Eat Cheap But Eat Well

I've recently graduated from college and started cooking things for myself that weren't spaghetti or stir-fry. This book has great recipes that are easy to follow for cooks just starting out, and deliver a lot of flavor for a reasonable prince. It also has enough variety to keep my meat-eating boyfriend and vegetarian (pescatarian) self equally satisfied. One of our favorite new dinners is from this book (tofu pesto pasta!) A couple of the recipes I thought called for ALOT of butter, but the text is very inviting and once you get a hang of it, there's plenty of room to improvise. Would definitely recommend this to a friend.

The Poor Chef, Charles Mattocks has written a much needed cookbook `Eat Cheap but Well`. We really need to do both these days. He points out that so many are watching cooking shows now but it seems less are cooking; instead getting take out or using the micro wave. Recipes are marked with a cost guide: c =under $5 for 4, $ under $7 for 4, and $$ under $7 for 2. There are so many needed good tips, such as cautions about washing anything raw chicken comes into contact with. Explanations of the dishes are written before each recipe, explaining what it is, some substitutions that can be made for ingredients or in order to make the recipe vegetarian - all very good hints. There is one recipe per page which leads to less confusion and mistakes made. The print is of of a decent size. The only bad thing is that the explanations before each one is written in a lighter brown ink , which is sometimes harder to see. There are many multi cultural recipes as well as favorites such as chicken and dumplings (by the way a great version) including his tips on adding flour as a thickener. One grand thing about the contents of the book is that most of the recipes are for what could be used for main meals: poultry, pork, meats, pasta, fish, seafood, eggs, salads, soups and sandwiches. So this is truly a help for eating cheap when you have this many main dishes in a cookbook. Even some of the vegetable-vegetarian pages could be and are main dishes. Only about 30 pages are devoted to vegetable-vegetarian and desserts. There are about 16 pages of illustrations of various dishes and the index is very good with recipes listed under the main ingredients.

I am on Twitter and found Charles there. He is a friendly man that exudes energy and is always there to answer any question you ask. His website is beautiful and his magazine I loved. Beautiful photography and very interesting articles.So, when the book was released it was only right that I support him and purchase his book. What a great book! Full of ideas and recipes on not only eating on a tight budget BUT eating WELL on a tight budget. With the economy in the state it's in right now, most of us can't afford to go out spending lots of money dining. Charles' book brings the experience home at a price we can afford. His directions are clear and even the novice cook can prepare beautiful meals quickly! The bonus is the feeling you get knowing YOU prepared this fabulous meal!This book is definitely one you should add to your library! Enjoy

I'm a busy work at home mom and both of my young sons have Type 1 diabetes. It can be a challenge to come up with new, creative ideas for healthy meals. Charles' new cook book is fantastic! Not only are the meals easy to prepare, but it's a snap for me to figure out the carb content when needed for my kids dietary needs. (by measured portions) We have a vegetable garden growing this year and I'm so excited to use our fresh home grown ingredients with his flavor rich recipes. He teaches simple techniques to get even this work at home mom cooking like a chef. His book is designed with busy people in mind, there's no excuse to not get into the kitchen and cook! Enjoy!