What is Reddit's opinion of Betty Crocker Cookbook: 1500 Recipes for the Way You Cook Today?

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So for beginner cooks I really recommend the Betty Crocker cookbook. It's what I used when I was starting out on my own and it's great at teaching the basics. It has lots of photos and goes through a lot of basic techniques.

But for a classic family recipe of mine, I still use my grandma's meaty spaghetti sauce. With a few variations.

2 lbs ground beef 1 large onion (or 2 smaller), chopped small 2 cans tomato paste 2 cans tomato sauce 2 tsp each dried oregano, dried parsley, garlic powder, salt 2 Tbsp white sugar 1 Tbsp dijon mustard 2 bay leaves a bit of oil

Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the meat. That means put the meat in the pan and leave it for a good few minutes, untouched, until the underside forms a dark brown layer. Then stir it around until it's all cooked.

Remove the meat using a slotted spoon from the pan to a bowl temporarily. Add the onions to the pan and cook until soft.

Add onions, meat, and all other ingredients to a crock pot, stir, and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. If you don't have a crock pot you can use a dutch oven on the stove on low for 3 to 4 hours (you can also brown the meat and onions in the same dutch oven).

The cooking time is approximate, this is an extremely forgiving recipe. Basically you can eat it when it looks ready.

If you are looking for recipes that use ingredients others have mentioned Joy of Cooking or How to cook everything. Love them both. Joy is my go to for everything I need.

That said...

if you are looking for fast/easy you may be leaning on more packaged foods so that means canned soups, frozen/canned veggies, Stove Top Stuffing, etc. Chicken breasts tossed in a crock pot with a large jar of green or red salsa makes a great filler for tortillas/taco shells. Then just have whatever fillers you like. Very easy and fast. I have recipes that use canned soups, stove top, and the like. Again, easy and fast.

While some people think that it's heresy I think a mix of convenient cooking mixed with from scratch offers the best balance for the busy family.

As far as cookbooks I think Betty Crocker is pretty good at straddling that line.

I definitely agree with everybody here who says to check out Youtube. The tutorials can be awesome! However, if you're new to cooking/baking, it can still be hard to know the terms and equipment they are using. Nothing beats a book for familiarizing yourself with these sorts of things. I recommend what I consider to be the Bible as far as learning to cook goes, "The Betty Crocker Cookbook". Assuming, of course, that you are American and will be using American measuring and temperatures.

https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-Recipes-Today/dp/0470906022

You mentioned you want to learn how to make bread! I make my own exclusively, and I highly recommend doing that. Your own bread will be far healthier and filling than anything you'll buy in a grocery store or bakery, and you can add stuff to make it even tastier (my go-to is rosemary and sage). I only just learned to do it about a year ago, and was very intimidated by it because it seemed really complicated, would take hours and hours to do, might need special equipment (a bread maker) and I'd spend a lot of time and elbow grease kneading it. I was lucky enough to find, after a lot of searching, this video I'm posting below. This lady explains it really well and her method is super simple, turns out great every time. You can make sandwich loaves or rolls or whatever shape you want to make with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOJovFzWfw

As you make this recipe over and over again, you'll be less intimidated by the whole bread thing and probably get into more complicated stuff. Check out r/breadit when this happens!

Good luck!