What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking - A Cookbook

What a genius Caroline Chambers is! She divides her cookbook not by type but by time. On days when you can barely drag your carcass into the kitchen, Chambers provides recipes that take a mere 15 minutes. Depending on your stamina that day, recipes take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and even a little longer. (The latter’s perfect for weekends when one is home and available for hands-off but more time-intensive cuisine.

Even if the length of time it takes to prepare a recipe isn’t foremost in your mind, Chambers has different indexes so you can search with your own criteria in mind, including one based on what you have on hand, another by protein type and another based on how many you’re feeding. But the proof of a cookbook show more is in the recipes, right? And Chambers does a wonderful job: Be it Cheater Chicken Tinga Tostadas, Roasted Salmon and Asparagus with Dilly Sauce, Easy & Elegant Steak Salad, Parm-Crusted Tuna Melts, Slow-Cooked BBQ Ribs and Ranch-y Potatoes, and so much more! Five delicious stars for this unique cookbook. show less

I couldn’t resist this title and the book turned out to provide the answer – lots of delicious-sounding recipes that didn’t take much time. The recipes are divided into how long it takes to prepare beginning with 15-ish minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, and “a little bit longer.” The author also included some easy-to-prepare party recipes, which I thought were inspirational.

Caroline Chambers was not someone I had heard of, but her credentials were impressive: a New York Times best-selling cookbook author, recipe developer, and culinary expert, and on top of that she has three small boys who she has to feed after a day of work. She is also an online creator so you can watch her videos, etc.

The good things about this show more cookbook were great photos, clear and concise recipes, great tips, swap ideas, and bulk it up suggestions. I would make over half of these recipes. The not-so-good-thing was that there aren’t very many vegetable recipes. She has four in the “Obligatory Greens” chapter. To her credit, some of the other recipes can be modified to become salads. As I am a long-time confident cook, I often modify ingredients, cooking times and other techniques. So as I read this cookbook with new-to-me ideas I found myself adjusting recipes to fit my preferred ingredients/spices, adding a carb side dish here or a veggie dish there.

In addition to the easy-to-follow recipes, I liked her breezy tone and constant encouragement, acknowledging that all of her readers might not actually like to cook or be confident. This could be a good cookbook for a younger or an inexperienced cook and would also make a good shower or wedding gift. Or for someone who has been cooking for years and wants some fresh inspiration without a lot of work (sounds like me).

I borrowed this book from the library to see if it was worth having in my home collection. I haven’t actually tried making anything yet but I’m tempted to buy this one. show less