Book 200 of 200 ~ 2023

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The book that helps me hit my goal of at least 200 books is this amazingly illustrated graphic novel that is filled with all sorts of ways to maximise your dollars while still eating healthy, delicious food.

So many tips ranging from what to buy from the store and at various stores from the cheap dollar shops to bulk buys to regular supermarts... as well as how to maintain the fridge etc.

Being someone who doesn't venture into the kitchen...erm..much,.. even I found it nifty!

Oh and there are a bunch of recipes at the end ~ even if you are a noob in the kitchen, you are bound to find something you can whip up!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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A great introduction to cooking and keeping a kitchen. The whole book feels like having an older, more experienced friend behind you, encouraging you to keep going. Great read.

A delightfully drawn and informational graphic novel for fans of Poorcraft and who wants to inspire or learn how to cook simple dishes.

Poorcraft is a lovely little series about how to live with little, and oof. Don't we all need that right now? Book 1 was about financial literacy and getting out of the hole, book 2 was how to enjoy yourself and vacation on a budget, and book 3 is dedicated to one of the most satisfying (and time-consuming) daily activities: cooking and EATING!

About 70 pages of the book are food-related advice. This covers a pretty big array of topics, though, not just cooking! First is shopping, with a focus on basic spices, staple ingredients, and tools to build your pantry. Different types of grocery stores are listed and given pros and cons. Kitchen cleaning, tool maintenance, and proper food storage round out the lessons. I'm actually pretty impressed with all that gets covered in so few pages. I feel like most pure TEXT cookbooks would wax on longer than 70 pages, but this gives it so fast you can be done with your cooking into in under 30 minutes.

The rest of the book, you'll take more time on, because it's 150 pages of recipes. These are pretty much all one-page recipes, and the header includes how much hands-on time and hands-off time (simmering, baking, whatever doesn't require your attention), so you can know if something fits into your schedule. There's also recipes for basic sauces (like BBQ, teriyaki, bechamel, and even pizza sauce) and some alcohol mixers.

This would be a great gift for someone just setting out on their own, whether their budget is tight or not! If you DO plan on giving it as a gift, I recommending reading the intro, first, and including some of the setup items and foods as part of the gift. Especially a good rice cooker! Gotta love a good rice cooker.

This is the perfect cookbook for a young adult just starting out on their own!

It contains a surprisingly wide breadth of information on not only cooking but on grocery shopping, cleaning, and much more. Not only does this book have a bunch of staple recipes to help a new cook get a handle on the basics, it also has a lot of other fun recipes to expand someone’s ability. It is definitely useful to new cooks or those cooking on a budget, but it definitely does not have to be limited to it because the recipes it contains are still good for even the most practiced cook.

The bonus of this book is also that it is written to be read. Unlike the standard cookbook where your tendency is to skip past all the intro and pantry details to jump to the recipes, this cookbook doubles as a graphic novel story. It walks you through the basics of cooking, shopping, and cleaning without it feeling tedious or overwhelming. While some may not enjoy the graphic novel style, in many ways, I find that it makes this book feel more accessible and fun and less like a textbook you need to memorize.

All that to say, this is a great cookbook that I definitely recommend! While it’s perfect for young adults just getting started on their own, it is not limited to that.

Special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an online copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Is it a graphic novel ? Is it a cookbook? The Poorcraft Cookbook is actually both ! This book contains a lot of simple recipes, as well as good advices to get your ingredients and organize your kitchen on a small budget.

I really enjoyed the illustrations, which have old-cartoon looks. We follow the adventures of two friends, Penny and Milli. One is a great cook, the other doesn’t know much about food-making, but is eager to learn. So Penny decides to teach skills and recipes to Milli, sharing them along with the reader.

The idea is fun, but I didn’t find it to be really practical. While the recipes have an index, and therefore can be found easily, the first part of the graphic novel is a succession of concepts and counsels, very good, but not well organized.

THANK YOU to Iron Circus Comics & NetGalley for this ARC. All reviews are honest reflections of my own opinion, always.

Grocery budgeting & how to shop, plus healthy cooking, setting up & maintaining a kitchen... these are often things we aren't taught before living on our own. Enter this comic with its wit & wisdom.

Featuring valuable lessons of all things related to the kitchen, this book starts with setting up your space in an efficient way, including saying no to all those gizmos & gadgets that are so unnecessary to real life cooking. The comic also includes some truly handy tips on where & how to shop for groceries (& kitchen tools) to get the most out of your budget.

Following practical advice & applications for the new home cook, there is a vast array of delicious recipes ranging from the familiar to the new, including dishes from various countries. The recipes are fairly straight forward, but I would say some require a bit of know-how in the kitchen & may be a challenge for the target audience for this book. The dishes include mains, sides, even some desserts.

I enjoyed the comic format of this book. The beginning of the book is chock full of real life practical tips that I found pretty useful, the recipe selection is excellent, but I wouldn't call them budget friendly.

With a lot of recipes calling for many ingredients, and some taking hours to prepare, it's sometimes much less economical than creating more basic meals with ingredients that can be used in other recipes, in a more timely manner. The book *does* cover the issue of time constraints & makes the very useful assertion that if you're going to spend extra money, make it on spices, which can elevate many dishes to another level. (I recommend the general Tso's tofu, paired with a side of fluffy rice & miso soup.)

In all, a great book for those who have found themselves responsible for their own kitchen.

really fun exploration of ways to cook and eat with an affordable and sustainable lens, focusing on making cooking both fun and possible.

This delightful graphic cookbook checks all the boxes for me:
Practical advice
Feasible suggestions
Excellent illustrations
Easy to reference

The hilarious dialogue and enchanting characters only adds to the charm. Buy this book!!

I received The Poorcraft Cookbook in exchange for my honest review. I'm giving this graphic novel a 3.5 stars. It was okay in my opinion.

This was amazing! I feel like I need to go back and take notes. It felt textbooky but not in a bad way. Everyone should know these things. They're basic human functions but presented in a fun way. We all need a friend like Penny

I love the premise of this book and graphic novel-style cookbooks are so fun and creative. This book would be perfect for college students and families learning how to cook well on a budget.

Penny is struggling to balance her budget and eat well. So Milli takes her under her wing to get her kitchen set up, gives her organization and cleanliness tips, and then walks her through a whole bunch of recipes.

I like the international scope of the types of recipes included in this. I feel like the advice in these Poorcraft books is great for those who are only moderately struggling financially and looking to save some extra pennies. Those who are really struggling can use some of the tips (especially the great tips to keep your equipment in good shape) but things like buying in bulk may not be as feasible. The recipes are illustrated and easy to follow. A useful graphic novel for those looking to save money on food.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Move over Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, there is a new cook book in town!

This book made me so hungry!!!!

From the first panel I was in love with the art style, saying our loud "that's just adorable" and stopping my husband to show him. I was unfamiliar with Poorcraft, but I'm absolutely going to check out the other titles.

I am 1000% buying this book when I get the chance! I loved the way the recipe section had fun beautiful illustrations to go along with them. There was a lot of diversity in the dishes, from Mexican to Japanese to deli and bread! I also got really good kitchen cleaning and organization advice I hadn't really considered.

I am a person who loves cooking and having a kitchen organized with the tools I need where I need them, so this spoke to that part of me.

I am legit going to make the Tamagokake Gohan tomorrow for lunch!

Thank you NetGalley and Nero Villagallos O'Reilly for the opportunity to read and review this title!

This was very interesting to read and I will try a few of the recipes that were at the end of the book. The art is very detailed and it made me hungry just looking at it. I learned some things about food conservation that I had no idea about. It was overall a very informative read and I see it being useful for many people who are not very organized in the kitchen.

The Poorcraft Cookbook is a wonderfully illustrated guide to improving food security, decreasing packaging and waste, and shopping in bulk locally on a budget. Released 29th March 2022 by Iron Circus Comics, it's 228 pages and is available in paperback and ebook/comiXology formats.

There are three volumes in this series at this point and all are accessible, appealing, and upbeat resources for improving lifestyle, decreasing consumption, downsizing, and simplifying on a budget. This volume contains lots of tips for shopping on a budget, meal planning, vegan and vegetarian tips, and living well and simply in an urban/suburban area.

The author/illustrator, Nero Villagallos O'Reilly (website contains mature content), writes accessibly and well about the subject. The format is told in panel format with energetic and whimsical B&W pen and ink line drawings. Most of the book is taken up with shopping (smart cooking starts in the store!), but there are a number of well illustrated recipes for soups, cocktails, staples (DIY tofu & kimchi) and a lot more.

It's not haute cuisine, it's not for fancy company or special dinners. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, as well as for folks newly living on their own (students, newly fledged adults, etc) as the recipes are beginner friendly and require little in the way of exotic ingredients or tools/supplies. Many areas in the world are experiencing supply issues and gaining competence and food security has a strongly net positive benefit on our mental and physical health and well being. This is a niche book, but it's an important book.

Four stars, mostly due to lack of table of contents and index. It's possible those will be included in the release copy, but they were not indicated in the eARC provided for review.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

*reviewed from uncorrected eARC*

teen/adult cooking basics (graphic format) -- Here is a nice, accessible overview of kitchen basics from defrosting the freezer (if necessary) to organizing your produce, to deciding what equipment and spices to buy, and a lot of things you wouldn't remember to ask about. There are a lot of recipes included in the second part of the book--basic staples from across different cultures that are relatively simple and that readers can fall back on whenever the question of "what to eat?" comes up.

I saw a review for The Poorcraft Cookbook by Nero Villagallos O’Reilly on the MarySue Blog. It looked interested, so I decided to check it out. The illustrations remind me of an old cartoon and bring to mind depression era frugality, but it is set in modern times. There are descriptions on stores to shop at to stretch your dollar like dollar stores and outlets for your food and equipment supplies. Also, tips on the best way to organize everything when you get it home. What surprised me was most of the recipes used alternatives to traditional proteins. That intrigued me because of how hard it is to find a pack of chicken at the grocer right now. However, eating on a budget with these recipes doesn’t really mix well if you have food adversions. Many of the recipes use eggs as the main protein and that is something that is just a no in my book (exceptions made for chocolate cake). I am also curious on where fresh tuna is considered a cheap purchase…overall, the tips were good. I really liked the idea of backwards engineering your favorite recipes from restaurants to try at home as an exercise in mindfulness. Something to try! #NetGalley #March2022

"The Poorcraft Cookbook" is the third volume in the Poorcraft series. If there's an overall theme to the series, it's that with frugality and planning, you can live cheaply (or less expensively) and spend your money wisely.

The two main characters, Penny and Mil are back, and Penny walks Mil through how to shop for groceries, what to look for, and what to avoid. There's also useful information on what tools to have in the kitchen.

The rest of the book is recipes. The recipes will satisfy both the vegetarians and meat-eaters in the house, and they're the kind of recipes a new cook can learn and extend their repertoire. If I had one criticism about the recipes, it would be that they need more "why this recipe" and "where to find the ingredients" talk from Penny. Overall this is a great introduction about food and cooking for the college student, te recent graduate, or anyone who would like to get better control of their food budget while still eating well.