Notes about Recipes in this book

• Caramelized onion frittata with bacon and chives

  • Lepa on May 18, 2022

    This was fine but it was much more work than other frittatas I make. If you already have caramelized onions and cooked bacon handy this may not be bad but I had to start from scratch (45 minutes for the onions) and with that and cooking kale, too, this seemed like a poor effort to result ratio. Probably not a repeat for me.

• Crispy ginger ramen noodles

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    Absolutely love these! Super easy and tasty alternative to regular packaged ramen!

  • Wende on January 14, 2025

    This was easy and delicious, although I felt it needed a bit more sauce. I added some Japanese Barbecue Sauce to make it a bit saucier and that worked in a pinch, but the next time, I will simply increase the amount of sauce ingredients. I'm not sure if the noodles I used (momofuku) were the reason or not as noodles do impact sauce absorption, so I might try using non-designer -lol- ramen noodles next time to see how that turns out. But the main thing is that this was very tasty and super easy and I will be making it again.

• Baked eggs with green olives and feta

  • Emily Hope on June 07, 2022

    This was quite delicious -- what's not to like about bacon, eggs, and cream? It did feel, between the bread crumbs and the Feta, that there was one thing too many going on, so I didn't include the Feta (and it was fine without). Served this for dinner but can see serving it for brunch, too.

• Sweet and savory breakfast sandwich

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    The sauce on these is fantastic! Definitely will make these regularly!

  • Bfamkitchen on March 10, 2024

    Really delicious breakfast sandwich! The sauce is fantastic. We will definitely make these again.

• Curry poached eggs

  • Lepa on April 11, 2024

    I was hoping this would be a more interesting version of shakshuka or eggs in purgatory but it was muddy and unappealing. We didn't even finish the whole dish. A rare miss for this cookbook.

• Braised chickpeas

  • Cgaskins on July 22, 2025

    We love this recipe in our house and have cooked it many times. I usually substitute kale for the Swiss Chard as it is easier to get. I like using Rao's sauce, but any jarred sauce will do. Quick meal for a weeknight!

• Saucy grilled cheese with asparagus

  • Emily Hope on June 07, 2022

    This was a very tasty sandwich, but it was also a fairly complicated recipe, for a sandwich. To be fair I roasted my own peppers for the Romesco, which added some more time to the process. Possibly served with some tomato cashew soup (big little recipes)? Not sure I would repeat.

• Charred summer squash with whipped feta

  • julesamomof2 on March 25, 2024

    My squash turned out nicely charred and we liked the spice combination, perfectly seasoned. The whipped feta, which should have been the star, was kind of lost in the dish as it was quite thick and more like a spread and a bit sweet with the cream cheese. Could be easily thinned a bit but as written we didn't care for it.

• Spicy unstuffed pasta shells with roasted garlic and chèvre

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    Loved this! Another easy meal that was well received by everyone in the house!

• Ricotta-stuffed peppers with roasted tomatoes

  • Nancy402 on April 26, 2023

    Enjoyed this. Makes a substantial and delicious vegetarian main course. Came together quickly and even satisfied the resident carnivore.

  • averythingcooks on November 19, 2023

    These were delicious beside a green salad. I had some prosciutto to finish up and so cut it into slivers before adding to the filling. This obviously took them out of the meatless realm, but still...this is an idea definitely worth repeating. As usual, I gave the unstuffed peppers a short head start in the oven and 1 thought is to try a panko/parm topping to replace the very pricey pine nuts.

  • julesamomof2 on March 28, 2024

    Delicious and filling for a vegetarian main. I popped the unstuffed peppers in the oven for 20 minutes while I prepped the filling and that worked well. Will repeat.

• Pan-fried polenta with blistered tomatoes and burrata

  • locopomtini on May 15, 2022

    Time is not accurate. Need to let the polenta cool fully, not the suggested 15 minutes. I would make polenta 2 hours in advance to allow cool fully. Had a polenta scramble omelette. Needed more garlic. Finished with pine nuts. Maybe add balsamic glaze. Would make again.

• Basil chicken and broccoli stir-fry

  • Lepa on October 05, 2023

    Wow, this was extremely quick, easy and tasty. The broccoli was especially good with this sauce and the basil. We ate it with brown rice. Highly recommend for a quick and healthy weeknight dinner.

  • tarae1204 on February 01, 2024

    The basil and cashews elevate the flavors of this dish. The quantity of sauce is very exact. The instruction to salt and cornstarch the raw chicken then boil it for 4 minutes is odd to me. I cooked my unsalted, uncornstarched chicken in very hot but not boiling water, drained it and sprinkled it with salt. I added cornstarch to my soy sauce mixture and cooked it at the end, and it turned out fine.

  • averythingcooks on March 29, 2024

    We enjoyed the flavours of this and based on 1 of the comments, when I scaled the chicken & broccoli to 1/2, I made 2/3ds of the sauce. I also added some red onions & sweet peppers to the pan. I set out the follow the instructions, but after blanching the broccoli (a good idea), I bailed on boiling my thinly sliced chicken and just gave it a quick stir fry, adding the cornstarch to the sauce. I don't feel like we missed out by doing this, but I will try this step when I repeat this recipe.

• Coconut rice bowl with cilantro lime chicken

  • Lepa on July 09, 2023

    This is a great bowl. I made the rice in a rice cooker, which didn't turn out so well (I was going rogue so this isn't the fault of the cookbook) but everything else was great. The combination of coconut rice with the mango/cucumber salad and chicken was bright and delicious. Everyone in my family, with their various tastes and aversions, enjoyed this.

  • inflytur on February 26, 2024

    The chicken and “salsa” are delicious and received high praise from my guests. I made a different rice.

• Chicken strips with za'atar ranch

  • averythingcooks on April 16, 2024

    I made a different chicken recipe but came here for the ranch and we both loved it. This is a great use of za'atar and the only change I made was to use some fresh parsley as dried parsley is something I never keep on hand. This will get made again for fingers, as a dressing for crisp greens & as a vegetable dip.

• Baked penne chicken puttanesca

  • Wende on January 08, 2025

    This was an easy and delicious dish. I will basically eat anything that has a Puttanesca-style sauce, and this recipe has all of the requisite ingredients. A lot of the taste depends on the jarred marinara (following Ali Slagle's lead in her book, "I Dream of Dinner...", I now swear by Rao's) and the quality of the chicken sausage. I used the optional Parmesan cheese. I also used kalamata olives in place of Castelvetrano because they are what I always use for Puttanesca and the only olives I like cooked. My husband loved it. Will happily make again

• Chicken shawarma salad with tahini dressing

  • julesamomof2 on October 25, 2022

    This is the second recipe I've tried from this book and while it seemed straightforward, it required a lot of tweaking to get right. First, 350 degrees is not the right temperature, this must be a misprint, it should be at least 400. Second, the chicken was done long before the veg, so had to take that out early. And finally, the dressing required alot of fiddling to get right and also made about 4 times the amount I needed so I ended up wasting an entire jar of tahini. That all said the salad was fine, maybe a little uninspired. I will keep trying recipes from the book as I did buy the physical copy and I hardly ever buy cookbooks anymore since I own so many already. But I'm suspicious of the editing of the book now.

  • jessncanfield on January 25, 2023

    Good in theory, but several things to change. Highly suggest omitting the cardamom from the chicken, or at least reducing the quantity. Cook the chicken on a separate sheet pan than the veggies. Reduce the amount of raw garlic in the tahini dressing.

• Skillet miso chicken

  • Nancy402 on June 21, 2022

    A delicious quick weeknight dish. Clever use of same simple recipe for marinade and dressing. Next time will use a non stick pan. Clean up required some elbow grease. Well worth it though.

  • julesamomof2 on March 28, 2024

    Super easy but really flavorful. Very simple, but good for a weeknight.

  • averythingcooks on April 03, 2024

    We both loved this simple but very flavourful chicken. After a quick taste of the marinade, I added a good squirt of sriracha for a little heat. This time I chose to serve a quinoa side dish but I like the idea of using the marinade as the base for a dressing and I will try that next time. I made 1/2 the marinade for 6 thighs and we both agreed that this one is on the "must repeat" list.

  • Taylorlc on November 21, 2025

    This was a miss for us. A bit funky

• Crispy pork lettuce wraps

  • bwhip on December 10, 2022

    Light, flavorful, and easy to prepare. We really enjoyed these.

  • SYoder84 on February 24, 2024

    Easy and delicious, would make again

• Summer vegetable steak salad with cilantro lime dressing

  • bwhip on June 16, 2022

    Delicious salad, though I made a few tweaks. I grilled the steak and vegetables, and used flat iron steak instead of skirt, and Italian parsley rather than cilantro. Easy and nice for a midweek summer evening.

  • zoe_fzh8d1 on April 28, 2026

    YUM! Such a simple meal, but with big flavor. This is the best skirt steak we’ve ever made, I will be adding this to my rotation of recipes for sure.

• Pepper steak with bok choy

  • julesamomof2 on October 27, 2022

    This was quick and easy, but I wish there were more bok choy. 1/2 head of baby bok choy is not enough green veg for us and I knew that so I added an additional head into the pan and it still wasn't quite enough. Flavors were good - I could see us repeating.

  • bwhip on February 03, 2023

    Delicious dish, we really enjoyed this very much. Nicely spicy, pretty easy to prep. As the recipe says, there’s a lot of splatter, but results are well worth it. More bok choy would have been good. Next time!

  • ellwell on May 30, 2023

    Hubby made this tonight. I devoured it. It was fairly spicy and Im not sure whether is was the black pepper or the Chile paste. That doesn’t bother me, but if you have sensitive ones, back off a tad.

• Cheesy beef and caramelized onion quesadilla

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    These are amazing! Definitely worth making the spice rub and the caramelized onions are spot on!

  • averythingcooks on November 03, 2023

    I scaled this back to make 2 quesadillas (ie 1 large tortilla folded over for each) to serve 2 of us with a green salad on the side. I used a different (but very similar) homemade BBQ rub from my pantry. These are delicious & very filling and we agree that they are definitely worth making again...especially with a stash of caramelized onions tucked in the freezer.

• Sweet and sticky pork and asparagus

  • kelsey_zm42s3 on March 14, 2026

    Added just a dash of Hoisin Sauce too

• Vodka sauce baked gnocchi with baby broccoli

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    Adding this one to heavy rotation! Loved it! Toddler even ate it!

  • averythingcooks on March 21, 2025

    I made 1/2 the sauce while using the last of the "regular" broccoli & gnocchi (both coming up a bit short of the quantities needed for 1/2) and added cooked chunks of mild Italian sausage to bulk it up a bit. A handful of fresh basil also went in and we loved this pan of (in the author's words) "melty, carby comfort".

• Pork chops with charred peppers

  • julesamomof2 on September 12, 2023

    When I selected this recipe I was thinking sausage and and peppers, but with pork chops. This is more pan seared pork chops topped with a pepper salad. Not bad, but different then what I was aiming for. Flavors were a bit muddled in the salad, but that's personal preference. For us, we would not make again.

• Crispy carnitas

  • cklauber2 on February 02, 2024

    Super easy and super delicious. The liquid reduced quite a bit in the oven so I don't think I would reduce it down further next time.

• Everything bagel sausage fried rice

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    We almost always have leftover rice from something or other. This is a creative take on fried rice and a great recipe to keep in your back pocket for a quick dinner!

  • rachael_18bc7s on April 30, 2026

    Incredible. Added ginger, garlic, maggi and rice vinegar.

• Creamy mustard sauce bucatini with steak and asparagus

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    Rich and decadent! We subbed in zucchini and it was fantastic!

• Weeknight sort-of-cassoulet

  • averythingcooks on December 30, 2023

    This was a good, simple supper that I scaled to 1/2 for the 2 of us. I used 3 Italian sausages (2 mild & 1 hot) and cut them into fork sized chunks after the initial browning step. I used around 2/3'ds of a can of navy beans and added some extra vegetables at various times - diced yellow pepper with the onion etc, chopped cherry tomatoes + hot pickled peppadews when making the sauce & then spinach at the end. I quite liked this and T loved it so he gets the 1 extra serving for today's lunch.

• Roasted honey mustard salmon with citrus salad

  • Nancy402 on March 05, 2023

    Really enjoyed this. Clever use of the dressing as a marinade for the salmon. The citrus avocado salad really compliments the salmon, and the whole dish looks very colourful and appealing on the plate.

• Fish tacos

  • Cgaskins on July 24, 2025

    Pretty good tacos. I liked the use of the seasoning in the sauce and on the tacos but would add a bit more spice if I make them again.

• Salmon with fried shallot mashed potatoes

  • julesamomof2 on October 25, 2022

    This recipe is all about the fried shallots, they lend some interest to what is really just plain baked salmon with mashed potatoes and a green veg (don't need a recipe for that). The recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter in the potatoes and I cut that down to about 2 tablespoons as that is a ridiculous amount of butter (maybe a misprint?). That all said, it was fine, not super special and will not likely be made again.

  • Wende on February 02, 2025

    We liked this. I often make salmon for dinner so I’m always looking for new ways to serve it. This is a good one. The shallot-infused oil and resulting fried shallots are used in every part of this dish and it works. The mashed potatoes are incredibly rich, and obviously delish because of that. I heated the milk in the microwave before adding it. Will and have made it again. My finicky sister asked for the recipe after having it.

• Miso ginger meatballs with cabbage

  • averythingcooks on November 17, 2023

    We loved this dinner. I used 8 oz pork + 4 oz beef for a 1/2 recipe and 42 grams = the predicted 10 (very tasty) meatballs. The simple sauce is good (using the soy sauce/brown sugar sub for the coconut aminos) but I wanted a saucier dish so I grabbed an almost empty jar of peanut sauce and shook it up with some chicken broth & oyster sauce and poured it into the pan. I also had some roasted red pepper to use up so those went into the cabbage. I served this over smashed skin-on red potatoes & we scraped our bowls clean...so yes, absolutely worth repeating.

• Paprika chicken meatballs in tomato sauce with lemon dill cream

  • Lepa on August 29, 2022

    These meatballs were fairly easy to make and I liked the sauce with the lemon dill cream. We ate this with garlic bread and an Eastern European cucumber/cabbage salad, which complimented the flavors here well.

  • ginger2212 on March 27, 2024

    These were delicious! Served with sauteed cabbage.

• Potluck-style teriyaki meatballs and macaroni salad

  • ginger2212 on April 27, 2023

    We thought this was delicious! My husband did comment that he felt like a kid eating it though haha! I realized too late that I didn't have eggs so I made a quick flax egg (2 T. flaxseed + 5 T. water) and it worked perfectly for binding. I'm realizing the allotted times in the book are only accurate if you have everything "mise en place" because it definitely took 45 min to 1 hour for everything to come together.

• Baked chicken souvlaki meatball wrap

  • Running_with_Wools on March 10, 2025

    These are delicious and fast. I served them with homemade flatbread, Greek salad, tzatziki, and hummus. Yummy!

• Sweet and spicy chicken meatballs

  • averythingcooks on December 15, 2023

    I just made the meatballs (using pork) to serve with my own glaze. There is good flavour here even before the sauce which is what I look for in a meatball.

  • Anjackson1003 on January 14, 2026

    These were extremely easy to put together and the taste was great. I did reduce the 1 cup of brown sugar to a bit less than 1/3 and the sauce was still sweet enough for us. Served with TJs Thai wheat noodles.

  • kelsey_zm42s3 on March 14, 2026

    Halved the sugar, served with garlic green beans

• Smoky sausage and potato stew

  • BeckyLeJ on April 19, 2022

    This might be my favorite recipe in the whole book so far. It’s deceptively simple but so incredibly flavorful!

  • averythingcooks on November 20, 2023

    There is lots of flavour here using a smallish number of ingredients and a pretty quick cook time. I used kielbasa which I cut into 1/2 moons but I think I would go to 1/4s next time. I was a bit short on parsley so topped it up with chopped spinach & I had some extra roasted grape tomatoes that I thawed for another recipe that also went in the pot. This was a very good dinner in a bowl on a cold night.

• Creamy tortellini soup with sausage and kale

  • Lepa on August 21, 2022

    This soup was really quick and easy and my family really loved it -especially the kids. I'll definitely make this again. The store didn't have cheese tortellini so I used small cheese ravioli and that worked well.

  • chelsealeitch on August 04, 2025

    My family loves this soup! Classic Modern Proper - simple but full of flavor. It’s frequently in our fall/winter rotation.

  • megan_atuicx on March 15, 2026

    This is on heavy rotation for us. We swap for hot italian sausage and fire roasted tomatoes fo make this spicy. We love!

• Turkey meatballs in red curry sauce

  • cklauber2 on October 24, 2023

    Pretty easy and very delicious! The sauce is very rich so I'm glad I served it with rice and a lot of sautéed spinach and red bell pepper.

• Honey mustard vinaigrette

  • averythingcooks on November 18, 2023

    This is a lovely vinaigrette which I served over a simple green salad. I made 1/2 (enough for at least 2 nights of salad for the 2 of us) and I just shook it up in a small mason jar rather than dirty the blender. This will be made often.

• Coconut chicken soup with kabocha squash

  • Lepa on November 20, 2023

    This is a very simple and comforting dish. I wasn't sure about the flavor combination but I had some extra kabocha and coconut milk in my refrigerator so I decided to try this-and don't regret it. It was particularly good with some Sriracha.

• Buttermilk ranch dressing

  • averythingcooks on April 05, 2024

    This is a great buttermilk ranch made even better by adding some fresh dill (in addition to the dry called for). We ate this beside pizza over crispy romaine etc and it also made a great dip for the crusts.

• Meatballs in buttery marinara with pesto garlic bread

  • averythingcooks on June 09, 2024

    With homemade marinara & basil pesto waiting in the freezer, some lovely soft sub buns & these tasty meatballs (oven roasted rather than cooked on the stove top), we had a great meatball sub night. The mix of beef & sausage is already our preference & the addition of butter does fancy up the marinara (not surprising to anyone who has made Marcella H's famous sauce). Our only addition was melted provolone over the meatballs and these ended up as "knife & forkers"...nothing wrong with that :)

• Turmeric chicken noodle soup

  • PennyG on January 17, 2025

    This is a good recipe. A great way to add a good amount of turmeric to your diet.

• Lemongrass pork meatballs with glass noodles

  • averythingcooks on April 03, 2025

    I made these meatballs to serve with noodles, a different glaze & stir-fried veg. The honey seemed odd but I went ahead...couldn't really taste it but might miss it if left out? I used lemongrass powder in place of fresh & while a quick test fry confirmed that we liked them as written, I added chives + a shot of sriracha to good effect. As always, it was an oven roast at 425 til just under, finishing in the pan with everything else. I will come back here for this sauce + the green onion oil another time.

• Taco seasoning

  • averythingcooks on May 19, 2025

    A good, flavourful mix that is easy to personalize with your choice of "chili powder"....I used a mix of ground chiles (ancho & New Mexico) which we liked.

• Tortilla soup

  • layne_2a1rdw on February 24, 2026

    So good! Super easy.