If your aim is to cook more often at home, would this potential cookbook be useful?

[Anonymous]

I'm a local cookbook author, ex-restaurant chef and mom. Often parents I meet ask me what my go-to recipes/tactics are to get meals on the table. (I've also seen a lot of threads with similar questions on this forum and try to chime in when I can.)

Since many families seem overwhelmed by the task--especially when coupled with mining reliable recipes, shopping and clean-up--I'm thinking about writing a cookbook that offers up weekly menus complete with shop lists and daily task lists so a working family can crack the code to a month of healthful meals. (I anticipate writing 3 months worth of menus that can be repeated with seasonal variations.)

The goal for each week would be to set aside time for one big grocery shop plus about a 2-3-hour chunk of time for grocery organization and prep. Then, each day would just require about 30-minutes of stove/prep time to get a meal on the table. Plus, leftovers would be used creatively the following days minimizing food waste and those oddball ingredients building up in your fridge and pantry.

In sum, it would be a bit like the "Saving Dinner" series but updated to include more whole foods, less processed ingredients and a nod to seasonality. I anticipate each week containing some carnivore-friendly recipes but for every meat recipe, I'd want to offer a vegetarian counterpart.

So would a cookbook like this be useful to you and your family? Or would it be too limiting since a week's worth of recipes may not all appeal to your dining audience? Or maybe you already use something similar either in print or online? In any case, I'd love to write something that is genuinely useful to families trying their best to cook from scratch and would greatly appreciate any and all feedback.

(BTW: If I do get this idea published, DCUM will definitely get a nod in the acknowledgements. And hopefully a discount too!)

[Anonymous]

Yes but the lists would somehow have to be accessible via my smartphone for them to be really useful.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I would love that.

[Anonymous]

Yes but we rarely eat meat, just fish. Maybe menus could be broken up by protein? Poultry, pork, fish, vegetarian, vegan, etc?

[Anonymous]

Yes! I would love this. Here are some things that could make it user-friendly:

--include recipes that can go from kid to adult. One of the things I hate is making 2 meals--one for the kids and one for me and spouse. If there's a way you could structure the recipes so that the parent would be able to separate out any parts that kids might not be ready for. For example, a stir fry is easy, but I know my kids might not like all the vegetables or a sauce with a particular kick. But if I could set aside some of the chicken and veggies for the kids, and then layer in the more "adult" flavorings, it's a win-win.

--be mindful of the seasons. I love hearty soups, but am not going to make them in the summer. If you could cluster the recipes by season, that would be helpful.

--consider a section on "to go" meals. Often here on DCUM I see requests for recipes to take to the pool or to a late sport practices or picnic. You don't need a lot--5-7 would be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes but the lists would somehow have to be accessible via my smartphone for them to be really useful.

+1

[Anonymous]

This sounds like the Six O'clock Scramble.

[Anonymous]

No. It's too involved. There is already a cookbook out there like that. While it sounds good in theory, it really is difficult to implement. It takes longer to shop because inevitably, the food items on your lists won't be what the ordinary cook buys on a regular basis. This adds to shopping time. The best books out there for basic and fairly quick recipes already exist: Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, et. al. Most likely people will buy the book thinking it will be useful and then never use it as intended. That won't matter to you, though, because you will still make the sales. The sequel, however, may not go over as well.

[Anonymous]

Could you add a website to compliment that book?

The part that appeals to me is the idea of following on prior meals to use what's left of the ingredients. I find myself making too many similar meals in a row because I have the ingredients on hand. One week everything is southwestern, the next week everything is asian, then everything is italian.

I'd love to be able to input a list of ingredients on hand and generate a reasonable plan for a meal.

[Anonymous]

I like the idea but if you are already doing a big 2-3 hour prep each week, if you make the meals 20 mins each night its a lot more manageable. For some reason 20 mins seems much easier than 30.

[Anonymous]

Yes! We try to do this on our own, but only have 3-4 go to weeks down pat. We need 12 so we only repeat once a season.

[Anonymous]

I've bought "menu" cookbooks in the past. Generally, I don't end up using them either b/c they're not very good recipes to begin with, the shopping lists seem to overwhelming/constraining, my family doesn't like the recipes.

[Anonymous]

No.

PP is right - there are already tons of resources out there that do this for free. I know, I use several that give quick, non-processed meals.

Personally, I don't want to devote a lot of time to shopping or cooking and the idea of wasting 2- 3 hours on a weekend doing that plus 30 minutes each night doesn't appeal to me.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like fresh 20.

[Anonymous]

Real Simple does this for a week at a time. (or use to, back when I had a subscription)

I love the idea. What really kept me from using the RS plan was that I'd like 2 or 3 of the recipes but not the others. If you had multiple ways to use up leftovers, that would be great.