The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook

As one who writes regularly about being thrifty, I am always suspicious of new books claiming to save food money. After all, how many times can you hear that if you make your coffee at home instead of buying it on the road, you'll save 23 dollars a month? The Frugal Foodie Cookbook however goes well beyond the ordinary and is a welcome volume filled with a veritable treasure trove of indispensible tips and recipes to help anyone (even my son in his dorm room) save money in the kitchen. The recipes included are easy to follow and more importantly don't require exotic (and often expensive) ingredients. After all, what good is a family dinner dish if I have to fly to Spain to get the freshest saffron? The recipes are good, hearty and tasty food. We tried the mushroom and onion pie which was nothing short of divine. We also made the Legendary Stone Soup (an added bonus is that we dug out the book and read the story to the kids) and the My Kid's Mom's Mac and Cheese which, well, let's just say that that one easily hit it out of the ball park. Using humor, snap, and sass, the Frugal Foodie Cookbook offers more than just the usual money saving, common sense ideas, quotes, and tips. It includes humorous quotes like: Ask not what you can do for your country, as what's for lunch - Orsen Wells And practical and innovative tips like: Frugal Foodie Tip: Spirited Shpritz Pour 2 ounces or 1 minibottle of rum, Amaretto, Kahlua, or kirsch into a spray bottle. With just a few pulls of the trigger you can evenly coat cake cubes for trifle. Or add flavor and moisture to layer cakes by giving the top of each layer a couple of sprays before frosting. This is a delightful book that will make saving money while feeding your family nothing short of sheer enjoyment. Well worth its cost, this cookbook should be required reading for anyone who is really serious about saving money in the kitchen. Lynette Rohrer Shirk is a "4-star Frugal Foodie". She is a classically trained chef and author of nine cookbooks. She has worked in the kitchens of some of the best restaurants in the US, including Alice Waters' Chez Panisse and Wolfgang Puck's Postrio. Lara Star is a baker, blogger, and a cook with a calculator. She is the co-author of The Party Girl Cookbook. Lara has offered advice on easy, affordable cooking and entertaining on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and websites throughout the US and Canada.

Not since "The Supermarket Handbook" by Nikki and David Goldbeck has there been such an invaluable and highly recommended guide to making the most of one's food purchasing dollars. But just in time to deal with the budgetary pressures of increases in food costs combined with the currently dismal economic conditions of the country is Lara Starr and Lynette Shirk's "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook", A compendium of practical, useable advice on stretching the food budget by the creative (and delicious!) use of ingredients and left-overs. Of special note is that at the end of each chapter of thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly' recipes, are tips for saving money at the grocery story, the restaurant, and when dining at home. Enhanced with recipes for beauty treatments that can be inexpensively created at home for pennies on the dollar of what those same treatments would cost 'store bought', "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook", with recipes ranging from Sweet-and-Sour Glazed Meatloaf", to a Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza, to Ted's Grilled Cheese Sandwich, is the perfect addition to the cookbook collections of budget stressed families.

I love The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook. It's fun to read, and the recipes are both frugal and doable. In fact, many of the recipes are time-savers as well as money-savers. The book is divided into chapters by mealtimes and occasions: breakfast, lunch, dinner, parties, snacks, and so on. Nearly all of the recipes use "from scratch" ingredients, and some are homemade substitutes for pricey convenience foods. Here are some examples of the recipes that are included: -Coffee drinks, like lattes and mochas -Casseroles and quiches for brunch -Homemade candies -Dirt-Cheap Self-Filling Cupcakes (Yum!) -Exponential Chicken (one chicken feeds two people for five days) -Baby and toddler foods -Thrifty gifts - fancy soaps and foods that make frugal, lovely, handmade gifts The pages also contain quotations, kitchen tips, trivia, and household tips. This book has earned a place in my kitchen.

Starr and Shirk have written a great cookbook! My daughter, who is 7, decided that Gingerbread Cupcakes must be shared with her school friends. Now I cannot keep enough in the house and am telling the other Mother's to purchase the book because I sent in my resignation as the weekly Gingerbread Cupcake maker, only because life is a little busy. There are so many great ideas as well as recipes. Today I are making apricot preserves and the Friendship Bread Starter in preparation for holiday gifts. Thank you for a fun, useful and delicious book.

Starr, Lara and Lynette Shirk. "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook", Viva Editions, 2009. Stretching the Dollar Amos Lassen I do not, as a rule, review cookbooks but this one has so much in it that I am doing so. We are living in hard economic times and all of us want to know how to save a buck. I say start with this little book; for only $15.95 you can save so much. "The Frugal Foodie Cookbook" shows us how to be creative and clever in the kitchen and to make inexpensive and delicious meals. There is something for everyone and about everything that has to do with food. The recipes made my mouth water and I found myself experimenting as I read. There are hundreds of dishes and a lot of advice and you will find yourself eating better and spending less. This book is perfect for the times we are living in now. The book is lots of fun and delicious as well. What else goes so well with good food but wisdom and humor and the book has all three.