Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking: Quick and Easy Wholesome Homemade Dinners

by Beth Hensperger

Book Overview

Not Your Mother's guide to quick and wholesome meals, prepared in 30 minutes or less. Weeknight dinners that rock No disrespect to Mom, but award winning author Beth Hensperger has gone her one better with this collection of fast, wholesome, tasty weeknight meals that updates the classics and offers dozens of new classics-in-the-making. From Chicken Pot Pie to Spicy Chicken with Cilantro and Mushrooms, from Horseradish Meatloaf to Lamb Curry with...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558323686
• ISBN13: 9781558323681
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Harvard Common Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Makes me feel gourmet!

So far I have enjoyed all the recipes I have tried. The herb coated tilapia, shrimp provencal, and the black bean soup are just a few that I have loved so far. I do not consider myself very proficient in the kitchen. I need a recipe to make anything good. With this cookbook I feel like I'm eating a gourmet meal even though it was so easy to make. I also have her slow cooker cookbook and have enjoyed that too!

easy with a touch of gourmet

Skimmed the book and tagged many interesting recipes. Tried one egg dish and it was good. Recipes are clear concise and to the point.

Quick, Healthy, Delicious!

Many cookbooks promise "quick, healthy, and delicious" recipes, but few deliver. This one does! Henspserger is well-known for her reliable and innovative books on crockpot cooking. She has another winner with this book on weeknight cooking. You'll find streamlined recipes for family favorites: Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Parmesan, Shrimp Scampi, Baked Crab Cakes, Flank Steak Beef Broccoli, Salisbury Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and many more. For the adventurous, there are recipes with exotic names that are actually easy to prepare - Chinese Spaghetti with Pork Sauce, Paillards of Chicken with Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes (a favorite at our house), Lobster and Asparagus Benedict, Duck Breast Salad. I like the balance in the book between the familiar and the unexpected. With few exceptions, ingredient lists are short, the emphasis is on fresh foods, and ingredients could be found in a typical grocery. I loved the special sections on helpful topics, such as "About Vinegars", "Tips for Great Pizza", and "Steamed Seasonal Vegetables", to name a few. I buy a lot of cookbooks. Most are good for a quick read and for trying a few recipes that stand out. This one is different. I expect to be using it for many years. To begin, try the Olive Oil Cornbread and the Sour Cream Cornbread with Cheddar and Corn Kernals - both are outstanding!

Weeknight Variety With Ease

Coming up with tantalizing meals that are nutritionally sound night after night after night is difficult at best, and Beth Hensperger is an expert at making it easy and fun to treat your family on any ordinary Wednesday night (or Tuesday, or Thursday, or even (shudder) Monday. Hensperger's latest offering is Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking, and if she were my mother, I would never have left home. For instance, Beth's Mexican Chicken with Beer Glaze and Sweet Potato Fries whips up in about an hour, and is deliciously spicy, using a spice blend that Jacquie McMahan shared with Beth. I love that Beth gives credit where credit is due as well. If you have ever moaned, "I don't know what to fix tonight," buy this book. It will help a great deal.

Home-cooked meals need not be the exclusive province of stay-at-home moms

Home-cooked meals need not be the exclusive province of stay-at-home moms. Not when there is Beth Hensperger's "Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking", an outstanding collection of 150 easy, nutritious, delicious dishes that are stress-free preparations of contemporary recipes for dinner dishes that are 45 minutes or less in preparation. Enhanced with a four-color insert showcasing finished dishes, the recipes range from Herb-Coated Tilapia; Spicy Chicken with Cilantro and Mushrooms; Scallops of Pork with Raisins and Sherry Vinegar; and Pan-Sauteed Lamb Chops with Blackberry Sauce; to Ravioli with Mushrooms and Sweet Peas; Peggy's Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup; Double Tomato Baby Lentil Salad with Olives; and Gold Beef Burgers with Cold Pea Salad. Each recipe features the Cooking Method, Prep Time; and Cook Time. The itemized ingredients list and the step-by-step cooking instructions make each recipe thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly'. Palate pleasing and appetite satisfying, "Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking" is especially recommended for time-constrained working women (and men!) wanting to enjoy meals that are several cuts above dumping something out of a can or popping something into a microwave.