Ten Dollar Dinners: 140 Recipes & Tips to Elevate Simple, Fresh Meals Any Night of the Week

I've been watching Melissa's show ever since she first won "Food Network Star", so I was very happy to hear that she finally came out with a cookbook of recipes from the series. I recognize and have made many of them, but some either escaped me the first time or are new. I like seeing new recipes, although I do wish that more of my own familiar favorites were included in the book, like her garlic chicken, or her individual tiramisus with the mock mascarpone. Not that I don't appreciate the recipes that she has included, though. I was very happy to see my favorite tuna panzanella salad and her orange scented carrot soup, both of which I've made many times.I was expecting to like this cookbook, and I do. Melissa has a way with easy simplicity yielding a result that is more than the sum of its parts. Whenever I make her recipes I always find them even better than expected given that they are made from relatively few and cheap ingredients, and are so easy and quick to prepare. She has a way of pairing simple flavors, like ginger and orange, that go a long way in terms of bang for one's effort and buck. Her recipes do not offend the refined palate despite seeming almost pedestrian at first glance. I often say her recipes are a three way win: Cheap, easy, and taste great!The cookbook itself is also a pleasant surprise. The pages are thick and glossy, with a typeface that is easy to see even without my reading glasses. The book is laid out in a simple and straightforward fashion, and is packed with beautiful color photos of the food, plus some of both Melissa and her family, whom she often talks about on her show. Now we finally have faces to match with those stories. It's almost hard to believe that we've never had a glimpse of them until now.Scattered throughout the book are tips and tricks to keeping one's costs down. Some of these seem new to me but she has mentioned most of them on her show. I appreciate the tips, although some of them are just mildly interesting and fall short of helpful, at least for me. I am not a fan of dried beans and sometimes Melissa is like a broken record with recommending them. When I can go to my local discount store and find beans for 65 cents a can, I don't think I need to go through all the extra effort of using the dried beans, despite how much cheaper they may be.I can see that Melissa made an effort to include a variety of types of recipes in this book. I almost think the book tries too hard to achieve that balance, because I feel like there should have been more main course meat recipes in it. Not that I don't appreciate all the salads, pastas and side dishes, though.In all, for a first effort with help writing the book, this is an excellent start. After years of buying Rachael Ray cookbooks with no photos and cheap paper, this is like a breath of fresh air. Melissa continues to impress me. She comes off as understated and easy to approach, but she also manages not to dumb down her recipes too much. Considering the budgetary constraints she is under with the Ten Dollar theme, that is no small feat. I have a feeling that should she continue to have success and there should be a second cookbook, it will be even better than this one. Way to go, Melissa!

Ten Dollar Dinners is one of my favorite shows and I can vouch for the fact that many of the recipes are both cost-conscious and tasty. There are 140 recipes in this book, all accompanied by full color photos - but there is also so much more. Also included are strategies for saving money and stocking a "ten dollar dinner pantry." This info helps flesh out the book, even though it would be a very worthwhile purchase without the extras.If you're a fan of the show, you'll recognize some of the recipes: Spinach Salad with Blue Cheese, French Cut Steak with Carmelized Onions, Crispy Potato Cakes. I've tried every one of those and loved them. Of course, you may want to tweak some of the recipes to suit your taste but I've found I can use most just as written. I might add a bit more seasoning here or there but that is pretty typical...a cook tends to add a personal touch to a recipe.I loved the section where author Melissa d'Arabian wrote about her life. She is someone who is so charismatic and enthusiastic on television that I was interested in learning more about her. She wrote so vividly about living in France for four years, meeting her husband, moving back to the United States, becoming parents to four girls, and learning to survive on one income.Learning to live on a strict budget was quite a challenge but something she notes she was "hardwired to do." And her readers are the lucky beneficiaries of her efforts. Not incidentally, she beat out the competition to become The Next Food Network Star - and with a Potato- Bacon Torte that cost only fifty cents a serving!Each recipe in Ten Dollar Dinners is listed on a scale from "downright cheap" to "pricey" (although the definition of pricey used here is still very inexpensive). Depending on budgets, readers can opt for only the cheapest recipes for a meal or mix and match various choices if there are extra funds.Melissa also has many suggestions to cut costs on a regular basis: eat beans once a week as part of a main dish, use loss leaders, create a quick weekly menu plan in only five minutes, etc. We are huge fans of soup in our family so that section was particularly appealing. Somehow we also seem to have excess carrots around so the Orange Carrot Soup is one recipe I'm going to test immediately (today), especially since it takes very little time. The only soup recipe that doesn't look particularly attractive in the photo is the Creamy Any Veggie Soup but maybe it makes up for a lack of visual appeal with great taste.If you have gourmet tastes, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find some unique flavor combinations (Preserved Lemon and Olive Chicken Tangine) along with such basics as simple biscuits. When it comes to desserts, choices such as Classic Apple Tart or Strawberry Pavlovas with Apricot Sauce add a luxurious - but still budget-friendly- finish to meals. Vegetarians aren't left out either, with a chapter on using vegetables as main and side dishes.Another bonus? Most of these recipes can be prepared in a snap. Even the ones that depend on slow cooking can be prepared for cooking in a matter of minutes and then just left to simmer while you go about the rest of your day. I'm so excited to make my old favorites from the show and try out the new recipes as well!

As a collector of cook books, I can quickly tell that this will be one of my favorites. We live an hour from the nearest grocery store, so our pantry and freezer are usually well stocked to save weekly trips to the store - especially during inclement weather. I appreciate that these recipes are easy to follow, the ingredients are simple, not hard to find and are normally included in ones grocery list, and in our case, already in the pantry or freezer. I really like the way each recipe has a "scoring system" to indicate the cost of the meal. Melissa includes a short story with each recipe that gives a sense of her as a person, and her passion as a typical parent who wants to save money but eat healthy. The recipes have lots of flavor but not overly spiced, probably with her children in mind. I like that this book covers everything from appetizers to desserts and nothing is so "over the top" that you have to run to the store to find an obscure ingredient. All that to say that you won't go wrong in buying this book for yourself or a young family.

I enjoyed the premise of the book and I liked the money saving tips. My husband and I had a friend for dinner. I made the mustard chicken and the apple tart. My grocery bill was about $22. But I needed onions and butter and I served potatoes and Brussel sprouts with the chicken. I still feel it was a pretty good deal.The chicken needed just a little bit more zip. Any ideas? The apple tart tasted really great but didn't look like it came out of a French bakery. Does it need some kind of glaze?

Very frugal living pattern for saving money and eating well.

Its a handy and easy book; i have made a few easy receipes from it. I liked the white-beans receipe alot! Thx.

Love her recipes! Lots of keepers in this book although I must say, you can probably get most of them on the Food Network's website.