Cookmiser

Rating:
Summary: Fun, fast, frugal recipes ideal for bachelors and students!
Review: Frugal recipes, fast food dishes and snacks, and recipes which rely on processed foods and precooked items are the foundation of this cookbook especially recommended for bachelors and students. Dishes range from soups and omelettes to pizza, sausage and mini-meals and all feature a minimum of ingredients and a maximum of flavor. No color photos, but the simple dishes don't need them.

Rating:
Summary: ... gives this a big Thumbs Up!
Review: How does less than $1.00 per meal sound to you? Or better yet, less than 50 cents? Impossible? Not with the CookMISER. In this book, packed with over 700 recipes, you will learn, from start to finish, how to shop for food and how to prepare it to yield the most for your money. Not only does the author teach you how and where to buy your groceries, but if you truly follow the guidelines outlined in this book, you will pay literally pennies per meal for your family. Learn how to select your groceries for optimal savings, discover the best supermarkets to shop, and learn to make the most of everything you purchase.

The recipes in this book include a wide range of ethnic foods, candy bar making, soda and beer production, sausage and cheese instructions, how to grow your own sprouts for sandwiches and salads, and of course, a huge variety of everyday meals are at hand. Whether you are a seasoned miserly grocery shopper, or one who's never checked a price, the shopping guide can come in quite handy. Included are detailed illustrations of the foods you should be looking for as well as a complete shopping list for your convenience.

The section on preparation is an excellent resource in itself, even if you decided never to try a single recipe in the remainder of the book! Here the author tells us how to blanch, freeze, presoak, and premix items you will need for your meal planning. Handy charts providing blanching times and presoaking instructions for all different foods are provided. Also pointed out and highly illustrated, are appliances you will need in your kitchen, prep instructions for freezing and storage, storage guides, conversion tables, oven usage guidelines, cooking terms, and more!

Following the sample menus provided for you, the vast recipe section includes breakfast cereals, soups, sides, breads, spreads & dips, main course meals, muffins, desserts, pasta, and more. Also included are recipes and instructions for making your own dairy products, sausages, tofu, candy bars, and other fast food favorites. The book includes standard and metric measurements. It is extremely well organized, from start to finish, unlike the highly sought after Complete Tightwad Gazette, which forces you to hop all over the book to find what you are looking for. While still a fan of The Complete Tightwad Gazette, finding something in CookMISER is simply not a problem.

Of all the cookbooks I have encountered, this has to be the most complete and useful guide I have ever seen. This book will pay for itself in absolutely no time at all, with the savings you will experience in your grocery expense. It's definitely a keeper and I won't be parting with my copy anytime soon!

Rating:
Summary: Isn't worth my shelfspace...
Review: I adore cookbooks! The best I can say about this one is that it's well organized. There may be some worthwhile recipes but most are rather some bizarre compendium of dreamed up dollar stretcher recipes that I doubt were ever tested out. I sit here and wonder if these recipes where ever tested or were simply typed up meant to 'fill' the pages of a quite condensed book. The illustrations are quite ample and well done. I have to give that much to the author "R.J. Lavigne". The author did do a lot of research and compiling of information but it falls short of what the trumped up description makes you believe it truly is. The reviews I found made it sound comparable to the quality of the More-With-Less cookbook. I ordered CookMISER instead and am sadly disappointed.

Look at it this way.. besides the obviously lawyer legalese "Warning-Disclaimer" at the beginning of the book (wow! I've never seen this type of thing in a cookbook before!).. the book ENDS with this paragraph by the author on page 250:
"PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that CookMISER is a book of ideas, if you don't like one, joyfully move on to the next. It doesn't matter that they're not necessarily all winners. The important thing is that the book or its contents averages well. Moreover, always test new, complex or bizarre recipes by yourself before subjecting your family, friends, or guests to them." Uh.. well said!! If you DO get this book, then definitely heed the authors own advice! The CookMISER book isn't worth my shelf space.

As you can tell by now, my experience with this book has been negative. If you can check it out firsthand (from a library or such) then I highly recommend doing so. It may not be what you are expecting even if you are into the Frugal lifestyle hardcore! If you are looking for 'tried and true' then I don't think this is the book for you. My own recommendations in the frugal vein are the following. I enjoy, own and refer often to my treasured copy of 'The Tightwad Gazette I, II & III' which I happily ordered from Amazon after a 3 month stint of borrowing it from my local library. It's the beginner Frugal persons bible.. and stemming from it has come other books of note. One in particular that I also have enjoyed very much is called "Not just Beans"... for it's tried and true frugal recipes. Not touted as 'frugal', but I also enjoy Patti LaBelle's recipe book because it is amazingly loaded with awesome inexpensive homestyle recipes if you want to learn how to make veggies (& other dishes) in a way that makes you Enjoy them... southern cooking style! Another favorite of mine is called Desperation Dinners. The recipes are fast, many are frugal and I've never been dissapointed.

I'm just not happy with this book and will return it as I would prefer to give the More With Less cookbook a shot at teaching me some new tricks in the kitchen.

Rating:
Summary: Isn't worth my shelfspace...
Review: I adore cookbooks! The best I can say about this one is that it's well organized. There may be some worthwhile recipes but most are rather some bizarre compendium of dreamed up dollar stretcher recipes that I doubt were ever tested out. I sit here and wonder if these recipes where ever tested or were simply typed up meant to 'fill' the pages of a quite condensed book. The illustrations are quite ample and well done. I have to give that much to the author "R.J. Lavigne". The author did do a lot of research and compiling of information but it falls short of what the trumped up description makes you believe it truly is. The reviews I found made it sound comparable to the quality of the More-With-Less cookbook. I ordered CookMISER instead and am sadly disappointed.

Look at it this way.. besides the obviously lawyer legalese "Warning-Disclaimer" at the beginning of the book (wow! I've never seen this type of thing in a cookbook before!).. the book ENDS with this paragraph by the author on page 250:
"PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that CookMISER is a book of ideas, if you don't like one, joyfully move on to the next. It doesn't matter that they're not necessarily all winners. The important thing is that the book or its contents averages well. Moreover, always test new, complex or bizarre recipes by yourself before subjecting your family, friends, or guests to them." Uh.. well said!! If you DO get this book, then definitely heed the authors own advice! The CookMISER book isn't worth my shelf space.

As you can tell by now, my experience with this book has been negative. If you can check it out firsthand (from a library or such) then I highly recommend doing so. It may not be what you are expecting even if you are into the Frugal lifestyle hardcore! If you are looking for 'tried and true' then I don't think this is the book for you. My own recommendations in the frugal vein are the following. I enjoy, own and refer often to my treasured copy of 'The Tightwad Gazette I, II & III' which I happily ordered from Amazon after a 3 month stint of borrowing it from my local library. It's the beginner Frugal persons bible.. and stemming from it has come other books of note. One in particular that I also have enjoyed very much is called "Not just Beans"... for it's tried and true frugal recipes. Not touted as 'frugal', but I also enjoy Patti LaBelle's recipe book because it is amazingly loaded with awesome inexpensive homestyle recipes if you want to learn how to make veggies (& other dishes) in a way that makes you Enjoy them... southern cooking style! Another favorite of mine is called Desperation Dinners. The recipes are fast, many are frugal and I've never been dissapointed.

I'm just not happy with this book and will return it as I would prefer to give the More With Less cookbook a shot at teaching me some new tricks in the kitchen.

Rating:
Summary: A cookbook for those with limited budgets
Review: I can't praise this book enough. While many of the recipies call for generic ingrediants that won't taste exactly like the "real things", they won't damage your budget, and will keep you fed and happy.

The ingrediants are intentionally cheap, the directions are clear (and in both US Standard and Metric), the tips are worthwhile, and the explanations are precise. If money's tight, this book is worth the investment.

Rating:
Summary: For the truly cheap cook who'll eat anything.
Review: The idea is great, the tips are great -- if you can stomach them. I knew this book wasn't for me when I read early on something like: "This doesn't taste like the real thing, but you'll get used to it." If saving money is a matter of survival, this is the book you want. If you're a bit more discriminating, I'd spend an extra buck or two at the supermarket. Not to say that this book doesn't get you in the mood to save money; it does, and it gives lots of things you've probably never thought of before, like baking your own bread (yummy) and your own soups (great when it's cold; uses up lots of leftovers and less-than-perfect veggies), but the recipes aren't something I'm prepared to economize THAT much for.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Frugal Cooks
Review: Ther buyer really receives value for their dollar in more ways than one. So many cookbooks contain recipes that either contain ingredients that are almost impossible to find or the ingredients are so expensive that the recipes become luxuries not staples. Not any more. In this book, you are getting great recipes, a wealth of tips on how and where to shop and what to buy. In addition, the recipes are superb, and the most outstanding feature is what you save on your grocery bill; the recipes are very inexpensive to make. Some cost less than a dollar a meal! How is that for value?

This book will be particularly helpful for anyone who has a large family to feed or is living on a fixed income. "Cookmiser" is definitely not your typical, everyday cookbook. There is virtually every type of recipe contained here and definitely something to please everyone. From ethnic foods, main course meals and soups to candy bars, fast food favourites and, yes, even beer, the wide variety of recipes are unique, easy and low cost. This is truly a great book at an affordable price and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have for Frugal Cooks
Review: This cookbook guarantees to help you cook complete meals for .33 to .67 each! It includes 700 made-to-be frugal recipes, including fast food versions, chocolate-coated snacks, homemade sausages/cheeses, and lots of everyday cooking.

This cookbook is truly an all-in-one guide for people looking to save money on their grocery bill. Included are sample menus, cooking terms, and tips for miserly grocery shopping.

Recipe sections include breakfast cereals, breads, desserts, frozen treats, homemade dairy products, sausage making, soups, and much more.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, yes, yes! FINALLY a Canadian resource on this subject!
Review: Tired of reading books about saving money in the kitchen, only to find out it was written in the US, using ingredients either unavailable or in NO WAY considered inexpensive here in Canada? This CANADIAN resource tells it like it is! What a great book!