Well Fed Weeknights: Complete Paleo Meals in 45 Minutes or Less
With Well Fed Weeknights, author and mouthy paleo cook Melissa Joulwan brings her love for food and spirit of adventure to a knockout collection of weeknight recipes inspired by takeout classics, food trucks, and cuisines from around the world—all totally free of grains, dairy, legumes, and soy.
You won’t mind skipping the drive-through or delivery when you can quickly cook meals like...
•Bacon-Jalapeño Burger Balls
•Thai Yummy Salad
•Dirty Rice
•Fried Chicken Meatballs
•Pizza Noodles
•Sticky Orange Sunflower Chicken
•Italian Hoagie Salad
•Street Fries
... and so many more.
Every meal is thoroughly tested and easy to make, with affordable ingredients you’ll find at your neighborhood grocery store. And all of the recipes include the popular “You Know How You Could Do That?” variations, as well as Cookup Tips to help shorten meal prep time.
You'll want to dog-ear the Mini Cookup page where you’ll find step-by-step instructions for cooking six paleo kitchen staples in under an hour. Cook once, and fancy-up your meals all week long with cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, homemade mayo, and more.
Debuting in Well Fed Weeknights are fun and flexible Food Court Recipes: detailed blueprints of your favorite dinner themes, like Meat & Potatoes, Burger Night, Velvet Stir-Fry, The Ultimate Salad Bar, and more, all offering basic techniques and creative variations to satisfy your personal cravings.
Well Fed Weeknights is also packed with useful tips and how-to info including:
•How to eat in restaurants without abandoning good habits
•How to cook quickly and eat slowly
•Essential pantry foods for weeknight cooking
•The best kitchen tools for fast cooking
•Dozens of sample menus
•A mobile shopping list for every recipe
With fresh ingredients, flavorful spices and herbs, luscious sauces, and simple prep, Well Fed Weeknights is sure to become a splattered-and-bookmarked kitchen companion.
Reviews (190)
Great Cookbook. Plus Read Review for a Solution to Your Binding Woes
I really like the Well Fed series cookbooks. As far as content goes...this one very possibly has the most recipes that we'll actually make of the three cookbooks. Although we like to cook, like everybody, it seems like there's never enough spare time to cook as much as we'd like. So, a cookbook focused on recipes that take less time is a welcome addition. We've looked through the whole thing, and have made several things. I also find it interesting that the author has picked some of the same types of recipes that we've independently found work very well on those time-crunched nights [homemade taco meat is delicious and very simple even when using actual spices and not a 'packet', and of course grilled burgers with salad, etc.]. Trying to keep the carbs down, I AM IN LOVE WITH the cauliflower-based 'rice' and 'mashed potatoes' substitute recipes that we learned about in Well Fed 2 (page 167). This book uses those ingredients in several dishes such as "Shepherd's Pie" (page 123) and "Dirty Rice" (page 129)...and I literally see no reason to ever eat potatoes or rice ever again! I also really liked the Sticky Orange Sunflower Chicken with Sesame Broccoli (page 173). If you are thinking of doing more low-carb and/or Paleo cooking, I strongly recommend that you check out this book and Well Fed 2 (with Nom Nom Paleo also being pretty good). Now on the subject of the binding: Yeah, not sure *what* is up with that binding, but it is strange and leaves a lot to be desired. A couple of others are reporting pages falling out. That hasn't happened with ours, but if you leave the book laying open, the cover doesn't return to flat...it kinda sits there all curved around the spine of the book. And is really just funky. I saw a recommendation here by someone to get it spiral bound at an office supply or print store, and this was great advice. I just took it down to Staples, and it was only $5.50 to cut off the old binding and put a plastic spiral binding on the cookbook. It now works *better* than when it was brand new, as it lays truly flat now (see my uploaded image)! I am guessing that at some point the publisher and printer will fix this binding issue, but I'm actually glad that I've made this 'upgrade'...makes using the book much easier. My wife wants me to tell everyone on Amazon that a great cookbook with a poor binding is still WAY better than the opposite. This way, however, you can have the best of both worlds! Update 12/14/16: We've made several more things from this cookbook, and I've liked everything except for one recipe that called for ground up anchovy (Sicilian Cauliflower w/ Beef page 73...tried to be 'open' to new flavors...but no thank you). I really liked the Yucatan Green Chile Saute with Cumin-Lime Sauce (page 101) and the Greens with Potatoes & Sausage (page 111). I thought the Chicken Satay Burger was decent as well...I would have it again...but maybe not on my list of absolute favorites from this cookbook. Anyway, we're really enjoying these new meals, and some new recipes that don't take a really long time to make.
Made our Whole30 Easy and so Delicious!
I have Melissa's earlier cookbooks and have loved them -- but this one is spectacular. Santa Claus brought Well Fed Weeknights to me and our four grown daughters -- all of us planning to do the Whole30 for the month of January. We have done the Whole30 before -- but honestly this year has been easier. It definitely helped that all of us are doing it together in 5 different homes, all making recipes from Melissa's cookbook -- in 45 minutes or less and sharing photos amongst ourselves and reviews. Honestly -- none of us have made anything we have not loved. The spices, the portions, everything is fabulous. And the fact that everyone can get home from work and have time to make something delicious in less than an hour is the icing on the cake. My husband who has been dragged along on Whole30's before -- has not complained one time this month. We are in our final week of the Whole30 -- but all of us plan to use Melissa's cookbook year round. We love it!
We are basically obsessed with this cookbook. As a ...
We are basically obsessed with this cookbook. As a working mom with a toddler who loves to cook (and eat!) But has no time, this book is worth its weight in gold. I think we’ve tried 60% of the recipes and there was only one that was “just okay.” Every other recipe was freaking delicious. It makes our lives so much easier. We have shelves full of cookbooks that we don’t even crack anymore. My one complaint is the relatively shoddy bind which falls apart after lots of use but don’t let that deter you. We’ll just take it to a copy shop to be bound if we can find the time! If you are on the fence - just buy this book. You’ll send silent thanks and praise to Mel every night.
Makes for happy bellies!
I love the recipes in here! They are easy to follow, quick to put together, and full of flavor. I've already made a week's worth of meals and all of them have been successful. Some additional things I love about this book: great pictures, budget friendly ingredients, recommendations about how you could switch up the dishes (varying the spices, meats, or produce), a "mini cook-up" to plan ahead for the week, and each recipe gives an average time for preparation and how many it serves (and they are both accurate...YES...a full, healthy meal can really be prepared in well under 45 mins). I'd say this cookbook is great for new cooks. It's also great for people who have been cooking for a while, but stuck in a rut at dinner time. Even if you're NOT paleo and just want to change things up a bit, this would be a great add to your life! My only complaint - the binding on this book sucks! I've only had it for a week now and it's already starting to fall apart...seriously!?!?! That's pretty crappy! So that's the reason I'm giving this book 4 stars.
This has been my favorite cookbook from Melissa Joulwan
This has been my favorite cookbook from Melissa Joulwan. It's much more in line with how I cook - something quick, lots of variation within the same recipes so that I don't have to alter technique but can still get a totally different flavor. I love her flavor combinations. This is a really great resource. Now, I would agree with others that the binding on this book is really bad - I've never had a book come apart quite like this one, but it's not enough to deter me from recommending it.
Meh.
The binding fell apart immediately, upon first time opening the book to use it. I see in other reviews that I'm not the only one with this problem, so the publisher put out a bad run. So far I've only tried one recipe from the book, the chicken pesto meatballs on p. 157. I found the meatballs a bit dry and bland, had to add more salt and pepper than called for. The recipe yielded not nearly enough tomato sauce if you follow the recipe exactly. Good thing I had some marinara on hand to add and save the dish from being too dry. Although there were multiple steps to this dish, even required a food processor for the pesto, in the end it didn't feel like too much effort and time for a weeknight dinner, which I appreciated. I'll keep trying other recipes in the book, even though I'm totally pissed that the book is falling apart. The binding is an absolute joke.
The usual fabulous Well Fed content, extremely poor quality binding
I love the Well Fed books, and the recipes and content deserve 5 stars just like the first two. (The Dan Dan noodle recipe is really good, just like you'd expect from Melissa.) But, like many other reviewers, my book started falling apart before I even had a chance to use it and I'm currently using loose pages as bookmarks for other recipes, which, while arguably handy, messes up the flow of the rest of the book. I do hope a new edition with better binding becomes available, as Well Fed is one of the best series of cookbooks, paleo or not, that I've owned, and I recommend it to everyone. (And I'd probably buy a second copy just to have a quality version to use.)
Unique
I really like this cookbook for its uniqueness. It meets my needs for creative, flavorful paleo or whole30 recipes. I've been cooking spiralized vegetable recipes for quite some time now and the " comfort noodles" and zucchini noodles with white clam sauce recipes in this book are two of my all time favorites. The recipes are surprisingly pretty quick as well. So Pleased with the purchase I bought it in kindle format as well to have on hand if I'm out and about.
The BEST and EASIEST paleo cookbook I've used
All the food is amazing, super easy, and quick to make. I've eaten things I never thought I would (anchovies and figs, for starters) and am not looking back. We've only been using it for dinners for the last few weeks but I can't wait to try ALL of it. So delicious and SO easy to follow. Unfortunately I've already managed to rip a page down the spine while flipping back and forth (for the velvet stir fry instructions to see the ingredients on the following page). I wish it had better binding as this will remain the most used cookbook in my house and it's already failing me *insert sobbing face*. Anyhow, Melissa, thank you so much for creating this gem. We LOVE it!
I don't have a lot of time to cook during the week and I got bored very quickly during my first round of Whole30
I bought this after my first Whole30 in preparation for my second round. As a nurse and a single mom, I don't have a lot of time to cook during the week and I got bored very quickly during my first round of Whole30. This was recommended so I decided to give it a try. Some of the recipes are a bit exotic for my taste and I will have to add some more spices to my pantry but overall I'm pleased. I'm a picky eater and I don't eat seafood or pork, and seldom eat fancy cuts of red meat. There are so many chicken recipes and ground beef recipes I can't wait to try! I'm most excited about the Mini Cook-up and I love the list of 50 Comforting things with "non-confrontational" comfort recipes. I'm so excited about this cookbook! I can see that the pages will likely fall out easy, like other reviewers have noted. I will get the book spiral bound before I start heavily using it. If you are into Paleo/Whole30 BUY THIS COOKBOOK.
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