensed soup, 10.5 ounces of milk and 1/2 a cup of sharp cheddar (I use mild but that's my own preference) and then "microwave to heat it through, stirring occasionally, until cheese melts." Believe me, when you cook this on the stove it only takes approximately 6 minutes to heat the soup, then you add the cheese at the end. There really is no advantage to microwaving here. There aren't many recipes like this but there are some, and is the reason I gave this a 4-star rating instead of 5.

That being said, I would still highly recommend this to any family, even if you aren't running in all different directions for soccer, piano lessons, etc. This is an easy cookbook to follow, even for teenagers, and provides some great ideas to add variety to your meals.

This book does exactly what it says. It is chock-ful of recipes requiring less than a handful of ingredients, kitchen and cooking tips, and fun anecdotes and stories about the recipe, which occasion it was served, what the reactions of the family or friends were. There are also great suggestions about reusing food from previous meals, as well as creative combinations and variations, as well as storage tips.

Since most of the recipes have a few ingredients as well as a few steps they make great cooking training for teenagers. Not only can they prepare the menu and shopping list, but they can quickly and easily put together tasty dishes, as well as freeze and store portions for snacks later on.

Finally, there are some one-of-a-kind recipes that the author invented that I have not seen elsewhere, such as Rascal Nuts, Untossed Salad, Go USA Pie in addition to the old standbys such as Meatloaf, Macaroni and Cheese Casserole, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

This is a good cookbook for dads and for anyone who is looking for simple recipes for food that tastes good. My mother, a very good and experienced cook, would probably not find the cookbook terribly helpful but it looks like the kind of cookbook that my mother might write for someone like me who does not spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Still, she would find some good recipes and new twists on old recipes.

Most of the ingredients are things you already have, so don't expect to make trips to the grocery store looking for arugula or some obscure spice that you have never heard of. The recipes liberally use fruit, vegetables, wheat flour and other "light" ingredients to make them somewhat healthier than typical "mom food." Several recipes call for "whatever you have on hand" and give you a list of items that you can toss into the recipe based on your tastes and what you have in the pantry. Unlike some cookbooks, you can look at the recipe and get a good idea of what the finished product should look like and taste like.

UPDATE: After having this cookbook for over a year, I still come back to it time and time again. It has become a family favorite.

This cookbook is filled with wonderful quick recipes for families that are always on the "go" and have trouble coming up with a good wholesome meals that the whole family can enjoy. There are plenty of categories to pick from: breakfast, snacks, one pot dinners, grilling, desserts and many more. Many of the recipes call for meats and fruits we normally do not use but they can easily be substituted with other items. Several of the recipes ask for meats and batter mixtures to be made ahead of time and frozen or stored for later use. There were a few crockpot recipes that for sure will be a big help. This book does not have illustrations of the foods but it is extremely easy to read and follow. My 11 year old daughter has already marked several pages for recipes she will be able to make with no guidance.

A variety of the recipes are great for vegetarians since there are bunch of recipes calling just for vegetables and fruits. This is a great gift for a single father, mother or just for that "always on the run" family.