Brought home Betty Crocker’s Chicken Tonight: 100 Recipes for the Way You Really from the library a few week’s ago and was fairly impressed by it even though I’m not a big fan of spiral or ring bound cookbooks as the pages are always trying to escape (or there's trick to closing the books I've never quite mastered).

Despite the format, I have enjoyed this cookbook. The cheery yellow-green cover is quite uplifting for this time of year and just a glance at the title is guaranteed to have me singing the old Chicken Tonight jingle for hours! This cookbook is well illustrated and all recipes contain nutritional information. None of the recipes appear to be particularly complicated or require difficult to find ingredients. Overall, I would recommend cookbook.

I made two recipes from the cookbook before I returned it to the library:

“Easy Chicken Alfredo”
Very nice little piece of convenience cookery which tastes like more than it is. Basically just sliced zucchini, red bell pepper strips, chicken breast strips, Parmesan cheese and refrigerated (low fat) Alfredo sauce over fettuccine. It’s a very adaptable recipe – good for any vegetables you might have on hand – and takes almost no time to make. I might cube the chicken and use mushroom ravioli with sliced mushrooms next time. Or julienne the zucchini and use marinara sauce. I think it’s one of those recipes which could easily become a bi-weekly regular.

“Chicken in Brandy Cream Sauce”
Now, this I could serve for a dinner party! It’s very simple and fast to throw together, but looks (and tastes) quite elegant. The recipe suggests serving the chicken over fettuccine, but we used no-yolk egg noodles. I imagine some celery mashed potatoes would have been quite nice, too. Definitely a recipe I will make again and it’s just sautéed chicken breasts gussied up with a nice brandy cream and mushroom pan sauce. Any beginner could make this dish without fear. ( )