Saving Dinner : The Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Bring Your Family Back to the Table Book

Average Rating:

I think some of the suggested cons are misleading in these prior postings. You can probably find similar recipes online, but this book is more than just recipes. The hardest part of cooking is putting together a shopping list and knowing it is complete. It's quick to adapt and you can also print out the shopping lists from the savingdinner.com website. I even got really sick one night and my hubby took the list off the computer and went shopping. He thought it was totally cool and was happy knowing we had everything to eat for a full week.

You may use more pots and pans, because you'll actually be making a meal - not a main course from a box or a can! Ingredients MAY be hard to find depending on your grocery store and where you live but half the challenge may be learning that your local store carries 10,000+ products and just learning where they have them and what they look like is the actual problem. You can also ask your grocer to carry products. If it will keep you shopping at their store, they'll order it in. Shelf space is a premium - supply and demand is what stocks the shelves.

If you've never used spices, the meals may seem spicier so...just cut back a little on the spices. Some people complain that they aren't spicy enough! The recipes are very, very flexible to adapt to a wide variety of food preferences. Meats can be substituted for one another - beef for pork, chicken for beef, fish for chicken, etc. This makes it easy to buy what's on sale and adapt it, too, if you desire.

If you are buying name brand, red capped spices then yes, you'll be broke! Check out the spices in the little baggies over by the int'l food section of your store or at the dollar store. (If you've never seen that section, then that might be why you are having trouble finding ingredients. LOL) I've never paid more than $1 for a bag of spices. Watch sales and learn to shop. You'll find that you'll actually be saving money as you cut back on eating out, don't go to the store as often and picking up eroneous unplanned items, etc.

Side dishes are only suggestions and marked very distinctly on the menus and shopping list. I buy the ones we like and buy more of the ones we like and cross off the ones we don't. My kids will eat corn 5 days in a row if you let them, and there's really nothing wrong with that.

My "picky eaters" are now eating asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, squash, fish and things that I never imagined! We play a game and rank the foods each night pretending that we are food critics and I mark the ones we like the best. Those with super high rankings, I mix back in on day 7 or in-between every 3-4 meals to help them begin to recognize the meals more and more as "ours".

I actually started a support group for the book on yahoogroups - simplysavingdinner - where we discuss and help each other learn how to use the great meals in this book that has changed my life! We share helps on the ingredients and are learning together how to really cook great meals that take relatively little time (typically 30 min. or less) and developing the skills to keep my family at home around the table and out of the drive thru line.