cookbook review

My current favorite cookbook is Everyday Food--Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart.
The cookbook is divided up by seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), which I love. Each recipe takes under an hour to make (most are under 30-45 minutes). I’ve started planning out our weekly meals just by bookmarking the recipes that I want to make, then buying the groceries necessary for those meals. We’ve been buying organic, so for 6-7 dinners and lunches we’re spending around $80/week (that’s not including other stuff we buy at the grocery store). You’d probably spend less if you shopped at Aldi or Walmart and didn’t buy organic foods.

The dinners make 4-6 servings, so there’s always plenty left over for us to eat for lunches during the week. Most of the recipes we’ve been trying have at least 1 ingredient that we don’t commonly eat, and it’s been fun to learn how to use different foods, and the flavors that can be combined that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. Each main dish also has a side dish paired with it, but there is a whole section of sides in the back of the book in case we don’t want the one the recipe suggested.

Another great thing about the cookbook is that it has nutrition information for each recipe, including the side dishes and desserts. Most of the dishes are pretty low-cal and healthy, (except the baked ravioli which was too yummy to care) which is great because we’re trying to lose a few in the Rackow household.

A few example recipes we had last week:
Carrot Curry Soup
Tandoori Chicken with Cous-Cous and Apple-Cilantro Yogurt for dipping
Curry Chicken with Cous-Cous (we were in an Indian food mood last week!)
Spinach Mushroom Tart with Goat cheese (SO GOOD)

The only potential downside to the cookbook is that for some recipes, you need specific pots or pans that you may not have (like a double boiler, or a broiler-proof skillet). Luckily, between my Mom and Google, I’ve been able to figure out how to make the same recipes using slightly different methods and they’ve turned out just fine.

Happy cooking!