Rachel Ray Cookbook

My mom gave me a Rachel Ray cookbook as part of my birthday present. It is the orange cookbook with tons of 30 minute meals. I have to say that we have mixed reviews on it. (Sorry mom!)
We have made 3 meals from it so far. The first meal was a Mexican dish that actually was pretty good. Except it really turned out to be more of a breakfast dish and we were eating it for dinner!

The 2nd meal was called Philly Cheeseteak Mac and Cheese. I thought it was pretty good. (But then again, I LOVE any Mac and Cheese.) Brian wasn't crazy about it. He said it tasted kind of bland.

The third meal we made tonight. Swedish Meatballs. Again, I liked it - but Brian wasn't overly thrilled with it. So - I guess the moral of this story is that I liked all the meals -but Brian didn't.

The issue I have with the cookbook is that Rachel tends to use a TON of ingredients. I have to admit that when I see a recipe with TONS of ingredients - I tend to shy away from it. It just seems like too much work to find all the ingredients and then what do I do with the excess amount of ingredients? For instance, I had to buy gingersnap cookies, and grape jelly to make the Swedish meatballs. The recipe only called for 6 cookies and 2 TBSP of grape jelly. That is all well and good - but I NEVER buy gingersnap cookies, nor do I EVER buy grape jelly. So - now I have a ton of cookies left over, along with grape jelly. MMMM.

Anyway - I will keep plugging away at it and trying the new recipes. I have a trick that I learned from my mom. I make notes in the cookbook so when I go back - I can remember what we thought about each meal. Thanks mom for the tip!!