Robin Takes 5: 500 Recipes, 5 Ingredients or Less, 500 Calories or Less, for 5 Nights/Week at 5:00 PM

Another Family Friendly Cookbook from Robin Miller

I have been a huge fan of Robin Miller's ever since her debut on THE FOOD NETWORK. I have her best-selling QUICK FIX MEALS Cookbook and have made several things from there. So, when I had the chance to review her newest cookbook, I was super excited. There were so many delicious recipes to choose from. I also wanted recipes that mainly had ingredients already in my home. I chose 2 recipes to try and both were delicious, easy, and were made with ingredients already in my home.

I found a lot of other recipes to try in this cookbook. I have no doubt this will be another best-selling cookbook for her!

I received an e-book copy from Netgalley.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Practical With a Gourmet Flavor

This is a practical cookbook by Food Network star Robin Miller that boasts 500 recipes with dishes that range from soups, pizzas, and pastas, to chicken, beef, pork, seafood, side dishes, and desserts, and that represent several ethnic cuisines. The appeal of the recipes is that each one uses five or less ingredients and is 500 calories or less. They are quick to prepare and many can be made ahead of time to make mealtime easier.

I found several recipes I want to try such as Buffalo Chicken Soup with Blue Cheese Crumbles, Gingerbread Tiramisu, Roasted Vegetable Salad, Pretzel-Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken, Spinach and Smoked Mozzarella Strudel, Beef and Corn Casserole with Pepper Jack Cheese, Baked Chicken with Black Olive Hummus, and Grilled Chicken with Tomato-Olive Salsa. Despite the gourmet-sounding names, the recipes are actually simple and unintimidating. I made the Buffalo Chicken Fingers with Blue Cheese-Chive Dip. It was a big hit with my family and very easy to make. I also enjoyed the Turkey Meat Loaf with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Parmesan as an alternative to the traditional meatloaf I usually make.

In reading through this cookbook, I didn't find any ingredients I couldn't find at my local grocery store which makes it all the more easy to use. There aren't as many photos as I'd like but enough to inspire me to try more of the recipes. This is a cookbook I know I'll use because the recipes are quick and easy, and one I think cooks from beginners to the more experienced will enjoy.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher but the opinion of it is my own and was not solicited, nor was a positive review required.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fast,Simple & Easy Recipes

Robin Takes 5 by Robin Miller ISBN#978-1-4494-0845-9
The first chapter gives us soups, stews & chowders. Recipes are simple and with only 5 ingredients in each recipe. Chilled Roasted Red Pepper Soup sounds like a delicious way to start off this book. Robin has soups with all kinds of veggies from peas, potatoes, broccoli to caramelized onions! Southwestern soups to chicken and rice. Seafood soups and chowders to sausage and rice. They all were simple and sounded mouthwatering good.

The next chapter has all my favorites; pizzas, flat breads, cal zones & strudels. Pizza's with toppings from cheese & veggies to meat, chicken, seafood & Polestar. Focaccia & flatbreads with assorted toppings. On to the Calzones, from a simple broccoli and cheese to Philly cheese steak and French dip. Under the strudels we have a chipotle-corn strudel with cheddar among others.

The third chapter has recipes for pasta, risotto & Rice. There are quite a few recipes for veggies and pasta such as, asparagus, peas, zucchini, tomatoes and red peppers to name a few. And than come our cheese and pasta dishes such as fettuccine Alfredo or pesto-stuffed lasagne. Getting hungry yet? Asian dishes such as penne with seared tuna and capers or chinese noodles with black bean sauce and bok choy. If you prefer a pasta salad than read on and get the recipe for tuna pasta salad with roasted red peppers or cellophane noodles with shredded carrots and zucchini. There are two recipes for pasta and seafood so dive in. Or move on to some poultry & meat dishes like Orzo with herbed turkey, sage and pears. There are six Risotto recipes from butternut squash risotto with smoked mozzarella to risotto fritters with wild mushroom sauce. And finally five rice recipe. Chicken friend rice with cumin and apricots to Mexican red rice with shrimp.

Chapter four are your chicken & turkey recipes. You can make your chicken recipes from Southwest/Texas/Mexico style to Asian, French, Italian, Mediterranean, tropical or just plain American style! And there are plenty to choose from as well. Turkey recipes from curried turkey tenderloin to chipotle turkey burgers.

Chapter five is chocked full of beef & pork recipes. How would you like your steak? Perhaps recipes from Southwest/Mexico/Cuba or Mediterranean/American or even Asian. Take your ground beef and cook up some allspice burgers with grilled pineapple while your beef brisket can be cider-braised with red cabbage. Pork chops with plum sauce to pork tenderloin with mint-pea puree. Honey mustard pulled pork to ham, prosciutto, pancetta and sausage recipes are all included in this chapter.

Chapter six brings us to the seafood and shellfish dishes. Salmon, tuna, white fish and that is not all...shrimp,crab, lobster clams and let us not forget the calamari, mussels & scallops. Blackened, seared & glazed or steamed, chilled and braised.

Chapter seven will give you the side dish recipes to go with your meals. Salads & slaws including crunchy Asian slaw with fried noodles and roasted vegetable salad. Vegetables are always a great side dish like some garlic-ginger green beans or ricotta stuffed tomatoes. Potatoes are always a favorite from home fries with bacon and red onion to caramelized sweet potatoes. There are a few recipes with rice and couscous and then a few more breads, pies, biscuits and pancakes. Some pimento-studded corn bread or wild mushroom pancakes with Parmesan.

And

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Simple and quick weeknight recipes!

From “Top Chef” to “Cupcake Wars,” my family loves watching food and cooking shows. And for busy families like ours, one of the most helpful cooking shows on television today is Robin Miller’s. And the show’s cookbook, Robin Takes 5, has to be among the most helpful cookbooks as well. In it, she offers 500 recipes, with 5 ingredients or less (which are only 500 calories or less), for cooking 5 nights a week at 5 p.m. Further, it seems like many of the recipes take about 5 minutes to make as well. Yet they’re really flavorful, fun, and family-friendly.

For instance, the other night my family loved her “Lettuce Wraps with Grilled Steak and Cheese.” All you do is grill and slice a flank or skirt steak, then serve with butter lettuce leaves to wrap up a variety of toppings (to each his own), like a healthy taco, served Thai-style. It was a super fun way for a quick and delicious meal, that my family loved. Even those who still refer to salad as “bunny food.” And it was so fast. Plus, there are another 499 Asian, Italian, and homestyle recipes, just as easy to make in Robin Takes 5. Love!!

No Table of Contents or Index! Great Recipes, but Nook book is hard to navigate

Great recipes, but not easy to find on the Nook - I was excited to have the cook book available anytime on my Nook, I could look up a recipe at work & stop at the grocery on the way home, no need to write out a list, but having to flip through page by page is not going to be a lot of fun. and page 10 is missing! I book marked each section (chicken, steak, salads & slaws, no bake desserts) so I can get "close" to recipes I'm looking for, but definatly not a good set up.

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