Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats--A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook)

I USED to love watching 30 Minute Meals, but gave up on her years ago. I came across this book in the library and thought I'd give it a try--I should have know better. I'm just glad that I didn't buy it, I would have been so mad!

There are several problems with this book
1. Tasteless--I have made about 6 meals from this book. Even though they all call for enormous amounts of spices, the results are rather bland. Nothing has been down right disgusting, but nothing is worth repeating nor saving for leftovers.
2. Organization--There is none! Although it's nice to have a book filled with meal, there is no rhyme or reason to the way it's set up. Unless you know EXACTLY what you are looking for, good luck!
3. Ingredients--Every recipe calls for something that is a "specialty" item. It's annoying to have to go to 3 different grocery stores to get all the ingredients for a "fast meal." Doesn't make it so fast. So if you are cooking on the fly, haven't been to the store for a while, you will not have all the ingredients needed for a recipe.
4. Time--30 minutes? Yeah, right. Maybe after you've made it each week for 6 months. Lot of prep time that she seems to forget about.
5. Pictures--There are none! Ok, except for a few pages in the middle of the book showing about 10 of the 365 recipes. (The same pictures on the back of the book. They really spent the big bucks on publishing this book.)
6. Did I mention taste? Yeah, very bland food.

Returning the book to the library tomorrow without any regrets.

I like Rachel Ray. This book is easy to read and has a good variety of menus.

I like the concept of no repeats but its practically impossible to do even for our household of 2-working adults w/ no kids. Some of them are somewhat intensive that I cant believe 30-min is the max. time for cooking - dont know if that includes prep time.

PRO: Master recipe with variations allow one to add different ingredients or make it vegetarian based on a core recipe; clearly written with well organized approach towards preparation (many can be done ahead of time to wait until final combination); use of different ingredients that what I'm used to - good for experimentation; well organized front index according to type (Burger, chicken, 1 or 2 people, fast suppers...); page notations to remind one "it's a keeper" or "Try later"

CON: use of heavy cream and lots of butter which can be challenging for watching ones calorie/fat intake; no nutritional value information provided; some ingredients, albeit unfamiliar, can be challenging to find in ones local area

Overall its a great book to find new recipes, experiment and break out of the old rut that I'm in.

I bought this book for my mom because she loves Rachel Ray. She also loves to cook, but often runs out of meal ideas-so this book came in handy. However, everyone has different tastes depending on where they live, so some of the recommended ingredients were substituted for other ingredients and/or taken out completely. When you cook, you know how to make a good meal-better. So this review is based on my mother's experience and her advice.

I really love Rachel Ray -- her bubbly and effervescent personality really does inspire one to get in the kitchen and cook away. However, this cookbook is probably not her best effort.

There's a marketing quotation which has been around for many years:

"Fast, quality, cheap -- pick any two of the three and we can probably do business."

Rachel's book focuses on "fast" in particular and the dishes aren't all that pricey as to their ingredients... but I'm compelled to say that the quality of these recipes, generally speaking, could be much better. I think that, herein, we see the result of a lot of "staff brain-storming" to get a new cookbook out on the market but not a lot of these recipes will withstand the test of time.

While I would gauge most of these recipes as "good," you could take half of them and find something similar, but better, at other sources. The other half are conceptually new and I give Rachel an "A" for creative thinking but, again, I feel that there are simply better innovative recipes to be found elsewhere.

Now, to be fair, a good number of these recipes will suffice for really busy career people who find themselves constantly on the run. My niece is just such a person and she doesn't have an abundance of time to spend behind her cooking range. She loves this cookbook and I think, for folks who share her circumstance in regard to time priorities, this work might just serve as a viable and valuable culinary reference. I see that used copies are available for about four bucks plus shipping so one could hardly get hurt at that price.

I will point out that this cookbook is nicely laid out and I found it easy to read as it sits open in my cookbook shield, (mine is on top of the fridge and I'm tall enough to get as close as I wish). So, the cookbook is particularly utilitarian in that regard.

Rachel Ray has a lot of irons in the fire and I'm looking forward to the day that she slows down a bit and endeavors to write a well-thought-out tome of solid recipes. I'm sure that she's quite capable of doing this. But for now I'll have to curtail my recommendation of this cookbook to the limited readership to whom I have already alluded: those folks who are notably on-the-run with little available time for meal preparation.