£30 to spend on cook books what do i buy?

shazrobo

i've just bought how to feed your family a healthy balanced diet with very little money, and hardly any time. got it in the works for 3.99. brilliant book, even has menu plans and shopping lists in the back, i love it

se999

I've got a lot of cookbooks, but then discovered I had trouble finding the specific recipe. So now I photocopy the favorites and put them in plastic sleeves in leverarch folders, easy to make notes on the copies of any tweeks too, or things to be careful about next time.

If I'm watching cookery programs, and there's a good recipe, I just go online to print it off. Also use the folders for recipes from the grocery shop freebie mags.

I do have 2 folders, one for tried recipes that work, the other for ones to try in the future.

The plastic sleeves mean you just take out the one recipe you want to cook, and it doesn't get messy while cooking.

So it might be something to think about, I know it's not exactly a cookbook recommendation, but cookbooks to me are a matter of styles which work for you.

maryb

Like others I use Delia's complete cookery course a lot but I find that Mary Berry is often simpler and more reliable and I swear by her How to Cook. The other one I turn to again and again is the very first cookbook I ever bought which was the Good Housekeeping cookery book. It has got everything and despite being published in the 1970s it's not out of date whereas a lot of other recipes don't stand the test of time.

Prue Leith is also very good if you want a comprehensive guide to "smart" cooking without breaking the bank but I haven't seen her books around much recently. One to look out for in charity shops. Also if you see them in charity shops grab any Marks and Spencers cookbooks from about 15 years ago, especially the freezer cookbook

Apart from those I use a lot of recipes from the BBC Good Food magazine and Delicious, although I only buy them as a treat. They always have at least one recipe every month that I try and find myself using again and again. The BBC website is pretty good so you could search there to find particular recipes you might like.

The BERO cookbook is brilliant and it's not just sweet stuff - there is a good quiche recipe that doesn't instantly fur your arteries with oodles of eggs and cream but tastes delish

I also bought the two How to Feed Your Family.....books but anything I have cooked hasn't actually been that nice. Not sure why. Good for ideas but now I would use a similar recipe from Good Housekeeping to make sure it turned out OK

jc2703

Nigella Lawson's book "How to Eat" is a great book - its a cook book that on many occasion I have just sat and read. She covers basics and covers various situations you would need to cook for and I have never cooked anything from a Nigella recipe that wasn't gorgeous!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Eat-Pleasures-Principles-Good/dp/0701165766/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262626311&sr=1-2

J x

ifonlyitwaseasier

personally i blame Thriftlady for having the pic-link and forcing me to look then my slide into defeat on amazon became complete........

...... tho the prices aren't bad, shame they are from different sellers so the overall postage is more than the books themselves!! :eek::eek:

"The Pauper's Cookbook"
Jocasta Innes; Paperback; £2.98
"Frugal Food"
Delia Smith; Paperback; £0.99
"The Country Kitchen"
Jocasta Innes; Paperback; £0.49
"Budget Meals: Eight Weeks of Delicious Dinner and Dessert Recipes"
Kimberly Saunders; Paperback; £1.94


and as my b'day is coming up i told OH that this was his present to me :D