Can $5 buy a meal for four people?

Answer: Yes, and not just spaghetti. For many, grocery shopping means balancing on a budgetary tightrope. Once home, cooking can be equally challenging.

Many of us have questions about recipe terms and techniques. In this book the recipes have simple explanations so they’re easy to follow, and there’s room for substitutions and improvisations according to individual tastes. Recipes are organized alphabetically by major ingredient from apples to zucchini and are cross-referenced for minimum page flipping. For example, all chicken recipes are found under "Chicken" rather than under the usual entrée or appetizer listing. They are also indexed according to type of dish.

There’s a section on how to add dash to a dish with the use of cupboard staples, herbs, and spices. Short appendices give down-to-earth explanations of cooking terms and other basic information.

A dwindling food budget coupled with a trip to the grocery store is enough to give most of us the how-to-save-money jitters. This book gives money-saving shopping tips, menus, and shows what labels mean. A supermarket map helps steer you away from budget-busting foods. By shopping wisely, you’ll be able to splurge occasionally on expensive ingredients. The use of fresh and seasonal foods also helps keep the budget in tow.

The $5 Chef: How to Save Cash & Cook Fast explains how to shop strategically for one or a crowd, cook quickly and imaginatively, and save time, money and health.

The book's contents include sections on: