You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)
Lovely and intricate patterns inspired by the artist’s travels around the world. The colorwork is amazing.
A love letter to Shakespeare that I know doibt would have enjoyed more if I knew the Bard's works better (esp King Lear which I'm not familiar with).
I liked the story. But the entire thing hinges on James and Oliver's relationship, which I just didn't buy. There were so many other characters, and it seemed that everyone was just as, if not more important than, James in Oliver's life. I think it would have been believable if they had more 1-1 experiences or if there was some other dramatic event that bonded them before Oliver decided to sacrifice himself for James. Oliver was so passionate about Meredith and that's who he ends up with... so it left a dearth of passion for James. Kinda disappointing tbh.
I liked the story. But the entire thing hinges on James and Oliver's relationship, which I just didn't buy. There were so many other characters, and it seemed that everyone was just as, if not more important than, James in Oliver's life. I think it would have been believable if they had more 1-1 experiences or if there was some other dramatic event that bonded them before Oliver decided to sacrifice himself for James. Oliver was so passionate about Meredith and that's who he ends up with... so it left a dearth of passion for James. Kinda disappointing tbh.
This book took me sooooo long to get through. I tried it on multiple formats and languages until I found something worked (English, audiobook). It is meticulously written and atmospheric, and I liked the descriptions of the history and scenery of an exotic Europe. It just makes the story reeaallly long. If Dracula is 500 years old, well you will be too by the time you finish this book lmao
Jokes aside, it is a beautiful, rich and layered story that I obviously enjoyed otherwise I wouldn't have kept trying to find a way to finish it.
Jokes aside, it is a beautiful, rich and layered story that I obviously enjoyed otherwise I wouldn't have kept trying to find a way to finish it.
You should know going into it that the approach is prep a bunch of different stuff and then combine at meal time. You might have a prepped & cooked meat dish, salad, and another veg, and then you pull them out to make a buffet-style meal. The author says she tries to prep with categories in mind: Protein, veggies, starch, snacks, breakfast. And then you can combine whatever you have from the different categories.
This is a good way to plan the meal prep process in my opinion. Make sure you have a couple different things available in each category, and you will be good for the week! This is a similar concept to [b:The Vegan Week |61378634|The Vegan Week Meal Prep Recipes to Feed Your Future Self A Cookbook |Gena Hamshaw|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656701401l/61378634._SX50_.jpg|96822074], where the author suggests "a grain, a green, a bean, a sauce" to help strategize meals.
Pros:
- The beginning has a list of common vegetables and different ways to prep & store them.
- The hearty salads section - not all veggies do well sitting together for a couple days and lots of meal prep influencers forget that
- Gluten and sugar free
- Good photos for every recipe
- Focus on fresh, whole ingredients
Cons:
- Lots of spiralizing and veggie-ricing
- The "Quick Assembly meals" section is so random (it has like... a chaotic energy) it should have just been left out and the recipes put into other categories
- 5/15 breakfast recipes were oat based, which may not be a con for you, but I don't eat oats so it seems kinda oat heavy.
- I think the author should have really stuck with the organizational concept of "protein, veggies, starch, snacks, breakfast." It is arranged like a traditional cookbook (3 sections of main dishes, salads, desserts, breakfast, random sides, plus a few other random sections), which doesn't align that well with seeing the bigger picture of meal prep components.
Overall I think this is a pretty useful meal prep book for me, considering it is all gluten-free. It has bright, colorful photos and plenty of new dishes to try.
This is a good way to plan the meal prep process in my opinion. Make sure you have a couple different things available in each category, and you will be good for the week! This is a similar concept to [b:The Vegan Week |61378634|The Vegan Week Meal Prep Recipes to Feed Your Future Self A Cookbook |Gena Hamshaw|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656701401l/61378634._SX50_.jpg|96822074], where the author suggests "a grain, a green, a bean, a sauce" to help strategize meals.
Pros:
- The beginning has a list of common vegetables and different ways to prep & store them.
- The hearty salads section - not all veggies do well sitting together for a couple days and lots of meal prep influencers forget that
- Gluten and sugar free
- Good photos for every recipe
- Focus on fresh, whole ingredients
Cons:
- Lots of spiralizing and veggie-ricing
- The "Quick Assembly meals" section is so random (it has like... a chaotic energy) it should have just been left out and the recipes put into other categories
- 5/15 breakfast recipes were oat based, which may not be a con for you, but I don't eat oats so it seems kinda oat heavy.
- I think the author should have really stuck with the organizational concept of "protein, veggies, starch, snacks, breakfast." It is arranged like a traditional cookbook (3 sections of main dishes, salads, desserts, breakfast, random sides, plus a few other random sections), which doesn't align that well with seeing the bigger picture of meal prep components.
Overall I think this is a pretty useful meal prep book for me, considering it is all gluten-free. It has bright, colorful photos and plenty of new dishes to try.
DNF @ 25%
I actually think the art style and the honesty about being a stay at home mom in Japan was refreshing. I'm just not a mom so I didn't identify with the internal monologue to read 300+ pages of it.
Merged review:
DNF @ 25%
I actually think the art style and the honesty about being a stay at home mom in Japan was refreshing. I'm just not a mom so I didn't identify with the internal monologue to read 300+ pages of it.
I actually think the art style and the honesty about being a stay at home mom in Japan was refreshing. I'm just not a mom so I didn't identify with the internal monologue to read 300+ pages of it.
Merged review:
DNF @ 25%
I actually think the art style and the honesty about being a stay at home mom in Japan was refreshing. I'm just not a mom so I didn't identify with the internal monologue to read 300+ pages of it.
Everything you could want in a romance novel! Sharp banter, sexy love interest, rich character backstory, fun side characters, good pacing... honestly a home run from Emily Henry!
This might be my favorite food prep book so far. You have to be on board with following the method in order for this book to be usable, though.
The method is this: 1 hour of fully cooking everything on Sunday for 4 reheated weekday meals.
The book is organized into 10 weekly meal plans + a couple extra chapters. Each weekly plan starts with a list of everything you will need that week (literally everything) so you can grocery shop, then all the recipes (including for like... white rice), and then the dinner menus. The dinner menus include components that you pre-cooked as well as other day-of elements like canned beans or sliced avocado. The shopping list is super-well organized, with recipe numbers next to each item so you know to skip it if you are not using that recipe. Since there are 10 weekly meal plans, this book will get you about 2 months of meals before you repeat anything.
Recipes: Flavorful and straightforward, with a contemporary American cuisine profile. Reminds me a lot of Hello Fresh menus https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes.
Storing food: Super light on instructions for this, since food doesn't usually go bad within 4 days of cooking it and the expectation is that you will be doing exactly that. No instructions on best methods for freezing + reheating, for example.
Adapting recipes: A+ in this department. Each menu includes suggestions for making it more kid-friendly, vegetarian, gluten free or swapping out ingredients. It's helpful that this is listed at the very beginning of each chapter, before the shopping list.
I appreciated the leftovers guide - a kind of spitball list of what you could make with leftovers, organized by the category of what you need to use up (chicken, rice, etc) and a list of ideas to tuck ingredients into something else ("stuff some vegetables... put it in a taco shell").
As far as teaching you to meal-plan independently, there is a a free template download here: https://prepandrally.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DIY-prep-rally-color.pdf
In the template, it is clear that the meal building strategy is protein+carb+veg+sauce. This is more subtle in the book, but the elements are all there. For example, with "chicken meatloaf sandwiches": chicken, bread, tomatoes & lettuce, and honey mustard sauce.
Overall I am curious to give this a go for a couple weeks. I am trying to be more systematic about my meal prepping, with pre-cooking things on the weekend and then freeing up more time during the week. But following such an exact weekly plan is more rigid than I am used to (Maybe I'm not looking at this fairly: it is only 4 days of planned meals, so that would leave 3 days of spontaneity, plus you can choose which order to eat your meals in). The true value of this book is that it totally takes the guesswork out of the weekly planning, so you can outsource that part of the mental load.
The method is this: 1 hour of fully cooking everything on Sunday for 4 reheated weekday meals.
The book is organized into 10 weekly meal plans + a couple extra chapters. Each weekly plan starts with a list of everything you will need that week (literally everything) so you can grocery shop, then all the recipes (including for like... white rice), and then the dinner menus. The dinner menus include components that you pre-cooked as well as other day-of elements like canned beans or sliced avocado. The shopping list is super-well organized, with recipe numbers next to each item so you know to skip it if you are not using that recipe. Since there are 10 weekly meal plans, this book will get you about 2 months of meals before you repeat anything.
Recipes: Flavorful and straightforward, with a contemporary American cuisine profile. Reminds me a lot of Hello Fresh menus https://www.hellofresh.com/recipes.
Storing food: Super light on instructions for this, since food doesn't usually go bad within 4 days of cooking it and the expectation is that you will be doing exactly that. No instructions on best methods for freezing + reheating, for example.
Adapting recipes: A+ in this department. Each menu includes suggestions for making it more kid-friendly, vegetarian, gluten free or swapping out ingredients. It's helpful that this is listed at the very beginning of each chapter, before the shopping list.
I appreciated the leftovers guide - a kind of spitball list of what you could make with leftovers, organized by the category of what you need to use up (chicken, rice, etc) and a list of ideas to tuck ingredients into something else ("stuff some vegetables... put it in a taco shell").
As far as teaching you to meal-plan independently, there is a a free template download here: https://prepandrally.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DIY-prep-rally-color.pdf
In the template, it is clear that the meal building strategy is protein+carb+veg+sauce. This is more subtle in the book, but the elements are all there. For example, with "chicken meatloaf sandwiches": chicken, bread, tomatoes & lettuce, and honey mustard sauce.
Overall I am curious to give this a go for a couple weeks. I am trying to be more systematic about my meal prepping, with pre-cooking things on the weekend and then freeing up more time during the week. But following such an exact weekly plan is more rigid than I am used to (Maybe I'm not looking at this fairly: it is only 4 days of planned meals, so that would leave 3 days of spontaneity, plus you can choose which order to eat your meals in). The true value of this book is that it totally takes the guesswork out of the weekly planning, so you can outsource that part of the mental load.
I enjoyed this book and had trouble putting it down to go to work
Is this the winner-winner-chicken-dinner of meal prep books?? Ugh I should have known that America's Test Kitchen would be my favorite and just gone straight to the source.
This book meets all my criteria: tips on food storage, good photos, a variety of flavor profiles, and a weekly meal planning guide with a list of what to buy, prep and cook ahead.
This book relies on the strategy of prepping ingredients and then cooking quickly the day-of so everything tastes fresh -- basically get your chopping and saucing out of the way, and then dinner comes together much faster. The majority of the meals are meat + veg and it is mostly up to you to add a carb and salad. The weekly plans, from what I could see, aren't really coordinated to use the same ingredients in different dishes, so that could be a plus or a minus for you depending on if you like variety or prefer to simplify prep work.
Each week has 4 recipes + a "pantry meal" suggestion. The pantry meals are in their own chapter at the back of the book and are super quick to toss together with stuff that you can find hanging around the back of the pantry (eg tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches). I like the flexibility with the pantry meal, a kind of take-it-or-leave-it solution to Friday nights when you are really tired of cooking. Overall the recipes are contemporary American cuisine, and some have a more mature touch with additions like arugula, goat cheese or sun dried tomatoes.
This book definitely works better as a physical book than an ebook - the page layouts just aren't as functional in the ebook format. The physical book is designed to help you quickly spot the most important information you need to know to prep efficiently.
So now the real question: should I buy it??????
This book meets all my criteria: tips on food storage, good photos, a variety of flavor profiles, and a weekly meal planning guide with a list of what to buy, prep and cook ahead.
This book relies on the strategy of prepping ingredients and then cooking quickly the day-of so everything tastes fresh -- basically get your chopping and saucing out of the way, and then dinner comes together much faster. The majority of the meals are meat + veg and it is mostly up to you to add a carb and salad. The weekly plans, from what I could see, aren't really coordinated to use the same ingredients in different dishes, so that could be a plus or a minus for you depending on if you like variety or prefer to simplify prep work.
Each week has 4 recipes + a "pantry meal" suggestion. The pantry meals are in their own chapter at the back of the book and are super quick to toss together with stuff that you can find hanging around the back of the pantry (eg tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches). I like the flexibility with the pantry meal, a kind of take-it-or-leave-it solution to Friday nights when you are really tired of cooking. Overall the recipes are contemporary American cuisine, and some have a more mature touch with additions like arugula, goat cheese or sun dried tomatoes.
This book definitely works better as a physical book than an ebook - the page layouts just aren't as functional in the ebook format. The physical book is designed to help you quickly spot the most important information you need to know to prep efficiently.
So now the real question: should I buy it??????