Customer Reviews

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Very disappointing The recipes are filled with unhealthy ingredients .The concept is great but the nutritional benefits are not there-- so it isnt a quick fix for me.
Hard to imagine Wolfgang endorsing such a book

I have to take issue with those reviewers who have attacked this book so passionately! True, there are "gourmet" cooks who wouldn't dream of adding any prepared foods to their recipes; they obviously have the time and energy to spend hours in the kitchen every day. However, I don't understand why a "gourmet" cook would even consider buying a book entitled "Semi-Homemade" anything!

This book was obviously written for people like me, who no longer have the time or energy to spend all day in the kitchen, and "Semi-Homemade Cooking" has been the answer to my prayers! I probably own a hundred cookbooks, most of them gathering dust on a bookshelf in the living room. I've been cooking for forty years, and only a few cookbooks have stood the test of time well enough to remain on my kitchen counter; this is the newest one to make the grade.

No, I do not consider myself a "gourmet" cook. I used to make complicated, time-consuming dishes that took hours and hours, but, frankly, many of them weren't any better than my favorite quick & easy recipes! And at 63, I want recipes that I can put together quickly and that everyone will enjoy. I am having a great time trying one recipe after another from this cookbook because none of them have taken a lot of time, and every single one has been delicious! Try Country Biscuits and Gravy, for example; my husband asks for it every Sunday. And Salad Chinois (Chinese Chicken Salad) is superb!

Bottom line: This is not a book for food snobs! This is a book for people who want delicious meals they can prepare themselves with a minimum of fuss. Try it, you'll love it! Many thanks to Sandra Lee -- I'm ordering "Semi-Homemade II".

This woman cannot cook. It's a travesty that she has her own show on the Food Network with the likes of Mario Batalli and Alton Brown. Okay, here's one of her brilliant ideas.

1) Pumpkin Pie Petit-fours: Bake your own crust in these small tins, then buy a WHOLE PUMPKIN PIE, scoop out the filling, and pipe it into the new crusts. Why not eat the damn pumpkin pie that you just bought!? She did the same thing with a cheesecake. She ruined a perfectly good cheescake just so she could pipe the filling onto her petit-fours crusts.

Doesn't that seem a little backwards to you? If you were to make a "semi-homemade" petit-fours tray, don't you think you'd want to just make the filling yourself, and then use storebought crusts?

Here's another great idea of hers.

A vanilla wafer, topped with a slice of banana, with a dollop of store-bought banana pudding on top. Voila, instant crap! She really has mad skillz, doesn't she? Mad culinary skillz. I could've done this when I was four.

I swear, the lady can't even make hamburger helper.

Semi-homemade my butt. More like barely-homemade. More like "I bought everything pre-made and then ARRANGED it to look nice." That's not cooking, that's lying.

And her "table-scapes" are horrible.

Sandra Lee is known to audiences nationwide from her appearances on the QVC shopping channel and numerous network and cable television programs. Her Semi-Homemade solutions have also been featured in People, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, Country Home and Victoria. She has also appeared on NBC's Today. FOX's Good Day LA and Good Day New York.

Sandra Lee is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals She also studied at the acclaimed Cordon Bleu.

When selecting a cookbook, normally I will buy cookbooks that promote "cooking from scratch." This is the first cookbook that claims that "Nothing is Made from Scratch." What Sandra means is, you will still be cooking, just parts of the recipe are "convenience/prepackaged foods" or packet mixes. This slices time off making cakes for sure!

Firstly, these recipes looked far too easy and so I was a bit skeptical. Secondly, I don't normally buy anything not in its raw state. Buying "pancake mix" was new to me. Heading home from the grocery store, I almost felt a little sinful.

This cookbook contains 101 recipes such as Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes, Southwestern Turkey Chili, roasted Pepper Soup, Kahlua Tiramisu and Berry Cookie Cobbler. You will find recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes, desserts, snacks and even treats you can make for your pets.

The beauty of this cookbook is almost more in the "Semi-Homemade" techniques than in the actual recipes. Technically, you can adapt these recipes for your own use in many ways.

Tonight I made the "Steak Pinwheels with Sun-Dried Tomato Stuffing and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes." In the recipe, it calls for sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in oil, but I just used the ones I had in oil and reduced the amount to 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil.

The Stove top stuffing mix I found was only 6 ounces, but the recipe called for a 6.6 ounce box. It still worked fine. Instead of just salt and pepper on the skirt steak, I used garlic salt and freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns. Ok, so I cheated and made the potatoes from scratch because I had potatoes I needed to use up.

Then, for desert, no lies! I waited to make the desert until "after" dinner. This was new. I didn't feel stressed at all. I took the pound cake out of the freezer, cut it into cubes and drizzled the rum-butter sauce all over the cake. Yum! Then, for an added touch, you can mix in some frozen raspberries with the jam. I also used frozen raspberries on top and added whipped cream. The "Raspberry Trifle with Rum Sauce" is absolutely delish! She doesn't say to use whipped cream, but Trifle without whipped cream just isn't the same.

So, to explain how much time I saved, I made the recipe in about 10 minutes. Since the vanilla pudding was already cold and the frozen raspberries cooled down the entire desert very fast, I could have served this almost immediately. Not having to make the pound cake was a real treat and hey, I didn't even have to make custard.

My husband absolutely loved the Trifle and the gravy for the Steak Pinwheels. I was queen of the kitchen!

The full-color, full-page photographs are really tempting. Unlike other cookbooks, the food I made actually did look exactly like the pictures. Each recipe has time estimates and suggested brand-name ingredients. If you are looking for a cookbook for entertaining, this one has some excellent time saving ideas.

I noticed that Sandra also suggests you plan your entire week's menu in advance. This is a great time-saving idea and has worked for me for years! Keeping "staples" on hand is always useful.

Contents Include:

Grocery Shopping - Hints and Tips to get you in and out of the store fast.

Brand Names, Prepping, Cooking, and cooling Times, Budget, Leftovers, Storage, Music

Some Examples of the Recipes:

Breakfast - Muffins, Crepes and Country Biscuits and Gravy

Lunch - Curried bowtie Salad, Beefy Stew or Gnocchi Dippers

Dinner - Dijon Chicken and Mushrooms, Meaty Microwave Lasagna, Tropical Salmon

Desserts - Vanilla Cream Pie, Bananas Foster Pie, Rum Cake

Appetizers - Sesame Chicken Drumettes, Italian Fondue, Smoked Salmon and Olive Blini or Oriental Pork Wrappers

Soups & Salads - Roasted Pepper Soup, Cheddar Potato Soup, Bay Shrimp and Avocado Salad, Spicy Crab Salad.

Snacks - Caramel Popcorn, Hummus Pitas, Bagel Chip Dip

Gravies & Sauces - Sherry Mushroom Gravy, Pesto, Hollandaise Sauce

Pet Foods - Bone-Nanza Bones, Healthy Hound Stew, Kitty Katafornia Rolls

Sandra starts each chapter with a note about the recipes to follow. There is a full index, but each chapter also has its own contents page.

Semi-Homemade is for any cook who is looking for "shortcut" strategies. You really can make delicious meals in "minutes." If you are looking for more leisure time, but want to still enjoy home-made meals, this might be for you.

If you are looking for low-salt, low-fat cooking, I think you could adapt many of the recipes by purchasing low-salt beef stock or mixes that say low salt. With prepackaged foods, that has to be a consideration. Although many of the recipes are healthier because she uses techniques that make them low-fat. Like her "Healthy Onion Rings" that are made in the oven.

I can't wait to make the Tropical Salmon and Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes.

A cookbook to make your life easier! Really inspired me to get back in the kitchen and have some fun. It was like a cooking holiday!

~The Rebecca Review

just because the recipe says to use pre-made ingredients doesn't mean you can't take the extra time to make as many of them from scratch that you can, like shredding your own cheese, cutting up a onion, or making your own mashed potatoes, etc. I sub as many fresh ingredients as I can for the pre-packaged and I still have a good meal made in no time. That may defeat the purpose of the cookbook, BUT, the recipes are what stand out, and any can me made with fresh or pre-packaged items.

They are good, everyday family meals. The photos and lay out are outstanding, and the books are well priced for the quality we get from them. Worth the money.

I am all for shortcuts in the kitchen and I am not a health nut or a food snob, but I was hard-pressed to find more than a handful of recipes in this book that were edible. Most of them were seriously lacking in the flavor department. The fact that most of them are very poor, nutrition-wise, also concerned me a lot. She seems beholden to too many ingredients that are high in fat and sodium, as well as chemicals and preservatives. I mean, why use artificial coffee creamer in an eggnog recipe? I received this book as a gift, from a well-meaning friend. I would have much rather gotten one of rachel Ray's books, as she really knows how to make fast and simple meals from fresh ingredients.

After reading a few of the reviews of this cookbook, I was a little confused. I bought Semi-Homemade Cooking without reading any reviews, and I'm glad I did. I'm a regular old mom and housewife, and one of my main goals every day is to make a delicious, hearty meal for my hard-working husband to appreciate when he gets home. I can't make a from-scratch masterpiece every day (especially with a one-year-old running around), so that is where this cookbook comes in handy!
Sure, there is some obvious brand-name dropping, but that doesn't make me buy them. So far, the mushroom steak and sweet mash as well as the sweet and sour pork recipe have become regulars in our monthly meal rotation. The easy cookie cobbler was delicious and a cinch to make. My only problem with this cookbook is there were far too many alcoholic drink recipes and fancy-pants-type recipes. Not the type of stuff you'd make for an every-day family dinner. Overall, Semi-homemade Cooking lives up to its name and will save you some time while still providing your family with a great-tasting, satisfying meal after a long day!

My mom bought this book for me and I read through some of the comments that people posted here (both positive and negative). As a working mom with a toddler I have to admit that the ease of these recipies is what appeals to me. I like that Sandra Lee offers brand name items to purchase and that many of her recipies are not labor intensive. Do I wish she used more vegetables and fresh ingredients. . . sure. But I also know that I can substitute those in on my own.

Initally I liked that there was a section of kid friendly recipies but this became my big disappointment in the book. Many of her kid recipies are deep fried and I have NO INTENTION of frying food for my child (nor do I own a deep fryer). For many reasons, the biggest of which being that it is simply unhealthy. There is a place for fried food in cooking but I don't think that place is with kids. In this regard, I wish she has provided modifications for baking some items instead.

I would recommend this book for a way to get additional recipes for your collection that are easy to do. I am a pretty good cook, and can do lots of fancy recipes from scratch, but sometimes I just don't want to take all that time, and just want to throw something together from the cabinet (other than Hamburger Helper). The writing style of the book is easy to follow - you don't have to be a master chef to understand the ingredients, yet you also don't get sick of a bunch of cutesy words (EVOO anyone?) like some other popular cookbooks.

If you are learning how to be a great cook, this is not the book for you. But if you want some quick and easy meals, this and her other Semi-Homemade Meals book are great choices.

My husband and I love to cook, but our crazy schedules during the week don't allow us to cook meals from scratch like we love to do on the weekends. In the past, we'd pick up fast food since we didn't have time to cook, leaving us frustrated because we weren't spending any time in our kitchen Monday through Thursday. Eating out is also terribly expensive and unhealthy.

We bought both of Sandra Lee's cookbooks and love them for the purpose they were created. We're now getting to spend time in our kitchen on Mondays through Thursdays, producing healthful meals. We're losing weight and saving money!