great book

I love this book. the recipe are delicious ! even though most of them take more than 30 minutes it's worth it. everything that I have tried so far has turned out great.
At the same time I bought another book who was recommended in our local newspaper, Simple and Simply Delicious by Sylvie Rocher. If you like international cuisine this book is for you.

A well-done collection of quick meals

I am a fan of Rachael Ray's "30 Minute Meals" television program - I find her approach to cooking to be casual and fun. I also like her enthusiasm and her belief that cooking new and interesting meals from scratch can be done by anyone. Having purchased this book about 6 months ago, I have so far only made 2 complete meals: "Stuffed Pork Chops" and "Passport to Belgium". From my limited experience with Rachael's recipes, here are my thoughts.

First the good: as she emphasizes on her show, her recipes call for ingredients that are readily available in large grocery stores. The most "exotic" items that I had to pick up were leeks and sugarcubes. Also, she does use, when necessary, convenience items, like chicken stock or broth from a can, or frozen pound cake and Redi-whip. Otherwise, her recipes call for fresh meat,produce and dairy. Both recipes that I followed turned out well - even my 5 year old liked them, which says a lot.

My only criticism was that these meals took longer than 30 minutes - closer to 45 minutes for me in both cases. I firmly believe that these meals can be prepared in the time allotted; the problems that I ran into had more to do with cooking in "real world" situations: watching the kids, dealing with limited counter space, needing to wash and reuse the same utensils for meat and produce, etc. However, I was impressed with what I was able to make in under an hour!

Overall, I'd highly recommend this cookbook. Rachael Ray has put together some delicious and fast recipes, and I am looking forward to trying more of her meals.

Yummy Recipies!

I bought this book to try out and really love it. My grocery bill has gone up, trying to keep up with the ingredients (I make 2 or 3 of the recipies each week)....and with prep time, take much longer than 30 minutes. But putting those two things aside....every recipe I've made so far, has been really delicious. Myself and my family have loved everything! I totally recommend this book.