Fix-It and Forget-It: 5-Ingredient One-Dish Dinners by Phyllis Pellman Good
5-Ingredient One-Dish Dinners is just that – a quick cookbook filled with recipes using 5 ingredients or less. A 5 ingredient or less recipe is explained in the beginning:
- Any recipe with 5 – or fewer – ingredients.
- Water does not count.
- Salt and pepper count as one ingredient.
- Ingredients listed as optional do not count.
- Non-stick cooking spray does not count.
- The base over which the recipe is to be served does not count (such as rice, pasta, or crackers).
Pictures are included in some of the recipes, but not all, and each recipe includes the prep time, cooking time, and ideal slow cooker size (differs with each recipe).
The recipes are all simple to prepare (literally fix and forget it) which make them good choices for busy nights during the school year or game seasons. There wasn’t too much variation between the recipes, and there is a tremendous amount of processed foods throughout. This book wasn’t intended for nutritional purposes, strictly on time and ease of preparation. Handy book for busy parents, or young adults newly on their own and familiar with a slow cooker.
The best tip was from the Chicken Enchiladas recipes:
To remove enchiladas or meat loaf from your cooker, make foil handles to lift the food out. Use double strips of heavy foil to make 3 strips, each about 20″ x 3″. Crisscross them in the bottom of the pot, and bring them up the sides in a spoke design before putting in the food. The handles should stick out of the cooker about 3 inches on each side, just enough for you to grab hold of securely.
Great tip for anything ‘molded’ or layered that needs to be removed from the slow cooker.
Below is a recipe from the book. It really draws the line for the ‘5 ingredients’ as the optional ingredients are part of what makes it ‘herby’. But for a quick hot sandwich dinner, it is easy to put together. Use different combinations of dried herbs as desired.
Herby French Dip Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3-lb. chuck roast
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 to 4 whole peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, optional
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme, optional
- 6 to 8 French rolls
Procedure:
- Place the chuck roast in the slow cooker.
- Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the meat.
- Cover, and cook on high for about 5 to 6 hours, until the meat is tender but not dry.
- Remove the roast from the broth and shred. Stir it back into the broth.
- Serve the meat with French rolls.
Book Info:
- Fix-It and Forget-It 5-Ingredient One-Dish Dinners
- By Phyllis Pellman Good
- Good Books; 2013
- ISBN13: 9781453287767
Disclosure: This galley was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own.
Enjoy,
Renee Shelton
The Cookbook Papers
🙂