please recommend a cookbook with NORMAL recipes

[Grumpy's Gal]

now before you say that's not a budget question, it is.

Trying to get our budget under control......if we don't eat out as much, we'll save A LOT of money. A ton actually.

I'm willing to cook, I just need a cookbook or some recipes of NORMAL type things. No sea food. No ingredients that I can't pronounce or don't know what they are.

I also have a new crockpot. Thanks Santa!

Thanks for any help.

 

[Livin'4Disney]

My family LOVES this one. I do almost all of my menues from it AND it will save you money. I promise....

Cheap, Fast, Good by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross (these are the authors of Desparation Dinners and Desparation Entertaining)

Happy Cooking!

 

[pearlieq]

Why not just get the basic Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens cookbook? Look for the binder-style one with the red & white checked cover.

It's relatively inexpensive and has lots of pictures/information and sticks pretty much to traditional American cooking.

It was my first cookbook and was a great education!

 

[dazzled]

I'm right there with ya. We eat out too much also. I have promised myself to cook more this year. It will be great to save the extra cash. I too would like some new recipes. We do however love seafood in our house. But good, easy, and quick to prepare recipes would be great! Hope someone out there can help us both! Thanks for posting this question.

 

[kmk160]

Dont know if this will help or not, but personally I think I do better when I see whats being cooked and tend to let my cookbooks collect dust!!!
I have a ds, 3, who is the pickiest eater out there and a dd, 9 mos, who I am hoping doesnt take after her brother!!!
I have very recently starting watching or recording (whichever works in that days schedule) Food Network chefs such as Paula Dean and Rachael Ray.
They seem to be the less complicated and tend to focus on family meals.
Good luck!!!

 

[pigletof4]

I like my fix it and forget get it slow cooker cookbook. It has a lot of variations on the same meal. I just pulled it out before I saw this thread to see what I could make out of it.

 

[plgrn]

Why not just get the basic Betty Crocker or Better Homes & Gardens cookbook? Look for the binder-style one with the red & white checked cover.

It's relatively inexpensive and has lots of pictures/information and sticks pretty much to traditional American cooking.

It was my first cookbook and was a great education!

I second that motion! The Better Homes and Gardens one is STILL my cooking Bible.

 

[Motherofboys]

I swear by Taste of Home and its sister magazines, Light & Tasty and Simple & Delicious. The food is real food that my family likes and that doesn't take a lot of "special" ingredients that I have to buy to make the recipe.

 

[dazzled]

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions so far. I'm not the OP but can use the help. I will check these out at the library and see which ones I like, then buy some.

 

[Danemom]

I know exactly what you mean! The recipes in most cookbooks are not things my family will eat. Or they have 100 ingredients in them. Once I bought a cookbook marketed to busy families. It had a recipe for spaghetti sauce! How stupid, that's one quick meal I've got covered -thanks to Prego! (okay, rant over)

Anyway, I don't know any cookbooks but my family loves "Taste of Home" magazine's recipes and Kraft sends us a free magazine called "Food & Family" that has some good stuff in it. I'm sure you can sign up on the Kraft website.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

and can someone post a recipe for sheperds pie -- you know what I mean? that's probably not the right name. It's got steak in it and mashed potatoes -- you bake it.

 

[Pixiedust34]

To really save money, get a variety of the classic cookbooks from the library instead of buying them. You can eventually buy the book(s) you like the most, but you'll get a ton of recipes for free if you use cookbooks from the library.

 

[maggiew]

The one I use the most to make "normal" recipes is the Better Homes and Gardens one (the one with the red plaid cover). These are for things like meatloaf, turkey tetrazini (sp?), cheese sauce (for brocolli), etc.

I also like the Joy of cooking for more normal recipes too.

Maggie

 

[lonegirl]

I get many recipes from allrecipes Dinner Tonight. It's a cookbook based on the website's most popular downloaded recipes. They even combine them with sides for a complete meal...no brain work required for me. I also love Taste of Home, Southern Living magazine, and if you go to familyfun.com and subscribe to their recipe email, they send a weekly email of foods that KIDS WILL EAT

 

[Motherofboys]

Shepherd's pie is the best leftover recipe in our house!! I just made it a few nights ago with pork roast, pork gravy, peas & carrots (frozen ones cooked in microwave before adding to mixture), and leftover mashed potatoes. Just mix together the filling ingredients, put in 8x8 pan or pie pan, cover with mashed potatoes (sprinkle cheese on top if you prefer to), and pop in the oven at 350 degrees until it is heated through. You can also use ground beef or leftover roast beef, whatever veggies you have on hand, etc. When we want the "real deal" I use a mixture of ground beef and ground lamb and the Coleman's seasoning packet from England.

 

[AngieWin]

At the checkout register you can usually find some simple cookbook magazines. Or head to the library bookstore and look for Campbell's cookbook or I second any Better Homes and Garden or Better Crocker recommendations.

 

[jamie@dvcstore]

subscribing

thanks
________
Granny Hairy

 

[corie161]

For slow cooker recipes I like the Fix it and Forget it cookbook. My problem with the slow cooker is that I don't plan far enough in advance and I'm usually missing an ingredient to start it early in the day.

I also subscribe to Simple and Delicious (Quick Cooking for those who know it by the old name). Lately I haven't been really thrilled with the ideas, but it's a pretty good magazine.

I also have Cheap, Fast and Easy and it does have some simple cheap recipes in it.

I'm going to look into the Betty Crocker one, I saw the one for kids and thought they might like that also.

 

[MickeyP]

Someone mentioned the checkout cookbooks. I have actually been known to go to the grocery store, pick up an appealing small cookbook, finger through it, and pick a dish to make for dinner that night. Oh, BTW, I don't buy the book.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm sorry, but this is cracking me up. "Normal" = no fish? A vegetarian cookbook wouldn't have fish, but I guarantee you that an enormous number of the ingredients would be exotic and hard to find in a small-town grocery store. Besides that, eating fish/shellfish at home makes it MUCH less expensive than eating it in restaurants, and most types are very easy to prepare. On top of that, it's good for you.

My favorite series of quick and easy cookbooks are by Holly Clegg, whose recipes are not only simple and tasty, but low-calorie, too. However, she's from Louisiana, and all of them contain chapters on fish/shellfish. I don't consider the dislike of any one chapter a reason to avoid a good cookbook. Anyway, if you want to see a sample of her style, take a look at www.hollyclegg.com Click on the cookbook cover photos, there are about 10 sample recipes for each one.

If you are going to cook in a serious way, one thing you need to resign yourself to accumulating is herbs/spices, because those are usually what are hardest to find at the last minute. If you don't use certain ones often, you should freeze them in an airtight container so that they don't lose potency.