Book Review:  CookMISER
(Reviewed by Amanda Formaro)
Book by R. J. Lavigne
ISBN 0-9684-1120-7

How does less than $1.00 per meal sound to you? Or better yet, less than 50 cents? Impossible? Not with the CookMISER. In this book, packed with over 700 recipes, you will learn, from start to finish, how to shop for food and how to prepare it to yield the most for your money.

Not only does the author teach you how and where to buy your groceries, but if you truly follow the guidelines outlined in this book, you will pay literally pennies per meal for your family. Learn how to select your groceries for optimal savings, discover the best supermarkets to shop, and learn to make the most of everything you purchase.

The recipes in this book include a wide range of ethnic foods, candy bar making, soda and beer production, sausage and cheese instructions, how to grow your own sprouts for sandwiches and salads, and of course, a huge variety of everyday meals are at hand.

Whether you are a seasoned miserly grocery shopper, or one who's never checked a price, the shopping guide can come in quite handy. Included are detailed illustrations of the foods you should be looking for as well as a complete shopping list for your convenience.

The section on preparation is an excellent resource in itself, even if you decided never to try a single recipe in the remainder of the book! Here the author tells us how to blanch, freeze, presoak, and premix items you will need for your meal planning. Handy charts providing blanching times and presoaking instructions for all different foods are provided. 

Also pointed out and highly illustrated, are appliances you will need in your kitchen, prep instructions for freezing and storage, storage guides, conversion tables, oven usage guidelines, cooking terms, and more!

Following the sample menus provided for you, the vast recipe section includes breakfast cereals, soups, sides, breads, spreads & dips, main course meals, muffins, desserts, pasta, and more. Also included are recipes and instructions for making your own dairy products, sausages, tofu, candy bars, and other fast food favorites.

The book includes standard and metric measurements. It is extremely well organized, from start to finish, unlike the highly sought after Complete Tightwad Gazette, which forces you to hop all over the book to find what you are looking for. While still a fan of The Complete Tightwad Gazette, finding something in CookMISER is simply not a problem.

Of all the cookbooks I have encountered, this has to be the most complete and useful guide I have ever seen. This book will pay for itself in absolutely no time at all, with the savings you will experience in your grocery expense. It's definitely a keeper and I won't be parting with my copy anytime soon! 

To buy CookMISER click here!

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