Rating: 
Summary: Wow! This is just what I needed!
Review: I am so excited about this book. I have tried several of Leanne's menus/recipes from the FlyLady.net website and have liked everything I've tried. I love that the book is divided into seasons and that the shopping lists to go with the menus can be downloaded from the internet (so you don't have to copy things out of the book.) The ideas for making some of the more sophisticated items more kid-friendly are great. I love that there is a real variety each week - not all casseroles or all slow cooker recipes - some soup (which is great for us since at least once a week we have a busy night out and a quicker meal is necessary). The tips included in the boxes beside the menus/recipes are great too. I also like that the side dishes, etc. are suggested. So many good nutritional facts included too. I will use this book over and over and I'm sure I'll include many notes in the margins to make the book even more useful next time around. Thanks, Leanne for a great idea done well!
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Summary: Wonderfully Different!
Review: I really enjoyed the book. Just having the plans for the week as well as the shopping list was great. And the food was different. Some of it wasn't to my tastes, but it got me to try new and different things. I especially liked the Butternut Ravioli Stew. My husband liked it too, although I didn't put enough ravioli in it. (Forgot to buy extra!) Granted, some of the recipes weren't for my 3 1/2 year olds palate, but on the whole, it has gotten us to eat much healthier. Would recommend it for anyone looking for something quick and healthy for dinner, as well as us Flyladies who are learning to fly!!! Great work Leanne!
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Summary: Save Time AND Dinner!
Review: I collect cookbooks that claim to have within them the secret combination of variety, delicious recipes, and nutrition. Few live up to this claim, but SAVING DINNER is a winner. Leanne Ely is by far my favorite cookbook author. Her no-nonsense approach to cooking is both humorous and educational. My children (two teenagers and a picky 10-year old) love her recipes. I actually look forward to seeing what Leanne has in mind for supper--she takes all the guesswork out of what was previously for me a very time-consuming and sometimes arduous process. As an added bonus, we now eat more vegetables than ever before thanks to Leanne's side-dish suggestions. I highly recommend this cookbook!
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Summary: Saving dinner from boredom and the same-old-same-olds
Review: I am a fan of Leanne's from FlyLady, from her own menu mailer, and have been trying out her recipes published on-line including the new Atkins diet-friendly ones. Hooray for someone who is not just pushing meat and potatoes, but is trying to save us all from a rut (and from our unhealthy eating habits). I have a 13 year old son who is not a picky eater, and it is thanks in part to Leanne's approach: why not try something different before turning your nose up at something. My son BEGS me to make soup with Leanne's recipes (because it is so good -- and, better for Mom, so easy). Moreover (as long as it is accompanied by bread and salad and a nice dessert) soup IS a sufficient dinner. If someone says it is not, without even trying the soup, how can their opinion be taken seriously? Buy this book, you won't regret it (even if you have kids and a husband who turn up their noses at things).
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Summary: My Favorite Cookbook
Review: I love this cookbook. It is so organized and simple to follow. The recipes I've used are delicious and nutritious. My favorite is Mexican skillet hash. Thank you so much Leanne for helping me to plan mealtimes ahead. I have received so many compliments on my cooking since I've been refering to your recipes and meal plans.
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Summary: Definitely a good addition
Review: I recently bought this book and am looking forward to trying many of the recipes. I read the summary and thought I'd give it a try. I have her other 2 books (in fact, we published them) and have found many good recipes within. From what I can tell this book looks to be equally well-done and full of hearty, healthy meals. Some of the recipes may not strike you as "every day fare" but Leanne has always had a way of making everything taste great, which is why I'd highly recommend her work and menu services to anyone looking for a way to "save dinner."
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Summary: I was looking forward to this book....
Review: I was really excited to get this book, but I was disappointed when it arrived. I have been a fan of Leanne Ely since I saw her on QVC and ordered her Healthy Foods book that contained meals for the whole family. I also have the Frantic Family Cookbook and it use it almost every week. Her new book seemed to have a lot of the same recipes with the ingredients shuffled around or the name changed. For example, Hoppin' John Soup is in her new book and in Frantic Family. With the week meal plans, on many weeknights she just has a soup for dinner-like Crock Pea Soup or Smashing Pumpkin Soup-and that's it. My kids wouldn't eat those soups and my husband would complain that's not "a real dinner." I didn't feel the new recipes were as family friendly as her previous book, especially for a book whose goal is to get families around the table. There was a week that had recipes for Butternut Ravioli stew, Crock bean Soup with Kale-and another with Moroccan Fish Tangine, Apple chicken and Crock Pea Soup. My family definitely won't run to the table with those as the choices! Although I love Leanne's writing and her weekly menu service, and have always been a fan of her recipes, this cookbook is not one that I can put high on my list.
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Summary: I wish she had written this years ago!!!
Review: This is a GREAT book! I got it two weeks ago and have made two weeks worth of menus out of it already. My family LOVES them and I love this book. It provides 32 weeks worth of dinner menus divided into four seasonal sections beginning with fall. Each menu comes complete with a grocery list that included the side dishes that she recommends with each entree. Each week has a fish entree, a meatless entre, and a crockpot entree. She provides entrees for six nights each week. This book has saved me TONS of time in menu planning, meal prep, and cleanup and now my family is eating more nutritiously than ever before. The only quibble I have is that there is so much meat in the menus (5 out of six nights) which can get expensive. But cooking these menus is a lot better than take-out and less expensive.
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: After months of reading all the excellent rave reviews that FlyLady sends out, I decided to try it out, despite the fact that my husband has repeatedly asked me to not buy any more cookbooks, and keeps trying to get rid of the ones I already own. Although I love the concept of cooking by the seasons and the variety presented each week, and having the menus and grocery lists made up before heading to the store, I found it hard (and/or expensive) to find many of the ingredients she recommends, and I had never heard of many of her recipes before. That is scary when you are short on time and the dish sounds like something risky. A whole week's worth of questionable dishes is not my taste. Also, she uses spicy and cajun-y dishes often (not our taste), and we have to get rid of sweet dishes as my husband doesn't like them. So then you end up re-doing the menus and shopping lists anyway. In addition, her side dishes, although healthy, are repetitive and unimaginative--and I would have to look up in another cookbook how to even make them. (Far from saving time, energy and work, this creates *more*.) As for desserts, they are not in here either, supposedly because they are not healthy. But a fruit salad is healthy! All in all, I was disappointed after all the hype from FlyLady and the list (I guess nothing's for free--Ms. Ely got a lot of free advertisement). It would have been better in my opinion if it had included normal recipes I could actually use. I am trying to save time and money, not spend hours in the kitchen concocting weird-sounding dishes we may or may not like. A better idea would have been to give us normal-sounding, familiar recipes, with maybe an exotic dish thrown in once a week or so, and taught us *how* to plan menus and make grocery lists based on foods we already know how to make/know we like or don't like, and *how* to cook by the seasons. For example, I have no idea what is in season ever. My grocery store just provides almost everything all the time. That kind of information would have been more useful. I returned the book and bought something else.
Rating:
Summary: End the meal planning nightmare
Review: This book is very helpful. It has quick, easy-to-cook recipes laid out into menus with shopping lists. The meals may not be stellar, but they are all good. The cooking directions aren't great, either, but they are good enough. The things that I really do love about the book are the menus and shopping lists (with optional items marked as such)--they make dinner planning a snap. Plus, the meals are all well-balanced and healthy. And, unlike many other pre-made menus, the meals fit together so that you don't have a surplus of wasted food at the end of the week. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks menu planning is a chore. (Leanne also has a website where you can get weekly menus emailed to you if the book doesn't suit you: savingdinner.com.)
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