Reddit reviews Betty Crocker Cookbook: 1500 Recipes for the Way You Cook Today

So you need easy recipes and pretty good food? Betty crocker recipe book. Seriously it will help you learn to cook and give you tons to work with!

Betty Crocker Cookbook: 1500 Recipes for the Way You Cook Today https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470906022/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_LCRBwb5ME8GKC


My mom had the 1970's version of this book. I started cooking easy stuff at age 5 (with mums help). I own the 1970 version and this version. I love the old version for the "cheesey 1950s" pictures and weirdness like how to dress a squirrel. (Yes seriously)

Try the basic Betty Crocker. Generations of us have learned from it.

Also, remember that your public library probably has several shelves of cookbooks you can browse through.

Alton Brown is great. The Betty Crocker cookbook is great too. I also like the Fannie Farmer.

This is a repost of a post of a comment I made, but it should work great for you too. The key here is that this kind of meal is really hard to mess up.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/xfjkv/seeing_a_lot_of_need_quickhealthyeasycheap_meals/

Speaking of really hard to mess up, Crockpots. You don't even really have to "cook". Just get the ingredients, throw them in the pot for 4-8 hours, and you're done.

If you are looking for recipes that use ingredients others have mentioned Joy of Cooking or How to cook everything. Love them both. Joy is my go to for everything I need.

That said...

if you are looking for fast/easy you may be leaning on more packaged foods so that means canned soups, frozen/canned veggies, Stove Top Stuffing, etc. Chicken breasts tossed in a crock pot with a large jar of green or red salsa makes a great filler for tortillas/taco shells. Then just have whatever fillers you like. Very easy and fast. I have recipes that use canned soups, stove top, and the like. Again, easy and fast.

While some people think that it's heresy I think a mix of convenient cooking mixed with from scratch offers the best balance for the busy family.

As far as cookbooks I think Betty Crocker is pretty good at straddling that line.

I definitely agree with everybody here who says to check out Youtube. The tutorials can be awesome! However, if you're new to cooking/baking, it can still be hard to know the terms and equipment they are using. Nothing beats a book for familiarizing yourself with these sorts of things. I recommend what I consider to be the Bible as far as learning to cook goes, "The Betty Crocker Cookbook". Assuming, of course, that you are American and will be using American measuring and temperatures.

https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-Recipes-Today/dp/0470906022

You mentioned you want to learn how to make bread! I make my own exclusively, and I highly recommend doing that. Your own bread will be far healthier and filling than anything you'll buy in a grocery store or bakery, and you can add stuff to make it even tastier (my go-to is rosemary and sage). I only just learned to do it about a year ago, and was very intimidated by it because it seemed really complicated, would take hours and hours to do, might need special equipment (a bread maker) and I'd spend a lot of time and elbow grease kneading it. I was lucky enough to find, after a lot of searching, this video I'm posting below. This lady explains it really well and her method is super simple, turns out great every time. You can make sandwich loaves or rolls or whatever shape you want to make with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOJovFzWfw

As you make this recipe over and over again, you'll be less intimidated by the whole bread thing and probably get into more complicated stuff. Check out r/breadit when this happens!

Good luck!

Buy her this cookbook. Beg her not to substitute. . .

http://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-Recipes-Crockers/dp/0470906022/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397619869&sr=1-1&keywords=betty+crocker+cookbook