Amazon.com Review
Does the thought of cooking from scratch make you panic? Do you stand in front of your supermarket's canned vegetables display frozen with indecision? Is your fridge filled with takeout containers, and your oven used for storage? If you answered these questions with an emphatic "Yes," Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Cooking might be the cookbook for you.There are plenty of excellent quick-and-easy cookbooks out there, but this book feels like a cross between a giant advertisement and one of those free recipe books you get with mail-in proofs of purchase. Every ingredient that can possibly be branded is labeled as such. Lee's Salad Chinois is made with Swanson premium chunk chicken breast, Kikkoman soy sauce, McCormick ground ginger, Hellman's or Best Foods mayonnaise, La Choy chow mein noodles, Fresh Express prepared green salad, Chun King chow mein vegetables, and Dole mandarin orange segments. Gnocchi Dippers are whipped up with Alessi gnocchi, Bertolli olive oil, and, believe it or not, Kraft Velveeta cheese. The Malibu Rum Cake includes Malibu Rum, Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe yellow cake mix, and Jell-O vanilla instant pudding. And not only does Lee dictate brand names, she chimes in with advice on music and wine selections, as well. One can only hope that Wolfgang Puck wrote the introduction to this book without ever seeing it. --Leora Y. Bloom
Product Description
These second editions cookbooks showcase an inspiring new look, featuring: - Dazzling new covers
- Friendlier trim sizes
- Refreshed designs
- All-new bonus chapters
- Additional, never-before-published recipes
- 32 more pages than original editions
Recipes for every palate and mood?the Semi-Homemade way creates an inspiring pairing of fresh ingredients and packaged foods. Quick-to-the-table, delicious recipes to satisfy any culinary whim any time of the day. Delectable breakfast fare, light lunch bites, family-pleasing dinners, simple appetizers and snacks, sassy cocktails, and more. Most recipes prepared in 30 minutes or less. All-new bonus chapters on red-hot topics: slow cooker favorites, restaurant remakes, and kid?s cooking. Time-saving tips for shopping, prepping, leftover storage, and Sandra?s brand recommendations for success. Wine suggestions to create delicious dining occasions every day. Beautiful photo of every recipe.
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Semi-Homemade Cooking
- Paperback: 240 pages (2005-09-06)
- Publisher: Meredith Books; 2005-09-06
- Label: Meredith Books
- Studio: Meredith Books
- ISBN: 0696226855
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 80 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #151148
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nothing is from scratch? 2008-11-08
Comment: Why on Earth would "nothing is made from scratch" be a selling point for a cookbook? How horrid!
For good, simple cooking, look into Mark Bittman's cookbooks.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: You can cook quickly and easily, quicker and easier than this. 2008-10-29
Comment: Supposedly, the great benefit to Sandra Lee's cookbooks are that they're super fast, easy, and don't require a lot of cooking skill to prepare.
As a graduate student, this sort of thing should appeal to me. I don't have a lot of time or money. This should help that, right?
Except it doesn't. Buying a load of packaged convenience foods and then arranging them festively isn't any easier, or quicker, than cooking with fresh ingredients. I'm not some foodie hipster dweeb who claims that everything needs to be fresh, local, from scratch, homegrown, organic, et cetera. I'm something of a pragmatist, at least. I use canned tomatoes, chickpeas, and frozen veggies with regularity. But if I can whip out an excruciatingly tasty risotto in 30 minutes using seven bucks worth of ingredients as I did last night, so can everybody.
Take the time to learn a few basic techniques, maybe treat yourself to a basic cooking class, buy the freshest and least processed ingredients possible, spend some time experimenting, and you'll be able to improvise meals far tastier than anything out of Sandra Lee's book while spending less money and time. Cooking is only as hard as you make it. The reason it takes forever and isn't any fun is, frankly, because most people don't really know how, and their effort tends to be inefficiently applied and fraught with errors and unnecessary difficulty. It doesn't need to be that way. Sandra Lee teaches you how to cop out and let ConAgra do the prep work; why not simply learn how to cook well so that you can do it quickly and enjoyably?
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of the best 2008-10-13
Comment: Good variety of recipes, complete with brand names and suggestions....pictures are gorgeous. Good for the new or experienced but busy cook.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of the Sandra Lee cookbooks 2008-04-04
Comment: I have several of Sandra Lee's cookbooks now, and this first one (of the semi-homemade series) is the best. Truly easy recipes that turn out great.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gatherings 2008-01-23
Comment: I have all of Sandra Lee's cook books. They are beautiful done and great recipes. I like how she even suggest what brands to use in her recipes.
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Semi-Homemade Cooking
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