Who doesn't want to eat cheaper? And who doesn't want to eat better? And who wouldn't like to sit down to a dinner of Salmon Pasta with Tomatoes and Dill, or Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Pepper Medley, or Enchanting Enchiladas, or Moroccan Meatballs over Couscous--and know that any one of these meals (for four) costs less than $2 a serving?

In their two previous cookbooks, Desperation Dinners! and Desperation Entertaining!--together with over 330,000 copies in print--Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross showed us how to save time in the kitchen without ever sacrificing flavor. Now the Desperate duo turns to the universally appealing idea of saving money, too. Cheap. Fast. Good! is not a penny-pinching cookbook--it's a "get smart" cookbook. It's about planning smart, shopping smart, cooking smart, and, not coincidentally, about eating smart. The work of two brilliant problem solvers, it presents 275 delicious recipes that are thrifty, quick to prepare, and intrinsically family-friendly and healthy, too: Barbecued Chicken and Black Bean Burritos, Sweet Onion Chowder, Bayou Stew, Ham and Asparagus Crostini, Perfect Spinach Pesto Pizza, Gayle's Country-Style Steak, Souped-Up Chicken Stroganoff. Recipes are filled with techniques for pushing flavor, substituting ingredients, and using what’s in the refrigerator or pantry already, and every chapter includes strategies for running a kitchen more economically--The When, Where, and How of Shopping, The Miracle of Menu Planning, Making Your Own Convenience Items, Cutting Up a Roasted Chicken, and more.

Socially inclined but time-deprived? Want to see friends for dinner, but can't do more than order takeout or meet in a restaurant? Well, help is here. From Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross comes the perfect cookbook for the harried would-be host and hostess.

DESPERATION ENTERTAINING! is filled with 200 marvelous recipes for impressive dinner party food. DESPERATION ENTERTAINING! is a complete game plan for having guests over (children included) without having to spend more than 20 minutes on a dish, or 20 minutes per cook-ahead phase. There are tips on saving time (buy prepeeled garlic, doctor supermarket potato salad with fresh chopped onions and paprika); sanity (tie the bottle opener to the cooler); and money (sangria costs less than wine). But of course the genius of the book is in the recipes: Cajun Catfish Gumbo, Cabernet Pasta Sauce with Italian Sausage, Greek Stifado with Artichokes. Plus plenty of homemade desserts that won't break the host, including Rocky Road Brownie Sundaes and Sunset Key Lime Pies. Who's coming over next week?





Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross created Desperation Dinners, part cookbook, part survival guide, part culinary revolution, as the answer to every frantic cook's prayers. Developed from "Desperation Dinners," their nationally syndicated column, the cookbook features over 250 recipes and a promise: With no idea what to cook, without having shopped in days, you'll have a tasty, home-cooked meal on the table in 20 minutes flat. By taking brilliant advantage of convenience foods-frozen chicken breasts, washed and cut vegetables, prebaked pizza crusts, salsas, and more-and using easy-to-master techniques (doing different tasks at the same time, "pushing" flavors with bold seasoning), the authors deliver: Barbecued Shrimp on Spicy Rice. Lazy Lo Mein. Pork au Poivre. Lime-Garlic Chicken Saute. Minute Minestrone. Garlic-Roasted Salmon. Mom's Mini Meat Loaves. Individual Lemon Ginger Trifles. Heavenly Cream Cake.