Buy Cheap Book » Cooking & Food Book » Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners
Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners
- ISBN13: 9781400082544
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Product Description
Even your favorite dinner can lose its appeal when it’s in constant rotation, so mix it up! With her largest collection of recipes yet, Food Network’s indefatigable cook Rachael Ray guarantees you’ll be able to put something fresh and exciting on your dinner table every night for a full year… without a single repeat!
Based on the original 30-Minute Meal cooking classes that started it all, these recipes prove that you don’t have to reinvent the wh… More >>
Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners
Sep 6th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Love this book! I have all of Ray’s previous books, and I often watch her show when I am cooking my own family dinner. We are huge fans of her Cooking Round the Clock book and her Cooking Rocks (for kids) books. On average, I use recipes from those books at least twice a week.
Her first book that I purchased was her 30 Minute Get Togethers and the first couple menus that I used were NOT 30 minute meals for me. However over the years I have learned to adapt. I have gotten quicker at chopping veggies and will use already prepared things if necessary. Ok, on to the new book.
This is her biggest book by far. I got it the day it came out and spent at least two hours pouring over the recipes and marking ones I want to try. For the most part I was thinking I would be anal here. I would start with recipe number one and go from there, making every single recipe and not skipping a one. But I husband really wanted to try #37-Warm Lemon Chicken Sandwich with Arugula and Pears. Not something I would normally make, but it sounded intriguing. WONDERFUL! Even my picky eaters (I have two) gobbled it up. We then went on to #38-Grilled Flank Steak Sandwich again we were not disappointed.
If you are looking for a cookbook that offers quick, but unique and tasty meals, this is the one.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sep 6th, 2010 at 9:51 am
I agree that this is Rachael’s best and most diverse collection of recipes to date. I actually did a rough count of the recipes by the protein or main ingredient. This is approximately how the recipes stack up: 53 meatless (many do contain cheese, however), 11 lamb, 4 egg, 8 ground turkey, 21 ground beef, 80 chicken, 21 beef (steaks, London broil, etc.), 5 ground pork, 16 pork (chops, tenderloin), 9 turkey (cutlets), 10 ground chicken, 29 fish (halibut, cod, swordfish, salmon, tuna), 11 veal (ground, cutlets, etc.), 30 shellfish (shrimp, crab, mussels, scallops, calamari), and 48 sausage, etc. (ham, prosciutto, chorizo, Italian sausage, breakfast sausage, bacon, salami, pancetta, etc). According to the listings in the front of the book, there are 48 pasta dishes, 33 soups and 20 burgers. I may have miscounted a few, but I think these numbers are fairly close. Perhaps some reviewers got the impression that the ingredients were repetitive because of the technique Rachael sometimes (but not always) uses of providing a master recipe with variations by swapping out ingredients. For instance, there is a master macaroni and cheese with broccoli recipe, followed by macaroni and smoked gouda with cauliflower, Tex-Mex mac and cheddar (with ground beef) and a chipotle mac and cheddar with chorizo and tomato.
While many of the recipes are Italian or Italian influenced, reflecting Rachael’s heritage, with Tex-Mex following closely behind, there are also Spanish, Cuban, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, French, Cajun, Greek, German, and Carribbean influenced recipes as well. There is also plenty of “American” fare as well, although there are fewer traditional “comfort food” dishes in this book than there are in some of her other collections. The subtitle of the book is a hint at that. It truly is “a year of deliciously different dinners.” And, after several years of watching Rachael’s show regularly and making many, many of her recipes, I find that I can come close to the 30 minute mark in completing the meals, especially after the first time making a particular recipe.
As for pictures, if you are familiar with buying cookbooks, you realize that you trade off photographs for affordability. If this book were full of glossy photos of the food, it would probably have a list price of at least $40. I don’t know of anywhere else you can find such a large and diverse collection of recipes for so little money.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sep 6th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I bought this cookbook with no prior knowledge of Rachel Ray or her other cookbooks. The idea of 365 30-minute meals is appealing, but unfortunately, many of the recipes included take far more than 30 minutes if you include prep time. This is a useful cookbook for families as the yields are fairly large and it covers a variety of flavors. However, the flavors aren’t always great; they are often combined in unappetizing mixtures that just don’t work. The method of substituting ingredients to change up a dish is not terribly useful either. Most often, you will have to change half the recipe to get a new dish. The worst part, though, is the lack of a useful index. It’s extremely difficult to find your way around the book. Just try looking for a “chicken” dish. If you don’t know the title, chances are you won’t find it fast.
Rating: 2 / 5
Sep 6th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
I have read some of the reviews here and there seems to be a consensus that Miss Ray has a very chirpy and annoying personality. I have not had the opportunity to ever watch her show, so I am totally unfamiliar with her persona. So, I basically walked into the Rachael Ray world without an opinion one way or another. I originally avoided her books simply because I like fussy cooking and thought a thirty minute cookbook would be full of convenience foods and probably not very interesting. Lo and behold, my work schedule changed a few months ago and I no longer had the long, leisurely hours to cook – I found myself getting into a total rut – cooking the same quick foods again and again and again. So, I decided to take a gander at Rachael Ray’s books and see what the fuss was about.
My busy schedule is no longer an excuse to be in a cooking rut! This is a nice book full of clever ideas. I immediately sat down and skimmed through it, looking for recipes that would appeal to my family (I like the little check boxes next to each recipe that allow you to mark off the ones you want to try and the ones that are a ‘keeper’). So far, everything I’ve cooked from this book is a ‘keeper’! There are not that many convenience foods featured – simply real food. We’ve enjoyed the Rosemary-Orange Pork Chops with Lemon-Butter Broccolini, Chicken in Mustard Sauce with Asparagras, Ricotta Pasta with Grape Tomatoes Peas and Basil – and more.
One of the highlights of this book is the ‘master recipes’ – which can then be changed to create a ‘new recipe’ by altering ingredients. Although this may appear like a cheater’s way to get in a few recipes, it truly helps to inspire creativity in the kitchen. And yes – the food CAN be done and on the table in 30 minutes! I’ve had no problem with the time factor at all. How nice to be able to have good quality food, imaginative combinations and new ideas for those of us who are rushed but still want to eat well.
On a side note: The industrious Miss Ray has just come out with a magazine, which I had picked up before I bought this book. This magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray, is simply amazing. Every single thing that I have cooked out of this magazine has been unbelievably good. My son thought that the Chicken Curry recipe was the best he had ever tasted! I really recommend that you check out the magazine in addition to her other offerings.
Rating: 5 / 5
Sep 6th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
As the mother of a one-year-old who’s beginning to want to eat what Mommy and Daddy are eating (until now, too often fast food), I decided I’d better get into the habit of cooking at home. Since I work full-time, the idea of 30-minute meals had a lot of appeal. The recipes I’ve tried so far were delicious, but I was disappointed that, even with help in the kitchen, none of them has taken only 30 minutes to prepare–they’ve usually taken an hour or so. I’m not completely inexperienced in the kitchen, so I don’t think it’s just me being slow . . . maybe Rachel’s prep is lightning fast. Also, the recipes are very gourmet, and many call for ingredients that you might not be able to find at your local grocery store. Guess I’ll still have to do some more searching for true 30-minute meals (if they exist!).
Rating: 3 / 5