13 December 2014

Weekend Cooking: Weeknight Wonders by Ellie Krieger

Weekend Cooking hosted by www.BethFishReads.comWeekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

_______
Weeknight Wonders by Ellie KriegerWhen I'm looking for nutritious, fresh, and easy dinners, one of my go-to authors is Ellie Krieger. I've reviewed her Foods You Crave and So Easy, so I was surprise to see that I've not written about Weeknight Wonders.

The premise of Weeknight Wonders is prefectly summed up by its subtitle: "Delicious Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less." Who doesn't want that? From salads to desserts and grilled meats to hearty vegetarian, Krieger offers a bounty of delicious choices.

I really like the soothing pastel colors, easy-to-read fonts, and artful photographs, which make this a book a pleasure to look through. (Not every recipe has a photo.) But Weeknight Wonders is more than a pretty face: Krieger offers good advice for how to shave minutes off your dinner prep without sacrificing good nutrition. For example, some recipes call for canned beans or frozen veggies, but highly processed, chemical-laden ingredients are not welcome. Read the introduction for time-saving tips, pantry stocking, cooking techniques, and more.

The recipes themselves rely on common ingredients flavored by spices, sauces, and herbs. Most of the flavorings are products you probably already own, and in fact, the most "exotic" are things like Sriracha, tahini, and Old Bay seasoning.

Some of the dishes I've enjoyed are a falafel-inspired salad, Parmesan-crusted chicken, and grilled Napa cabbage. The Guinness and beef skillet is calling to me as is an orzo and shrimp dish.

Each recipe is accompanied by nutritional information, and Krieger often suggests go-with dishes to help round out your menu. The directions are carefully written to help you make the best use of your time, so you truly can get close to her target of 30 minutes from start to finish.

The only recipe I remembered to take photographs of is the Pizza "Strudel." You can find the recipe and a video of Krieger demonstrating how to make this dish over on the Today Show website. Krieger uses store-bought whole-grain pizza dough, but I've used homemade dough with good results. The original uses spinach, but I've substituted kale and other cooking greens with no problem. The strudel is good hot and cold and sure looks pretty on the cutting board.

If you need fresh ideas for dinners that are quick, nutritious, delicious, and stress-free, look no further than Weeknight Wonders by Ellie Krieger. I trust her recipes completely and love that they're easy to put together and pack a good flavor punch. I bet you'll find some new family favorites within its pages.

Published by Houghton Mifflin, 2013
ISBN-13: 9781118409497
Source: Bought (see review policy)
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy)


10 comments:

rhapsodyinbooks 12/13/14, 6:56 AM  

Well I just don't know about all this pressure to publish nutritional info. Seeing a calorie count tends to ruin things for me! ...unless they are low, I suppose...

Sarah (Sarah's Book Shelves) 12/13/14, 8:01 AM  

I love Ellie Krieger! I get a lot of her recipes from food network.com and she is exactly as advertised...healthy, easy, week night meals! I'll have to check out this cookbook!

jama 12/13/14, 8:27 AM  

I'm not familiar with any of her cookbooks, so appreciated this nice review. The pizza strudel sounds especially delicious and I'd like to try the grilled napa cabbage!

Katherine P 12/13/14, 8:37 AM  

I've seen her books and have been curious but haven't tried any of her recipes. Weeknight plus healthy is definitely appealing!

Booksnyc 12/13/14, 9:19 AM  

I love Ellie Krieger's recipes - they are always so straightforward and healthy! I will have to look into this book.

Unknown 12/13/14, 10:13 AM  

I used to love watching Ellie's TV show. I haven't heard of this cookbook yet, but it sounds like something I would turn to often.

JoAnn 12/13/14, 10:32 AM  

I love Ellie's recipes, but haven't come across this book yet. Off to the library website...

Mason Canyon 12/13/14, 11:54 AM  

Sounds like interesting cookbooks. I'll have to check these out.

Sheila (Bookjourney) 12/13/14, 1:16 PM  

Pizza strudel sounds amazing! This would be a fun weekend recipe to try :)

Carole 12/14/14, 4:04 PM  

sorry I'm late - christmas madness has hit! Merry Christmas from Carole's Chatter

Thanks for stopping by. I read all comments and may respond here, via e-mail, or on your blog. I visit everyone who comments, but not necessarily right away.

I cannot turn off word verification, but if you are logged into Blogger you can ignore the captcha. I have set posts older than 14 days to be on moderation. I can no longer accept anonymous comments. I'm so sorry if this means you have to register or if you have trouble commenting.

Copyright

All content and photos (except where noted) copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads 2008-2020. All rights reserved.

Quantcast

Thanks!

To The Blogger Guide, Blogger Buster, Tips Blogger, Our Blogger Templates, BlogU, and Exploding Boy for the code for customizing my blog. To Old Book Illustrations for my ID photo. To SEO for meta-tag analysis. To Blogger Widgets for the avatars in my comments and sidebar gadgets. To Review of the Web for more gadgets. To SuziQ from Whimpulsive for help with my comments section. To Cool Tricks N Tips for my Google +1 button.

Quick Linker

Services

SEO

  © Blogger template Coozie by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP