The Once-A-Week Cooking Plan: The Incredible Cooking Program That Will Save You 10 to 20 Hoursa Week (and Have Your Family Loving It!)

by Joni Hilton

Enjoy 7 Nights of Delicious Meals by Cooking Just Once a Week! How would you like to spend less time in the kitchen, but still prepare great meals for your family-and save money at the same time?... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761517731
• ISBN13: 9780761517733
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Prima Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Delicious Time Saver!

I have been using this cook book for over two years and love it. Most of her recipes are really delicious, although I have never made any of the fish dishes. Sometimes I follow her instructions exactly and cook a week's worth of dinners in foru hours, other days I'll just double a recipe and put the extra meal in the freezer for later. Yes, as some reviewers have pointed out the author does call for a lot of expensive meats like rib eye steak. But I've found that you never need as much meat as she specifies. Instead of buying 12 rib eye steaks for a weeks worth of meals for example, I'll just buy five. That amount suits my husband and I just fine. All in all, this cookbook offers tasty, creative recipes that move beyond the traditional chili, spaghetti sauce and casserole dishes that many freezer cooking programs rely on.

New approach but worth getting the hang of!

Love this book! Tried the ground beef mix and all the recipes for Week One so far, and they're all winners. My husband is still raving about the Peaches and Cream Stuffed Pork Chops! It took about 5-6 hours to cook one week's worth the first time, but I think I'll get faster after I get the hang of marathon cooking. Since I still do "regular" cooking some nights, one week's worth of Joni's recipes will probably stretch over 2-3 weeks for our two-person household. What a luxury to have delicious, restaurant-quality meals ready in your freezer when you are short of time. Joni includes directions for reheating whether you remembered to thaw in advance or not - that's really handy when your plans change at the last minute. Joni, if you're reading this - hope you'll come out with another cookbook soon - I'll be looking for it!

the food is good & not cooking every night is heaven

I have looked at a lot of cook-ahead cookbooks and chose this one because the recipes looked like something my family would actually eat. I was right - they are "normal" enough for my taco and hamburger loving children and tasty enough for my braised lamb shanks and grilled duck breast loving husband. I would agree with other reviewers, that if you are looking for budget do-ahead cooking, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you want to save time and have a realaxed dinner hour then I think this is a good choice. I have always balked at the once-a-month cookbooks because I can't imagine spending the 12 to 14 hours in the kitchen that kind of cooking would take, not to mention the kind of freezer space it would require. This seems like a great compromise and I have been pleased with the outcome.

Restaurant meals await you at home!

Loved this book and have given it as a gift. My friends, a couple who are both engineers with their own firm, found it to be the answer. Too many times after a long day they would dine out because it was just too much trouble to go home and cook a good meal and they wanted to relax over dinner. They cook on the weekends now and they say the recipes are delicious and not a bite was wasted. They will freeze smaller portions now because recipes are large. This book fills the bill for people who love to cook but have busy lives and would like to eat delicious meals at home more often. It doesn't pretend to be a way to save money although the items are generally easy to find and grouping the menus as the author has does make efficient use of time and ingredients considering the terrific meals produced. Not for everyone but an outstanding book.

Gourmet meals at home

I originally panned this book - I guess because I was new to the concept. I have since gone through three cooking weeks with it. One day of cooking provides two weeks' worth of meals for the two of us. The meals are gourmet and fun new tastes to try. I especially enjoy using the cinnamon ice cream recipe. Simple and fun. Tip: Read the recipes before shopping. Even with the handy lists, reading the recipes first helps to understand the shopping list better.