Simplified Pantry–A Molly Crew Review

I absolutely love cooking. One might say that I am a cookbook junkie.  I actually have had to put limits on myself so that I wouldn’t spend all of my grocery budget on cookbooks!  When I was given the opportunity to use and review Mystie Winckler’s Simplified Pantry, I was literally salivating! I have been using two cookbooks, Simplified Dinners  and Simplified Dinners, Gluten Free / Dairy Free.  I have also been learning about creating an electronic organization system with help from Mystie’s book Paperless Home Organization.
     Mystie has written her “to provide the home cook with plent of options for simple but delicious home-cooked meals that require little preparation time and can be made out of a simply, frugally stocked pantry.”  Her gluten-free / dairy free version began with her own quest to preserve her child’s health when a corn allergy developed. Both cookbooks are available as E-books (.pdf) for $12.99.   We don’t have any gluten or dairy issues in our home, but my son is allergic to poultry.  Because of his allergy, he has become a vegetarian.  I have been trying to incorporate a meatless meal in my meal rotation at least twice a week.  Simplified Dinners, as well as the gluten free/dairy free version, have helped me put back some simple creativity into my meal planning.
     The first thing I worked on with Mystie’s cookbooks was pantry stocking and organization.  I have a daughter who loves to organize and inventory, so she was a great help with this!  It was really great to see that I had almost everything on the Master Pantry list from Simplified Dinners.  Next, I read through the recipes and marked recipes that I wanted to try quickly.I love the layout of these cookbooks. Instead of a ‘one recipe per page’ format, Mystie takes something like Slow-Cooker Roasts and gives the basic process involved to cooking first, followed by 6-8 different variations of the basic recipe.  I am a slow-cooker user several days a week, so I use a lot of these recipes.  I also love to cook ahead and freeze things.  With all of the different variations on recipes for beef, chicken, pork, etc…., I can take advantage of meat sales and put together freezer meals that can be dumped in the slow-cooker in the morning to be ready for dinner.  One of my family’s all time favorite recipes is the Barbecue Pork on page 7 of Simplified Dinners.  It is awesome shredded up and served on buns with sides of beans and potato salad. With summer upon us, I have also been enjoying all of the different marinade recipes.  I can mix them up in zip-lock bags, add my meat, and freeze.  Then, I just transfer the bag to the refrigerator the night before and it is thawed out and well marinated, ready to grill, at dinner time.  Anything to make the dinner hour more simple gets my vote!  Since I try to do two dinners a week meatless, the different bean recipes and salad recipes have been a hit!  My husband, who is a certified bean hater, loves the Stewed Beans recipe; and, my kids love the Calico Beans recipe.  Served with cornbread, rice, or our favorite – polenta, no one cares that if I leave meat out.  I even substitute vegetable broth for the soup bone in the Stewed Beans recipe so that it is truly vegetarian.  The beauty of these cookbooks is the versatility and the freedom to use what you have.  I haven’t counted every single recipe, but I estimate that there are around 150 recipes in thes @30 page cookbooks.
The Gluten free/dairy free version contains most of the same recipes as the original version, just with adjustments to make the recipes gf/df.  One addition to this version is a dessert section.  Yum!
I have been using the Menu Plan idea that Mystie gives on the last page of Simplified Dinners.  I would love it if the blank menu plan was on a page by itself and was a ‘type-in-able’ format.  That would be awesome!  I could create a menu plan for each month and save them on the computer. 
     I have also been working my way through Paperless Home Organization.  This is a unique e-book which walks you through the basics of using different computer programs and cell phone / tablet applications to consolidate home organization and eliminate the mountains of paper that we accumulate.  Mystie does a great job of going through the step-by-step processes involved in setting up these different programs and learning how to scan and store items such as receipts and other documents.  It is available in both .pdf and kindle formats for $3.99. I have really enjoyed learning to use things like Google Calendar, Evernote, and Remember the Milk.  I am not totally paperless, yet; but, I am working on it.  It is going to be so helpful to my household to be able to get rid of all of the pile of paper stuff that I hold onto!
To read what our awesome Schoolhouse Review Crew Members have to say about Simplified Dinners, Simplified Dinners Gluten Free / Dairy Free, and Paperless Home Organization simply click on the graphic below.