[.ca] Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals: What to Keep on Hand, ... (ISBN 1400082552)

Rachael cooks up another classic!:
The idea behind this clever cookbook is to have on hand a certain amount of basic ingredients. Then, to complete one of the recipes in the book, all you have to do is stop by the store and pick up a few items on your way home from work- thereby qualifying you to use the "express lane"- hence the title of the book. This particular cookbook of Rachael's contains not only easy to follow recipes, but also has a wide enough variety of them that will keep you from serving the same boring meals every night- a chronic problem at my house. All in all a good cookbook that deserves a place on everybody's bookshelf, I give it five stars. Also recommend "The Sixty-Second Motivator" if you have trouble sticking to a healthy diet.

Rachael Again!:
I think Rachael's list of pantry items is one of the best I have seen. But this book is a strech. Ms. Ray, please slow down. You just write too many books... I cannot buy them all

Rachael Ray's Master Ingredients: For Best Results, Use This List with Another Rachael Ray Cookbook:
If you only buy one Rachael Ray cookbook, avoid this one. Why? It has the least number of good recipes of any of her major cookbooks. And frankly, her best recipes in other books are much better. If you are going to buy more than one of her cookbooks, definitely look at and consider picking up this one. Why? It has a convenient list of what to stock as your base ingredients for many of Rachael's 30-minute meal recipes. The list will save you a lot of time with future 30-minute meals as you use recipes from other Rachael Ray cookbooks. What is the strength of the 30-minute meals concept? You can arrive home late after a hard day at work and put together a tastier meal than most people do who arrive home on time and not tired. What are the weaknesses of how Rachael Ray pursues the concept? I usually see two: You need to already have the right ingredients on hand (or you spend another 20-30 minutes with a trip to the store); and you need to be a very fast chopper and multitasker for the most difficult recipes and menus. I'm not very good at keeping a master list of items stocked, I chop slowly, and I don't multitask very well. So I focus on Rachael's recipes that happen to match what I have in the house and don't require much chopping or multitasking. Fortunately, most of her recipes that I think taste best fit into that category. Whew! But if I'm going to do more with 30-minute meals, I need to carry a larger and more diverse inventory. This book gives the list to me that I need to plan and stock that inventory. If that's all you want to use the book for, I suggest you just borrow a copy from the library and jot down the list. If you want a more permanent version, buy a used copy and cut off the cheat sheet on the inside of the back cover that lists where to find the staples and condiments items in the grocery store. On pages 14-16, you can also cut off (and laminate) the lists of all the items you need and suggested places to store them in your kitchen or pantry. I'm usually quite a big fan of Rachael's recipes. In 242 pages, I only found a few handfuls of recipes that interested me. Here they are: Spinach-artichoke cheesy tortellini Open-face blue moon burgers with 'shrooms Cowboy spaghetti Smoky black bean and rice stoup Hungry man bloody-mary burgers and spicy garlic-roasted broccoli Chicken with scallion-lime sauce and sweet carrot rice Chicken, chorizo, and hominy stoup Bacon bit burgers with smoked gouda and steak house smothered onions and baby spinach salad BLT soup Fillets of sole Francese and lemon-basil pasta Red snapper with sweet anchovy-pine nut sauce and caramelized zucchini Smoked paprika chicken Everything lo mein Ginger chicken and noodles with veggies Black bean, chicken, and chorizo burritos Bacon-wrapped halibut with seared cherry tomato sauce Spicy black bean soup with limed-up shrimp Smoky chipotle-chicken corn chowder with salsa salad As you can see, most of these are pretty simple dishes. The book is divided into three parts (meals for the exhausted--76 pages, meals for the not too tired--104 pages, and bring it on!--43 pages). If you are always exhausted after work, you'll be disappointed in the relatively few recipes for you. I think that where the book went wrong was in trying to keep down the number of ingredients you might have to buy specially for one meal. If you are going to have to pick up a few items anyway, what are a few more? It's not like the store is busy on most week nights after work. If you've watched Rachael on television, you also know she works fast and easily with great energy, and displays wonderful chopping and mixing skills. Keep that in mind when you pick out a recipe from this book to try out. It may take you a lot longer than 30 minutes if the chopping and multiple steps are substantial.