"Cheap. Fast. Good": Recipes Worthy of the Title

Let's face it, eating dinner at home is cheaper and healthier than going out on the town. But if you're worried that your schedule is less than forgiving and your cooking is less than delicious, there's a recipe book out there that may be just your bag: Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross (Workman, 2005).

The authors of Desperation Dinner and Desperation Entertaining have teamed up again in this book, attempting to prove the premise that food doesn't have to cost much or take a lot of time to taste good. Mills and Ross don't do a bad job of convincing their readers, with such mouth-watering recipes as Curried Chicken with Spinach and Tomatoes, Fisherman's Seafood Creole and Pumpkin Raisin Biscuits. You'll find classics like Hearty Homemade Beef and Vegetable Soup, as well as more exotic fare like a Moroccan Lentil and Chickpea soup. 

 Between these recipes are helpful sections, such as Skin and Bone Your Own Chicken Breasts (because “the more cut up a chicken is when you buy it, the more it will cost a pound.”), Buying a Big Skillet, and Tips for Eating on $100 a Week. A chapter of particular interest is the one dedicated to batch cooking, which involves recipes for cooking and freezing big batches of dinner basics to jump start dinner later. Ross and Mills also include scary statistics on fast food to cheer you on as you're picking out a recipe for the family meal. 

The book is fairly well laid-out, with chapters on soups and stews, entrees, skillet meals, pastas, salads, breakfasts, and dessert. However, it would have been helpful if the book listed all the recipes in the Table of Contents for when you're picking a recipe in a hurry.

The book also makes good use of images. A penny icon indicates recipes that are “Super Cheap”--a helpful tool for easy scanning. Another great feature is the side-bar, offering up notes on alternative ingredients, health benefits, cultural origin, and ease of preparation. Some of the tips are a bit obvious (“Stretching the most expensive item is one of the quickest ways to add up savings”), but perhaps worth a reminder nevertheless.

If time is a concern, these recipes are quicker than most. But don't necessarily follow the time listed under the recipe title. Most of these recipes claim to take no more than 30 minutes from start to finish. That's assuming, however, that your average cook is as kitchen-saavy as Mills and Ross, who cook for a living. Despite this small slice of exaggeration, this is a great collection of recipes worthy of the title.

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