Creative Snacks, Meals, Beverages and Desserts You Can Make Behind Bars:: A Cookbook for Inmates (and others on a tight budget) looking to put the fun back into food

Don't bother ordering this book. I'll keep it real with you, as to why you shouldn't buy it. Mostly, I'm amazed that it has as many positive reviews as it does. Which was the main reason why I assumed it would be an interesting book. I'll keep it simple, and break down why it's a disappointment.REASONS TO NOT GET THIS BOOK:1. TV instruction manuals are longer than this book. The text is squished into a small column of the middle of each page. Some pages will literally have one sentence as an "intro" to a recipe. And then the "recipe" continues on the next page, when it obviously could have fit on the page before it. A 60 "page" book that could literally fit on just one of those vacation brochures you see folded up at visitor centers, hotels or rest stops.Example: Flip to page 45. "Honeybun Sandwich. Perfect when you need something sweet that can really fill you up." That's it, that's the entire page.2. Some recipes are just lazy additions. "Cookies and Cream." A pint of ice cream from the canteen, Oreos, M&Ms, and a Snickers bar. Add cookies and candy to ice cream. Followed by recommendations on other ingredients to mix and match. "Any flavor ice cream, any other candy bar, any other cookies." There you have it, a recipe that every grade school kid figures out on their own if they have a bowl of ice cream and candy or cookies sitting around.3. Plenty of recipes won't work if you don't have access to a microwave. Even if you have a "stinger" hidden in your cell to heat up water, that does you no good for most of the recipes that involve heating stuff up.4. Some recipes use ingredients you can't find in every canteen.5. There are exactly three photos in the entire book. All black and white. All for the same recipe (swoll). And two of the pics are literally the exact same photo, just rotated. I might not have complained about all the empty space on page after page, if they filled it with photos. Doesn't even have to be color photos. If the recipes are so cheap and easy to make, why couldn't they at least have snapped photos of even ten of the meals?6. Lazy writing and editing. The recipe intros legit read like something a sixth grader wrote. It's like someone took two full days to jot down random thoughts and recipes in a notebook, handed it to someone to type out, and no one bothered to edit or jazz it up. I'm not throwing shade at the author, just because he isn't Mark Twain. But the editor could have put more effort into making it interesting. "Chili Cheese Fries. Another snack perfect for eating while watching a sports game. A little messy but you won't mind, even if you spill a little on your shirt." That's all there is on that page. Someone seriously looked at that and said "This works."7. There are lots of common recipes you'd think would be included, but aren't.GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK1. There are a handful of decent recipes that you won't find in other prison cookbooks. And probably won't come across on blogs or Youtube channels about prison cooking. That's the only reason why I didn't drop the rating down to only one star.My father did hard time. Too many friends and family members to count have done time. One of my closest friends is serving a 100+ year stretch right now, he'll never see daylight. So I know a good bit about what crazy ideas people came up for cooking when they're doing a bid.I wasn't going to be disappointed if the book was all ideas I heard before. But the whole thing just feels lazy. Very little writing stretched out as much as humanly possible across 60 small pages. Author served his time, he's stacking his paper from self-published book sales. Make your money, cool. But after eight years of publishing what's basically a pamphlet, couldn't they just make a better book? Take one week to make recipes. Snap some photos, even with your smartphone. Throw in a backstory or two. You don't have to dry snitch about how you got ingredients from the chow hall workers, but make the book more personal at least. And issue that as a new release. I will gladly put money down to get a new edition of it.Bottom line, I can't recommend this. And I don't really consider it a book. ONG I really wanted to like this book, but it's a disappointment. I'm glad the author is doing something positive for himself, but I can't recommend that anyone actually buy it.

Full disclosure before you read this: I'm the editor of this book and felt I had to respond to two previous reviews.One: The reviewer who said "crushed cookies, that's a recipe!?" This is absolutely not a recipe in this book. If you're interested in buying the book, click on it and take a look at the first few recipes that are shown. They are not overly simple.Two: The reviewer who said the book was outdated and the supplies aren't available in their state. Really? Ketchup is not available in California?This book was written by an actual former inmate who worked very hard on it and wrote it based on his own experiences regarding the food that he was able to obtain and, no, a wide variety of cooking supplies is not available in prison. Thus, the book is creative and innovative.I have personally tried a number of the recipes and they are excellent. This book is also the result of a smart and original idea, not to mention an attempt to help current inmates who are often given very low quality food to eat (as well as to help them combat boredom). The negative swipes at a book that was written and edited with compassion for others are pretty low, in my opinion. It's so indicative of so many customer reviews that tear books, movies and more apart without the slightest development of carefully crafted argument or regard for the feelings of others. I guess that's why so many people write reviews under a fake name or a screen name. You'll notice all my reviews contain my full name. I stand behind what I write and what I edit.Finally, the cost of this book could have been higher. It certainly has sold extremely well. But a decision was made to keep is as low as possible so that as many inmates as possible could afford it. Books are one of the few items that inmates are allowed to have and buying books to help get them through can become expensive. Look at other books for inmates. Few, if any, have set their prices so low. This largely was a project that wasn't about making money but about helping others -- not just inmates, but those who are on a budget and want to break away from the same foods over and over again. As a former struggling college student with almost no money to speak of who pretty much survived on spaghetti, I can relate to that and that's another reason I like this book.I would love to hear some thoughtful reviews from others who have tried the recipes and know what you think!!!

I purchased 3 different books. Hope the recipes don't repeat.

As described

This product is a must for your incarnated person they will be able to change up the same oh same oh and make wow that it good.

i know prisoners have little to work with. Nothing looked appealing...and i was thinking the info said it was also for people on the outside who were looking for some cheap-eats. I didn't see how some of these recipes could be cheap. Might be easier to do with the single servings provided from the canteen in prison? Only 3 b/w photos.. I wondered if almost everyone in prison knows these...just kinda passed down from one to another. I mean, they are using what the canteen sells...and that cant differ too much from state to state? Or maybe it can. I have no experience in this department. Looked interesting,but didn't pan out as i had hoped.Not many recipes provided,but i should have realized this as the number of pages was 60...and not every page has its own recipe.

Was a great book, but not relative to my love ones facility. Very good read though and if they had all the ingredients they’d be making off of these meals and snacks

Creative Snacks, Meals, Beverages and Desserts You Can Make Behind Bars:: A Cookbook for Inmates (and others on a tight budget) looking to put the fun back into food  Bought this for a friend that is going to be locked up for awhile. He said he loves it. He has been locked up for over three years and there were some new recipes that no one had thought to come up with yet. Buy it for a loved one, worth the price!