Review: Good basic cookbook for frugal living
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2013
The Budget Cooking 30 Recipes for Under $5 by author Delynda Middelton is a good basic cookbook for frugal living. Her cookbook has a few flaws. Some of those flaws are editorial while one major flaw concerns food safety. To wit: Her cookbook would have been so much better if there was an interactive table of contents included making navigation easy.As to food safety:  At location 91 she writes "Benefits of the Slow Cooker: You can put meals in there in the morning...even frozen meat!..." The USDA does not recommend cooking frozen meat in the slow cooker as it is considered unsafe.I do agree with most of her suggestions for for purchasing a waffle maker, bread machine, food chopper or food processor, and slow cooker. If you have the right kitchen tools you will be more likely to cook at home rather than buying processed foods or eating out. I do somewhat disagree with her suggestion to make waffles as waffles can be expensive to make. Her waffle recipe is rather inexpensive as her recipe uses 2 eggs and 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Some waffle recipes use far more eggs and other expensive ingredients. An even cheaper alternative would have been a pancake recipe. Pancakes can be made with a minimum amount of ingredients such as eggs, fat and milk. You can also make pancakes ahead and flash freeze them for later reheating and eating.It would have been helpful if the author had included recipes for some basic food mixes such as the USDA baking mix (you can use this for making pancakes, waffles or biscuits) and the USDA baking mix is in the public domain when last checked. Homemade food mixes tend to save money and use basic kitchen staples.I did like her list of pantry ingredients and things you can store in the freezer to help ease meal prep. I've done a lot of the things she has suggested. Granted I've been cooking for close to 50 years.Some of the recipes you will find in her cookbook include:Abby's Favorite WafflesChicken & Vegetable Stir-Fry (a truly unique stir-fry recipe)Chicken Noodle SoupBaked Pork ChopsThis is a good basic frugal living cookbook.Recommend with caveats given.Penmouse