Rating: 
Summary: Only recommended for the cooking impaired
Review: I bought this book after having subscribed to Cooking Light magazine. The easy, healthy and tasty recipes they offered every month made me think that "The 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook" would be another great resource. How wrong I was! This book has proven to be nothing but a disappointment.The recipes in this book are easy and quick, but they are bland and uninspiring. Most of the "tips" for making quick, nutritious meals are really shortcuts that any competent cook could come up with (i.e. using pre-cut stir-fry meat or pre-sliced frozen vegetables). Quite honestly, these recipes *taste* like they only have 5 ingredients and only took 15 minutes to slap together. In other words, the recipes only have five ingredients because they left out the flavorful ones! My advice: DON'T buy this book. Try a subscription to Cooking Light or another of their cookbooks. This one just doesn't measure up.
Rating: 
Summary: Cookbook for quick and easy meals
Review: This cookbook is great for busy people who want to cook but don't have the time or interest in making everything from scratch. I have made several of the recipes in here and most (not all) of them have been good enough to put into regular rotation. Most of the recipes are centered around dinner meals. Pros:
- Each recipe has a color picture to go with it. I love this!
- The book is well organized with chapters devoted to chicken, beef, pork, etc. Cons:
- The "15 minute" claim is not quite correct. Most of the recipes are fast, but not that fast. Basically, the "15 minute" and "5 ingredient" claims are figurative, rather than literal.
- Some of the recipes require ingredients that only special, up-scale grocery stores carry. I hate spending lots of time in grocery stores trying to find some thing that I've never heard of. In general, if you're a cook who likes to make things from scratch or cook only authentic recipes, you won't be satisfied with this cookbook. This book is aimed towards people who don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and have no qualms about using pre-made ingredients in their cooking. Nutritional information is given. Most dishes are relatively nutritious (unless you're on an Atkins-like diet).
Rating:
Summary: A cookbook you'll actually use
Review: I have never referred to a cook book as much as I have with this one. It truly offers high flavor recipes with minimal ingredients, and since they figure up a shopping list for you...it makes preparation as simple as it can be!
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to Cooking Light standards by a long stretch
Review: I was very disappointed with this cookbook. Typical recipes tend to run along these lines: combine package of frozen vegetables with meat; combine can of something with frozen chicken. Not that that sort of thing can't provide some very quick and tasty meals, but recipes like that are already printed on the back of the box, or listed by the hundreds on websites like Campbells or Green Giant for free. I also objected to some of the processed foods. Frozen vegetables are great--convenient and with nutrition intact. But bottled gravy? The boil-in-bag rice particularly irked me. Rice takes 20 minutes to make! Same thing with all the packaged frozen cooked chicken. I will say that the menu recommendations are handy. And it's nice that each recipe gets a two-page spread--picture on one side, recipe on the other. The downside of this is that this relatively slim book doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of recipes in it. I can recommend checking this book out of the library. You're sure to find a couple of recipes that are worth checking out. But not to purchase. Frankly the price is outrageous for what you get. You would be far better off spending the same money on any one of the cooking light annual books. Those have about ten times as many recipes of all types, from which you can easily glean at least this many quick weeknight recipes. Or save your money entirely and use the "back of the box"/manufacturer's website recipes, which are pretty much the same thing as this book. There's nothing special that makes them "light," other than using the low sodium or low fat version of packaged foods.
Rating:
Summary: LOVE this Cook Book!!!
Review: Ok, I hate to cook. I'm single and rarely are recipes simple and quick, and when you're cooking for yourself, who wants to go through all that trouble. I sure don't. I made the glazed pork chops with green beans and strawberry parfaite for dessert. My friend could not believe how good it was AND that it was my first time trying that recipe. And it was SO EASY!!! I bought the cook book because it had pictures of every dish (which is very helpful, I think) and because it said "5 Ingredients, 15 Minutes." I didn't even know that it was low-cal. What a bonus! This is a great book if you want to eat something tastey, healthy, quick and easy to make. I think I have actually started to enjoy cooking (shhh don't tell anyone though :)). This cook book is worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Life Changing Cookbook
Review: My husband and I made the decision over a year ago to try to lose weight and become more healthy. One of our first purchases was this cookbook. We're under 30 and lead incredibly busy lives and this cookbook is the best investment! I've been cooking the recipes for over a year and have lost 40 pounds! I'm never hungry and my husband and I enjoy the flavors from the recipes. Highly recommend this to everyone and disagree with previous posts that it's too bland. Great for the budget as well - my pantry is stocked with the common items so my food bill is much lower now.
Rating:
Summary: Great Recipes!
Review: Great way to jumpstart eating healthy for the new year. I now can't do without this book; I have recommended it to all of my friends. The recipes are easy, they have taken favorites and found great ways to lower the fat & sodium. Definitely recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: My husband and I use this book all the time. It's the best cookbook I have.
Rating: 
Summary: Good recipes for busy, but not budget conscious people
Review: I hate cooking. I consider myself a smart professional, but I lack common sense when it comes to cooking. This book was a really big help to me. The recipes are simple and hard to screw up (although I succeeded on two occasions: 1) by substituting an ingredient, and 2) by heating the cream too long). Overall the end results taste good and that's quite a feat for someone like myself. I would recommend this book but I have one warning - it's not for people on strict budgets. The ingredients are usually ready-to-make materials. Moveover, it requires puchasing few exotic ingredients that are difficult to reuse as leftovers unless you're really bold and imaginative.
Rating:
Summary: Home-made as fast as a trip to the drive-through
Review: I am in a season of my life where there isn't a lot of time for elaborate meals. I use this book often to prepare heathful meals my family enjoys. Our favorites include: Deep-Dish Pizza Casserole, Barbecue Meat Loaf, Mexican Chicken Skillet, Gingered Melon Salad, Hearty Chicken-Sausage Soup and the unusual Moroccan Chicken and Lentils. Each recipe has a helpful grocery list, full-page photo, work and cook time, and suggested side dish. The "Fifteen Minutes" refers to hands-on time -- some of the recipes cook for hours in your slow cooker. Some of the recipes are things I didn't need a recipe for (e.g. - Portobello Sanwiches) but when I am planning for the week, I can flip throught this book for ideas.
| 
