please recommend a cookbook with NORMAL recipes

[TheBeadPirate]

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.

I'm with you on these. I save each issue together in a binder. I like that they have a microwave page, a slow cooker page, 5 ingredients or fewer, etc. A little bit of something for everyone!

 

[zalansky]

Thanks for the suggestions, I just ordered the good old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook off Amazon.

 

[KRIS10420]

My favorite is the Company's Coming series. They have easy to follow recipes and pictures. Here is a link to the list of all the cookbooks http://www.companyscoming.com/index.php?par=cookbook_catalogue&cat=cookbook_list

 

[HooKooDooKu]

For basic cooking (if that's what you mean by 'normal') then I would suggest "Joy of Cooking". It's been around forever (ok, so this year is only it's 75th anniversary, but compared to my life time, that's forever).

For those not familiar with this book, it's sort of an all-purpose introductory cooking book. So there are not many fancy recipes.

Generally it's laid out by cooking subject (such as poultry). After general information on the subject, it then goes into specific items (such as the basics of cooking a turkey). From there, under the 'turkey' section, you'll get a couple of variations on basic recipes.

 

[Nienor]

Thanks for the suggestions, I just ordered the good old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook off Amazon.

Better Homes and Gardens is a great basic cookbook.

Also, I find the internet is great for free recipes. Just "google" for the item you want and you come up with a ton of choices.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/groundbeefrecipes.htm
This site has great cheap, "normal" recipes.

 

[sb4k]

My two favorites allrecipes.com and Food and Family magazine. Both are free. Go to kraftfoods.com to find the magazine. Also for FREE cookbooks, try your library. I'm valiantly trying to get back to a month's worth of meals and weekly shopping list handy on the computer.

 

[daughtersrus]

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.

I prefer Quick Cooking. It's from the same company but the recipes have basic ingredients and are much easier.

They come out with a new magazine every two months and I can borrow them from the local library.

At the end of the year, they compile all of that year's recipes into a book. If you buy it from them directly, it's a bit costly but I've gotten 4 of them off of Amazon's used book site. The most the I've paid for each book is $6.00 with shipping.

I made three recipes from my new book just this week.

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

I get all my recipes off line nowadays. Even the best cookbook only has a couple of dozen really useful recipes and those are usually posted over and over again on different recipe sites.

I save money on not buying cookbooks, I save space in my house by not having shelves of books to dust.

There are sites where you can punch in what ingredients you have on hand and they will give you suggestions.

As far as the Shepherd's Pie goes just do a Google search and you will find as many recipes as you could possibly want and some of them will even be simple.

My motto "Before buying anything, consider if it is a want or a need AND then think of how to get it cheaper."

Works for me!

Slightly Goofy

 

[crjack]

The Kraft Food Magazine is a great little magazine filled with recipes and it's free. I just got my new copy today in the mail and every month I usually find something new to try.

I also like the Tast of Home Series. I had so many old copies that I stopped getting it for a while but just renewed for Quick Cooking for a school magazine fundraiser. No ads and the recipes are submitted by readers so typically very simple steps to follow and handy ingredients.

I absolutely love the Food Networks website. I don't want another cookbook - I just read that. It's free and easy to use and filled with recipes. The search feature is very good on it too which makes it easy to find a list of recipes by picking an ingredient that you want to use, etc.

 

[flying_babyb]

try anything by betty crocker.

 

[Barbers2005]

I second Betty Crocker. The recipies always turn out well and it's normal stuff. My favorites are the general Betty Crocker cookbook (covers all your basic dishes) and the Betty Crocker slow cooker cookbook.

 

[Cindy B]

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!

Love Cheap Fast good-- I have that cookbook as well.

I do think some of the recipes are a bit too processed for my liking--but the recipes are budget friendly and they do taste good.

 

[Andy B]

If you see any Australian Womens Weekly Cookery Books Buy them!

 

[englishteacha]

I'm all about the original Betty Crocker (I have the version from the late 1960s-Gotta love eBay!). I also have a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, too. If something I want to make isn't in those two cookbooks, I probably don't need to make it! My mother gave me The American Woman's Cookbook from the 1940s which truly is a how-to cookbook. It's great for when I truly have NO IDEA how to make something, and my mom isn't home for me to call! I'm not very culinary, but everything I've tried from these cookbooks has been tasty. I also like the Fix It and Forget It cookbook for my crockpot. I have lots of other cookbooks, but as a PP mentioned, they really are just sitting there gathering dust!

 

[joha]

Another vote for the Better Home and Gardens (red plaid), I also like the Good Housekeeping Illustrated cookbook. I just got the Taste of Home cookbook, but have not tried any recipes yet. The Better Home and Gardens biggest book of slowcooker recipes, looks good.

Best of luck

 

[Cindy B]

I got a Betty Crocker as a wedding shower present about 16 years ago. Looking at the recipes now they are pretty full of fat (which you can change), processed stuff and just all around fattening.

I hardly ever use the Betty Crocker anymore.

 

[merekc]

I see lots of good ideas. I slso find a lot of recipes on the internet. I often go to Foodnetwork.com, I also get an email from menus4mom each week with a free menu listing including recipes that are very normal meals. Found this out thanks to the disboard.

I think the Betty Crocker cookbook is good to have, but I don't use it much, it is more of a reference guide.

If you want to build up your collection, I find lots of inexpensive cookbooks at garage sales, thriftstores, and the Half price book store (if you have one of these in your area, they have a clearance shelf in every department and I buy many for under $1).

But, the best cookbooks I have are the community and church cookbooks. I use my church cookbook all the time. These are the best of what normal people like to make everyday. If you are not involved in any groups that offer these, they can often be found at garage sales and such.
Good luck!

 

[java]

I love Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals cookbooks- or I just go online and search through there. I have never had a dud by her. All the recipes are delicious and family friendly and usually are things that I have on hand. I have added a few things to my pantry so I am good to go all the time for something fast. I keep dried pasta on hand and rice...And I do stock up on bread dough and mixes. So I can always make galic and olive oil pasta with a loaf of hot bread!
Once you start you will have some good staples on hand - like chicken stock, lemons, bbq sauce, worchester sauce, frozen broccoli, frozen spinach, frozen small onions... I like to use fresh but in a pinch the frozen works out. Like tonite I have a small amount of chicken breast to feed the 6 of us so it became spinach chicken pasta with cream- and parm. cheese. It is easy once you get the pantry together. You will always have something on hand. I especially like her you cook once eat twice meals- like you roast 2 chickens- eat one day of roasting as a roasted chicken baked potato kind of meal and the next day or 2 days later - chicken enchiladas- or chicken pot pie! I try to make a double up dinner on Sunday so I am heading into the week with at least one ready to go meal...

 

[Mouse House Mama]

To be honest I don't really buy too many cookbooks anymore. I just go on FOODTV.Com and look up whatever main ingredient I have and you will get a ton of recipes and they will tell you if it is easy or difficult. Why pay for a book when you have your computer at your fingertips?!

 

[cour10ee]

Just another vote for the red plaid Better Homes and Gardens cook book. It has all the normal things you would ever want to know how to make. It doesn't assume you know how to do anything (you can look up how to bake a potato or hard boil eggs for instance,) but if you know how to do this basic stuff, you won't feel like it is "beneath" you either. The homemade mac n cheese recipe is THE BEST! That book has never done me wrong.

I also use a lot of recipies I have from Pampered Chef cook books, they are fast and easy and usually delicious. They use a lot of convinience items like pillsbury crescent rolls, so if that is not your thing the recipes in their books might not be for you. I think you can even get many of thier recipes on the P. Chef website, so you could try some out there. Otherwise, you could consider ebay for their books if you aren't going to a party soon or don't know a consultant.

Happy cooking!