Review by Booklist Review
Meal-planning cookbooks are having a moment. Illustrated with warm watercolors, this one hearkens back to the hard work, cozy flavors, and some convenience ingredients that may remind some readers of the kitchens of their childhood while incorporating a range of popular modern American dishes. Kane references her own years of homemaking and lessons learned from her Depression-era mother early and often, sharing ways she introduces flavors to tentative family, encouraging readers to host a fully home-cooked casual party, with tips on pulling dinner elements into quick lunches. Recipes are laid out in complete weeks. Notable here is the charming method of displaying the order of meals throughout the week: an illustrated flow chart. Also notable is the unfortunate lack of weekly grocery lists, especially considering that most menus require cooking all five meals (with some after-dinner work too) in order to make and then use all "save-it-forward" elements. Recipe instructions are chatty, encouraging, and include plenty of homey, hard-won homemaker wisdom that recommends this to those aspiring to the role of dedicated home cook.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"It's exhausting to cook an entire meal from the ground up every night. Stop that!" implores Kane (best friend of Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond) in her cheery debut. Her solution is to "save" ingredients "forward," by preparing food with the idea that it will be repurposed for different dishes as the week progresses. Recipes are organized into 15 weekly meal plans, each of which hews to a weeknight dinner theme; during "Shortcut Week," for instance, she relies on premade ingredients--such as rotisserie chicken and refrigerated pizza crust for stromboli--to get dinner on the table quickly. Readers will enjoy Kane's inventive ways of revitalizing leftovers: remnants of buffalo chicken taquitos during "Effortless Party Week," for example, become baked buffalo chicken dip a few days later. In "Ancient Grains Week," she starts with chicken Milanese, and then repurposes leftovers to make chicken Parmesan over creamy polenta. Kane's witty commentary ("If you are a civilized sort, you will eat this as a salad with a fork," she says of the marinated corn and artichoke dip) and amiable instructions ("Throw these ingredients into the slow cooker... and run out the door," she writes of her Irish corned beef) make for amusing encouragement along the way. This will be a lifesaver for busy home cooks. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Divided into 15 themed weeks, each comprising five or six dinners, this book by Kane (whom readers may recognize from her appearances on the Food Network's The Pioneer Woman) delivers her take on meal prep, where ingredients are shared across meals to minimize work--good for families looking to get on top of meal planning who are willing to learn a new style of meal prep spread throughout the week. Recipes, which often rely on canned vegetables, are written loosely so they can be scaled up or down to suit one's family size; they're unfussy and perfect for kids or teens, particularly those who hate leftovers, as Kane excels at transforming yesterday's green beans into something fresh. In a bubbly and upbeat tone, Kane shares recipes for dishes in which the star is usually meat or seafood, though there are vegetable-forward weeks as well; only a few recipes are gluten-free. There are no photographs; in a vintage callback, each of the recipes is depicted in beautiful watercolor illustrations. VERDICT Recommended for public libraries with busy home cooks.--Catherine Field
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