Review of Express Lane Meals

The review below of Express Lane Meals was recently published by the Toledo Blade. My one gripe with it is that the author of the review apparently didn't actually really read the book because she comments that many of the recipes "have more than 10 ingredients, which doesn't match with the idea of Express Lane." This comment shows she misses the point - a recipe may have more than 10 ingredients, but has 10 or less things for you to pick up fresh at the grocery store, as long as you have your pantry stocked. In addition to the regular listing of ingredients, each recipe has little boxes that include a breakdown of which ingredients to get at the express lane in your grocery store and which ingredients to make sure you have in your pantry.

But, putting that misunderstanding aside, it's a favorable review:

Some would call Rachael Ray the queen of Food Network celebrities. She is a cooking dynamo appearing daily on the Food Network as the host of 30-Minute Meals, $40 a Day, Inside Dish, and Tasty Travels. She also has a lifestyle magazine, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, and is the author of 10 cookbooks. Rachael Ray Express Lane Meals: A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $18.95) has plenty of pasta (not from scratch) recipes, salads, and sammies, otherwise known as sandwiches.

If you watch Rachael Ray, you know her shorthand and abbreviations, for example, "EVOO," meaning extra virgin olive oil. In this cookbook, MYOTO is "make your own takeout," and she titles many soup recipes Stoup, meaning that they are not thick enough for stew but more than a soup. However, many of the recipes have more than 10 ingredients, which doesn't match with the idea of Express Lane.

Recipes include Smoky Black Bean and Rice Stoup, Chicken Sausage and Egg Sammies, and Everything Lo Mein (MYOTO). Fish Tacos with Avocado Dressing looks mighty good.

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