As a wife and mom I personally love this book. The recipes are made w readily accessible ingredients and if you tend to cook often, you probably do have most items in your pantry.In reference to those concerned w portion sizes, the use of "processed foods", etc I will say that many recipes do call for say a can of cream of chicken or sour cream etc. However, I do try to cook w an eye towards healthier choices when I can. That being said, I have substituted low sodium, 99% far free products or in some cases cut bck on the more fattening ingredients bc it seemed they werent missed. For example, Crockin Corn Casserole is a favorite recipe of mine but I do tend to cut back on the butter and sour cream by a 1/4 cup or so and use Light sour cream.The recipes are diverse and each one has a color photograph of the prepared dish. I feel this is worth mentioning as I know I can't stand cookbooks w/out pictures. The recipes are kid friendly and designed to take advantage of the slow cooker. They turn out large portions w leftovers, which is exactly what I wanted.If you enjoy slow-cooking but are tired of pot roast and chili and just want an un-complicated cookbook of comfort food recipes, this is awesome! Additionally, the dessert and sides sections are wonderful. Helps you to think of the Crockpot as a versatile kitchen helper w options. I've made probably 10 recipes and I have to say I haven't had one yet disappoint me.Only negative I saw was in the appetizer section there were a few "copycat" dips that were very similar to other included recipes. For example, the difference between dips were 1 ingredient.Overall, great slow cooker resource, colorful, hip, comfort food type of cookbook. Easy to read and use.