Most weekday nights, instead of making a full meal, we just have appetizers or “assembly nosh”. It helps that my husband & I do not have children which are a HUGE source of clutter.

I couldn’t resist commenting on the frozen vs. fresh again because the truth is that if you don’t live somewhere that has local vegetables fresh year round, frozen is actually MORE nutritious than “fresh” in most instances. Frozen is frozen immediately, virtually in the field. The “fresh” vegetables at your store may have been picked 1-4 weeks before they finally get home with you. They are stored, shipped, unpacked and then sit for unknown lengths of time at the store too. They’re exposed to temperature changes, light, etc.all of which can affect nutritional content.

So, in the summer, we depend on our CSA for really fresh, organic veggies, but in the winter? Bring on the frozen!

For one, all the recipes are very healthy and have a ton of veggies, good quality protein and whole grains. They go from prep to table in one hour. And they use ONE pot – an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. What’s not to love? I wrote a review here: http://naturalmomstalkradio.co.....pot-meals/

I’ve tried most of the recipes in the book and so far, every one has turned out beautifully and even my kids love them too.

I regularly use: Cooking Light (website), Epicurious, MS Food, Joy of Cooking, New Best Recipe. I also skim some food blogs when I get stuck in a rut and want to see what other people are cooking.

With the above, I can find almost anything I want to make, in varying degrees of time and difficulty – Anything from quick weeknight suppers, to using up leftovers or misc. produce, to long weekend projects.

PS. to allen — spell check is your friend.

happy eating all.

I suppose the most essential thing to be found in the pantry is the confidence to experiment. You’ll mess up some meals, we all do. Just keep trying, and you’ll learn it right.

Anyway…I used to have a pantry focused cookbook in which the author listed what she thought should be in a basic pantry and then based all the recipes around it. Unfortunately, it was British and the conversions made it more inconvienent. Also, I found that the dishes just didn’t match what I’d eat.

It’s not fast, but learning how to cook basic dishes and then learning how to hack them to any ingredients you have around the kitchen has worked much better for me. For instance, I can make risotto out of anything as long as I’ve got arborio rice around. I’ve also found stir fry is also a good use anything we’ve got type of recipe as long as there’s soy sauce and oyster sauce. Note, you see my pantry may not look like your pantry. In any case, being able to fit the ingredients to the recipe has been very useful, especially since we subscribe to an organic veggie delivery service (like a CSA only year round.) Opening the box is a little like playing Iron Chef.

BTW, I do keep canned tomatoes and beans and some frozen corn around b/c sometimes we just need it, and I don’t like running to the store just b/c we need something specific. I’ve been invited to friends’ houses in the past only to have dinner held up b/c somebody had to go buy missing spices b/c they just couldn’t eat unless the recipe was done exactly as written. Wasteful on time and gas b/c they always drove.

It has very simple recipes with a small ingredient list but he has lots of simple modifications you can incorporate if you have time or the ingredients on hand. Great basic cookbook.

I love this book because there’s one for every day of the year and the recipes are sorted by season! A lot of soups for fall and winter, and salads and such for spring and summer. It doesn’t have all the recipes for the side dishes, but we solve that by quickly steaming veggies or some rice or something.

I plan out and buy the ingredients on Sunday evening, then make a list of 3-4 recipes per week. That way, if I’m running late my (wonderful) husband can take over!

While not all the recipes are that great, some are very good and I’ve marked them for future use. Most recipes use every day items you can find in any grocery. I noticed that Rachel Ray’s books (which I own) sometimes carry ingredients found only in Whole Foods (which I can’t afford).

Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/

Amazing cookbook divided seasonally. Simple, clean, elegant, easy recipes for everyday life. Surprisingly easy to follow.

And on Sandra Lee, my father adores her cocktails. Her cooking show is based on entertaining graciously without a lot of work in the kitchen. She seems to have no children of her own and isn’t very concerned with nutrition. And hey, that’s cool. I remember having a different life not too long ago. Don’t condemn. We’re not all on the organic, whole food, anti-nugget, AP mom bandwagon. Heh, I am though.