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Summary: Sanity Saver
Review: What a wonderful tool! I have tried 4 weeks' worth of menus and am delighted. I am an experienced (22 years) cook but like to learn new things. What's more, when I am too busy to plan, no problem; I just use Saving Dinner! It's so well laid out, the food is delicious, and the recipes so amazingly easy to do. I am getting another copy--this one for our college-student daughter, who will be moving into an apartment with a kitchen next year. She is excited about receiving the book.
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Summary: saved by "saving dinner"
Review: Bought the book, and LOVE it. I love to cook as it is, but this book really helps a lot. The time I have saved alone in making grocery lists is unbelievable, and the saved money is quite a bonus as well. My family loves the food, and I would highly reccommend this to all busy parents, you will be suprised what your kids like that you have been avoiding for so long. The variety of menues is great, and you are not making the same thing every week.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a wonderful concept.
I've spent way to much time and way to much money at the drive through getting non food for my family just to have something for them to eat at dinner time.Now I can prepare a FAST, EASY and best of all HEALTHY dinner with very little fuss or muss. This book does all the work, so I find I'm saving more than dinner, I'm saving money, time and my sanity. Thank you Leanne for writing this book.
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Summary: Saving Dinner a Success!
Review: Saving Dinner has saved my home, probably my marriage and made dinner time around our house a much more pleasant experience! I have had a very different experience than these last few reviews. I bought Saving Dinner just after it was published and half heartedly thought it would work for me. Being skeptical, my hubby and I marked all the recipes we liked and put together our own "shopping list" like Leanne's. Every night was a great review. I intermixed the meals with our good ol' standbys to keep the 4 kids (10 and under) happier as we started to change our eating habits and enjoying new foods and tastes. Occasionally there are things that they don't like, but hey, they didn't like half the stuff I cooked before Saving Dinner either! Now I just print out the shopping lists as is and hit the grocery store. 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.
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Summary: Why buy the book when you can find the recipes free on-line?
Review: I bought the book (mistake!). Flipping through, I thought I recognized some of the recipes. I use the Internet very frequently to find recipes that fit the "theme" of what I want to serve the family, so that was the natural place for me to look. Well, I was rather surprised to find every recipe in this book (I didn't check them all, just a few) already posted on-line! My advice -- don't waste your money on the book. Just print the index from the Amazon site and do a Google search.
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Summary: Not what I was hoping for
Review: After being a part of Flylady for over a year and really wanting to plan my dinners better( i.e- stop flying by the seat of my pants)I was really excited to order Leanne's book thinking this was the answer I needed. After reading tons of RAVE reviews I went ahead and ordered it a couple of months ago. Well, I hate to say it but I am dissappointed. While I loved having my meals planned out every week and did feel less stress each day knowing so. I became sad each time my family came to the table for the ultimate "taste test" and heard "yuck" or "it's okay". Dh and I were both dissappointed. I really wanted this to work so I kept on hoping better meals would come. After about two weeks my four kids (six and under) wanted to know when I was going to stop making "new" meals. DH complained that grocerey shopping (his job,a great bargain hunter)was difficult looking for hard-to-find as well as more expensive ingredients . It seems like the same herbs were used often and most of them,which we had to purchase new, ended up not being our taste. I started picking and choosing meals that "looked" good and combined with my tried and true, this worked better but eventually I fell back into the old trap of "what's for dinner"? So far I have about three or so good recipes that I have used over and am hopeful to find more. I do think this is the best cook book idea and that the weekly format works well relieving the stress of meal planning. Unfortunately for my family this doesn't mean much if the meals don't taste good and we end up throwing out leftovers.
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Summary: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!
Review: I was taught at a very young age how to be a great cook with the "family recipes". No one ever taught me how to cook dinner EVERY DAY!!! I have 2 toddlers and a husband that is a former chef. I am learning how to PLAN, PREPARE, and even now IMPROVISE! The food is very flavorful and EASY!!! I have referred ALL my friends to this book! The recipes are also VERY conducive to low-carb diets and all the dinners are perfectly balanced! Thank you!!!
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Summary: My family runs to the dinner table now.
Review: I can't believe the peace this book has brought to my life. I used to hate grocery shopping. I never took a list and it always took me a long time to think of things to make for dinner that week. And inevitably I would always forget some items and have to make a second trip. This book has solved my problems. I have been using this cookbook for 7 weeks now and have loved every recipe. It is such a relief to know in the morning what I'm fixing for dinner that night. Instead of my old self rushing home to thaw something out and throw an unhealthy meal together. Now I know what I'm having and it is much healthier for me. Not to mention that I have cut our grocery bill in half by using this book. It truly does bring a little peace to my life. Thanks Leann for writing it.
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Summary: Organize your life by eating well!
Review: This book takes the stress out of trying to think about what to cook for dinner. Most recipes are healthy, yummy, easy to prepare, and fast. If you cook by the book, your family will sample new foods (my kids were gobbling up KALE!) and dinner will become a pleasure! Just a suggestion: I'm keeping notes in my book about which recipes were favorites and the like. Eventually, I'll be able to compile a rotating schedule of meals that I know everyone likes.
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Summary: Not what I expected
Review: After reading all of the glowing reviews of this book, I couldn't wait to order it. When it came, I quickly went to the week that matched what season we were in and looked at the menu. There were a couple that I knew we wouldn't eat, but I printed the grocery list on line and went shopping anyway. I really wanted to try new things for dinner. This was two months ago and I have not printed another list since. Each week I look at the menus and I just don't like what she lists to cook. I am getting really tired of boneless, skinless chicken breast. Every week includes one or two meals with this item. And garlic is used very often. Even the recipe rave (Carmelized Garlic Chicken) was average at best. I also don't like the concept of a soup for dinner. My family would look at me crazy if I put that on the table for dinner. I'm still going to keep going through the weeks and hopefully the selections will get better. For now, I have gone back to my "tried and true" menu and I add a recipe from the book that looks good. There are a couple of good recipes here and there, but it's just not our taste. I'm just disappointed because I could have saved my money and just kept scrounging around the library and internet for recipes. This book did not change my life in the kitchen like I hope it would.
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