The recipes are simple enough but it does make the assumption that you re working with a well stocked kitchen So for that reason I d say it isn t a good starter cookbook Gave it 5 stars cause the recipes aren t boring Just because you re a little broke doesn t mean you have to eat simple pastas everyday Only complaint is that text is hard to read when you re going back and forth between chopping, looking at book, stirring, and then looking at book You get the idea I also want to complain that th [...]

Very good Lots of fresh ideas for tasty meals that are inexpensive We tried two this week and everyone was pleased including the kids 8,11, 13, 14.We tried p 92 a type of Mexican Lasagne I made it in an 8 square pan MUCH too small, it was inhaled in seconds Will have again soon, in a 9x13 pan Also tried p.122 an Italian sausage and white bean soup It was very good as well, perfect for January

Featured in35 Budget Living Picks for National Book Lovers Day on ShoestringMag My girlfriend Lauren bought this book for me as a Christmas gift the year I started designing this Shoestring, and despite its priceless sentimental value to me it s also an elegant compendium of 120 of the best easy on the budget recipes from the CBS Saturday Early Show segment by the same name and its original cheap chic gourmet Andrew Friedman.

cooking and doing it inexpensively at s my kind of book