Review of 30 Minute Meals
30 Minute Meals by author Cressida Elias is a book meant for families who want to eat healthy but have commitments that make it impossible or unreasonable to dedicate a lot of time to cooking (which is almost everyone). The author starts off with a special warning about pork, which I thought was interesting. I have plenty of cookbooks that almost treat pork as the animal version of broccoli. For those of us who want to avoid fatty animal meat, we can be frustrated by how many recipes tell you to add bacon. This cookbook does not have those silly recommendations and instead offers up healthier and more wholesome suggestions.
The first section is vegetarian, so if you weren't sure how serious the author was about being healthy, you should be catching on pretty quickly by now. Of course, for the €meatarians€, there are sections for chicken, beef, fish, and even (gasp) pork. The end of the cookbook has some soup recipes for the adventurous folks or those combatting a case of the cold.
There is such a variety in each section that I was wondering if these all really only take 30 minutes. There are recipes with a mexican flair, kebabs, italian, and even souffl©s. What I particularly like is that the ingredients used are €real€. Things that I have actually used before and will know where to find them in the grocery store. Anyone who has ever picked up a nice-looking cookbook has had those moments of €what the heck is that?€ Truffle oil comes to mind. I don't know what it is or why so many cookbooks tell me I need it, but there's a disconnect when a cookbook author tells you to use it to make macaroni and cheese.
This cookbook feels so much more comfortable and familiar while introducing recipes that I sure haven't tried before. The directions are simple and don't have you performing acrobatic feats in your kitchen. You don't need a culinary degree to make what the author is telling you to make and I like that. This will have you eager to try new things that really aren't too foreign and it will allow you to have such a variety of flavors in your family's meals that no one will get a case of the €blahs€ at dinner time.
Buy the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Healthy-Minutes-Discover-families/dp/1463710488
The first section is vegetarian, so if you weren't sure how serious the author was about being healthy, you should be catching on pretty quickly by now. Of course, for the €meatarians€, there are sections for chicken, beef, fish, and even (gasp) pork. The end of the cookbook has some soup recipes for the adventurous folks or those combatting a case of the cold.
There is such a variety in each section that I was wondering if these all really only take 30 minutes. There are recipes with a mexican flair, kebabs, italian, and even souffl©s. What I particularly like is that the ingredients used are €real€. Things that I have actually used before and will know where to find them in the grocery store. Anyone who has ever picked up a nice-looking cookbook has had those moments of €what the heck is that?€ Truffle oil comes to mind. I don't know what it is or why so many cookbooks tell me I need it, but there's a disconnect when a cookbook author tells you to use it to make macaroni and cheese.
This cookbook feels so much more comfortable and familiar while introducing recipes that I sure haven't tried before. The directions are simple and don't have you performing acrobatic feats in your kitchen. You don't need a culinary degree to make what the author is telling you to make and I like that. This will have you eager to try new things that really aren't too foreign and it will allow you to have such a variety of flavors in your family's meals that no one will get a case of the €blahs€ at dinner time.
Buy the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Healthy-Minutes-Discover-families/dp/1463710488
