The Frugal Cook - Move Over Nigella! (The Frugal Cook - Fiona Beckett)

Member Name: LAURALILIA

Product:	The Frugal Cook - Fiona Beckett
Date:	07/02/09 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good common sense recipes to make the most of your food budget.

Disadvantages: Not enough pictures of the finished product.

The Frugal Cook by Fiona Beckett

***What's it all about? ***

In keeping with the fashion for all things frugal, Fiona Beckett has written a cookbook to make the most of feeding your family. It starts with some tips on how to generally analyse the way you think about food. She first looks at the skill of stretching food, being more energy efficient and the frugal store cupboard to name just a few tips.

Then the main emphasis of the book is on recipes, including sections on:

~Budget breakfasts and brunches
~Light lunches and snacks
~Easy midweek suppers
~Big weekend cook-ups
~The frugal host

Finally there is a section containing and A-Z of leftovers and what you can do with them. There is also a section advertising her blog. The book is 208 pages long and is published by Absolute Press (2008). I did actually get this book from the library on my recent money saving spree.

***Opinion***

I liked this book, mainly because I felt that a lot of thought and work had gone into it. It also included the usual references to useful websites. There will be recipes that I will try; The Pea and Ham soup for instance, something my mum used to make, but I have never attempted as a grown up. I will also give Lemon Drizzle Traybake a try.

I also liked how she introduced each recipe with a personal note of why she liked it or how it was thrifty, rather than page after page of printed recipes.

There is also a useful little section about calorific intake for different age groups, which I found interesting.

A few more pictures of the finished articles wouldn't go amiss; I like to see how it should turn out - sometimes my stuff looks nothing like the picture! It is nice to know though.

A few of the recipes are also a bit out of my comfort zone too - 'Spiced Game Pilaf' being one of them. Perhaps I am just not adventurous enough.

I know that a book can quickly become out of date too, but a few costings would have been helpful too. The part of the book I enjoyed the most was all the tips at the beginning - a lot of it common sense, but one or two that I hadn't thought of.

I feel that this author has earned her money with the time and effort that she has put into the book and it is worth investing in, to add to any other cookery books you may have. She also presents the whole book in a manner that isn't patronising - compared to other similar books I have read recently. Even though I got this from the library - I think I will be buying it.

***Availability***

It is available from Amazon for £9.74 and there is also a dedicated blog at thefrugalcook.blogspot.com, which has been going for just over year. It contains some interesting recipes and tips and is worth a look. The fact that she can be bothered to continue with her work by writing a blog, I think, is to the author's credit.

Summary: Some good recipes that I hadn't come across before.