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Snacking Dinners: 50+ Recipes for Low-Lift, High-Reward Dinners That Delight
Snacking meals are the secret weapon of busy people; they are endlessly versatile, can accommodate any food preferences, and are easily scaled up or down, making them perfect for a solo eater or full family. They are magical in their simplicity and promise, something every cook should have in their repertoire. Recently, interest in these low-lift, high-reward meals has grown thanks to TikTok trends.
Snacking Dinners packs is a gender-neutral answer to the "girl dinner" that packs utility and timeliness into a colorful, small format, gifting-friendly package.
Snacking Dinners packs is a gender-neutral answer to the "girl dinner" that packs utility and timeliness into a colorful, small format, gifting-friendly package.
160 pages, Hardcover
Published April 8, 2025
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161 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 4, 2025
2025 has been a lot of things, but as for me and my house, “very easy to keep up with household duties” is not one of those things. I am doing laundry based on the number of days until my next day off. When I eat three actual meals a day it feels like I have shotgunned a fountain of youth. Washing bedsheets is my Everest. At least once a month I dabble in chronic fatigue syndrome self-diagnosis.
Imagine my delight when I see this cookbook with a gorgeous cover. Finally I can eat well with minimal effort. This will save me not only time, but surely also money. Having just flipped through the Fishwife cookbook at work, I hoped this would fill a similar but more broad niche where beautifully packaged relatively expensive canned fish is not so central.
Imagine my surprise when I flip open to a caviar sandwich. Immediately I am angry. But, I am also an adult, who discovers this recipe is in the Splurgy Snacks chapter. But this book is riddled with caviar. Who does Georgia Freedman think I am?
The pretentiousness is unbearable. It feels like pricey/inaccessible specialty ingredients and products are used to make the most basic concepts seem elevated. It recommends several specific brands of prepackaged snacks and pantry staples. I actually have that part handled. I do not need help picking out crackers or olive oil. I do not want to spend $9 on 5 ounces of peanuts, no matter how “tingly” they are.
It’s not that I don’t believe Georgia Freedman does not like the tingly peanuts. I would never allege or begrudge her that. It’s more that it feels like these inclusions are to stretch out the book due to lack of actual content.
Who is the audience for this? Rich people with boundless free time and also — I’m just going to say it — eating disorders? Is this cookbook the weekly ad for Erewhon? The endpaper calls this “the ultimate form of self-care” and your “blueprint for…any time you want to truly take care of yourself.”
My argument is that self-care is not about buying edible flowers and purple carrots for my crudite. Nor is it about making a sauce from scratch to glob over a pile of sweet potato chips. Or believing that an avocado cut in half qualifies as “deconstructed guacamole.” If anything that is constructed guacamole.
Some of the recipes do seem more meal-like. Usually they have rice or crusty bread, and it is a handroll or charcuterie situation. Some of these combos look interesting, but others are just like, “Have you tried apples with cheese?” or slapdash heaps of deli meat and olives on a slab. The ingredients for one of the recipes are chickpeas, baking soda, and salt. Now I am feeling bookend anger. I am being treated simultaneously like someone who has $800 to spend on groceries each week and like someone in awe of the idea of cheese and crackers.
In the end, the highly specific Fishwife cookbook was far more versatile and practical. It was particular about quality over quantity of ingredients, but it had easy and cozy ways to actually feed yourself. Snacking Dinners does not jive with my relationship to either money or food.
My visceral reaction may indicate I am decidedly not the audience for it. But I wanted to give an idea of what it is and is not in case anyone as exhausted by the idea of soaking dry beans as I am thinks this book may solve everything for them.
Imagine my delight when I see this cookbook with a gorgeous cover. Finally I can eat well with minimal effort. This will save me not only time, but surely also money. Having just flipped through the Fishwife cookbook at work, I hoped this would fill a similar but more broad niche where beautifully packaged relatively expensive canned fish is not so central.
Imagine my surprise when I flip open to a caviar sandwich. Immediately I am angry. But, I am also an adult, who discovers this recipe is in the Splurgy Snacks chapter. But this book is riddled with caviar. Who does Georgia Freedman think I am?
The pretentiousness is unbearable. It feels like pricey/inaccessible specialty ingredients and products are used to make the most basic concepts seem elevated. It recommends several specific brands of prepackaged snacks and pantry staples. I actually have that part handled. I do not need help picking out crackers or olive oil. I do not want to spend $9 on 5 ounces of peanuts, no matter how “tingly” they are.
It’s not that I don’t believe Georgia Freedman does not like the tingly peanuts. I would never allege or begrudge her that. It’s more that it feels like these inclusions are to stretch out the book due to lack of actual content.
Who is the audience for this? Rich people with boundless free time and also — I’m just going to say it — eating disorders? Is this cookbook the weekly ad for Erewhon? The endpaper calls this “the ultimate form of self-care” and your “blueprint for…any time you want to truly take care of yourself.”
My argument is that self-care is not about buying edible flowers and purple carrots for my crudite. Nor is it about making a sauce from scratch to glob over a pile of sweet potato chips. Or believing that an avocado cut in half qualifies as “deconstructed guacamole.” If anything that is constructed guacamole.
Some of the recipes do seem more meal-like. Usually they have rice or crusty bread, and it is a handroll or charcuterie situation. Some of these combos look interesting, but others are just like, “Have you tried apples with cheese?” or slapdash heaps of deli meat and olives on a slab. The ingredients for one of the recipes are chickpeas, baking soda, and salt. Now I am feeling bookend anger. I am being treated simultaneously like someone who has $800 to spend on groceries each week and like someone in awe of the idea of cheese and crackers.
In the end, the highly specific Fishwife cookbook was far more versatile and practical. It was particular about quality over quantity of ingredients, but it had easy and cozy ways to actually feed yourself. Snacking Dinners does not jive with my relationship to either money or food.
My visceral reaction may indicate I am decidedly not the audience for it. But I wanted to give an idea of what it is and is not in case anyone as exhausted by the idea of soaking dry beans as I am thinks this book may solve everything for them.
July 26, 2025
This book is great if you are a space alien coming to earth to live in a bougie area of Southern California. It starts out simple and stupid - avocado on toast! Who knew that could be an easy dinner?! PB&J crackers, how quaint!
Then it gets absurd. Caviar sandwiches, shrimp cocktail, halibut ceviche. Are we cooking for a complicated dinner party or making a cutesy snack for a teenage heiress? It feels like both.
The food styling and photography is fantastic though. But pretty pictures are the best thing about this book.
Then it gets absurd. Caviar sandwiches, shrimp cocktail, halibut ceviche. Are we cooking for a complicated dinner party or making a cutesy snack for a teenage heiress? It feels like both.
The food styling and photography is fantastic though. But pretty pictures are the best thing about this book.
July 17, 2025
Some of the things are actual recipes, but what is essentially a charcuterie board is not a recipe.
August 19, 2025
Upon my first perusal of Snacking Dinners, I wasn’t supremely impressed. I enjoy reading an introduction that really tells a story and where I learn more about the author and what makes them tick. I didn’t get a lot of that here. But let me tell you, when I started reading the recipes, I was more than intrigued. I just couldn’t stop making stuff.
Freedman encourages you to make something good even if you’re flying solo: “I’d like to encourage you to make flavors, delightful meals for yourself whenever you want something fun” (8). Her philosophy obviously goes beyond those simple and weird meals we whip up for ourselves when it’s just us. To speak honestly for myself, these would be weird creations like a baked sweet potato topped with cottage cheese and avocado or poached eggs on toast with warm V-8 juice poured on top. Nope. Freedman freed me from these meals and introduces some fanciness to dining at home alone but also gives some great snacks when friends and family converge on your home!
I love a cookbook that includes menus and how to combine the recipes into delicious combos and board ideas (10-11). Freedman includes ideas for After-School Snacks and Movie Night to more exciting menus for Tokyo Nights (Okonomiyaki Tater Tots and Make-Your-Own Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls) and Sichuan Snack Street (Cold Tofu w/Scallions, Tomato & Chile Crisp and Sweet & Spicy Chilled Sesame Noodles). At the bottom of most recipes, there’s a “Bulk Up the Plate” note. These are ideas for making the snack into a more substantial meal—things like adding cherry tomatoes, cottage cheese, prosciutto, jammy eggs, Wasabi peas and Japanese rice crackers, Sichuan pepper peanuts, dried fruits, etc. These ideas create a wide range of full dinner menus.
While every recipe in the book could be classified as snacks (obviously), the first section is “Fresh & Fast Snacks.” Easy but “Meal-Worthy Toasts” (14-15) begins this section where she shares “your next toast adventure” (14). She begins with the simple Elvis (peanut butter & banana on white bread) to the more exotic Uni & Roe (uni and caviar on milk bread with lemon spritz and chives). Other recipes (which in my opinion go beyond “fast snacks” and are virtual meals include Turkish Breakfast for Dinner (29) and Spanish Tuna, Tomato & Olive Salad (27).
“Pantry Snacks” includes a list of items that are must haves for the snacking philosophy. It begins with suggested store bought snacks to have on hand. I wish she had offered up some favorite brand names other than “good cheese,” “good bread,” and “rustic crackers.” Where to source some of these items would have been a great addition too. This section offers recipes like dips, open face sandwiches, and more toasts. I tried the Black Bean Picadillo with Chips (61) and it was a winner. I used golden raisins, fresh Roma tomatoes and some jalapeno-garlic stuffed olives. I also used a full can of black beans.
This recipe was more than a solo meal. We snacked on it one night with chips and then rolled the rest of the dip in flour tortillas for some impromptu taco rolls.
“Classy Snacks and Variations” starts off with a great technique for Jammy Eggs (71) followed by lots of ideas to top them: chile crisp, chopped kimchi, sambal, prosciutto, pesto. There are lots of delicious combos here (72-73).
“Prep-Ahead Snacks” is where I found my new favorite hummus recipe. Okay, maybe the hummus recipes featured is nothing spectacular but I tweaked it of course. The topping is fabulous using raisins, olives, pine nuts, almonds, smoked paprika, cinnamon and cumin. In fact you could use a store bought hummus and top it with Freedman’s Spiced Nuts, Olives & Raisin topping (108) and it would be a huge hit. I am not printing the topping recipe because that is pretty darn rude but I will share my hummus recipe which I based on hers. (I used a full can of chickpeas, increased garlic and cumin, and added lemon juice.)
Other recipes I want to try are Sweet Potato Chip “Salad” w/Hot Honey & Fresh Herbs (21). Actually, I just want to make the yogurt/feta dip that goes on top of those chips and drizzle it with hot honey. Speaking of feta, I also have her Broiled Feta & Tomatoes w/Crusty Bread (30) earmarked. I could go on and on but I will just end the list with White Bean & Salami Toast (51) and some great spice ideas for popcorn (58).
Some food writers turned cookbook authors can be food snobs but Freedman is not opposed to elevating some low-brow pantry staples like packaged seasoned ramen noodles by adding fresh veggies, herbs, and an egg (76) and Velveeta by adding mango, chile crisp, and Sichuan pepper oil for a twist on nacho cheese dip (79).
There are, however, some very high end snacks like Caviar Sandwiches (127) Pâté Banh Mi Bites (131) Pâté de Campagne w/Baguette and Pickles (132), and Baked Brie with Truffle Sauce (136).
My only issues with this cookbook is I wanted a bigger hook in the introduction and the Pantry Snacks section (42-46) needed some source references (as did the Global Pantry Glossary). Substitution ideas would have been helpful, too. For some of the recipes, one would definitely have to pre-plan and source things like black vinegar, Chinese sesame paste, shiro mitten powder, and chaat masala. (Or, at least I would.) While the photos were beautiful and helpful, I would have loved photos for every single recipe.
Honestly, these criticism are quite minor and the bulk of great recipes makes up for the above rant. Would I buy this cookbook? YES!
Freedman encourages you to make something good even if you’re flying solo: “I’d like to encourage you to make flavors, delightful meals for yourself whenever you want something fun” (8). Her philosophy obviously goes beyond those simple and weird meals we whip up for ourselves when it’s just us. To speak honestly for myself, these would be weird creations like a baked sweet potato topped with cottage cheese and avocado or poached eggs on toast with warm V-8 juice poured on top. Nope. Freedman freed me from these meals and introduces some fanciness to dining at home alone but also gives some great snacks when friends and family converge on your home!
I love a cookbook that includes menus and how to combine the recipes into delicious combos and board ideas (10-11). Freedman includes ideas for After-School Snacks and Movie Night to more exciting menus for Tokyo Nights (Okonomiyaki Tater Tots and Make-Your-Own Spicy Tuna Hand Rolls) and Sichuan Snack Street (Cold Tofu w/Scallions, Tomato & Chile Crisp and Sweet & Spicy Chilled Sesame Noodles). At the bottom of most recipes, there’s a “Bulk Up the Plate” note. These are ideas for making the snack into a more substantial meal—things like adding cherry tomatoes, cottage cheese, prosciutto, jammy eggs, Wasabi peas and Japanese rice crackers, Sichuan pepper peanuts, dried fruits, etc. These ideas create a wide range of full dinner menus.
While every recipe in the book could be classified as snacks (obviously), the first section is “Fresh & Fast Snacks.” Easy but “Meal-Worthy Toasts” (14-15) begins this section where she shares “your next toast adventure” (14). She begins with the simple Elvis (peanut butter & banana on white bread) to the more exotic Uni & Roe (uni and caviar on milk bread with lemon spritz and chives). Other recipes (which in my opinion go beyond “fast snacks” and are virtual meals include Turkish Breakfast for Dinner (29) and Spanish Tuna, Tomato & Olive Salad (27).
“Pantry Snacks” includes a list of items that are must haves for the snacking philosophy. It begins with suggested store bought snacks to have on hand. I wish she had offered up some favorite brand names other than “good cheese,” “good bread,” and “rustic crackers.” Where to source some of these items would have been a great addition too. This section offers recipes like dips, open face sandwiches, and more toasts. I tried the Black Bean Picadillo with Chips (61) and it was a winner. I used golden raisins, fresh Roma tomatoes and some jalapeno-garlic stuffed olives. I also used a full can of black beans.
This recipe was more than a solo meal. We snacked on it one night with chips and then rolled the rest of the dip in flour tortillas for some impromptu taco rolls.
“Classy Snacks and Variations” starts off with a great technique for Jammy Eggs (71) followed by lots of ideas to top them: chile crisp, chopped kimchi, sambal, prosciutto, pesto. There are lots of delicious combos here (72-73).
“Prep-Ahead Snacks” is where I found my new favorite hummus recipe. Okay, maybe the hummus recipes featured is nothing spectacular but I tweaked it of course. The topping is fabulous using raisins, olives, pine nuts, almonds, smoked paprika, cinnamon and cumin. In fact you could use a store bought hummus and top it with Freedman’s Spiced Nuts, Olives & Raisin topping (108) and it would be a huge hit. I am not printing the topping recipe because that is pretty darn rude but I will share my hummus recipe which I based on hers. (I used a full can of chickpeas, increased garlic and cumin, and added lemon juice.)
Other recipes I want to try are Sweet Potato Chip “Salad” w/Hot Honey & Fresh Herbs (21). Actually, I just want to make the yogurt/feta dip that goes on top of those chips and drizzle it with hot honey. Speaking of feta, I also have her Broiled Feta & Tomatoes w/Crusty Bread (30) earmarked. I could go on and on but I will just end the list with White Bean & Salami Toast (51) and some great spice ideas for popcorn (58).
Some food writers turned cookbook authors can be food snobs but Freedman is not opposed to elevating some low-brow pantry staples like packaged seasoned ramen noodles by adding fresh veggies, herbs, and an egg (76) and Velveeta by adding mango, chile crisp, and Sichuan pepper oil for a twist on nacho cheese dip (79).
There are, however, some very high end snacks like Caviar Sandwiches (127) Pâté Banh Mi Bites (131) Pâté de Campagne w/Baguette and Pickles (132), and Baked Brie with Truffle Sauce (136).
My only issues with this cookbook is I wanted a bigger hook in the introduction and the Pantry Snacks section (42-46) needed some source references (as did the Global Pantry Glossary). Substitution ideas would have been helpful, too. For some of the recipes, one would definitely have to pre-plan and source things like black vinegar, Chinese sesame paste, shiro mitten powder, and chaat masala. (Or, at least I would.) While the photos were beautiful and helpful, I would have loved photos for every single recipe.
Honestly, these criticism are quite minor and the bulk of great recipes makes up for the above rant. Would I buy this cookbook? YES!
May 12, 2025
The subtitle of this cookbook "50+ recipes for low-lift, high-reward dinners that delight" didn't come through for me. I could easily have a few snacks for dinner but it felt like the majority of the snack recipes in here were either just a few random things tossed together on a plate or just as much work as making a quick grilled cheese or sauteed chicken. Overall, I wasn't impressed with this one and didn't find any recipes I wanted to try.
January 7, 2026
I am decidedly the target audience for this. (Also, full disclosure, Georgia is my neighbor so I have particularly good access to all the specialty ingredients called for in this book - and I helped test recipes.)
I appreciate this book as a guide through novel pantry combinations that helps to jog my memory when I am staring at a full pantry and can't figure out how to put something together.
I also sent a copy to my mom, who is still figuring out how to cook for one these days.
I get that for some reviewers here the splurge section can feel out of touch, but I think the bones of this book and the international flavor combinations will speak to the adventurous and seasonal eater!
I appreciate this book as a guide through novel pantry combinations that helps to jog my memory when I am staring at a full pantry and can't figure out how to put something together.
I also sent a copy to my mom, who is still figuring out how to cook for one these days.
I get that for some reviewers here the splurge section can feel out of touch, but I think the bones of this book and the international flavor combinations will speak to the adventurous and seasonal eater!
June 21, 2025
This book has some great recipes for snacks for dinner made me think a lot of when I lived in Arizona and it would be so hot and you just wanted something quick easy and light lots of fun recipes in this book!
July 23, 2025
I enjoyed reading these recipes for appetizer type foods. I plan to try a few of the vegetarian dishes, perhaps one this week. It makes it more motivational to see the wonderful photos of the finished products.
November 27, 2024
What a lovely book with gorgeous photographs of easy to make snacks that can double as dinner!
*received an e-ARC from Edelweiss
*received an e-ARC from Edelweiss
August 9, 2025
Fancy foods. Mostly vegetarian. Nothing looked appetizing or appealing.
October 6, 2025
This was OK.
November 17, 2025
great pictures.
January 14, 2026
This wasn't a very practical cookbook. A lot of the ingredients are hard to come by in my area.
March 11, 2025
These quick and easy snackable dinners look amazing as someone whose schedule constantly changes.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews