For a book named Bare Minimum Recipes, it certainly delivers. They’re nice recipes for weekdays and the lazy weekends as well. I’ve seen some reviews about the recipes being bland, and I kind of agree.

However, in my opinion recipes should be guidelines. Add spices you like, add ingredients you think would be nice, be creative with it! And just taste as you go 😉

There are some really cool recipes that I cant wait to try, like ‘Skillet Harissa Beef and Cabbage’, ‘Kimchi Cabbage Cakes’ and the ‘Skillet Pizza’. Last night I made the ‘Korean Sloppy Joes’ and it was really good! Ofcourse I did add some kimchi.

It’s a perfect book for families or busy professionals, but also for lazy millennials like myself. It has very few ingredients, its quick, no hassle but it’s still really fun! Its very American (which I am not), but definitely has some international twists which I like. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an Advance Uncorrected Proof of this title. All opinions are honest and my own.

I LOVE this cookbook. I am always looking for simple and tasty meals that don't require a lot of ingredients or too much time. I think many people like me who are strapped for time in the evenings will find this one full of delightful recipes. I enjoyed the imagery paired with most recipes, that's one thing that's a must for me when cooking. Thanks Jenna and Netgalley for allowing me to read this! I'll have to get my hands on a physical copy and share with my friends.

Great recipes. I enjoyed making them for my family and my family enjoyed eating them. There is a nice variety and all are not complicated to make. I look forward to cooking many more recipes.

Loved this cookbook! Honestly exactly what I needed. It can be hard to cook for two and make interesting recipes all the time. Definitely worth trying this book out!

This is a good cookbook for small families with out much time for meal prep and cooking, as long as there are no food allergies in the family. The recipes wouldn't be worth the cost once you subbed ingredients for most allergies. But if you can use them as they are they seem to be fairly affordable and they look tasty enough. Not every recipe has a photo but the photos that are included are crisp and clear with good shot composition. The recipes seem simple and quick. Cookbook covers all the needed steps of these meals including the prep of shopping, equipment and ingredients. All in all I'd recommend it.

I love cooking. I love cooking fancy and intricate recipes. But this cookbook speaks to me right now- filled with pandemic fatigue and just over it. The book is laid out well, the sections are perfect, too. Lazy instant pot meals? Yes! Super easy one pot meals for almost no cleanup? After six months without a dishwasher, sign me up. I can’t wait to make the various fish and vegetarian burgers, and the pasta dishes. This is the perfect cookbook for right now. Five delicious and easy stars!

Some great recipes in here and I really appreciate their simplicity. These really can keep dinner easy. Can’t wait to try them all.

Realizing at four o’clock that you have nothing planned for tonight’s meal? That is a time to panic for a lot of us who want to stay on a budget and eat at home. The newest cookbook by Jenna Helwig, Bare Minimum Dinners, has so many ideas for a quick rescue. The author’s employer, Real Simple magazine is in known for many different recipes between their pages. However those recipes call for ingredients that are not readily available in some towns and grocery stores. On the contrary, Bare Minimum Dinners offers dishes made with simple ingredients and of interest to many different tastes. In addition, they are super easy to put together. I have forwarded quite a few favorites to my son in college, such as Shortcut Salmon burgers, Chicken Parm burgers and Skillet Pizza. These favorites for beginning cooks can be thrown together quickly but have a zing of different variety and flavor. Helwig covers the gamut of cookbook sections, but with simple recipes in the categories of side dishes, slow cooker meals, instant pot toss togethers and seven ingredient dinners. Gorgeous photos are throughout, helping the reader to choose a recipe and guide them in its final look. I highly suggest this volume of recipes as a wedding gift for young couples. I will be incorporating many of her recipes into my meals to try on my family.

This was a great cookbook. I enjoyed the photographs, and the meals were easy enough to make for a busy night.

Beautiful photographs! Holds true to bare minimum including seven ingredients or less, 30 minutes or less, instant pot and slow cooker, and minimum cleanup. There are always recipes in any cookbook that are not to my liking but there were several appealing recipes that Helwig provides. Plus, as the author points out, be flexible; meat, meatless, and adjust seasonings. I was provided with an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

These dinners are certainly bare minimum. There are not a lot of ingredients and most don't take much time. They may be rather minimal in flavor though. I was not inspired to try any of them and it's worrisome that most of the reviewers who did try the recipes reported that they were bland.

That said, this will be a great book for beginning cooks who want to learn how to throw things together. Most of the recipes call for purchased ingredients like fish sticks, pasta sauce, etc. I prefer to cook from scratch so these wouldn't be bare minimum for me (other than grabbing a can of home-canned pasta sauce from the cellar and other times when I have things already made up).

Example recipes -- baked fish sticks topped with bagged cole slaw mix with apple cider vinegar, put in tortillas, or pasta tossed with broccoli rabe, olive oil, walnuts, lemon zest and salt. Some are more complicated, but that gives you a feel for them.

There are icons to show vegetarian recipes but not gluten free. Nutritional information is not provided. Photos are provided for about 1/4 of the recipes. Most are the standard American diet kind of dishes.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Good, easy cookbook with some new and interesting ideas-deep dish pizza in a slow cooker? Yep it’s a thing.

I was really excited to get this cookbook. It promised easy recipes with minimal ingredients and less clean up. All this was true but it should also have stated minimal taste. I tried several recipes and found them all to be rather bland. I like food to have lots of flavor and I cook with lots of fresh herbs and spices so I was rather disappointed. From now on when I follow these recipes I will doctor them up with more flavor. This is a good cookbook if you want a meal on the table quickly with a minimum of effort. A great read for someone with little time or someone new to cooking.

My family and I have spent the entirety of quarantine cooking a new recipe every single night. Now that we have been in this thing for an entire year, it was so great to find a cookbook that really makes meal planning, preparation, and serving as simple as possible. The promise of 7 ingredients or less ready in 30 minutes or less is one that is super valuable to my busy family schedule. There are five of us here at home - my mom, who works late nights often, my sister (grad school student), my brother, and myself. We plan to continue cooking from this cookbook, but so far we have prepared three recipes: Cacio e Pepe, Korean Sloppy Joes, and the Roasted Shredded Brussels Sprouts.

The Cacio e Pepe traditionally just means cheese and pepper and is typically a spaghetti dish, but we really enjoyed this mac and cheese variation. We used one 8 oz bag of the Mac and Cheese shredded cheese blend from Stop n' Shop and the noted serving of grated cheese. The roux was quick and easy to make and the cheese sauce was one of the creamiest ones that I have tasted in a while. The only adjustments that we made were to the amount of flour used in the roux - instead of 1/4 cup we used 1/2 cup and we used Skim Milk rather than Whole Milk.

We prepared the Korean Sloppy Joes and the Roasted Shredded Brussels Sprouts together since that was the suggested side dish. We LOVE roasted Brussels Sprouts. Since both recipes worked best for four, and we are a family of five, we doubled both recipes. Going forward, the only ingredient we would not double is the 1/4 cup of water. By making it a half cup, we made it a little waterier than we would have liked. Overall, ALL of these dishes have left me excited to try more and I can't wait to share more of them on my social channels and my blog.


I will be sharing photos of what we prepared on both my blog and my Instagram page later this week,
https://www.instagram.com/bookslothlife/
https://stephanie-katherine.com/

Good book full of simple recipes that are easy to cook for weeknight meals. Good photos and organization. This would make a great gift for beginner cooks, but works well for those who want to spend less time in the kitchen worrying about what to cook for dinner.

I am many things.... but I am DEFINITELY not a chef. This book is incredible for any level of home chef, especially beginners, as the author even provides descriptions of important ingredients and tools to always have on hand in your kitchen. There are recipes from many different cultures/types of food and they all look incredible!! There is a combination of meat and plant based meals, so this is a great cookbook to have around if cooking for a crowd with many different dietary needs.

I have been able to try a few recipes from this book so far and I am really looking forward to trying more. I would recommend this cookbook for a curious beginner (university student, twenty something, first house/apartment), as well as for the busy bee who needs beautiful, nutritious, yet quick meals during the week.

Amazing cookbook. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an ARC copy for review.

I was excited to receive this ARC as I'm always looking for quick and easy ideas to create for mid-week dinners when time is scarce.

However, I found a lot of the recipes to be very basic, almost too basic. Some I hesitate to call recipes as they require a jar of pre-bought sauce and a few vegetables.

I'd recommend this to beginner cooks, who really are stumped for ideas - there are lots of options and some nice suggestions in order to save time and use limited ingredients, however, if you have one ounce of experience there's nothing I found which can't be thought up very easily walking around a supermarket.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Netgalley for a copy of the ARC in return for my honest review.

This is the perfect book for a simplistic cook looking to incorporate easy, healthy meals into their life. Recipes were easy to read and truly bare minimum fuss but most likely full of flavor.

This instantly proved to be exactly my kind of cookbook. All of the recipes here are mindful of one’s time and also budget, and many humbly consist of just several ingredients that are easily obtainable at any grocery store and can be conveniently joined together on a sheet pan, or in a pot or slow cooker. And with the exception of the desserts, each meal also tries to provide some kind of nutritional balance. But even with these general restraints, there is absolutely no skimping on taste or enjoyment here. The recipes are wonderfully rich in variety on multiple levels, from cuisine styles to dietary preferences. And although many of the recipes are quite simple, I also found them to be surprisingly inspiring as well, and have gotten me to thinking about similar meals that I could come up with on my own. Also, to help complete the package, author Jenna Helwig provides an array of other helpful pointers and strategies, like her general principles on how every meal should have at least one vegetable but should also have something about it you enjoy, and also a very helpful guide on what essential cookware and staples are needed to ensure a prepared kitchen.

In short, as someone who loves to cook, but also likes to be mindful of his other time obligations and careful with his bank account, this is the kind of cookbook that makes me immediately think - “Goodness, what more could I possibly ask for?” And the immediate mental answer that comes back is a simple and honest, "I can't think of a single thing right now."

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC to read and review.

This is a very good cookbook for starter cooks. Pretty basic recipes that are divided by 30 minutes or less, seven ingredients or less, one pot, or instant/slower cooker.