The I Love Trader Joe's College Cookbook: 150 Cheap and Easy Gourmet Recipes (Unofficial Trader Joe's Cookbooks)

My sister lives in a dorm and I thought that this book would be absolutely perfect for her since she likes to cook when she's at home and most likely only has a microwave to her name at college.It's really nicely put together and the recipes look fun and easy, but a majority of the included recipes use premade stuff from Trader Joes that would be difficult if not impossible for a college student with only a microwave to cook on their own. On top of that, they carry weird, advertisement-like taglines like "Trader Joes BBQ pork allows you to have smoky barbecue flavor without all of the work.".I might be a bit naive, but I was under the impression that the recipes would start with easily available ingredients for *all* college students, not just college students that live within a few miles of a Trader Joe's. I thought I was buying a book that favored Trader Joes (as evidenced by the description line "Turns Trader Joe's tasty and affordable groceries into delicious dishes"), but also gave recipes that were possible and easy without purchasing the ingredients from the store.

This was a fun purchase I got my fiance when we first moved in together. I'm the cook of the couple; but she loves Trader Joe's and I thought it would be a fun book.It's extremely convenient, because ALL (of the currently stocked) ingredients you can find at Trader Joe's. The only problem we found was that some of the items are no longer carried at our local Trader Joe's, so we had to make some of the combinations or find substitutes elsewhere.I still highly recommend the book - it's great.

This is a great gift idea. Bought this for my sister who is in college and love TJ. Would recommend

I'm a 4th year college student and for the first time I don't have a meal plan. I have no cooking experience (other than scrambled eggs and cereal) and I suffered a full two weeks of bland taste and un-filling meals before I laid my hands on this book. Ever since, my meals are a bliss! By no means am I an expert cook, but now I can do all my shopping in one place and guarantee myself that I'll be able to make food out of it. My grocery bill is around $60/week using *mostly* recipes from this book (disclaimer: I only ever eat oatmeal for breakfast)

I gave it to my college age son for Christmas so I'm not quite sure if he has had the opportunity to use it yet but I stole a few recipes out of it. We liked that there is a BLOG section and the opinions that are written. He does his shopping at Trader Joe's so I'm sure it will all be good.

Love it!!

Nice!

The book is good. I have yet to try any recipes, but they look delicious. Some of the recipes are pretty easy and standard; for a college cook book, this is to be expected. The only drawback of this book was despite it's "new" condition, both the front and back covers were severely bent upon arrival. I laid it on a dresser and placed a heavy box on it so the problem is now moot, but I should not have had to go through the trouble to straighten out my book when it was "new".