Cooking Light: 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook

Review by dltstl for Cooking Light: 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook
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I was very disappointed with this cookbook. Typical recipes tend to run along these lines: combine package of frozen vegetables with meat; combine can of something with frozen chicken. Not that that sort of thing can’t provide some very quick and tasty meals, but recipes like that are already printed on the back of the box, or listed by the hundreds on websites like Campbells or Green Giant for free.I also objected to some of the processed foods. Frozen vegetables are great–convenient and with nutrition intact. But bottled gravy? The boil-in-bag rice particularly irked me. Rice takes 20 minutes to make! Same thing with all the packaged frozen cooked chicken.I will say that the menu recommendations are handy. And it’s nice that each recipe gets a two-page spread–picture on one side, recipe on the other. The downside of this is that this relatively slim book doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot of recipes in it.I can recommend checking this book out of the library. You’re sure to find a couple of recipes that are worth checking out. But not to purchase. Frankly the price is outrageous for what you get. You would be far better off spending the same money on any one of the cooking light annual books. Those have about ten times as many recipes of all types, from which you can easily glean at least this many quick weeknight recipes.Or save your money entirely and use the “back of the box”/manufacturer’s website recipes, which are pretty much the same thing as this book. There’s nothing special that makes them “light,” other than using the low sodium or low fat version of packaged foods.

Review by Stacey Gordon for Cooking Light: 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook
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I am a busy working woman and not much of a cook to boot. The meals in this book take only minutes to make, but taste like you really know what you’re doing in the kitchen. The nutritional info also makes this cookbook very easy to use with the Weight Watchers 1-2-3-Success program. We’re buying two more for Christmas gifts this year!