Cook Once, Eat All Week: 26 Weeks of Gluten-Free, Affordable Meal Prep to Preserve Your Time & Sanity

by Cassy Joy Garcia

Cook Once, Eat All Week is a revolutionary way to get a delicious, healthy, and affordable dinner on the table FAST. Author Cassy Joy Garcia will walk you through this tried-and-true method and show you how batch-cooking a few basic components can give you an entire week's worth of dinners with minimal time and effort. Have you ever tried a meal prep plan before and gotten so excited about having your cooking for the week done ahead of time, only to find yourself totally exhausted after a full day in the kitchen, shocked by your grocery bill, and tired of the same leftovers by Tuesday? Cassy Joy Garcia had been there, too. As a mom, business owner, and Nutrition Consultant, she needed to get a healthy, affordable, and tasty dinner on the table fast every night, and she knew there had to be a better way to do it. She finally cracked the code when she discovered that by batch-cooking a protein, starch, and vegetable each week she could easily assemble three fresh, diverse meals in minimal time. After years of her readers asking her for better meal prep strategies and easy recipes, she released 4 weeks of recipes on her blog, Fed and Fit . Since then, tens of thousands of people have made and raved about the series and begged for more! In this book you'll find 26 weeks of affordable, healthy, delicious meals that your family will love eating, and a chapter full of bonus 20-minute meals. Optional Instant Pot and slow cooker instructions are included to get you even more time back in your week. With a Real Food foundation, the weeks in this book aim to support dietary approaches that range gluten-free, dairy-free, Paleo, low carb, egg-free, kid-friendly and more. Three simple ingredients like shredded pork, potatoes, and cabbage are turned into these three easy to assemble This book is a must-have for anyone looking for a REAL solution to help them eat healthfully while also saving time and money and loving what they are eating.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Health

736 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 23, 2019

About the author

Cassy Joy Garcia is the creative force behind the popular food blog Fed + Fit. She is a nutrition consultant, the creator of The Fed+Fit Project: A 28-Day Food and Fitness Self Study, and the voice behind the weekly Fed+Fit Podcast.

At twenty-four years old, after years of fruitless dieting, Cassy found herself with extreme joint pain, fatigue, mental fog, and at her largest, most uncomfortable size. In an effort to learn more about why her health was declining, she took to nutrition research. After just one year of implementing her newfound wellness practices, she had lost ten dress sizes, lived pain-free, and experienced more energy than ever before. Eager to share her healthy living secrets with the world, she started Fed + Fit in 2011.

Since then, she has become a nutrition consultant and leads people through her Fed+Fit Project each month so that they, too, can achieve their health and wellness goals without ever dieting again. She also regularly shares valuable free information on her weekly podcast, blog, YouTube series, and social media outlets.

Reviews

[Nicoleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea and organization of this, but for our family, this is too much meat on a weekly basis. This book calls for 4-5 lbs of meat minimum, each week. I would love to find something similar but with more veg, bean options, and occasional meat.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ya’ll this book has changed my life! Every meal we’ve made (about 20 so far) has been delicious! It’s takes a couple hrs of prep on Sundays but it’s so worth it to have healthy meals AND time with my family on weeknights.

[Chrisanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mondays or Tuesdays typically find me slow-cooking chicken or beef and making a week's worth of rice or quinoa. The rest of the week finds me frustrated around 3pm because I want something new to do with it. I couldn't crowd source because I'm doing a social media fast for a couple months. And searching the internet usually takes 20-40 minutes to find a recipe that might fit my specifications.

Enter this book.

I knew before that at least 50 percent of good food was seasoning/ sauce, but this book gave me ideas.... and not just "add barbecue/sweet and sour sauce."

I like knowing what I should have in my cupboards and how to use it in a budget-friendly way, because you can't buy beef, fish, and shrimp for meals every week. Instead you can plan to use the basics and season around them.

I'm not sure I'll do all the prep she recommends but it's so nice to get out of my rut. Even if you're not gluten-free, I recommend the basic idea.

Recommended by my lovely sister- in- law Natalie.

[Becky Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I'm a mom of 4, husband-unit travels a lot, works 60+ hours a week, and I freelance from home. This book has some really fresh takes on the meal prep idea. I LOATHE the idea of a crockpot of mush as an idea of meal prep, and Cassy doesn't rely on that AT ALL.

I never heard of Cassy or her blog before this book, and TBH, I still haven't delved into it. I don't have time for that... most of my books are digital, including this one, but I prefer my cookbooks & manuals to be printed, and I will be purchasing this book again in a print version, I use it that much. The pork Barbacoa pizza (I sub in the King Arthur easy pizza crust recipe), the beef & polenta, the easy shredded chicken options... it's all so very good. I don't do the "other" meals, I prep 3 weeks/3 proteins, and add in a few of my own to plan out over 2 weeks of food (the math works out as each protein is only good for 3 meals.) I move a few things around and swap out a few things (I can't handle that much kale when there are other greens that are just as good and sometimes better.) Note: you do a day of prep, and then each meal still takes a good half hour or more of assembly, but it's like you went shopping in the easy, mostly prepped section at Whole Foods but without having to be in the Whole Foods tax bracket.

No weird frozen mush, no cooked-to-oblivian crockpot slop, no Campbell's soup shortcuts, and, for me anyway, the prep doesn't require an internship under Thomas Keller. It's all pretty basic stuff, like chop & portion cilantro, caramelize some onions, InstaPot some chicken & shred it, etc.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING. She has super practical tips and this really is as cool as Blue Apron or Hello Fresh at home. Highly recommend!

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I like the general concepts behind her plan, however, the meals just don’t work for our family. There’s way too much meat and not enough veggies with the majority of these recipes. The way our family eats, we focus on veggies and the meat just compliments it, but these meals are the opposite. I’ve made two meals so far and found them to be bland, but that’s an easy enough fix. Loved that the whole book is GF, that’s a bonus for us. Overall though I liked the concepts here, but the outcome left much to be desired.

[Andrea Hunley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook saved my family during this year of quarantining. I originally checked this cookbook out from the library (pro tip!) and had so many sticky notes on pages, we bought our own copy. I ordered a spiral bound copy and prefer that to the soft cover- easier to cook with! Recipes are simple and delicious- my kids can quickly grab the book, flip the recipe for the day and get to work 😁

[Tiffany Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really love this method of meal prep! I can’t believe I made all 26 weeks! I did not use any of the bonus dinners. This has changed me and how I feed the family.

[Summer Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this book and have tried 5 weeks worth of recipes. Our household has two adults, but since the recipes are for 4 people, we figure we can easily work through them by eating one recipe for two dinners, or splitting between dinner and lunch. Before I get into it, let me just say that I am a fairly skilled home cook who is capable of improvising and cooking a variety of meals from scratch without a recipe. The reason I bought the book was to simplify the shopping and decision making process, in addition to saving time spent cooking and prepping - which it did.

Here's what the book does well: (1) affordable, healthy ingredients including a variety (week-to-week) of fresh produce. (2) excellent easy to follow instructions and photos for every recipe. (3) reasonable amount of prep work on Cooking Day and eating days that one person can handle.

Now here's what the book doesn't do well, and the reason we will no longer be using any of the recipes in this book:

(1) lacking variety of ingredients during the week. This is intrinsic to meal prep, but for us the same ingredients precooked and rearranged in slightly different ways got really old really fast. This might not be a problem for larger households that utilize the optional bonus dinner recipes; or with young kids who prefer a bland and familiar palette.

(2) Lacking variety week-to-week. Why does every single week have some variation of casserole? There are so much more things you can do with food than mix it in a bowl and eat it.

(3) overall recipes are bland and pretty flavorless. "White" cooking often is derided for being unadventurous and boring... but the taste of the food we cooked ended up being so bad that we ended up throwing away food every single week because we just couldn't bring ourselves to finish eating it. No amount of sriracha (me) or ranch dressing (him) was gonna fix it.

(4) recipe portions are inconsistent. Sometimes we got a scant 4 servings, sometimes 6, sometimes more. this made me dread cooking each recipe because I didn't know how much food I would end up cooking, and was afraid that it would make too much... I often felt obligated to finish "my half." It just wasn't working.

I think the main problem is that my household is not the target audience. We are two adults with short attention spans that get bored easily. If you're a family that doesn't mind simple, plain home cooking and has at least 4 people in the house, AND are on a shoestring budget, then this book will definitely be able to provide nutritious and cheap meals that are quick and easy to prepare. But if you care at all about the food taste or texture, then you may find yourself disappointed.

[Mireille Duval · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a wonderful way to cook. We only did one week so far, but it was great to see that the protein that was on sale had recipes for it, and then my boyfriend and I had fun doing the prep / cooking the first meal together; it felt very efficient to batch up, both for time in the kitchen and for dishes. Assembling a dish is of course longer than just reheating leftovers but all of the guesswork is taken away (you already know what recipe to make! you already have all of the ingredients! most of them are prepped!) so it doesn't "feel" like as much work, if that makes any sense.

I hope another book comes out. I'd like to have some vegetarian weeks and just more of the proteins already in there (so we could combine sometimes). Maybe have ways to "stretch out" meals with more vegetable/plant-based proteins because it ends up being quite a bit of meat. But all in all I like it quite a bit and plan on using it a lot.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great cookbook if you can stick with the concept! It would make life so simple to do all of my meal preparation on Sundays (or any one day of the week). I hope to incorporate more of her meals in 2021.

[Rachel Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful recipe book! Beautiful pictures and spread. Meal prep plans that sets you up with 3 varied and delicious dishes a week using the same core ingredients. Not always a very cost effective menu and not all family-friendly meals, but most are a great base set of meals for weekly shopping.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the SMARTEST cookbooks I’ve ever owned. Limits food waste, keeps the food budget low, HEALTHY and delicious meals, AND nutrition info plus offers dietary substitutes?! I will say most of these meals are gluten free and also doesn’t include a lot of cheese, which hurts my midwest heart a bit 😉 still Amazing!!! More geared towards feeding a family but I adapt as a single person by cutting the recipe in half or freezing the meals for later!!!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great concept that I naturally do in our kitchen. Maybe some new ideas but haven’t tried actual recipes yet.

[Trace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 star rating. REALLY like this cookbook at the way that it is set up! So much so, that I've purchased my own copy and can't wait for it to arrive!

[Nwitteveenhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second week using the cookbook and I’m loving life. This book is seriously amazing—especially for those hectic nights (which is basically every night at our house). 😍

[Katy Emanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have now been using this cookbook for over a month and I appreciate how quickly I can throw a meal together and get it on the table on a busy weeknight. The recipes are flavourful and my kids have been enjoying them as much as we have. I find most of the prep doesn't take too terribly long to do for the week (I often put the meat on to cook after I pull dinner out on Sunday night) and then it is finished cooking when we are finished dinner. I really like the fact that you are making a fresh meal at dinner each night and not reheating. This cookbook has you prep your components for the week, but you aren't combining things until the day of. One of our favourites so far was the Al Pastor Pizzas, the plantain crust added such a nice touch to this, although we used homemade bbq sauce I had canned earlier in the fall instead of the adobo sauce.
With this cookbook in the house, it is really hard to justify eating out even if we are all exhausted since the meals are easy enough to throw together for my 5 and 8 year old since everything is portioned out in the fridge and ready.

[Mh Weyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this first from the library. I have never reviewed or listed a cookbook but this book merits mention. After trying a few recipes from the library book, I decided to purchase it. Full price even, says this frugal cook. It has been worthwhile. Does it save time? Probably. Is the prep day very time-intensive? Most weeks a resounding yes! But that does mean that during the week when the schedule is busier, it is generally very little prep work. And I think I like it as much because I never have to think about what I’m going to make. A whole weeks meals have been planned out and made. As a family of five (2 of which are lighter eaters), I have found if I double the recipes, I have almost always had enough for two nights (we like leftovers) and have to cook even less often. Most weeks, there are enough leftovers for day 7. Or we freehand it that day. I haven’t tried any of the supplemental dinners but have now tried four weeks of meals. I generally am not a picky eater, but I have been amazed that I not only don’t mind the meals, but have actually loved most of them. I do notice that as she is also from Texas, I naturally enjoy all the Tex-mex recipes. But also quite a few Asian and some Italian. I love that it is pushing me to make meals I would not ever make/order on my own. And often a very unusual set of ingredients together and yet, they always taste yummy! We are not gluten free so sometimes we supplement with a side of bread. I have also foregone the avocado oil or other gluten free subs in favor of more traditional ingredients and a few store bought spices or dressings in place of the more time consuming make from scratch. overall they are pretty healthy recipes.
A couple caveats to the cookbook. She adds waaaay more salt than we are used to. It is definitely not a low sodium diet.
Also, some of the meals have been a bit too adventurous for my younger eaters. My kids eat most things but there have been nights they are not fond of the more unusual ingredients.
As another reviewer said, it is a lot of meat. I too would be happy to have some vegetarian options some weeks too. Simply because it gets expensive and hard to source all the meat sometimes... especially the more expensive cuts.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was soo excited for this book. The concept was enticing and Cassy has everything organized and laid out thoughtfully.

My two star rating, I admit, is not fair because it is based off of only making two of the recipes (but prepping for three). The recipes I made were the Lemon Ginger Chicken Stir Fry and the Chicken Ranch Bacon Casserole. Both recipes were not tasty! The Lemon Ginger sauce was actually so bad that I threw the whole thing out (my DH didn’t like it either). The casserole was better but not impressive at all. It tasted like a subpar turkey stuffing.

I would consider myself an ordinary home cook and love my cookbooks but after those two recipes, I am not willing to try any of Cassy’s other recipes.

Also, from her book I’ve learned, batch cooking is not for me! That one day of prepping for a few hours was exhausting! I had not felt that wiped out in a long time. I would much rather spend that time making a normal weeknight dish that takes me between 15-45 minutes to make (which also yields leftovers for other days I don’t have to cook).

I also like to be organized and clean but batch cooking felt a little chaotic doing many things at once (more than when prepping for a regular one night meal) and ALL my counter and island space were being taken up by all the sheet pans and bowls. That one batch cooking experience was not enjoyable.

Best wishes for all of the many families that love this cookbook, enjoy the food, and have found great relief from time and stress…for it seems my lower rating is in the minority.

[Becki C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a total game changer. We have been using it for four months straight and it has saved us so much time and money (the book pays for itself in week 1). We meal prep once per week and the food is delicious. Periodically, we come across a recipe that is a bit strange or that we don’t love as much, but the recipes are adaptable. For instance, the recipe for the “meatza,” which is a meat “crust” instead of pizza dough, was just a bit too rich for our taste, and we aren’t committed to a gluten free diet, so we will just use pizza dough next time instead. I leave myself notes about the meals we love and ways that I adapted the recipe (protein swaps, omitting onions, etc.). There are also great suggestions for ingredient swaps in the book itself. My fiancé and I look so forward to our time together in the kitchen on Sundays and to dinner time during the week. This book has really made togetherness even more enjoyable than it already was. AND we are eating real ingredients that aren’t processed while we do it. Win. Win.

[Jessica Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I read through it last night and I like the way she puts everything it's like 26 weeks where you have a shopping list and you prep for yourself to have like an easy blue apron. She uses the same protein veg and starch for 3 recipes but in different ways. Then when you go to cook you pull out your pre cooked and shredded chicken, your sweet potato and your brussel sprouts and whip together dinner in a pretty short hands on time. She also provides 2 bonus dinners each week that are different ingredients but easy to make. It's honestly a meal prep book that makes sense and doesn't leave you eating leftovers for a whole week since your cooking fresh each night. I'm pumped.

[Laina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite cookbook of all time. My family are very difficult to please and have a wide variety of preferences. They have been pleased with all of the recipes that I have prepared. Our grocery bills have been significantly reduced. We don’t eat out nearly as much. So we are saving money and eating healthier. I have tried numerous plans for meal preparation. This is the easiest, most doable plan by far.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a 400 page large paperback and my biggest cookbook to date!

“Cook Once Eat All Week” has been my motto every since I learned to cool. It works out about of 4 times.

Sunday I made a salad and while there is a still a lot of it, I definitely had to eat more than that.

I keep my vegetarian cookbook around though because I want to eat more vegetables than I do.

So when I saw this book I knew I had to try it even though I have WAY too many cookbooks!

It actually looks like a genuinely new idea. I have high hopes for it!

Well I tried “week 1” — twice in fact — and the first time it was a disaster!

I didn’t time it correctly when I bought the ingredients and when I tried to use them and it wound up that the onions had gotten slimy, the chicken got a really bad smell and I had to throw it all out.

A lot of the other ingredients I kept around to use on my second attempt and that went really well.

There were three recipes for that week, not counting the bonus dinners which I didn’t try.

BBQ Chicken and Rice Casserole, White Chicken Chili and Chicken with Broccoli Fried rice.

Once you had cooked, packaged and labeled all the ingredients, you had eaten two or three hours.

I cheated as much as possible, so instead of cooking the chicken and shredding it as I had done the first time, I bought canned pre-cooked chicken breast and shredded that. Corn out of the can. White beans in a can. Green chilies from a can.

Instead of cooking the bacon and crumbling it myself I bought a sack of pre-cooked bacon bits.

I did cook the rice and did everything else ‘by the book’ and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

I was ESPECIALLY pleased with the fact that when you make one of the dinners, it makes a TON of food!

So I really wound up making one dinner Monday, the second one Thursday and the third one Sunday and have enough leftovers for the rest of the week. The BBQ Chicken one was delicious and got high approvals.

Only I could eat the White Chicken Chili (cause onions) and it came out more like soup than chili but I’m not sure if that was me or the recipe. No big deal.

That was also how I felt about the taste. Not bad, certainly good for quite a few meals but I wouldn’t rave about it like the BBQ Chicken. You could also use it as a dish next to a salad-kit and you’d have a good meal.

I just finished cooking the Chicken & Broccoli Fried Rice and it’s another green across the board. I’ll definitely be making this again and it created a huge panful that will fill two or three nights of meals.

So I’ve only done week 1 but it proved to me that the concept really works! A couple of hours on the weekends, and maybe 10-15 minutes on the week nights that you throw everything together and I’ve got about 2 weeks of good food for my small family.

COMPLAINTS

Now I’m a proud 6-ingredients or less cook, but except for a little bit of short-cutting I followed the instructions pretty closely. Coarse sea salt. Avocado Oil. Broccoli rice (that was hell to track down until I got to Gelsons). Yellow onion I hand grated myself (pre diced onion is a household staple). The weird Coconut aminos, toasted sesame oil, etc.

You gotta be kidding me! The Broccoli rice I’ll give you was absolutely necessary and made it work! But a lot of these other little things I honestly don’t think mattered much.

Once you’ve got BBQ sauce — especially if it’s homemade which I didn’t do this time, but will do next time — and chicken and bacon bits I think you could cut out the sea salt.

The soup/chili I’m just not going to make again, but it was public enemy #1 in terms of a lot of fiddly ingredients.

Same with the Chicken & Broccoli Fried Rice. I think I will let the coconut aminos, sesame oil, avocado oil and cilantro just run out of it and not replace it. I really think a lot of those types of ingredients are just additional unnecessary puffery.

So the meal was a bit pricier than I like and a bit harder to track the ingredients than I like, but the bones was good solid meals in quantities that will let me have guilt-free seconds.

So I’m giving this 5 stars and keeping it in rotation with the rest of my cookbooks. Cause I needed another cookbook like I needed a hole in the head.

But this one earned it’s place.

I’ll consider this book ‘read’ (cause how the hell do you “finish” a cook book?) but I might come back to the review if when I try the other recipes.

It does what it says on the tin, cook once and eat all week. Okay, sure cook once and then cool and re-mix a little all week but still it works!

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I made Spinach Artichoke Meatza from week 2. It was delicious with ground pork and my husband even ate the leftovers while I was on vacation.

My overall opinion having cooked everything for week 5 yesterday yet having only eaten one of the meals is that it’s too much work. The recipes are entirely homemade so you do have the added time of making all your own sauces, but I guess I don’t usually cook everything from scratch. It may feel like less input once I get my two other meals out of all that prep work. I liked that I was washing fewer dishes because I used the cutting board, knife, juicer and strainer for several meals without washing them in between. I did find it strange that I had to juice a fresh lime for the Green Chili Chicken Casserole. Next time I will juice the lime along with the others on prep day and store it in a little container until dinner day. It would save me having to pull out the juicer again. My least favorite action this week was reheating the rice in the microwave before mixing it with pico de gallo and then baking it in the oven. Cooking something twice seems stupid to me. I would solve that particular problem next time by mixing the pico de gallo and rice on prep day. That wouldn’t work for every recipe, though. I saw recipes that were basically reheat the ingredients and put them together in a bowl… oh yeah the Caribbean Plantain Bowls and the BBQ Brisket Bowls. What a waste of time cooking something twice!

All that negative feedback aside, I am excited to try this several more times. I think these weeks look tasty: 3, 6, 12, 19, 21, and 22
3 Roasted chicken and cauliflower
5 Baked chicken breast, tomatoes, and rice
6 Ground chicken, bell peppers, and rice
12 Shredded beef, collard greens, and acorn squash
19 pork shoulder, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes
21 Ground beef, cabbage, and carrots
22 Shredded pork, kale, and sweet potatoes

Recipes
2 Spinach Artichoke Meatza (good made with ground pork and maybe served on a roll)
3 Loaded Cauliflower Casserole
Balsamic Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Buffalo Chicken-Stuffed Avocados
5 Green Chili Chicken Casserole (too limey)
Chicken Parmesan Bake
Cajun Chicken and Rice Skillet
6 Curried Chicken Lettuce Cups
Firecracker Meatballs
Chicken Burrito Bowls
12 Rustic Beef-Stuffed Acorn Squash
Italian Beef Rolls with Vodka Sauce
Red Curry Acorn Squash Soup with Crispy Beef
19 Smashed Sweet Potato and Pork Bowls
Harvest Sheet Pan Dinner
Southwestern Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
21 Italian Wedding Soup
Texas Beef Chili
Asian Beef Lettuce Cups
22 Jerk Pork-Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Mango Kale Slaw
Honey Garlic Pork Skillet
Sweet Potato Tamale Pie

It seemed to me that I would skip weeks that were basically regular recipes without the bread like Sloppy Joes in Sweet Potatoes or without noodles like Chow Mein with Spaghetti Squash. I didn’t pick meals that were meat heavy (usually the protein plus bacon). I avoided soup or salad recipes and most recipes that were stuffed in a squash since I don’t imagine soup to be very filling and I doubt my husband would eat salads or the squash the meal is stuffed in. I also thought some of the recipes were too bland looking, for example the stir fry didn’t have enough sauce and the brisket looked dry. Anyway, I was just curious why I gravitated towards some recipes and not others.

[Tara Woodward · Rating 1 out of 5]

My South African husband and I wanted to like this book, especially since it was a wedding gift and since I’m from the USA, I wanted to introduce him to some Tex Mex recipes since that’s not something we have in South Africa. We can get many of the raw ingredients and so we liked the idea of shopping for 3 ingredients and then finding a creative way to put it together. So 2 stars for eliminating food waste and starting with raw ingredients.

However, we found the recipes to be either too bland or too salty and needed substitutions and extra seasonings just to be palatable. I’m an experienced intuitive home chef and some of these recipes just don’t make sense or aren’t tasty (unless maybe you have a bland, Midwestern, salt-and-sugar-are-the-only-seasonings-that-exist palate, which as the one Midwesterner in our family, we don’t.)

Recipes we tried:
1. Asian beef lettuce cups - way too salty. I did use soy sauce but her teriyaki sauce portions with coconut aminos/soy sauce are really off. It looks like she’s using the whole cup for the dish. Yuck.
2. Loaded cauliflower casserole - bland seasoning. I had to use pork rashers instead of bacon and kick up the seasoning of the mashed cauliflower with Trader Joe’s Everything but the Leftovers seasoning. Also yuck.
3. Cashew Chicken - did a combo of this recipe with a Pioneer Woman similar recipe so that it was flavorful. Better but still not amazing (and might as well stick with PW.)
4. Beef Stroganoff - this was the best recipe we tried less far but needed the addition of carrots and English mustard to give it that real stroganoff kick. So basically used a PW recipe and combined it with Cassie’s more healthy version.

The friend who bought the book recommended the confetti chicken recipe, which we will try. But this cookbook is so disappointing in terms of concept and flavour. Like I wonder if Cassie even cooked these recipes in a test kitchen before publishing them. Because they aren’t very good.

[Amanda Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, meal prep that makes sense & actually SAVES time! I love this method!

I've used it twice since getting the book a couple weeks ago. The first week, I used my own recipes to ease into this method & it was fantastic. In the time it takes me to prepare one meal (1.5 hours), I made one & had 2 more prepped for later in the week.

It saved me so much time during the week & took off so much pressure I didn't even realize I had, around what would be for dinner each night, having to muster the energy (including mental energy) each night to prepare a meal.

This helped me in more ways than I expected.

The second time, I used her recipes. The 1st one (pot pie) was a huge hit! (We haven't eaten the other ones I prepped yet.)

I'm not a cook by any means. I need quick & simple recipes. Cassy does that with her book & makes them easy to follow.

The second week it took me 2 hours, but that was because they were new recipes for me & I was using a tool that was new to me (food processor).

Did I mention my times include cleaning up & washing all the prep dishes?! Seriously, 2 hours to make dinner for that night & prep 2 more - & clean up. You can't go wrong.

We're also keto. Cassy includes recipes & weeks that are low carb or swaps to easily make a week low carb. For keto, I add more fat to the recipe. So good!

She includes ways to adjust for dairy free, egg free, paleo, vegetarian, etc.

Oh, & they're real, whole food recipes. You won't find msg-laden or fake food ingredients in this book. I didn't even know I could make a "pot pie" without can of "cream of something"....

I 100% recommend this book to anyone who cooks (or wants to!) for their family during the week.

[Kary Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looove this book. Was looking for a cookbook that could help with “down-sizing” our cooking from a family of 5+partners/friends/strays, to empty nesters as well as one that would provide clear step by step instructions to adult children whose father had always been king of the kitchen.
Concept was really well executed - variety from base ingredients - means not having to eat the same thing every day for a week without having to buy out the grocery store.
Photos were inspiring and I found the illustrations kept me grounded while shopping. Instructions were clear and accurate.
Particularly love the prep and cook times at the start of each recipe. One thing that I find would be helpful in any cookbook would be a timing chart to make sure everything was ready at the same time. Numbered instructions imply a separate, ordinal “do 1, then do 2” approach, which doesn’t work when step 2 starts with “meanwhile”. A chart that backcasts from serving the dish would help keep pace when you have to do multiple things at the same time. The prep and cook times are a good start to provide a sense of when you have to start if supper needs to be on the able at 6:00.
Haven’t made all the recipes out of the book but looking forward to doing more - especially as the farm’s garden replace trips to the grocery store!

[Emily Jungblut-Swinarski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much! I got it from my local library, but I'm considering purchasing it for future reference. The overall concept is that you cook several "base" ingredients once per week, then use those ingredients to create several different dishes throughout the week. It's like well thought out "leftovers" except there are no repeat meals. This concept can be a life changer, saving so much time and energy.

What I LOVE:
All of the recipes are gluten-free. She even gives suggestions for ingredient substitutes or omissions if you are Paleo, dairy-free, grain-free, egg-free, etc. The level of thought that went into that is so thorough and provides options.

Having ingredient lists laid out in such detail, along with pictures, is a meal planner's DREAM! I love how meal planning saves money, and the way the author lays it out is SO good. Seriously, the layout of this book is so good.

What I didn't love so much:
At first, I was considering knocking off a star because each "week," she only lists three meals. I don't know who only eats three meals per week. However, she does add bonus side options for each meal, which could stretch the meal much further.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, why not try getting most of my cooking done at one time for an entire week? Better yet, why not get my college aged son involved so he can learn to cook and get healthier? We checked the book out of the library and he picked out 2 menus. Each menu makes 3 meals for 4 people. He made a shopping list, I shopped, then he prepped. Well, a few mishaps later, we had a packed fridge and meals for the week. We liked it enough that we bought the book. The only drawback is that some prior cooking knowledge is required. Likewise, a thorough overview of what you are aiming towards is helpful as it would have saved my son some time. Throughout the week we have had some really good meals and since there are only 3 of us, there have been some leftovers for someone's lunch. I don't think I would advise making 2 plans at the same time, but we liked the variety if offered. Even with the nice recipes, I am not sure I could handle the same protein 3 nights in a row.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that I can fully say I "read" this book, but I just started with one of the weeks and I really, really like it. It makes meal prep for a week of eating for 2 people so simple. You do several "in advance" prep chores on your available day (Sunday for me) and then that allows you to build 3 distinct recipes for the week. Each recipe makes 4 servings, so for my family of 2 those 3 meals feed us for 6 meals. She also had a couple of "bonus meal" options for those that may have a larger family and need to plan for more meals. The prep is very simple and straightforward, and not overly laborious. So far we've tried 2/3 recipes of the first week I randomly picked to try (week 22) and have thoroughly enjoyed the 2 we've tried. I'm very happy with this purchase and looking forward to the inspiration for several other weeks! She does a thorough job covering ingredient swaps which could apply depending on your dietary preferences (low-carb, paleo, grain free, dairy free).