Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Over 280 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes

Cooking?

In no uncertain terms, I am not a cook. Yet, I aspire to eat healthy foods, and now that I'm a mother my lazy ways must be rectified. Heating up frozen meals simply does not suffice, any more. So I went in search for a cookbook that would meet all of my criteria: 1) It must be healthy 2) It must be FAST to prepare 3) It must be simple to shop for (because I also dislike spending time in a grocery store) 4) It must be food that my toddler (and somewhat picky husband!) will eat and 5) It must not leave me disgusted with the entire cooking process, causing me to lose my appetite for the very food I have just prepared.A pretty tall order, no? Suffice it to say I had a long and fruitless search with cookbooks that were almost perfect. And then I stumbled upon "Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Over 280 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes." And I fell in love. Why? Well, let me tell you:1) As is usual with cookbooks the meals are categorized together under "Meat", "Soups", "Poultry", "Non-Meat Meals", etc. But what is different from many cookbooks I have encountered is that each recipe is put on its own page, with the picture of the meal on the opposite page. And below the recipe is a recipe for a suggested complimentary side dish. Which is also extremely quick to prepare, and healthy. As an anti-cook, I am thrilled that I can use pictures to help me choose my recipe.2) The recipes have just a few ingredients, and so far nothing too exotic or strange, causing me to stumble all over town trying to find that specific obscure ingredient. Everything can be scooped up in a typical grocery store, and many ingredients are ones most people have in their pantries already.3) These recipes are truly quick to prepare. They are flavorful AND healthy! This is a rather tough requirement to meet, usually, when trying to satisfy a toddler's need for simple fare, and a hubby's need for mouth-watering fare.On my first attempt I selected Salmon with a garlic-chili glaze, and the side dish was sauteed snap peas with mint and grated orange peel. WOW! I had both dishes prepared in less than 20 minutes. We sat down for a nice family meal around the table, and it was an instant hit; my son was shoveling the salmon into his mouth quicker than a frog to a fly. And my husband ate everything, pronouncing it a Grand Slam, and he can be quite leery of green vegetables usually! So we had three happy campers, all in such a short amount of time! I actually teared up with happiness at seeing my family nourished with a healthful meal that I made all by myself, and without any post-cooking resentment or exhaustion!!Since the first successful attempt there have been many more successful meals including almond-crusted tilapia, asiago-crusted pork chops, cumin chicken...Who knows, this magical cookbook just might cause a professed Anti-Cook to become one of those Pro-Cooking people. I would not have believed it possible before buying this cookbook...

I don't often review books or movies because there are just so many out there. It's impossible to write reviews on all of the things you love or hate. But this cookbook is so fantastic that I just had to write a review. There are lots of really great, detailed reviews on Amazon, so I'll spare you the repetition on the books offerings and just say that this cookbook is FABULOUS!I have had the book for about a month and use it almost exclusively. I have not repeated a recipe yet and almost all have been super fantastic (with a recipe here or there just being 'okay'). What I really love about this cookbook is that it doesn't use a ton of ingredients, and the recipes are not super involved and take a really long time to prepare. (Duh, right?) I work full time and am on a budget. I appreciate having a grocery list that is not a mile long and having to browse through my grocery store looking for a ton of really obscure ingredients.As said before in previous reviews, the book uses a lot of convenience items: prechopped veggies, salad dressings, prepared seasonings and canned items. I did have a hard time finding some stuff in my regular grocery store; I could not find cajun Mrs. Dash seasoning to save my life. I also have a hard time finding brand specific salad dressings and sauces, so I just improvise. Nothing has turned out bad/wrong yet.These recipe's are VERY flavorful and wonderfully delicious! I really enjoy a lot of types of different foods and spicyness, so this is just a heads up if you like bland, unseasoned food.I will say that quite a few recipes stretch the "5 ingredient, 15 minute" principal though. One recipe called for prechopped onion, bell pepper and tomato. My grocery store didn't have this assortment. So I had to buy each of those three things thus requiring more than 5 ingredients. Plus, some recipes just have MORE than 5 ingredients listed in the recipe. I think they are hoping you'll have some of this stuff on hand. (I guess that's why they give you the 'What to stock in your pantry" section - but still.)My only real complaint with this book is that I hate the fact that it is a paperback. I really wish it was a hardback and could be propped up. The book spine is getting bent and I worry that eventually it will fall apart. I guess that's the breaks for an extremely reasonably priced cookbook.FYI - you can view a sample selection of the recipes offered in this cookbook on the Cooking Light website. Just search for '5 ingredients, 15 minutes'.If you are not a super involved chef and short on time and/or resources, please do yourself a favor and buy this cookbook. If you like really yummy food, you should also go ahead and buy the cookbook to supplement your bookshelf! :Þ

Want great, tasty and healthy food dishes done under 20 minutes and with usally less than 5 ingredients that provide variety for weekdays? This cookbook is for you then!It is loaded with 280 creative recipes (160 complete meals) that are fresh with citrus, veggies and healthy ingredients. So far, I've cooked six recipes and each of them delivered what was promised, few ingredients (none of them tough to find) with 15-20 minutes or less, but yielded delightful, healthy tasting servings: Five-Spice Grilled Chicken Thighs with Blackberry Glaze & Yellow Rice with Spring Peas); Chicken Tortilla Pie with Fresh Salsa; Peach Glazed Salmon with Raspberries and Balsamic Grilled Peaches; Black and Blue Quesadillas (deli beef with blue cheese) with Mixed Greens with Lime Vinagrette; Chicken Salad with Roasted Peppers with Cantaloupe with Balsamic Berries and Cream.This is one of the few cookbooks (and I have lots) which I honestly can say that I will try and cook it cover to cover. On top of that, there is a beautiful full color photo of the dish with each and every recipe, as well as insights on ingredients purchase and prep.For those reviews that question the ability to find prechopped items such as onions, peppers, etc., this shouldn't be big hindrance to this cookbook's value and usage, as one can always pre-prep items and then put in fridge. Many stores these days are starting to stock these items, so keep eye out or ask that they be stocked.This is truly one that can be a workhorse of a cookbook for your house like it is becoming for mine for everynight use.

Bought this for my son and then had to get my own copy. Excellent book

Awesome cook book