Cook Simply, Live Fully: Flexible, Flavorful Recipes for Any Mood

by Yasmin Fahr

From  New York Times  Cooking contributor Yasmin Fahr comes a guide to tackling weeknight dinner, with simple, delicious recipes that suit the needs of even the busiest home cooks. What’s for dinner?  It’s a question we ask ourselves most nights—pressed for time or groceries, searching through the fridge for inspiration. Dinner can be a time to unwind and connect with family or friends, but it can also feel like a chore. Recipe developer and cookbook author Yasmin Fahr gets it, and is here to help readers create nourishing meals even when real life seems to have other plans. In  Cook Simply, Live Fully  she offers 120 recipes for taking the grind out of dinnertime, with dishes that span the range of “too tired to chop vegetables” to “up for a challenge but please make it snappy.” Yasmin’s approach is all about simplicity and flavor while keeping things nutritious and vegetable-forward.  Cook Simply, Live Fully  is organized into three progressive sections based on energy level and mood. Lap Dinners includes low effort/high reward hits such as Sheet Pan Asparagus with Tomatoes, Eggs, + Feta. Readers can take things up a notch in Coffee Table Dinners with satisfying dishes that require a little more prep work, like Roasted Chicken Thighs with Grapes, Feta + Mint. At the Dinner Table is for those days when time and energy are not at a premium, or when entertaining is on the menu, including Roasted Mustard Salmon with Hint-of-Mint Escarole Salad with a side of Blistered Olive + Asparagus Salad with Feta + Turmeric-Stained Onions (with suggested wine pairings!). Yasmin’s recipes are designed to teach readers how to become better, more intuitive cooks, and are open to creative substitutions (and some trial and error). Throughout, she shows readers how to transform the familiar by creating new pairings and flavor combinations that will inspire endless iterations—all while keeping prep and cleanup time to a minimum. An inviting, beautifully styled cookbook featuring 75 full-color photographs,  Cook Simply, Live Fully  is the answer to the most difficult question home cooks face every day, and is sure to become a trusted resource for years to come.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

272 pages, Hardcover

Published April 16, 2024

Reviews

[Tee-Hee Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love cooking like me, but you don’t have time to do it, or if you’re a spoonie from a chronic illness like me and don’t always feel up to something requiring much energy—you need this new cookbook!👩🏻‍🍳🥣

Today I’m featuring a cookbook fresh off the press from HarperBooks and created by Yasmin Fahr ! I’m so excited to share about it with you! Sending a huge thank you to them for sending me an advanced copy to review! 🥳💕

COOK FULLY, LIVE SIMPLY is a new cookbook featuring great recipes organized by how long they require to make and how simple/ easy they are to make. The author also includes notes and tips in this cookbook, and even the spine itself is a cute pink ruler for measuring! 🤩

These recipes are yummy and easy for people to make in a short amount of time. Because I imagine the majority of us all have those days where we just don’t feel up to cooking or lots of dishes, or we’re too tired but hungry and want something that’ll quickly be ready! I know even though I love baking and cooking some complicated recipes, as a disabled woman, I have several days where even if I’m not busy or tired, my symptoms can make it hard to stand for long periods of time or to both cook and do dishes back to back. So I greatly appreciated a cookbook that understands the realities of life, but the recipes are still tasty and have good ingredients for us. 😋

And while this cookbook is on the healthier side for sure, which is best for us, my only question it left me with is- does Yasmin Fahr have any delicious desserts we can make “simply”? 😉🍩🍪🎂🤤

Overall, I rate this cookbook:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 (5/5) Stars!

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like reading a good cookbook cover to cover sometimes!

I really like the organization of this one. Quick lazy (lap) meals, weeknight minimal effort (coffee table) meals, and more effort (but never too much, all are totally doable for any home cook) dinner table meals. There's a heavy focus on methods vs just recipes too, which I prefer. Easy to adapt for many or a few, and for preferred ingredients or ingredients on hand. Lots of one pot / sheet pan meals which I have been getting in to this year and so really appreciate.

The one star off is because there are a few too many chicken recipes, and also very repetitive flavor profiles (feta cheese!) making the book feel like it should be either shorter or more varied.

[Julie Capell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been slowly going through the recipes in this book and have made many. Of the ones I made, they were nearly all wonderfully easy and incredibly tasty. Using a lot of my favorite ingredients, like feta cheese, zaatar, and mint, they definitely have a middle-eastern bent. Very good cookbook if you live alone and want to eat tasty meals that don't take a ton of prep.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If 99% of your meals are chicken based, you’ll love this cookbook. Seriously, the recipes favor chicken and pasta. Most of the recipes are okay and ingredients should be readily available. Quite a few recipes don’t have photos. For $45 it’s a hard pass for me. You’d do better with a Mark Bittman book such as How to Cook Everything.

[Kristen Barenthaler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to try every recipe! Everything looks so good. I’d course it won’t look that good when I make it, but that’s a price I’ll have to pay.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great simple recipes to inspire a tired meal prep.

[Bayla Jacobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not get into it

[Andrea Press]

i got a lot of recipes from this book but i havent found anything i would make again. most are chicken dishes and they are bland.

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

None of these dishes sounded appetizing. I tried to eliminate the ingredients that I don’t have or ones that I don’t like. That usually left me with an empty plate for dinner.

#GoodreadsGiveaways

[Fiore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do enjoy a good bird but woah that sure is a lot of chicken recipes!