I Want My Dinner Now!: Simple Meals for Busy Cooks [Paperback]

Renee Pottle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2005

A perfect mix of old-fashioned favorites and creative new entrees sure to become part of your family's everyday repertoire. Most dishes are low fat and salt and use fresh and pre-packaged, but not highly processed ingredients. Preparation is so quick and easy that even novice cooks will feel like experts, and better yet-the recipes are also inexpensive to prepare. All are perfect for busy, weeknight cooking.

You will find all your restaurant favorites - Sweet and Sour Chicken, Vegetable Curry, Chicken Cacciatore, etc - made easily at home. One-pot meals like Szechwan Beef, Tropical Chicken and Pasta Primavera will have you cooking a delicious meal with fewer dirty dishes. Mom's favorites are here - New England Fish Chowder, Chicken and Rice Casserole, and Better than a Burger Meatloaf - with modern shrotcuts and healthy ingredients. Don't forget the kids! They will be pleased with Turkey Wraps made with peanut butter and mandarin oranges, Beef and Macaroni Pot and Welsh Rarebit. There is even a section of recipes using your favorite appliances, the slow cooker, microwave, rice cooker and electric grill.

Every recipe is written for both two and six servings, meeting the needs of the single cook and families alike. A well-stocked pantry list and daily grocery lists help you stay organized. Suggested weekly menus keep the "what's for dinner?" question at bay.

The author, a Home Economist and Educator, even provides "serve with" suggestions to make each meal nutritionally complete, and additional cooking tips help solve the occasional dinnertime emergency. Each recipe is on a single page and the cover lays flat for easy use.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A gem of a book. The author offers lots of good, quick recipes families will love, but adds some features that make this cookbook a real stand-out. Each recipe lists ingredients you'll probably find in your pantry, and those you may have to add to your shopping list. There are tips, variations, and serve-with suggestions on each page. This may be the best feature, each recipe can be made for either two or six people, with ingredient quantities for both. --Rita Moran, Apple Valley Books

On week nights, we all want meals that go together fast, don't take a big bite out of the budget, yet taste good. That's exactly what you'll find between the covers of (I Want My Dinner Now!). The book contains 85 recipes, all well tested over the years as Pottle juggled keeping two teenage sons and her husband fed, happily, while working full time teaching home economics and related subjects in a small Maine schoool. These are recipes that can be assembled and cooked quickly. --Loretto Hulse, Tri-City Herald

In less time than it takes to drive to a fast food restaurant, order, and bring home a meal, parents can have a simple, low-cost, nutritious meal on the table! I couldn't help but enjoy reading Pottle's basic cooking tips. They were like a mini-refresher course on many of the ingredients used in this cookbook, as well as, actual cutting and cooking tips. --Alyice Edrich, The Dabbling Mum

From the Back Cover

Your solution to the dinnertime crunch! Do you have time to plan and create elaborate meals each night? Most of us don't. But the usual alternative, eating out, shrinks our wallets while increasing our waistlines. You want something that cooks quickly and tastes good-something the dis will eat, but appeals to adults too - something that doesn't take a huge bite out of your grocery budget. You have come to the right place.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Hestia's Hearth Publishing and Design (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976013711
• ISBN-13: 978-0976013716
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,787,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inexpensive meals and home-style family favorites, February 13, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Want My Dinner Now!: Simple Meals for Busy Cooks (Paperback)

I Want My Dinner Now! is a no-nonsense cookbook for harried meal planners short on time. Inexpensive meals and home-style family favorites, recommended lists to stock one's pantry, crystal clear recipe directions for two to six servings and more make I Want My Dinner Now! an ideal cookbook especially for hard-working parents. Straightforward instructions clearly illustrate meal plans classified into sections titled "Fast And Simple", "Toss It In The Oven", "One Pot Meals" (for less dishwashing afterward), and "Let's Use Those Appliances". An extensive "Cooking Basics" section will quickly familiarize even the most inexperienced cook with these nutritious, mouth-watering, and above all, easy-to-make dishes.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs pictures & easier to read font, December 3, 2007

By 

kiwanissandy "Go Bucks!" (Heart of Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Want My Dinner Now!: Simple Meals for Busy Cooks (Paperback)

I purchased this cookbook almost 2 years ago and still think it's a fantastic cookbook. I gave it 4 stars because there are no pictures and the typeface is a little hard to read. It looks like somebody typed it on a typwriter so that gives the cookbook a very "dated" look. It wouldn't be good to give as a gift just because it looks like a 1940's edition of a cookbook, even the cover looks dated. The paper looks recycled so it's an off white. Which is unfortunate for the author, Renee Pottle, because her recipes are dee-lish. The recipes are written in 2 person and 6 person servings which is great for a new couple starting out or a family with kids. If the cover were changed and some updated photos of the dishes this book would be perfect to give as a wedding gift! The cover design lets the author down in this case.

The recipes start with store bought ingredients and then gets jazzed up with seasonings and spices. Each recipe indicates which items you should have in your pantry and then which you need to buy at the grocery. It also gives prep times, cooking times, then adds serving suggestions and even has cook's tips which is great for the novice cook.

I was looking forward to her new book "Just a Little Bit Fancy: Saturday Night Suppers" but don't know what ever happened to it being published. I hope that Ms. Pottle didn't publish it based upon the sales of this book because she just needs a better publisher and food photographer.

This is a great cookbook! so highly recommend and just don't let the cover or the typeface distract you from the real meat and potatoes of this cookbook.

My favorite recipes are the Taco Salad, Szechwan beef and Orange Chicken.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meals in Minutes, May 23, 2006

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Want My Dinner Now!: Simple Meals for Busy Cooks (Paperback)

Renee Pottle was a regular contributor to Pillsbury Fast and Healthy Magazine from 1995-2000 and she has been developing recipes since she was ten years old.

Now she has created I Want My Dinner Now for cooks who are trying to solve the weeknight dinnertime conundrums and also want to save money. This cookbook is the result of recipes tested at home in the real world and includes many one-pot meals to reduce dirty dishes. Each recipe serves two to six and there are weekly menus and a well-stocked pantry list. Cooking tips, Cooking Basics and Cooking Terms are also included. Descriptions of ingredients used in the recipes makes this practical and interesting.

The recipes are arranged into four main sections:

Fast and Simple
Toss It In the Oven
One-Pot Meals
Let's Use Those Appliances

The first part of the book is an explanation leading to the recipes and here you can learn the basics of cooking. You can learn everything from how to husk ears of corn to making a pie crust or roasted red peppers.

Examples of the delicious recipes include:

Apple Sauced Pork Chops
Skillet Chicken Paella
Vegetable Curry
Fettuccine Alfredo
Tamale Pie
Scalloped Ham and Potatoes
Marinated Tuna Steaks

Imagine making an entire meal in your rice cooker. In thirty minutes you can make Orange Chicken and Spinach. Serve with a green salad and rolls and dinner is ready. Recipes for using your Slow Cooker, Microwave and Electric Grill are welcome additions to any repertoire. These recipes also feature restaurant favorites you can make at home and home-styled favorites with modern shortcuts.

~The Rebecca Review