Taste of Home Half Homemade: 300+ Shortcut Recipes for Dinnertime Success!

by Taste of Home (editor)

Get ready to wow without the work. It’s easy with Taste of Home Half Homemade at your side. Every sensational dish in this colorful collection uses shortcut ingredients to create from-scratch flavor, but with less prep time fewer items and foolproof results.

Learn how to set the table with unbeatable dishes—that each start with packaged dough, boxed mixes, frozen items and more. Think you’re too busy to bake homemade bread? Too inexperienced to pull off an eggs Benedict breakfast? Not anymore! With your copy of Taste of Home Half Homemade success is a sure bet.

CHAPTERS

Beautiful Brunch Dishes

Party-Time Classics

Shortcut Soups & Breads

Easy Beef & Poultry Entrees

No-Fuss Pork & Seafood

Swift Sides & Salads

Cookies, Bars & Brownies

Short & Sweet Finales

RECIPES

Egg Baskets Benedict

Birthday Cake Waffles

Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

9-Layer Greek Dip

Asian Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Chicken Tamale Bake

Garlic Salmon Linguine

Italian Crumb-Crusted Beef Roast

Pizza Macaroni and Cheese

Layered Cornbread Salad

Cheese-Filled Garlic Rolls

Pesto Pull-Apart Bread

Easy Tortellini Spinach Soup

Nutella Cheesecake

Frozen Peanut Butter and Chocolate Terrine

Toffee Brownie Trifle

Whoopie Cookies

Slow Cooker Cherry Buckle

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

320 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2019

About the author

Taste of Home magazine is an American cooking publication.

Reviews

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just what you would expect, but unfortunately none of the recipes appealed to me.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like a "best of" collection from Taste of Home magazine. I'm not familiar with the magazine. There was no introduction. No tips. And it seems that the magazine is entirely reader-submitted. Every recipe has a two- to three-sentence introduction from the reader that area all basically either "This recipe has been in my family forever and everyone loves it" or "I made this spur of the moment for church/family and everyone loves it." And there's not photographs of every recipe. Oh well. Everything in the book is "half homemade," meaning that a lot of key ingredients are store-prepared. I'm all about some shortcuts, and found way too many to try:

•Brunch Pizza Squares: Quite good! And it worked to freeze individual leftover slices and reheat.
•Orange Dream Pull-Apart Bread: Was really good but leftovers didn't keep well. It also really stuck to pan.
•Easy Parmesan Biscuits: Meh. They were pretty good immediately out of the oven, but they didn't keep well.
•Mom's Chocolate Bread: Delicious but didn't exactly turn out. Only ok.
•Cheese & Garlic Biscuits: Delicious! Halved the "Topping" part.
•Tangy Bacon Green Beans: Halved recipe. Good! Needs a little less onion. Would make again!
•Ranch Potato Salad: Really good & super easy! I'd recommend peeling the potatoes though. Recipe doesn't call for this, but the skins fell off into the dressing.
•Mexican Street Corn Bake: Delicious! I halved & still had leftovers.
•Saucy Chicken & Tortellini: EXCELLENT.
•Pizza Macaroni & Cheese: Delicious! Adds some veggies to mac'n'cheese in a yummy way.
•Hearty Mac & Cheese: Meh. Doesn't "bake up" like into a casserole. Ok but not impressive.

[Pamela Hatch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a cook and I'm a picky eater. I was drawn to this book when I saw it. I have looked through many Taste of Home titles and enjoyed them, but this one had lots of great looking food in their high quality pictures. I flipped through it quickly and then started over at the beginning reading all the ingredients. Called "Half Homemade" because they have mixes and prepared foods that help make a meal faster. I found lots of things that I wanted to try and most of them not in the sweet section (which is really unusual).

The book is attractively put together. Most of the recipes have accompanying photos (but not all). I may want to add more to this review after I have made a few of the recipes.

[Dan Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I love to cook, ". So I was really looking forward to this book with it's promise of hundreds of shortcut recipes. I'm a long-time TOH fan, have nearly 20 of their cookbooks. I wouldn't say I'm at all hard to please with regard to food But I know, this is subjective as everyone has different tastes. I will say it's good quality book. Most recipes have a photo (65-70%)

[Regina Spiker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mmmmnn, shortcuts for cooking, I copied a lot with my smartphone scanner, lol. Favorites are: Dilly Cheese Ball, Cheesy BBQ Beef Dip, Asian Pulled Pork Sammies, Ramen Noodle Salad, Slow Cooker Italian Mushrooms...I could go on and on....

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this cookbook. The recipes sound yummy and quick to make, which is right up my street! Each recipe is augmented with common pantry ingredients and meal prep strategies to make cooking meals easier and faster.

[Suzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of wonderful ideas but ut this is a heavy recipe book full of pictures There are several on each two page spread and they are not organized as I would like. More like a magazine than a cookbook.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome cookbook. Made the Ravioli Lasagna and it was very easy to make and was delicious! Plan on making several of the other recipes.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going to buy this one.

[Natalie]

The recipes in here were just plain bizarre most of the time..