Simplified Dinner by Simplified Pantry - TOS Review

This is a change from my regular homeschool product review. The crew, from time to time, gets some homemaking products for review, and I was glad to be able to review one that relates to food:  Simplified Pantry.

Simplified Pantry offered us 3 great homemaking e-books:

• Simplified Dinners
• Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free
• Paperless Home Organization

I love food and so does my family, so I opted for the Simplified Dinner one. I enjoy baking more than cooking but I do not mind cooking at all.

I grew up in  a home where my mom would cook 3 times a day, so I am one of those old fashion ladies who believe that cooking is a must for every woman and especially a wife. I do cook at least 2 times a day as well, but am always looking for easy and quick recipes to do, as I love variety.

I am a Pinterest addict when it comes to feeding my need for new recipes, but that assumes that you have your internet on when you want to cook and that you have the time to look through all the many choices found on there. So here comes Simplified Pantry.

Simplified Dinners is a 30 page e-book that is written to help you make your dinner time preparation quick and stress-free. The premise behind it is to keep a streamlined, well stocked pantry. Streamlined in that it is not about having all sort of different items but having items that you will most likely use often, and that can be used in many different dishes. In this e-book you will find a "master pantry list" that will allow you to do just that.

The author's, Misty Winkler, purpose in writing this book is to offer the inexperienced or timid cook the tool to be confident in coming up with easy to prepare, tasty and healthy meals for the family. Each recipe is really a step by step how to for that particular dish, followed with 6-8 possible variations. You can change the meat, the sauce or the vegetables.

Baked Omelette (with sweet peppers, spinach and onion)

You can find a list of the meals found in the e-book, as well as a sample @ Simplified Dinners. To name a few, you have:

Artisan Bread

• Enchiladas
• Roasts
• Bean recipes
• Frittata
• Fish
• Pizza
• Bread
• Side dishes such as Rice Pilaf
• Salads
• Pasta dishes such as stroganoff
• Stir fry



Potato Hash with Saussage

• Potatoes such as potato hash and 9 different toppings for baked potatoes

What I love about Simplified Pantry is that the recipes:

• are easy and quick to prepare
• require little preparation
• do not require a ton of ingredients
• if your kitchen is stocked regularly, you always have the ingredients at hand
• allow room for innovation or adaptation
• covers all the major kinds of types of meal: rice, pasta, potatoes, roast, stew, fish, bread, soup, tortilla-based, salads, cutlets and more
• include crockpot options

As an experienced cook, I have found that most of the items she lists in her pantry were items I already stocked in my pantry. I enjoyed the facts that the layout of the e-book is such that it gives you choices of dishes to do with one basic recipe. Have I mentioned before how I love choices. The only negatives that I have found with Simplified Dinners is that the sauces tended to be too little, but that is easily remedied by making more. Second, the recipes did not call for much spices, but again, that is something easily remedied by each person's taste and creativity.

Something else to note is that, because it is more of a process-focussed kind of cookbook, the author is not very rigid on amounts. She uses ratios such as 1:1, or 2:1 of this and that. This might be intimidating to some but really it is not. It just takes so getting used to.

All in all I would recommend Simplified Dinners to any cook starting out, or any cook looking for a simple, varied, and easy to follow meal collections; all for the modest price of $12.99.

That's not all, for you my readers, Mystie is offering 30% any of her e-book until June 3rd. Simply enter TOS2013 at checkout.