"Not Just Beans: 50 Years of Frugal Family Favorites."
by Tawra Jean Kellam
Reviewed by Crystal Dupay

Kellam’s first cookbook is sure to be popular with the penny-pinching crowd. This is not a cookbook filled with elaborate recipes that require expensive ingredients but rather, simple and delicious family favorites that can be made with items we all have in our kitchens. Recipes include the basics that you would expect to find in any cookbook. But Kellam also includes recipes for baking mixes, basic soup seasoning, pickles, cake mixes, whipped topping and many other items that so many of us purchase "ready-made" in the store at a much higher cost.

Kellam includes sections on the basics of frugal cooking, saving at the grocery store, meal planning tips, a freezer guide and more. Especially helpful is a section on breakfast and lunch ideas for kids along with recipes for fun items such as edible play dough, face paint, finger paint, sidewalk chalk and more.

What really sets Kellam’s book apart is the down-to-earth humor and anecdotes that are included on almost every page. She includes a recipe for a good marriage, a poem about cookies and mothers, and funny little quotes that we can all identify with such as, "A pessimist sees the glass as half empty, an optimist sees it as half full…a realist sees it as something else they have to wash!"

To purchase your copy of this delightful book, visit the "Not Just Beans" web site at: www.notjustbeans.com  or contact Tawra Jean Kellam. 

Crystal Dupay is the stay-at-home mother of two daughters, living in West Virginia. 

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