Customer Reviews

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Slow Cooker Recipes

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I will admit to avoiding these books like the plague for a long time. I wouldn't even flip through them to look at the pictures until my mom finally talked me into it. I love the photos. That right there will sell me on any cookbook, but I also like the lay out. I wish Rachael Ray would do the same thing. I think I'd like her books a lot more if they had photos like these do. Anyway, I ended up buying the slow cooker, the 20 minute meals and the grilling book. I took them home and spent a lot of time looking at the photos and reading each recipe and realized these are my new favorite cookbooks. I do cheat, I cut up my own onions, I make my own potatoes and sweet potatoes instead of using canned and pre-packaged ones, I grate my own cheese, and I try to use fresh ingredients over the pre-packaged, which I know defeats the purpose of the cookbook, but the recipes are right there with my own taste buds that its worth the extra time to make as many of the ingredients I can from scratch. I ended up buying all of the books and will continue collecting these as long as she prints them, and as long as they stay the same with the color photos and nice lay outs.

I love the sweet potato sheppards pie. That has to be my favorite so far, though I have enjoyed everything I have made.

I wish I hadn't been so stubborn for so long and found these books sooner. They are great, and remember, just because she says to buy pre-made mashed potatoes doesn't mean we can't make our own without all the added preservatives and junk, or that we can't cut op our own onions, etc. The options are there to help us save time, but if we have time, we can use fresh ingredients in place of pre-packaged.

I Love this book. Love it with a capital 'L'!! It's got a great sampling of recipes and ingredients. I'm a big fan of the 5 ingredients chapter. It makes it easy where I'm a fresh out of college student so I don't have to buy all kinds of stuff for one meal. I was also amazed by the desserts you can make in the crock pot (Hot Cocoa Cake looks sinfully delicious--mmmmm!) Sandra Lee also put in some helpful hints and tips about using a crock pot that you may not know if you're a first time user or haven't used one in a long time. She addresses issues that affect both the new digital crockpots and the ones that just have a knob for off, low and high settings. I was impressed with the section that also doubles as a casserole section. I never thought about using the stoneware (if you have a removable stoneware of your crock) to double as a casserole dish....so many new ideas! One thing I recommend (and I saw this on her show) is to spray the inside of your crockpot with non stick cooking spray every time you use it and it'll never be a nightmare to clean again! It's worked every time for me.

I decided to pull the ol' crock pot out again when I went back to work full time. I thought the whole point of slow cooking is to multi task and who does short cuts better than Sandra Lee?

I agree with much in the other reviews such as the great photos. I also like her tips up front especially that slow cookers don't evaporate liquid like stove top so be sure to lighten the liquid measures when converting recipes to the crockpot. I do wish she would have written a little more of an introduction about each dish or how she came up with it, etc.

The Lamb Shanks and Canellini were wonderful! The Lamb with Pomegranate, OK. But I do like a lot of her ideas. One idea that DID NOT work out, as another review pointed out is RICE. YOU CANNOT MAKE RISOTTO WITH A SLOW COOKER. EVER.

I knew in my heart, or else why would cooks bother standing stove side stirring, stirring, stirring, their risottos? My Fig, Arugula and Bleu Cheese Risotto turned out like one big vat on sticky rice, a glutinous mess! I am certain if it had been made the old fashioned way it would have been delicious. Why were these rice recipes not tried out in a test kitchen? That's why I'm deducting one star.

By the way, a bonus to this book are casserole recipes. I have made the Tamale Bake so EASY and so good.

I am a busy, working mother without extra time to experiment in the kitchen. Glancing through this cookbook for the first time, I found ideas I've been looking for to serve low-stress, healthy meals to my family. Just knowing what foods are available and work well in a slow cooker is worth the price of the book. I will use improvisation and adaptation with these recipes to fit our personal needs, but this is a cookbook I can actually use for cooking, not just for decorating a shelf. Very family-friendly.

I bought this cookbook because I had to have dinner ready when the Dad and I got home from work and we were hungry. I've tried several of the recipes and so far I haven't found one that we didn't like. There is minimal prep and it's easy with prepackaged items. I get things together the evening before, the dry items all go in one bowl and meats and soups in another, that way at 4 in the morning I just put it all from the fridge to the slow cooker and leave it. This is the best slow cooker cookbook I've found.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon of all those who dislike Sandra Lee's approach to cooking. I'm an avid watcher of most programs on the Food Network and while Lee is not my favorite chef, I find her entertaining and relaxing to watch on weekends.

Many criticize her because she isn't cooking, she just mixes up pre-packaged foods filled with sodium, fat, and preservatives to make mediocre concoctions that look and smell better than they taste.

I really wanted to like this book. I flipped through the pages and saw the great explanation of slow cooking techniques and the beautiful full-color photos. The book didn't seem overly-reliant on pre-packaged foods and I figured it would be a great guide for my new slow cooker.

This book has let me down. I made the "Easiest Ever Paella" and it took twice the stated amount of time to cook and when it was done the rice was a gooey mess (consistency of old oatmeal or grits), the rice stuck to the bottom of the Crock Pot, and the dish was too salty for my palate. On a second try I made the White Chili and it was mediocre. I let it cook on low all day while I was at work and when I served it the beans were mushy and the flavor wasn't as full as I expected. Did anybody test any of these recipes? Where is she getting the food in the pictures? The food I made looked absolutely nothing like the pics.

I'm giving this book 2 stars because the layout is nice and the pictures are great. If you use some of the tips from the first section of the book, you can probably modify some of the recipes and save them from disaster. My biggest criticism of Lee is that she assumes that her readers are too busy to even chop an onion, so she suggests using pre-chopped frozen onions. Some of the ingredients in her book are difficult to find (or discontinued). It often costs four times more to buy pre-prepared food than to spend ten extra minutes and do it from scratch.

If you want to cook fast, I suggest Rachel Ray's books. She may have an annoying, goofy personality, but at least she cooks from scratch. Her recipes haven't let me down yet.

I have 2 major complaints with this book.

1. She frequently uses spice packages not available in my grocery store.

2. At least 75% of her recipes cook for less than 8 hours.

I work full time, which means these dishes are cooking for 9-12 hours. A recipe calling for a 4-6 hr cook time is toast at 10 hrs even with a programmable crockpot with a "warm" setting. Since I bought this book to help me feed my family as soon as we walk in the door, I am very disappointed. That said, I find the recipes to be successful if you have the flexibility to come home at lunch to start dinner (and you're lucky enough to find the seasoning packets she calls for).

This cook book is great. The recipes are quick and they taste great. I just spent a whole week cooking her recipes and loved every minute. These recipes get you out of the kitchen fast. I am also giving these recipes to my daughter who is getting married in a few weeks. They are easy for working moms,by the time you get home your dinner is ready for you.

I saw this book in stores, and wanted to buy it but knew I could get it cheaper through Amazon. Before buying I read all the Amazon reviews and they made me a little nervous about buying it. A lot of people complained the recipes weren't turning out right. Those people must be idiots. I have tried 4 recipes so far and ALL are fantastic! It is the first time I have ever even used a crock pot. They are all so easy to make, practically brainless. I would recommend this book. If you are an idiot, beware...I guess.

After reading the reviews here, I was cautious about getting the book. When it arrived, I picked out about 4 recipes and bought the ingrediants. Let me tell you, I have never been so excited about a cookbook!! The recipes turned out great and were very easy to make. It makes enough for my family of 6. Working the night shift makes it hard to fix dinner some times so to be able to put everything in the crockpot before I go to bed and have it ready when I get up is perfect!