Good recipes for novice but hard to read - Rated 
I did find the recipes cheaper than my usual shop. They were easy ish to follow but the print is really hard to read.
Excellent - Rated 
I've been amazed at the success rate I've enjoyed following recipes from this book. Lots of the recipe titles are rather off-putting but the actual results have been delicious. It does seem to use quite expensive ingredients but it's probably worth it. I've found the timings are pretty accurate. Definitely good for widening a repetoire.
Losing the will to cook - Rated 
Buying this book on recommendation of a friend who mentioned planning and seasonal foods, I really looked forward to a refreshing and easy way to plan a weekly menu and cook with ease. WHAT A SHOCK I HAD IN STORE WHEN I READ THE FIRST MONTH'S MENUS AND SUPPLIES!!! Now, I do live in the country and have 2 freezers packed full of meat from our local butcher and a walk-in larder - AND STILL I DIDN'T HAVE ALL THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS!! Still being someone who used to love cooking I went off to the local supermarkets armed with my list to cover the first month's recipes (October). It cost me a small fortune and I still couln't find some of the stuff - sorry forgot to mention I live in Co. Fermanagh - smoked mussles are not readily on the shelves of local shops, but I did eventually find them in LDL (in oil though, which wasn't recommended), so I thought - well I have the ingredients, I now only need to follow the small print(what size and font is that awful copy?) in the book. Now 8 weeks later I have lost the will to cook, I dread looking up the recipe for the night knowing that;
a it will take me forever,no matter how simple a recipe it is, and
b it will involve groundnut oil, cream, and polenta/ or something I don't normally use.
As we struggled through our Ham and Macaroni bake with breadcrumbs and salad tonight we watched Delia Smith on TV suggesting that frozen fish/veg and even chick peas make simple and tasty meals. Think I will buy that book next week.... it sounds so much easier!!!!!
A cookery book you will actually use - Rated
I'm very impressed with this book. I like to cook but almost always make one-off meals, apart from the occasional double batch of soup, half of which goes in the freezer. This book has shown me how to make fantastic meals from leftovers which saves time and money and is definitely improving my repertoire and confidence in the kitchen. The recipes are home-cooking, they're not cheffy, it's the kind of food I want to eat at home. This week I cooked roast pheasant with mash, greens and squash - delicious - have made stock with the carcass and will produce a pheasant and chestnut soup later in the week. I used the leftover squash to make a baked omelette recipe from another part of the book with ingredients I had in the cupboard/freezer. I still have mash and greens available to cook bubble and squeak. My feeling of smugness at this labour-saving and thrift cannot be under-estimated. This book must have taken the authors ages to write and test, I would definitely be interested in reading a follow-up. This is a great guide to using seasonal produce, too, rather than just cooking broccoli and green beans every day. Highly recommended.
Not so good but not so bad either! - Rated
On a positive note, I used this book for three months straight and I can honestly say there are some very good recipes. My husband and I tried many new foods that we had never eaten before, some we liked, some we didn't, but generally the recipes were pretty good with the odd exception. My husband also said many times that he had not expected to like a dish but it was actually very nice. I had not previously used fresh herbs much and found that really they made a huge difference, but of course they do add to the shopping bill. I had to make everything for two people as my teenage son would not touch most of the meals, they were a bit too adventurous for him on the whole. I don't think making them for two made any difference to the end results though.
On the negative side, unfortunately I found that the weekly shopping estimate of £50-60 was a a bit on the low side, maybe this is because of rising food prices generally, maybe it is due to not living within easy disance of a good local market. Also you have to consider that this price is for Main meals only, it's not a full weekly shopping list, I think this is something most people had not taken into account and so their weekly bill was much higher than expected. Personally I found that ours was probably around £40-50 and we were only cooking for two. So a bit disappointing. Another problem was that I suddenly found I was spending much more time in the kitchen than I had been doing, using unfamiliar recipes can take a bit more time. another problem I found was that a few of the 'Something-for-Nothing' recipes really were not! I don't see how you can say it's a 'free' meal if you use leftover potatoes but have to buy smoked mackerel etc!
On balance I would say that we have given up using the book week-in, week-out, but we have a few favourite recipes from it that we will be making regularly. The 'Big Meals from Scratch' were generally very good and I did learn a few things about using leftovers to avoid waste and save money, also I will definitely continue with the fresh herbs!
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