Every Day with Babs: 101 Family-Friendly Dinners for Every Day of the Week: A Cookbook

by Barbara Costello

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Everybody’s favorite grandmother is here to answer the age-old question "What's for dinner?" with 101 tried-and-true recipes, plus genius tips and tricks that make getting dinner on the table even easier

From her years of experience feeding her family as a mother of four and now a grandmother of nine, Barbara Costello has perfected her roster of comforting and delicious family-approved meals. Now all the mealtime ingenuity that has been passed down to her, or that she’s earned through trial and error, is here in this book, for you! Every Day with Babs will be your go-to dinner resource, with Babs as your surrogate mom or grandma helping to get delicious meals organized, prepped, and on the table in no time, every night of the week.

In the pages of Every Day, Babs has done all the thinking for you because with so much on your plate already, you shouldn’t have to stress about dinner! The chapters are organized by day of the week, each with a particular theme or cooking method that keeps in mind the rhythm of the week. We all know making dinner on a Monday feels very different than a Sunday, so there are recipes to suit everyone’s mood, schedule, and cooking


Get Your “Sheet” (Pan) Together Sheet-pan recipes such as Roasted Sausage, Peppers & Gnocchi, Maple-Lime Salmon with Coconut Rice, Lemon Basil Chicken & Couscous, and Family Fajita NightEat Twice Batch cooking at its best, with Grammie’s Chicken Cutlets, I Nailed Falafel with Tzatziki Slaw, Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad, and Minnie’s MeatballsOne and Only One-pot meals such as Warm Hug Bacon Pasta, Salsa Verde Fish Tostadas, Mini-Van Pepperoni Pizza Chicken, and Spinach-Artichoke Rice & Bean BakeThrifty Dinners that use pantry staples, like Cook’s Secret Weeknight Beef Stew, Chicken & Rice Casserole for the Soul, Beth’s Sloppy Joe Casserole, and Clean Your Fridge Frittata Fun crowd-pleasers like Spicy Tuna Sushi Bake, Pimento Cheese Patty Melts, The BEST Fish & Chips, and Reuben Pastry PocketsLow and Slow Hands-off slow cooker recipes such as French Onion Soup Pot Roast, Finger Lickin’ Good Sweet & Sour Ribs, and Not to Be Missed Moroccan Chickpea Apricot StewSunday Special meals to share, including Lobster Roll Cobb Salad, Pesto Rack of Lamb with Tomato-Mozzarella Salad, and Aunt Louise’s Eggplant ParmesanSweet Easy and nostalgic desserts like Babs’ Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies, Key Lime Icebox Cake, Caramel Apple Crisp, and Scotcheroos
No matter how you’re feeling by dinner, there is a recipe in here that will fit the bill. Your family will soon be part of the clean plate club and you will be considered a virtual magician in the kitchen, too! Don’t panic, it's easier than you think. Babs has you covered!

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 8, 2025

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful cookbook but Potter books should be ashamed of themselves for writing such cruel things about this lovely woman on the picture of her on page 183. You call yourselves editors? To write about a woman’s appearance, specifically her arms, and keep the note in the final product is just horrifying. They owe her an apology and a retraction.

[Caitlin McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be a book bible that gets its use over the years; the only thing better than the recipes are the stories that go along with it!

[Grace B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be a keeper for me. I love to make an elevated meal when I can, but also as a mom of 6 usually feeding my family pretty late due to busy schedules, I also appreciate no-fuss meals that I can get on the table reasonably easily but that don’t taste like they were thrown together out of the freezer aisle. This fits the bill: homemade, very few corners cut, but simple and practical. The majority of these recipes also look easily adaptable for our family’s dietary needs & preferences.

[AllBookedUp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author broke the chapters down by this: "The Monday through Thursday chapters get you through the bulk of your work and school days. All the recipes these days are quick to put together from start to finish, and they are also easy on clean-up. The goal is to get delicious food on the table, fast, so you have a little time to breathe.
The Friday through Sunday chapters have a different tempo from the rest of your week. It's time to wind down and have some fun."

This is great, but I didn't find any recipes that I felt I had to make.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about Babs and her family through the years! I have some of the same family recipes on repeat. I did find a new recipe for our Thanksgiving this year. Looking forward to trying her Caramel Apple Crisp. Apple Crisp is my daughter’s fav with some vanilla ice cream of course…just like Bab’s recipe!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a few recipes to add to my rotation. I love a cookbook with colored pictures of the recipes- this had one for each recipe. I liked how this book was set up as well.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cookbook by a social media “celeb”. This one is full of easy recipes with ingredients readily available. Nothing unique. Nothing unusual. Photos of all recipes. If you’re a new cook or a fan of Babs, you might want to add this to your collection.

[Pennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband gave me this book for my birthday this year. He knows I love getting tips from Babs on TikTok, and I love to cook. I have actually made some of her recipes from her videos in the past. So he knew that I would love this book. And he was correct. There’s so many recipes in this book, that it was hard to pick one to start with. I have been craving beef stew for a while, but stew meat is just so expensive. She has a beef stew recipe that uses ground lean beef in it. So I got the things to make this on Mother’s Day. I have never cooked with wine before, so I was very nervous. The recipe was very simple and easy to follow. And it turned out almost exactly like the photo. Only difference was, she cuts her potatoes bigger than I like. And it was the best beef stew that I have ever had. I plan to make this a regular meal in my home. My husband’s birthday is coming up, and he’s asked me to make her Meatloaf for his birthday. She gives you cute little stories about her life. There are some Chicago recipes that I am excited to try, because I have always wanted to go there. I do love the “Babs Says” parts throughout the book. I have learned some nice little tips to help me while cooking. Some are things that I use to hate to do until she gave me a simple way of doing them. I cannot wait to make more from this book!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm actually giving this 5 stars even though it doesn't contain nutritional information because it's so damn useful. Babs takes us through the days of the week, getting dinner on the table every single day. The best chapters for me were the sheet pan dinners (Monday) and slow cookers (Saturday). There were a few great casseroles on Thursday too. These are real crowd pleasing work horses, but she doesn't shy away from stronger flavors like Moroccan stew, and a few asian-influenced recipes - and load of Italian. My one criticism here is that there isn't enough fish.

This is a great book that will find its way into your heavy rotation if you need to get dinner on the table for a group on a regular basis.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful cookbook to read and the photographs are beautiful. I made the roasted sausage, peppers, and gnocchi and it was a hit!

What makes this cookbook unique, and in my opinion, super helpful, is how Babs organizes the recipes according to day of the week: Monday dinners are exclusively sheet pan meals, since Mondays you just want to throw stuff on a pan and bake it with minimal mess, Thursdays are meals made from pantry staples/leftovers, whereas Saturdays are long and slow meals (slow cooker) and Sundays are a little fancier for a Sunday dinner.

I also want to mention that I sincerely hope whoever missed deleting the comment about making Babs's arms thinner got fired and never works in publishing again.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just discovered Babs online and also saw a recommendation for her latest cookbook. So I thought I’d take a look at a library copy. I was pretty sure the promised “101 family-friendly dinners” wouldn’t contain anything new-to-me since she was sharing dishes and recipes she’d been making for her family since the 1980s (same as me).

I started flagging the recipes that sounded and looked good (the book contains beautiful full-color photos of each dish). After I flagged 15 that I wanted to make, I realized this was a book I needed to own and it’s now on my birthday/Christmas wish-list.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful book by Babs!! How are there not 1,000’s of reviews for this? These recipes are achievable and look delicious. No odd ingredients, everyday pantry staples. Classic dishes but with Babs’ little tweaks. I picked this up at the library, but will purchase my own copy to have💚 The family pictures are adorable as well. Beautiful cookbook!

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Babs and follow her on both Facebook & Instagram, but I found this cookbook to be kinda... boring? I'm a huge cookbook fan on top of being a Babs fan, but I found myself flipping through the pages and not finding recipes I'd serve (personally). I did get some bangers, don't get me wrong, but I'm not too impressed with the recipe selections. 3/5 stars.

[LocalLibraryReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

A so so cookbook. A lot of the recipes are ones you can find in just about any other cookbook. Nothing to original. If you like and follow Babs then this is a good book for you. Quick and simple recipe and ingredients.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only made 3 of these recipes and now want to make everything in the book. Love how it’s sorted by cooking method so you can easily decide which recipes to peruse based on your time constraints/preferred cooking method (sheet pan, slow cooker, etc).

[Mary Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great gift cookbook for a person who is looking to make the jump from beginning to intermediate cooking techniques. These are simple classic American recipes appealing to many different palates. Of course recommended for fans of Babs too!

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not familiar with this chef as a personality and I found these recipes pretty basic. Might be good for someone starting out, these are standards with good instructions and tips.

[Kayley Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love this woman. What a gift she is! I found a couple of recipes that hopefully will work for us as well as some encouragement for family dinners.

[Kathy Arnos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Babs and her easy recipes!

[Carol Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have loved to have a cookbook like this when my children were small. Although I haven't tried any of the recipes, I certainly plan to try some, especially the Caramel Apple Crisp.

[HoneybeeD · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointed

[LMTZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cookbook. Recipes with nice photos.
I may try the Chicken and Rice casserole. Looks easy!

[Katie Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t cooked any of the recipes yet but they look doable and don’t have crazy ingredients. And I like Babs. I borrowed it from the library and will likely buy a copy

[Crazypetlady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, a nice collection of recipes for people who want to eat well on a budget.

[Karen Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a while before I made time to look through this cookbook. I wish I had done it sooner. I found lots of recipes I want to try.

[Kim Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple but tasty-seeming recipes. If you've seen her on social media, you know exactly what to expect.

[Hannah Carrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Midwesten folk living up in Buffalo, NY, I MISS having Midwest foods. I also LOVE babs and I follow her on social media. This cookbook is a MUST to have in your kitchen. :) <3

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

It all looked good to me. I am going to try the salmon bowls first. I like Babs a lot and wish her all the best.

[Karen De · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her books!

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

all the recipes are Italian inspired...that surprised me.