Robin Takes 5 by Robin Miller

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

U.S.: $29.99 Canada: $34.99
ISBN: 9781449408459
Format: Paperback
On Sale: November 1, 2011 — Coming soon!  

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It's 5:00 PM. Everyone's hungry. It's takeout or fakeout, meaning nuking a processed meal from the freezer. But there's a third option that doesn't include processed food or an unhealthy heap of calories and fat—Robin Takes 5.

Imagine quickly preparing delicious meals for yourself, your friends, and your family with just 5 fabulous ingredients. Does it get any better? Absolutely, with Robin Takes 5. The book features 500 recipes and each dish is a mouthwatering 500 calories or less. Two-color recipe text complements full-color photography inserts. In addition, helpful icons note ideal recipes for holidays and entertaining as well as recipes with less than 500 mg of sodium. That's not all—nutritional information is given for each recipe.

In Robin Takes 5 500 recipes highlight at least 10 different ethnic cuisines, and dishes range from soups, pizzas, and pastas, to chicken, beef, pork, seafood, side dishes, and desserts. Consider 70 recipes just for chicken, such as Cashew Crusted Chicken with Roasted Jalapeno-Mango Chutney, and 50 dessert recipes, such as Orange Marmalade Tart with Chocolate Covered Almonds. Consider yourself armed for mealtime. The next time the clock strikes 5:00 PM and you want both noshing and nourishment, check out Robin Takes 5.

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My husband frequently likes to complain that I don't cook enough.  He says that we eat out too often and that he would appreciate some good old home cooking more often than "now and again".  Having said that I feel the need to mention that I love to cook. To prove the fact that, I am indeed an avid home cook,  I could invite you over to admire my impressive collection of cookbooks that I've read from cover to cover, over and over again...lost in the photographs and delectable dishes described between the glossy covers.  I could point out to you my well seasoned cast iron pots and pans (it is a proven fact that only serious cooks use cast iron), my well stocked pantry and my herb garden that supplies me with fresh herbs year round.  I could do all of this in my defense but alas...I don't really cook very often.  I want to, I long to.  I often fantasize about producing glorious tarts, amazing risottos, pear tartins with gorgonzola ice cream...When we were first dating I spent an entire two days crafting a beautiful Bolognese sauce for a romantic candle lit dinner replete with a fine Chianti.  He didn't eat two bites.  I was crest fallen.  The years have spun by since that first debacle.

I wonder if you, dear reader, have begun to suspect where my problems lies.  No, I'm not a horrible cook.  But the answer is quite simple.  My husband is not a tomato and goat cheese tart kind of guy.  Asparagus and shallot risotto does not make him come running into the kitchen salivating and giddy with anticipation.   He likes his meals simple and easily recognizable, pronounceable and familiar. 

Oh, I often cook for myself.  Hubby hovers about the various pots and tins admiring my talent, savoring the scents but nary a bite is taken.  I also occasionally cook for him, however when I do make something for him I don't refer to what I do in the kitchen as cooking.  It's more akin to assembling and heating.  Honestly, anyone can do that.  I'd rather read a book with that time. Hence the eating out.  Cooking, when not completely from scratch makes me feel dirty in some way.

Robin Takes Five is something that I've not encountered before.  It's quick to prepare foods that don't come from boxes and cans.  Much of it is elegant:  'Sage and Pear Pizza with Blue Cheese', is a decidedly grown up dish that highly appeals to me-rustic yet dressed up, unconventional yet familiar.  However,  there is much that appeals to the everyday guy (i.e. hubby) as well; Philly Cheesesteak Calzone (I'll just call it a hot pocket to him!), Pork Fried Rice, Buffalo Chicken Fingers etc.  This book addresses well the blended families-the foodies married to non-foodies, the foodies blessed with non-foody kids, foodies that need to cook for questionable dinner guests.  The five ingredient limit intrinsically makes each recipe frugal and isn't that perfect right now?  It also insures that each recipe cooks up quickly, perfect for time crunched people.  The paired down focus of the book means that I can easily cook one thing for me and something else for my darling husband without it costing us a fortune and costing me a fortune in time.  Perfect.  Beautiful satisfying meals, a minimum of ingredients, and a dish to please everyone.  Highly recommended.

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Robin Miller

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Robin has been a food writer and a nutritionist since 1990. She is the author of the best-selling cookbook Quick Fix Meals. Her popular show Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller currently airs on the Food Network. Her primetime show Robin to the Rescue premiered on the Food Network in March 2007. Robin's recipes and nutrition features can be seen regularly in a variety of media outlets, including the Today show on NBC, The Early Show on CBS, Good Morning America on ABC, Live! with Regis & Kelly, Fox News Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Guideposts, Cooking Light, Health, Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Woman's World, and Parade. Robin has a master's degree in food and nutrition from New York University.