A Man, a Can, a Plan : 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make

by David Joachim, Editors of Men's Health Magazi

Step-by-Step Recipes!

'50s-Style Creamed Chicken

How to make it: Cook the onion in the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, until tender. Dump in the chicken and stir. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the soup and mushrooms. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the sour cream over low heat. Heat through and serve over the cooked noodles. Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 354 calories, 5 g fat (12% of calories), 1 g saturated fat, 22 g protein, 54 g carbohydrates, 5 g fiber, 599 mg sodium. When it's not just you and the TV ... top with chopped fresh parsley.

10-oz can chunk chicken breast, drained and flaked
11-oz can reduced-fat cream of mushroom soup
6-oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
12-oz bag "no yolk" egg noodles, cooked according to the package directions
Also: 1/2 cup chopped onion, 2 tsp olive oil, 1 cup fat-free sour cream

Book Facts

Serving Size: 50 recipes
Main ingredients per recipe: About 5
Avg. prep time per recipe: 30 min.
Breakfasts: 4
Sandwiches: 8
Munchies: 9
Dinners: 25
Desserts: 4
Special cooking and nutrition tips: 15
Easy-to-clean pages: 43

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Food

43 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

We (really, NPH) were given this as an engagement gift. It sat, taking up room, on our cookbook shelf in our kitchen for eleven years. I decided during quarantine to weed our books and opened our cookbooks. I tried literally a couple of recipes from this one. The problem is that the recipes are all stripped way down to where they've barely got a taste. They're just 2-3 cans of stuff topped by cheese or served on top of biscuits. I was put off by how the whole book infantilizes and condescends to men. Like they couldn't cook a real meal. The book is even printed as a board book, as though men couldn't turn paper pages without tearing them.

I tried Cowboy Chili and Mushroom Meat Loaf. Both too bland. The meat loaf ratio of meat to mushroom was off.

Will be donating to Goodwill.

[Peter Derk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Total horseshit. The worst food I've ever made, seriously.

I was one of the people that I think this book is intended for, a poor college student with no real cooking skills looking for a way to feed himself. I thought, "This guy's done the math. I know these individual parts are crap, but I guess he's figured out a way to combine them into something nice."

It's terrible thinking, really. I can't think of a lot of examples where a bunch of crappy things put together make something really nice. Combine this piece of shit with that terrible ingredient, and all of a sudden you've got something great? Does that EVER happen?

I mean, if you're buying things or adding ingredients with the primary goal of COVERING UP THE TASTE of other ingredients, you're doing something very wrong. It's like painting the walls of your house a terrible color and then buying paintings to hang so that you at least cover SOME of the horrible color you've brought on yourself.

I made some sort of crazy stew from this book. A bunch of cans dumped into a pot and jammed in the oven. The smell was awful, the taste was worse. I couldn't even get my roommate, both of us sharing a tiny apartment for poor people, to eat any of it. I ended up throwing the entire batch away. Not even one full meal could I plow through.

So after my experience, I have to really question what the point of this book could possibly be. The food sucked, and while it was pretty low effort, a canned soup would have tasted better AND been less work. Even as a poor college student with no skills, you're better off eating canned and frozen meals while taking the time to learn how to make really simple shit, burgers, eggs, whatever. Start simple and build from there. Because I'm here to tell you, the shortcut presented by this book is no shortcut at all. It's like taking the back roads to your destination, meanwhile the backroads involve driving through a sewage treatment center, I mean THROUGH a waterfall of sewage, and then you don't even end up at your destination anyway.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most cookbooks assume that you are starting from scratch using fresh ingredients. That's nice and all, but sometimes you either want to keep most of your ingredients on hand without going to the grocery every day, or simply don't want to start from scratch. This book is for those times.

The recipes in this book have main ingredients that are either canned or otherwise pre-packaged food. Sometimes there is meat or fresh veggies in a recipe, but most of the ingredients are things that can stay in your cupboard, refrigerator or freezer for weeks or months before you use it.

The recipes themselves are all pretty simple to make, and the ones I've tried have been tasty. Definitely worth checking out if you want more than a frozen dinner or a bowl of something zapped in the microwave, but don't want to go to the trouble of cooking something from scratch.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this for my husband years ago when we first started dating in hopes it would inspire him to cook easy meals. It didn't, so I tried a few of the recipes. They were bland and required a lot of doctoring but what can you expect from a book that is designed to be super easy meals meant for bachelors with no kitchen savvy. Clever idea though and those who lack cooking technique or knowledge can use this as a place to start..

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for men learning their way around the kitchen. Whenever my husband says he will make dinner, I know it is going to be a recipe from this cookbook, which was a Christmas gift from my parents a couple of years ago. Extremely simple and basic recipes that each include pictures and step by step instructions. This would also be a great cookbook to carry around with you on a camping or backpacking trip, since almost all of the ingredients are canned.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think men for the most part have the ability to learn to cook good food as well as women. There are many men that are the "cooks" of their household. I dislike any book that encourages lazy cooking. Even if you treat this as a Cooking 101 book it fails miserably.

[Brian]

A guy's got to eat...

[Mark Kuhnle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book inspired me to buy cans.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason I read this was because it appeared in the little free library we had in our front yard. Then we gave it to a friend for his birthday as a joke, because that’s all this book is good for. Reading the intro had me positively in tears of laughter. The claim that the recipes will “reduce inflammation” amongst other health ailments by pounding high sodium, processed canned foods is more absurd than laughable. The constant referral to “the can” is so funny it’s hard to imagine this author being serious and not just writing this book as a gag.

PLEASE don’t waste your money on this book, though it is worth borrowing from the library for a laugh.

[Tester Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[John Sperling · Rating 4 out of 5]

The actual title is "A Man, A Can, A Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make!" So, it's a bit sexist, and not much of an ego boost. What this cookbook lacks in complexity, however, it makes up for in pragmatism. There's nothing high-brow here: just basic, easy-to-make meals and snacks. Simple and efficient, it's also printed on nearly indestructible cardboard.

[Carolyn Hallinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 94 year old dad loves this book and he uses the menus.

[Gary Braham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this book for quite a long time before reading it. But I recently took over the cooking duties for my household, and did not have a lot of experience. I read parts of lots of different books, magazines or websites, but this was the one I wanted to start with. The recipes are simple, just a few ingredients and steps. Good pictures and clear directions makes it easy to pick out what you want to make, and then do it. I've made ten or so meals so far from this book, and they turned out well.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those fun cookbooks that everyone should have around, just in case you're stuck in a cabin with a can of Spam, frozen corn and a packet of instant noodles. Here is an excerpt. Ham-and-'Shroom Scramble: ... Cook undisturbed for 3 minutes until the eggs are set in the middle but jiggly on top like Pamela Anderson …

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a great idea.
I like to cook, but I'm not very good at it. Make it simplistic and it's a winner for me.
Honestly the thought of some of these meals TOTALLY gross me out (there's an entire SpagettiOs section!), but that's okay, I'm open to substitutions, but the book gives me TONS of ideas!

[Clackamas · Rating 3 out of 5]

These recipes are not great... but how many things with only three ingredients and no seasonings to speak of are? Still, I like it because it got my teen boy cooking, and from the basic recipes here, he started adapting and made most of it into reasonably decent fare.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily wipeable pages. Nasty, nasty recipes. Suggestions to feed dates things that include canned chicken. It's a great one.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't cook so this book somewhat helped me out. There were a few meals that I still make from this book.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I had a wife I used this book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super easy recipes that are sorta healthy.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not terribly inspired.

[Jennifer Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fun for anyone, especially kids learning how to cook.

[Nancy]

What a great idea! Easy recipes with very few ingredients that anyone can make. An in a board book format. Why didn't I think of this!

[Caleb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This cookbook was a gift from my mother when I moved out on my own. I appreciate the thought behind the gift. The recipes in it are awful.

Neat concept. Poor execution.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book for and college student.

[emyrose8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, the concept is cool. There was only one recipe that I would maybe cook from here...

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this for my son. A simple book for beginners.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect gift for the teenage boy heading off to college or on a mission.