Customer Reviews

A Man, a Can, a Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought this book for my husband who does not cook. He actually looked at the book, picked out recipes, and fixed some of the food. The directions were simple and they even provide pictures of the ingredients so you know what exactly to buy. The book is cute and is very simplistic. It is not for the gourmet, the dieter, or anyone who likes fresh vegetables. As the title implies, most recipes use only canned food. On the plus side, the recipes are simple, easy to prepare, and do not require a lot of planning. The results vary from edable to pretty good.

I think that this book serves it's purpose beautifully. It was bought for me by my girlfriend, who was growing tired of my "I can't cook" mantra. I'd been given The Joy of Cooking in the past, but the realistic chance of me suddenly making a pot roast out of the blue were pretty much nil.

This book is great because it assumes you know _nothing_ about cooking and walks you along in baby steps, using mostly cans and easily bought foods with basic cooking skills. After having made several of the recipes (all of which were easy, quick, low cost, tasty, and reasonably healthy), I'm starting to experiment with other ingredients and may look into other "real" cookbooks in the future.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with _very_ little or no cooking experience. I think it fills a niche nicely. It's put me in the kitchen cooking, which no other cook book has been able to do. Highly recommended.

I bought this book for my father when he was newly widowed and had no idea how to cook for himself. These 50 recipes, presented by Men's Health magazine, are quick and easy and seasoned with a dash of humor. This is a good book for the beginner because each recipe uses only a few basic ingredients, mostly from cans. Its thick paperboard pages provide clear cooking instructions, photos of the foods to be used, nutritional information, and additional cooking and nutrition tips. The categories of "real guy" meals and snacks include ham, chicken, fish, chili, beans, SpaghettiOs, veggies, fruit, and beer (yes, beer!). Some of the recipes are rather strange (stirfry SpaghettiOs, or drunken corn), but for the most part they are far better than the steady diet of fast food and junk food that a person might otherwise subsist on if unable to cook. I recommend it for anyone, male or female, who is at a complete loss about the mysteries of the kitchen.

Eileen Rieback

I bought this book for several of my male friends who have mild cooking phobias. As mentioned by several other reviewers, it would have helped for the book to have a clearer diagram of all ingredients, but overall, the book took a lot of the guesswork out, and really made the recipes look less like a recipe and more like a diagram to assemble shelves. I think "seeing" what they are putting into their meal made it less daunting.

The food is (don't tell this to them) really healthy overall, as well, which is a major bonus. They, too can cook with fruit! Vegetables don't have to be harvested by hand to be a good part of a meal!

Great (and funny) gift for a guy who may just need a little nudge to find his way into the kitchen.

I love this book! The recipes are good, wholesome, and easy to prepare. I especially liked the feature that shows you via pictures what canned goods or other ingredients are needed to create your "gourmet delight." I've tried over 1/2 of the recipes in here and not one is bad or hard to prepare. Being that they are simple with few ingredients, you can embellish them to your liking by substituting ingredients or changing quantities, and such. A nice basic cookbook for those who hate to cook, are cooking for 1 or 2 people, or are just learning how to cope in the kitchen. The desserts are great and you'll be cooking like Emeril in no time!!!!! I look forward to more books like this.

"AMAPAC" was my first foray into the field of cooking. Two aspects of this book caught my interest 1) the cookbook itself is a brilliantly designed construct, with spill-proof pages and lay-flat design and 2) the recipe formats are masterpieces of visual instruction, with iconic brandname representations for each of the major ingredients and very simple, "open this can and that bag and heat" instructions. Also in its favor, 3)the accompanying text is also pleasantly humorous in spots and very much appropriate to its audience of "guys".

Sadly, I found that as easy as the recipes were, most of them produced mediocre-to-crappy results, and there were very few recipes that I wanted to try again.( In defense of the book, I'm pretty sure that the author got the very best results possible given the constraints of the format, and I was such a poor cook in the beginning that Escoffier himself might not have been able to do anything with me). And the book only had 50 recipes to start with - not a very good value for the price. So I gave it away, and went looking for a "real" cookbook with "real" recipes, and eventually got a better start with Russ Klettke's "A Guy's Gotta Eat", which was much more helpful both in terms of the quality of the dishes it produced and the motivation and encouragement for young men new to kitchen environs.

Still, when my nephew started moved out of his mother's house to live on his own, I got him a copy of this book (and the sequel, AMAPAC 2) along with the Klettke book, in the hope that he would learn to eat something besides microwave dinners and fast food take out. He liked the design of the books immensely, and he will definitely eat better with this book than without it.

In summary: great concept, design and format; but the recipes are barely palatable. Get it if you have absolutely no clue in the kitchen, or you know someone with that problem. Much more suitable to the young male audience than "Semi-Homemade", but anyone with more than 6 months of experience in the kitchen would choose "Semi-Homemade" without hesitation.

This book is nearly perfect for its intended market. Some users complained that the recipes weren't exactly gourmet, that they were not appetizing enough, but they are not intended to be anything fancy.
I bought this book for my boyfriend, who was too intimidated by any of my cookbooks to give cooking a real try. He just wanted to be able to cook his own dinner. This meant he would only have to visit the grocery store once a week, so the ingredients would have to be common enough for him to have in his pantry. It also meant the recipes could be cooked in less than an hour with a minimum of preperation, make small servings, and be relatively nutritious. He now makes dinner fo rme sometimes, and they're not half bad. Some of the recipes I refuse to try, but that's a matter of personal taste, not because the recipes are bad.
The book gives detailed information on ingredients, preperation time and skill needed, nutrition, and is simply laid out and is easy to read. A great buy for your guy, college students, or any beginning cook.

I looked all over for a cookbook that was easy to follow. Every cookbook I found had me looking for things in the fresh food section of the store and chopping things at home. Too difficult for me. A Man, A Can, A Plan keeps me from getting lost at the grocery store and cooking simple but filling dishes at home. Oh, the book does give optional ingredients that you would find in the fresh food ailes.

This is not only a great book for single men,but for busy people who don't have time to cook. Nutritional dishes can be prepared with a minimum of fuss. There is a good variety, and also little hints on easier procedures to follow. I think this book is good to give to the senior citizens in your family who do not like to go to a great deal of trouble to prepare meals.

I bought this book in addition to "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her: Surviving Away from Home" and I was very impressed. I bought a second copy! I bought one for me, and one for my grandson (who is heading off to college). I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is excellent. It isn't just for men -- grandmothers use it too!