Cookbook Reviews

I am on a quest to find cheap ways to feed my family. Like most of you, I am on a budget crunch and we're trying to cut corners every way we can. So I've been looking through some cookbooks at home and from the library, looking for new ideas and solutions to the ongoing challenge of keeping 5 people fed. Here's a few of the books I've looked at recently and my thoughts.



The Make A Mix Cookbook has been around since the 1970s. I remember my mom using them when I was young. I bought a copy of their 90's version and found some helpful recipes in there, but I lost my copy and got one from the library. The idea is that you use their recipes for mixes and make up several batches of things that you use often, like taco seasoning, sloppy joe seasoning (both of which I've used and I like). This time I also tried the all purpose hamburger mix and a snack cake mix. I like the hamburger, but it's so simple you hardly need a recipe for it. But it was a great idea, since we just signed up for Costco and I can get ground beef for $2.49 a pound. I used one batch last night for enchiladas, using canned enchilada sauce, cheap cheese I also bought at Costco, and tortillas. But some of the recipes are not very yummy sounding to me.

I found some mix recipes on the internet too, including one for a white sauce mix that I made up into 6 batches. This I used with dehydrated potatoes to make my own scalloped potatoes that are basically like the ones that come in a box and to make cheese sauce for pasta, which my family devoured. I went ahead and ordered their latest version, shown here. We'll see how much I actually use it.

I also got Eat Well ... Stay Well ... Spend Less! from the library. This is written by a former neighbor who presented this enrichment all about saving money on groceries that I went to about 12 years ago. The problem with this is that the writer assumes you have unlimited time to spend on bargain shopping and whipping up meals from scratch. Not these days, I don't! I doubt many people do. Totally not practical in today's world.

Then I looked for books on freezer meals. The library has several, but they are all checked out. So I found another book, Will It Freeze?, that I thought might be worth looking at. After a closer look, it wasn't what I wanted exactly, but it was exactly what the title suggests - a book that tells you how to freeze any food you want. And I mean any - how to pluck your freshly killed chicken and freeze it right away. OK, not useful, but there was enough in there that I wouldn't mind having a copy. A good reference book, but no recipes or meal plans or anything like that.

Then I checked two food storage cookbooks, one I own, and one from the library. Simply Ready: a Guide to Provident Living and Personal Preparedness is the one that I own and it is excellent. It really covers every aspect of food storage and much more besides. I got it several years ago at Deseret Book and it's been useful. I want to start using it more to plan meals. The newer one, Simple Recipes Using Food Storage, is not as comprehensive about overall preparedness, but has lots of recipes. That one is at the library and I noticed it for sale right now at Deseret Book too.

All these cookbooks and no recipes! OK, here's one I made up. In my quest to be more frugal, I am trying not to waste any food but find a way to use it up. Here's one I came up with when I had an extra graham cracker crust, whipped cream, and half a package of cream cheese I needed to use.

Fruit Cheese Tart

1 graham cracker crust
4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg yolk (or 1 egg white, but a whole egg is too much)
1/2 ts. vanilla

Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Beat cream cheese in a mixture until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into pie crust and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until filling is almost set. (Insert toothpick in the center - a few crumbs should cling to the toothpick.) Remove and let cool about 20 minutes, then chill in refrigerator about 1 hour.

Topping:
strawberries, kiwis, and about 1 c. whipped cream

Slice the fruit and arrange on top of the filling. Top with spoonfuls of whipped cream and serve.

I wish I had a picture of the pie, because it looked really good.

If you have any ideas or recipes for saving money on groceries, please share them. I put the freezer meal books on hold at the library and will review them when I get them. I plan to keep adding recipes as I discover them.