WHAT’S FOR SUPPER: 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals: review and giveaway

I'm forever asking myself, "What shall we have for dinner" -- 30 minutes before it's time to eat! I want to minimize eating out or taking out, and I want to avoid cooking with processed foods, and I don't want to have pasta with tomatoes and olive oil three nights a week! The thought of being able to cook from-scratch meals with only 5 ingredients, in just 30 minutes, sounds too good to be true -- but that's what Southern Living's new cookbook claims to do.  I received WHAT’S FOR SUPPER: 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals to review.... keep reading below to see what I think of it (and enter to win a copy of your own!)

The Basics
How do you pull off cooking a from-scratch meal every night of the week? Southern Living has the tips and tricks of the trade with their new book, WHAT’S FOR SUPPER: 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals (Oxmoor House; August 27th, 2013; $19.95/Paperback) written by Southern Living Test Kitchen Specialist Vanessa McNeil Rocchio.

Faced with the daily challenge of cooking healthy, affordable, and quick meals for your family is reason enough to head to the take-out menus, but WHAT’S FOR SUPPER: 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals will have you saving both time and money. Drawing upon the brand’s legacy and expertise, the book shows home cooks how to make family-friendly meals such as Ginger Pork Chops with Grilled Peach Relish, Smoked Salmon with Goat Cheese and Asparagus Frittata, Sausage with Kale Grits, and Molten Hazelnut Brownies.

The Bongga

• Recipes are extremely simple to prepare
• There's a wide variety of dishes to please (almost) any palate
• The color photos with each and every recipe inspire me to cook!

The thing I like best about this cookbook is that I don't feel like I have to follow the recipe to the letter; that is, if I substitute an ingredient, the dish won't taste terrible.  For example, I made the Chicken Mushroom Pot Pie, but I didn't have a pie crust or puff pastry, so I used refrigerated dough biscuits.  The dish turned out great, and everyone loved it!

The Blah

• Recipes rely on prepared foods such as cooked diced chicken, or processed foods such as jarred marinara sauce or canned soup -- so I wouldn't make the claim that this cookbook lets you cook meals from scratch in 30 minutes.  
• Vegetarian and vegan options are limited.  I think every cookbook nowadays ought to have vegetarian or vegan options (unless the cookbook is specifically dedicated to meat, poultry or fish!).

The Bottom Line
"5 Ingredient Weeknight Meals" is great for busy cooks who don't like to spend ages thinking about what to cook, and don't like to spend ages cooking!  The recipes are easy to follow, or you can let the photos and recipes inspire you to put your own spin on the dishes, or even create your own!

Win a copy of the book

One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will receive a copy of WHAT’S FOR SUPPER: 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals

Required Entry

Leave a comment on this post and tell me a favorite dinner recipe that you'd like to be able to complete in 30 minutes!

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).

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I entered the "5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals" cookbook giveaway!  Giveaway ends 8/24 at http://ow.ly/AaG3C

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Enter 2 win a copy of Southern Living's new cookbook, 5-Ingredient Weeknight Meals! Giveaway  @bonggafinds ends 8/24 http://ow.ly/AaG3C 

8) Join any open giveaway on Bonggamom Finds (1 entry for every giveaway you join)

The Rules
This giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on August 24,  2014; I will draw a winner at random, on August 25 and post their name after they confirm acceptance. Continental US residents only. For additional giveaway rules, click here.

Disclosure: I received a product sample to facilitate my review. Giveaway prize was provided by YC Media. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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