Customer Reviews

Semi-homemade Cooking

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Sandra Lee is known to audiences nationwide from her appearances on the QVC shopping channel and numerous network and cable television programs. Her Semi-Homemade solutions have also been featured in People, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Traditional Home, Country Home and Victoria. She has also appeared on NBC's Today. FOX's Good Day LA and Good Day New York.

Sandra Lee is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals She also studied at the acclaimed Cordon Bleu.

When selecting a cookbook, normally I will buy cookbooks that promote "cooking from scratch." This is the first cookbook that claims that "Nothing is Made from Scratch." What Sandra means is, you will still be cooking, just parts of the recipe are "convenience/prepackaged foods" or packet mixes. This slices time off making cakes for sure!

Firstly, these recipes looked far too easy and so I was a bit skeptical. Secondly, I don't normally buy anything not in its raw state. Buying "pancake mix" was new to me. Heading home from the grocery store, I almost felt a little sinful.

This cookbook contains 101 recipes such as Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes, Southwestern Turkey Chili, roasted Pepper Soup, Kahlua Tiramisu and Berry Cookie Cobbler. You will find recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes, desserts, snacks and even treats you can make for your pets.

The beauty of this cookbook is almost more in the "Semi-Homemade" techniques than in the actual recipes. Technically, you can adapt these recipes for your own use in many ways.

Tonight I made the "Steak Pinwheels with Sun-Dried Tomato Stuffing and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes." In the recipe, it calls for sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in oil, but I just used the ones I had in oil and reduced the amount to 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil.

The Stove top stuffing mix I found was only 6 ounces, but the recipe called for a 6.6 ounce box. It still worked fine. Instead of just salt and pepper on the skirt steak, I used garlic salt and freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns. Ok, so I cheated and made the potatoes from scratch because I had potatoes I needed to use up.

Then, for desert, no lies! I waited to make the desert until "after" dinner. This was new. I didn't feel stressed at all. I took the pound cake out of the freezer, cut it into cubes and drizzled the rum-butter sauce all over the cake. Yum! Then, for an added touch, you can mix in some frozen raspberries with the jam. I also used frozen raspberries on top and added whipped cream. The "Raspberry Trifle with Rum Sauce" is absolutely delish! She doesn't say to use whipped cream, but Trifle without whipped cream just isn't the same.

So, to explain how much time I saved, I made the recipe in about 10 minutes. Since the vanilla pudding was already cold and the frozen raspberries cooled down the entire desert very fast, I could have served this almost immediately. Not having to make the pound cake was a real treat and hey, I didn't even have to make custard.

My husband absolutely loved the Trifle and the gravy for the Steak Pinwheels. I was queen of the kitchen!

The full-color, full-page photographs are really tempting. Unlike other cookbooks, the food I made actually did look exactly like the pictures. Each recipe has time estimates and suggested brand-name ingredients. If you are looking for a cookbook for entertaining, this one has some excellent time saving ideas.

I noticed that Sandra also suggests you plan your entire week's menu in advance. This is a great time-saving idea and has worked for me for years! Keeping "staples" on hand is always useful.

Contents Include:

Grocery Shopping - Hints and Tips to get you in and out of the store fast.

Brand Names, Prepping, Cooking, and cooling Times, Budget, Leftovers, Storage, Music

Some Examples of the Recipes:

Breakfast - Muffins, Crepes and Country Biscuits and Gravy

Lunch - Curried bowtie Salad, Beefy Stew or Gnocchi Dippers

Dinner - Dijon Chicken and Mushrooms, Meaty Microwave Lasagna, Tropical Salmon

Desserts - Vanilla Cream Pie, Bananas Foster Pie, Rum Cake

Appetizers - Sesame Chicken Drumettes, Italian Fondue, Smoked Salmon and Olive Blini or Oriental Pork Wrappers

Soups & Salads - Roasted Pepper Soup, Cheddar Potato Soup, Bay Shrimp and Avocado Salad, Spicy Crab Salad.

Snacks - Caramel Popcorn, Hummus Pitas, Bagel Chip Dip

Gravies & Sauces - Sherry Mushroom Gravy, Pesto, Hollandaise Sauce

Pet Foods - Bone-Nanza Bones, Healthy Hound Stew, Kitty Katafornia Rolls

Sandra starts each chapter with a note about the recipes to follow. There is a full index, but each chapter also has its own contents page.

Semi-Homemade is for any cook who is looking for "shortcut" strategies. You really can make delicious meals in "minutes." If you are looking for more leisure time, but want to still enjoy home-made meals, this might be for you.

If you are looking for low-salt, low-fat cooking, I think you could adapt many of the recipes by purchasing low-salt beef stock or mixes that say low salt. With prepackaged foods, that has to be a consideration. Although many of the recipes are healthier because she uses techniques that make them low-fat. Like her "Healthy Onion Rings" that are made in the oven.

I can't wait to make the Tropical Salmon and Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes.

A cookbook to make your life easier! Really inspired me to get back in the kitchen and have some fun. It was like a cooking holiday!

I am a single mom with two kids to feed and a boss that thinks I should work 50 hours a week just like the guys. This book lets me feed my family hot delicious meals no matter how late we get home or how much we have to do. And the recipes are so easy the kids can help. It is also great for those weeks when I do not have the kids and have to cook for one. I could pop in a Lean Cuisine or make pasta yet again but this book has many ideas more creative than that. It has reasonable portions for single servings and I can take any leftovers for lunch. It is a bargain.

I am a college student. I can't afford many cookbooks because they're expensive but Amazona[.com] had this one at a good price. I am graduating in the spring and need to learn how to cook so I thought this book would help me ease my way into it. Now that I've tried it I doubt I will cook any other way. Its just too easy. I can fix an entire meal, clean up the kitchen and still have time to go out or do something afterward. I would have to give it a definite A.

Everybody needs two kinds of cookbooks. One cookbook for when you want to cook a meal from scratch and a second cookbook for when you want to cook a meal from scratch but don't have time. This is your second cookbook. It gives you quick, easy to make meals when you are short on time but want something better than fast food or TV dinners. And you don't give up taste

With the holidays coming, I knew I would have even less time and even more to do than usual so when I saw this book I knew it was just what I needed. Some of the recipes are fairly basic, like the lasagna, but there are other more exotic dishes that I can't wait to try, the shangra la lobster being one. I tested some of the appetizer and dessert recipes for holiday parties and they were easy easy easy and looked and tasted amazing. This is a terrific resource for the holidays and all year.

Ms Sandra Lee tells it like it is. In today's fast paced fast food world this book is a find. Great tasting food on the table in less time then it takes to stand in the takeout line and only a few dishes to wash. And the food is good enough for company and cheaper then Chinese. This woman has her pulse on the times. Its about time!!

I have only had this book two weeks and I have already tried five recipes. Every recipe has turned out better than I had hoped. There are no hard to find ingredients, no two-page directions, no elaborate cooking equipment or supplies to go out and buy, no fancy cooking terms to learn, no experience necessary! All you need is half an hour and an appetite because these recipes are good! I have just placed an order for three more books. Guess what my friends are getting for Christmas!

My mother always told me I should learn how to cook. Guess what, mom? I finally have - thanks to Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade. The recipes are not a lot of work and using name brand products simplifies it even more. It is practically impossible to screw up. It would be nice if more of the recipes were low fat, like the dijon chicken and mushrooms, but overall YUM!! I did use low fat cream cheese and sour cream in the morning glory fondue and it was still delish. Thanks, Sandra!

This oversized book does not lie flat unless you are using a recipe from the center pages. I tried cans and a rolling pin to weigh down the pages and nothing worked. The money spent on the endless photographs (do we really need to see a photo of empty cd boxes?)and the pre paid reply postcard ... would have been better spent on a smaller hard covered book that would be easier for home cooks to use....

I'm a guy. I work. And every other week two kids descend on my house fridge like hungry locusts. I may not enjoy cooking but it is necessary evil. They'l tell their mother if we do takeot every night and then i get an ear full. After making a fe recipes i have to say, they are definitly doable. They go step-by-step and are written for layman. I don't have to deal with 50 ingredients, I just mix together a few things, hat it up, and we're good to go. My kids get hot food, they actually eat it (more times than not), and i fek like a good parent. The only thing i ould do diferently is to consider having one of those comb bindings so you could lay out flat but overall i'm a happy customer.