Outstanding for anyone out on their own who needs to whip up lunch or supper in a hurry.
Recipes are all based on pantry staples, familiar canned items, and a few specialty foods.

Can opener required. ( )

As this was a gift from my mother, I often wonder what message she was trying to communicate to me.

Most of the recipes follow particular brands slavishly (does Campbell Soup Company own part of Rodale?) which is actually extremely patronizing (despite the buddy-buddy tone of the writing); there are no recommended substitutions or suggestions that you could use generic brands or frozen or fresh vegetables when appropriate. This book also assumes you know absolutely nothing, so if you've even cooked while camping, you'll find it way below your level of experience. A training wheels approach makes sense but does this book intend for guys to actually cook for themselves or not once they've used it for awhile?

Still, this book isn't useless for a total neophyte (male) college student. The recipes are mostly a step up (if only barely) from the frozen food aisle's human cat food in terms of flavor and they are universally easy to make. They also are on the healthy side of this genre - contrast them with Semi-Homemade or even some recipes on the backs of the canned goods it will ask you to buy - not surprising being written by guys from a "healthy living" magazine. So I guess that's almost two stars worth of positives. ( )

http://blog.libdrone.org/2007/11/not-my-usual-cookbook-roundup.html ( )