Bowls: Vibrant Recipes with Endless Possibilities

First of all, I am a married, working mother of two (almost 6yo and 7y5mo) that decided to stay home for in-person schooling. To help make this financially work out, I decided to be the person who does the majority of meal planning, shopping, cooking and packing up of lunches and meals-on-the-go to eliminate eating out. This cookbook has been a huge game-changer and lifesaver! I mean, I feel like a pony in a five horse circus.. If you're a person who needs traditional recipes, this book has them. All of the recipes are AH-HA-MAZING! I did not think the results would have been so pleasant based off these recipes; the ingredients "look" plain. If you are a person, like me, who constantly gets odd and ends from people's gardens and are not sure what to do with it all, this book has solutions that work. In the back are separate recipes for grains, vegetables, proteins, dressings, etc. Simply pick a recipe for what you have, throw together in a bowl, and watch something delicious happen. Really! Each dish has been really healthy too. All food groups usually are represented on each plate. Nothing is deep fried. Nothing requires special equipment like an air fryer. However, you could easily use those things too if you have them. Meat is not the center star of these meals, however; the dishes center around mostly whole grains and vegetables with a protein added. Almost all recipes can be made gluten, dairy and/or meat free. They usually have something raw in them too. You can make them as basic or as complicated as you want. Many recipes offer in-can or bottle suggestions if you're that exhausted, like balsamic dressing, but also offers the made from scratch in a hurry version as well. I highly recommend taking the steps to make any of the quick pickles (especially with red onions, carrots and/or cucumbers) and doubling the recipe and keeping them in the solution in the fridge for future uses. We actually pick at them now for snacks and put them in morning eggs, they're so good. As for the kiddos, they're just not gonna eat anything spicy, fermented or pickled. So what I do is keep a serving each of protein, grain, veges and carbs set aside with a bottle of ranch dressing and use what's leftover as directed. Everyone's happy and I'm not making two different dinners. Now, if you are in a similar economic "bowl" as I am, I look through my freezer, pantry and refrigerator for what I currently own and I will go through all my cookbooks and pick out recipes that have similar ingredients. That way, I am only shopping for the missing ingredients and saving a ton of money. Because of the versatility of this book, I can usually find a recipe that will use up any leftover ingredients. (I've also been saving these grocery and recipe lists for future use and to streamline the time spent on this lol.) This book is unique for that too and saves me time. Plus, I can now spend one afternoon prepping all the ingredients so that way I'm only literally spending 15-30 minutes max cooking per night with minimal clean-up. I can usually have everything cooked, and cleaned by the time it all is ready to eat! To keep me motivated to stay cooking, I like to look through the back of the book for an ingredient that I have no idea what it is, order it and use it. Red miso and gouchujang is a staple now. Where have they been my whole life??! Since the recipes are so big and easily doubled/tripled if needed, packing up for grab-and-go meals is a snap. In fact, my husband's lunches are so beautiful and delicious, co-workers have been asking for recipes and have been offering me their pantry and garden extras if I would pack up a lunch for them! Unbelievable! If they only knew that I love hotdogs and tuna noodle casserole too...

This book is filled with reliable, delicious, healthy recipes that our family and friends really enjoy. I know other reviewers roll their eyes at “wait, isn’t this just a regular dinner with protein, starch, and veggies…. placed in a bowl instead of on a plate?” but, honestly, this cookbook is an enormous help to me (even if that comment still makes me laugh). Because, honestly, it’s a rare cookbook that tells you everything you need for a dinner on one page. Everything! Not just a single idea for a main dish that leaves you puzzling about ideas for the rest of the family meal. If you suffer even this slightest bit of Decision Fatigue around mealtime, this book is a game-changer: lean proteins, veggies, whole grains or other healthy starches, along with sauces or dressings and seasonings for a great and tasty meal, all on One Dang Page plus a gorgeous photograph that helps with assembling the bowl. Now that’s a tiny bit of an exaggeration (the one-page part) because the dressings, veggie prep, grain prep, etc are in sections at the end of the book. But the prep of the component parts are all really simple (“preheat oven, chop broccoli and dress with oil and salt, then roast”) and can easily be done on a weeknight as you are fixing the other parts. Re: the binding. Agree. Annoying that it fell apart after a year or so— I took the cookbook to FedEx Office, had them slice off the cover, make a color copy of the now-removed cover, and add a new coil binding along with a plastic clear cover ($13), as seen in these photos. So that’s either a testament to how much I use this cookbook, or a warning that your book may fall apart too. It’s easily fixed, but if that’s going to make you cross— get the Kindle version, I guess? If you don’t do meal prep, stop reading here. If you do: If you don’t mind batch cooking or are a “meal prep on Sunday” type of person, this is a pretty amazing cookbook for Done In A Day. I’d rather make 5 little jars of dressing in one shot, while roasting veggies in the oven and cooking grains on the stove, and then pop the right portions of whatever into flattened, labeled ziplock bags in the freezer or fridge. With that one cook-session and one clean-up & dishwasher run, you are set for many meals for the weeks ahead— with the easy weeknight addition of organic greens dumped out of a clamshell while searing protein in a pan. Although the authors include a few suggestions about meal prep in the front, there’s an all-inclusive “Nutritional Information” index (pages 228-233) lists ALL the bowl components for every single recipe in the book in **categories** (e.g. grains, spice rubs, vegetables, proteins, etc) that makes a great cheatsheet for cooks who want to prep a bunch of proteins, dressings, toppings in one shot. Just saying: really helpful!

When this book first came out I was really interested. I flipped through it on Amazon and thought, no I don't really need this book. Then I was in a restaurant and had the most amazing "bowl" meal and I knew i needed to take a look at this book again. I have made about 15 of the recipes from this book so far. Some of these recipes have knocked my socks off (Budda bowl, Shrimp and Grits are my favorites so far). I'm glad I gave this book another chance. Many of the recipes are sized for 2 portions which is working our really well for my husband and I. I would say the portions for 2 are good sizes for us, sometimes there is a bit left for a small lunch for me. I recommend giving this book a try. The ingredients are readily available. The recipes are easy to follow, and most of them are pretty quick. This is a great book for some delicious healthy meals ready on your table quickly and easily.

I have done 4 recipes so far. They have all been delicious! But, I find it a very confusing book to use. Individual ingredients listed in a recipe (like roasted cauliflower, seared flank steak, crispy tempah or Tahini Sauce) are really separate recipes. So, each bowl recipe really has 2, 3 or 4 recipes involved in it - from different pages. You have to look closely, look up all the "hidden" recipes, be sure to have the ingredients for all of them, and then either make some parts ahead or be very good at sequencing while flipping back and forth. And because most of them are quick cooking, it is a fast-paced juggling act. The other challenge is many recipes have an ingredient that is really obtuse (Pomegranate molasses, mirin, etc.). The nice thing, the food is very unique - not your average American Fare, and delicious. Just not a beginner's cookbook, at all.

Amazing! Full page photos and tonnes of great recipes

Lovely tasty recipes with great photos.

This book was a recommendation from a friend. It seemed that she had nearly every recipe tagged with post-it notes as a good recipe! America’s Test Kitchen recipes are great because they have the ‘Why This Recipe Works’ section and also provide substitutions for ingredients. The recipes also have full color photos. Very helpful! I entertain a lot and sometimes find catering to many food allergies challenging. With making bowls, I find the flexibility of having many items available for guests to choose and make their own creations.

I have used the book as inspiration for lunch and dinner boxes and the recipes are very easy and with a lot of substitutes

Nice book