| Title | : | Weeknights with Giada: Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 030745102X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780307451026 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
After a full day, Giada, like most parents, wants nothing more than to sit down for a home-cooked dinner with her husband, Todd, and their daughter, Jade. Weeknights with Giada rises to the challenge, delivering soups, sandwiches, pizzas, pastas, and meat and fish dishes that come together quickly as stand-alone main courses—most in half an hour or less: Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup, a hearty soul-warming one-pot dish, cooks in under twenty minutes; Lemony White Bean, Tuna, and Arugula Salad is a great meal that’s quickly assembled from pantry and fridge essentials; Spicy Linguini with Clams and Mussels is a fifteen-minute-or-less spectacular pasta; and you can’t beat Grilled Sirloin Steaks with Pepper and Caper Salsa, which are also ready in just fifteen minutes. From inventive breakfast-for-dinner dishes and meatless Monday vegetarian recipes—both weekly traditions in Giada’s house—to picnic sandwiches and hearty salad recipes for reinventing leftovers, Weeknights with Giada reveals every secret in her repertoire. Even the desserts are quick to mix and bake, should a craving—or a last-minute school bake sale—strike.
Here is Giada at her most inventive—and at her most laid-back. Flavor, freshness, and fun take center stage while cooking times, pots dirtied, and stress are kept to a minimum. With gorgeous color photographs and intimate home snapshots of Giada and her family, Weeknights with Giada is a welcome handbook of fantastic recipes and surefire Monday-to-Friday strategies for every home cook.
Weeknights with Giada: Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner Reviews
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Weeknights with Giada - Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner is exactly the kind of Italian cookbook I’ve been looking for. It’s loaded with easy to follow recipes and gorgeous pictures, making this the kind of recipe collection that can quickly become a favorite.Table of Contents:
Another thing that makes this such a great collection is that these aren’t the same old Italian recipes you find in every Italian cookbook. Whether it’s a casual meal for your family or something a little more formal for friends, you'll find that Weeknights with Giada will quickly become your go-to cookbook for easy to prepare, delicious meals you can be proud of!! And best of all, this book doesn’t just make it easy for you to cook, it inspires you to cook!Introduction
Soups & Salads
Bruschettas,Sandwiches & Pizzas
Pasta & Grains
Meat, Poultry & Fish
Change of Pace
Breakfast for Dinner
Veggies & Sides
Desserts
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I'm always on the lookout for easy dinner ideas, so I was glad to find this available on Netgalley for review. I've heard good things about Giada (though without cable, I've never seen her on tv) so I was curious to see what she would come up with for meals that don't usually merit media attention. I liked the fusion section with its asian twist, and the breakfast for dinner portion seems like it would be good anytime. Most of the recipes are things that anyone could whip up, though there are of course a few that aren't appropriate for a singleton or at those without an extra hand. Most of the time when I check out a cookbook I'm looking for recipes that augment what I could come up with on my own, and this one does the job, with pretty pictures too.
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I have learned & incorporated quite a few of these recipes into my cooking repertoire. The breakfast for dinner, pastas, and desserts sections are pretty awesome.
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I own several of Giada’s older cookbooks, but I haven’t looked at her newer books. So I’ve downloaded a few to see how I felt about them. This was very reminiscent of some of her older work, but nothing really caught my eye. The recipes that caught my eye were:
Salmon cakes with lemon caper yogurt sauce
Balsamic glazed salmon
Broiled tilapia with mustard chive sauce
Tilapia fish tacos with arugula
Chocolate mascarpone pound cake
Maybe one day I will try one of these, but honestly I wouldn’t buy this cookbook. Her food can be incredibly delicious or just okay. So I will pass on this one right now. -
I thought that there was going to be more healthy recipes for me to follow, but I only fing 2 that I could see myself fixing. I'm sure there are people out there that could fix everything in her book, but this wasnt for me at all.
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Not a single recipe bookmarked.
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Some good finds in this one! Nowadays, it’s easy to substitute ingredients for our GF/DF diet anyway.
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Decent for Giada.
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Giada DeLaurentiis’ latest, and perhaps most important, cookbook “Weeknights with Giada: Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner” releases today and I’m glad to have been able to read it already.
Before we get into Weeknights, let’s rewind a bit. Giada is best known to non-foodies for her appearances on NBC’s Today show and her shows on Food Network and Cooking Channel. Giada is also the author of five cookbooks : Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes, Giada's Family Dinners, Everyday Pasta, Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites, Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California. Weeknights With Giada is her sixth book. For cynics who may think this may just be a collection of warmed over leftovers from her other book pulled together just to make a sale, sit down, grab a biscotti, and keep quiet. This is her most important book yet, I’ll explain.
Weeknights with Giada is dedicated to “everyone who comes home after a long day and wonders what to cook for dinner.” Everyone can relate to that experience and all too many times we resort to something frozen, something processed, or take away; with this book we are not only presented with great ideas for dinner, but are inspired to pull together fresh ingredients with the same ease we have come to know from watching her on television. Coming away from a written recipe with an “I can do that tonight” feeling is something is a unique experience -Giada does it in her latest work, again, and again, and again! Here’s the best part: if you pick up the book today at lunchtime and decide to make something tonight you can do it without anyone knowing you hadn’t planned for days– most of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry. A quick drive-by to the grocery can fill in any holes. Giada does make use of market roasted chicken and store bought pizza dough, but keep in mind that those items are indeed fresh. The second best thing, most of the recipes are done in about 20 minutes!
The most exotic ingredient in the entire book is probably mascarpone cheese. I always have a stash in my fridge, and first discovered it by watching Everyday Italian. Mascarpone is sweet Italian style cream cheese; tasting it side by side with the more common bricks of cream cheese you’ll realize how salty the American style stuff is. It is easily found in the grocery either in the cheese case or in the dairy section and makes the best cream cheese frosting, ever. I use mascarpone when I am having lox and a smear but that’s my Giada inspired foodie story, let’s get back to “Weeknights With Giada.”
Each recipe has a little story that goes with it, the author explains her inspiration, influences, or how her family members have come to love these dishes. The personal attention makes everything real, and just adds to the “I can do that for my family” experience. A carrot and yam puree started out as something Giada made for her daughter but has not evolved into a flavorful side to serve with fish. Italian Inspired dishes take center stage in all of De Laurentis’s work but the California influence is everywhere. Bruschetta and Sandwiches are easy and elegant – how can anyone not fall in love with the idea of Ciabatta with shrimp, tarragon, and arugula or how about grilled cheese with spinach and pancetta. A fig and brie Panini paired with a green salad is an elegant dinner. The great thing about these dishes is they also make great party food. Chilly spring evenings are ideal for soup – how about creamy sweet potato and rosemary soup? Rustic Vegetable Soup with Polenta uses quick cooking polenta (no one has to know you didn’t spend all day stirring the polenta pot!) The best fusion of California and Italian Food has to be the Tilapia Fish Taco with Arugula.
Breakfast for dinner is always a good thing. The almond pancakes are so good I just had to share them!
Almond Pancakes:
½ cup mascarpone cheese (4 oz)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pancake mix, Giada suggest Krusteaz
4 oz (1/2 cup) almond paste (not marzipan) cut into 1/4” pieces
1 ½ cups water
In a food process combine the mascarpone cheese, water, sugar, almond extract, vanilla extract, process until smooth. Add pancake mix and pulse until just combined. Add almond paste until just incorporated. Use ¼ cup of the batter for each pancake, cooking about 1 ½ minutes each. (I made these and found that “just incorporated” - little chunks of almond paste in the finished pancakes were a special treat). Makes about 16 pancakes, serve with maple syrup. -
It is always interesting to learn how to possibly do something differently and cooks are certainly not afraid to give their opinion as to how and why something should be done in a certain way. It is true that most of us can get into a bit of a rut with our regular meal planning and cooking if we don't force ourselves to make a change from the same old, same old from time to time.
Here Giada De Laurentiis sets out to show how we can make our evening meals be a little brighter and a little different without it being a major hassle in the process. De Laurentiis is a star of the Food Network television channel and through this book she presents many recipes that are said to be quick and simple to prepare whilst combining fresh and flavoursome ingredients that can sustain our culinary interest.
Simplicity is the key here, both in preparation and the cleaning up process! Consideration is given to the ever-busy lifestyle that we invariably lead - of course, where time permits many wish that they have time to prepare an intricate, gourmet meal but sadly those occasions can be few and far between and the family still needs to eat...
Split into a number of sections - soups & salads, bruschettas, sandwiches & pizzas, pasta & grains, meat, poultry & fish, change of pace, breakfast for dinner, veggies and sides and finally desserts - it is clear that there should be something for everyone and every taste here. It is rarely right to treat one book as the de facto opinion of how to do things yet you will get a good overview and many suggestions here and, of course, you are free to experiment, customise and try different things as time, confidence and interest permit. The reader is also able to get a bit into the mindset of the author through the book's lengthy introduction. Sometimes introductions can be rather impersonal, fake-feeling and insincere, a sort of obligatory bit of filler, but it was a pleasure reading about the author and her family and her thoughts here.
Each recipe fits onto a single page and is split between an overview and guide, the ingredients list and the actual instructions. Again an idea of the typical preparation and cooking time is missing - a particular bugbear of YUM - so one has to just assume that the recipe keeps to the author's promise of being something relatively quick to make after a busy day at work. However the writing style of each review is fairly simplistic, friendly yet detailed so that you should not have any major problems with the dish's execution.
The range of dishes on offer is quite pleasing, covering more traditional dishes with a twist here and there, international favourites and maybe a few more innovative surprises to boot. Full page photographs of the finished dishes also help give you additional inspiration (and confidence that you have done it right?) along with various more personal imagery of the author and her family.
The book is rounded off by a fairly good index that enables you to drill down between dish and ingredients, should browsing through the book not be sufficient. One can confidently use this book as part of your armoury to help fight the evening's hunger and to find a practical, viable alternative to the take-out restaurant as many of the dishes could (should?) be prepared and ready by the time that the takeout food has been ordered, delivered and unpackaged. Drat! Foiled again.
Weeknights with Giada: Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner, written by Giada De Laurentiis and published by Clarkson Potter/Crown Publishing. ISBN 9780307451026, 240 pages. Typical price: USD35. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. // -
The Good Stuff
The recipes are simple to make and use ingredients that most families have on hand
Not a lot of ingredients in each recipe
We enjoyed the pesto pizza with friends and found the fresh toppings a very pleasant change from the usual pepperoni and cheese we always eat because of the kids
Jen and I thoroughly enjoyed the Asparagus Soup (The herbed goat cheese you make to add to the soup makes the soup taste heavenly!) but getting our 10 yr old to eat it was an exercise in frustration. He LOVES asparagus but he turned his nose down when we turned it into soup and refused to try it. This ticked us off so much we made him eat some of it and 45 minutes later he had consumed maybe a 1/4 cup (FYI - we are usually you have to at least give it a chance and have one bite kinda parents but he had been so bloody frustrating all day we lost it)
This is such a fantastic cookbook for busy weekday nights so you can serve your family something healthier than getting take out
My wife who really doesn't enjoy cooking, like I do, enjoyed using this cookbook as it didn't stress her out with recipes that have hundreds of steps or involve too much prep (Jen's note: I made it sound nicer than what he wrote down - even good for lazy, impatient cooks like my wife)
Wife really liked making the cookies - not to mention eating them
Nice variety of types of recipes - a little bit of everything
The Introduction was interesting and it was nice to read that she had a hard time getting her child to eat
Pictures make the food look mouthwatering (and see next comment) but wife wishes there were more pictures of the recipes and less of her and her family
Men will enjoy the picture of her breasts
The Not So Good Stuff
Many of the recipes did not appeal to our sons which made it frustrating to find something the whole family would like
Favorite Recipes
Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese - Pg 27
Arugula Pesto, Ricotta, and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza - Pg 65
Crispy Chicken with rosemary-lemon Salt - Pg 127
Peanut Butter Cookies with Blackberry Jam - Pg 215
Chocolate-Hazelnut Drop Cookies - Pg 224
Who Should/Shouldn't Use
Perfect for busy parents - well ones that don't have as picky kids as mine
Good for both the beginner and intermediate cook
Going to be buying this one for a couple people this Christmas
5 Dewey's (Plus 1 for her breasts from Chef Jeff)
We received this from Random House in exchange for an honest review -
I will admit, I am a Food Network fan, even though I don't cook much. Recipes tend to scare me after a bit because my level of food know-how isn't very high. I can follow the directions, but I like knowing what the food is going to look like, and having terms explained. That's part of what I like about Giada diLaurentiis. She's friendly and knowledgeable, and understands that sometimes you don't have a lot of time to make intensive meals during the week. She lists her go-to pantry ingredients, but at my house, I think most of her recipes would be relegated to the weekends when we have more time.
Weeknights with Giada is Giada diLaurentiis' latest cookbook. As can be expected, the photos are beautiful and the food sounds (and looks) delicious. I especially liked the tips ("Cook's Note") that is provided on most of the recipes. She includes stories about some of the recipes - like how she substitutes wagon wheel pasta in one dish to make it more appealing to her 4-year-old daughter. I never thought of that.
I haven't tried out any of the recipes yet, but this will most likely be a cookbook I purchase in the next few months. Her recipes don't look heavy, and her desserts aren't overly rich and sugary, which is exactly what I need as I work to lose a bunch of weight.
Thank you Giada for a delightful, beautiful, inspiring cookbook. You make me want to try new things in the kitchen.
I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This originally appeared on my blog - jenpeterson.wordpress.com -
I really liked this book because, not only was it a cookbook, it was a story. The whole book had a story behind it. Each recipe had a story that went a long with it, and I liked that because it was so different from a normal cookbook. It showed that she really wanted to say something with her recipe's, rather than just compiling together a bunch of recipe's in a book.
I also liked the fact that there was so many pictures in the cookbook. It's nice to have a lot of photo's so that you can see the final outcome, and decide whether you even want to try the recipe out or not, rather than just going with it. I see a lot of cookbooks that won't have very many pictures in it at all, but this one was different. There was a photo of just about every dish in her book.
Since I like to go above and beyond in my reviews of cookbooks, I actually made one of the dishes in her book!
I made the Whole Grain Linguine with Basil, Bacon, and Shrimp
I really wasn't a fan of this because of all of the bacon grease that was used. I think I would have loved it if it has a lot less bacon grease, but don't let that deter you from this book! There are a lot of other recipe's that are sure to please your taste buds!
I would recommend this cookbook to anyone who is a fan of Giada's show on The Food Network, or anyone who wants to know more about her, and have fun making delicious recipe's at the same time!
http://bookbloggingbeauties.blogspot.... -
Originally published at
BethsBookReviews.com.
As with all of the author's cookbooks the photography in this is beautiful. While not every recipe is represented with a picture, enough are (about half) that you get the feel of the recipes. The recipes are presented in a simple, clean format which makes for easy reading while cooking.
I actually made the Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup from Page 31 when the recipe was featured on her show Giada at Home and it was quite good. Finding the instant polenta to make it in Connecticut was quite a feat (thank you Whole Foods)!
I especially liked the Breakfast for Dinner section which was a fun addition and the Almond Pancakes sound like a fun recipe to try. I also found several recipes in the Desserts section that I will be making.
Overall, this would make a lovely hostess or general gift for Giada fans and soon to become fans alike. Of course, it would also be a solid addition to any cook's personal library as well. -
Giada steps a bit away from the Italian fare with this latest book of easy meals prepared in under an hour on weeknights. There are plenty of salads, soups, sandwiches, veggies and yes, pasta. The recipes use some short cuts such as rotisserie chicken and storebought pizza do but still rely on many fresh ingredients. Particularly intriguing are the chapters where she gets away from the rustic Italian fare and experiments with other flavors such as miso and Peruvian chile. The breakfast as dinner section is perhaps the most interesting with very tempting recipes such as the smoked salmon crostata and savory polenta. She even manages to squeak in desserts, including some very appealing cookie options. The gauzy, glammed up, magazine-style photography is a bit over the top at times. Giada has a lovely figure but it gets showcased nearly as much as the food!
Full review
at Pursuitist.com -
Another winner from Giada. I reviewed this for Netgalley. This will def. be a book I will get my hands on once it is released! I have often used Giada's recipes (her vodka mojito is OUT OF THIS WORLD and a recipe I serve often during tailgating season!)and this book will just add to that. The unusualness of the recipes, yet being made with ingredients that you can run out to any local grocery store was appreciated. Also, I loved the "breakfast for dinner" section. As someone who twice a month does a breakfast for dinner, it gave me something different than waffles or eggs with a breakfast meat! Lastly, not being a lamb eater, I appreciated that she had a couple of lamb recipes that she offered a substitute meat for. These were def. recipes I wanted to try that I had briefly passed over because of the lamb, but then noticed that she offered the ground beef substitute.
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I have a soft spot for Giada ever since her first book Everyday Italian, that is still probably one of my favorite American Italian cookbooks, the recipes are understandable and for the most part always work out really well. As the years have gone by we have drifted apart she continued to promote the Italian heritage until well she could no more and that is when I decided to pick up one of her books again, I've cooked one recipe out of the book and even then I did a few things to it after reading the reviews, the recipe Quinoa with Purple Potatoes and Peas which I reduced the sweetener in and added cucumbers still the flavor combination of fresh oregano and lime was excellent. Still it is really nice to see Giada branch out recipe wise and try new things.
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In the world of food, Giada can do no wrong. This is maybe the third or fourth book of hers that I've read, and I loved it as much as the others. As always, I enjoyed the candid shots and the family pictures as well as the personal anectdotes. There were quite a few recipes that I would like to try for myself. They are: Couscous with watermelon, watercress, and feta cheese salad, the Ricotta cheese, lentil, and brown rice rolls, the chicken neuniere with tomato and parsley sauce, the chicken with peruvian chile sauce, and finally the roasted zucchini and summer squash with mint dish. I wish that she would of had more dessert recipes though. Overall, I would read this book again, and I would recommend it to Giada fans.
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A great cookbook with lots of tips and recipe photos. I have seen Giada cook quite a bit on television, however had never picked up one of her cookbooks til now. Delicious, easy to prepare recipes even for a novice chef like me who wants to put a nice healthy meal on the table at the end of the day but doesn't want to spend a big chunk of the evening in the kitchen. In addition to the usual chapters broken down by course, there is a wonderful chapter titled "Change of Pace" in which Giada shares recipes for less common dishes, still using ingredients readily available at the neighborhood grocer. Citris rice salad with tofu and Chicken with Peruvian chile sauce were two of my favorites. Love her cooking style.
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In the latest installment of the Giada De Laurentiis cookbook collection, Giada takes Italian cuisine to a quicker route. Readers will find scrumptious meals they can make easily and without fuss, but still high in flavor. She also includes kid-friendly meals, as she is now a mother, and discusses various ways she introduces new foods to her daughter, Jade. I tried several of the recipes from this book, and found her ideas fresh, nutritious, and fun. The pictures are beautiful too, offering a wide range of inspiration for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. –Tiffany J.-
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I just suggested this book to a Goodreads friend (whom I think enjoys cooking) ---
I realized I forget to post reviews on Cookbooks I like ---
So here goes:
I've made a few dishes from this cookbook that are soooooooooooooooo YUMMY! (meals that my husband wants me to REPEAT PLEASE!)
His number #1 favorite is:
"Sweet & Spicy Greek Meatballs* (fabulous spices in this recipe) --And the recipe calls for cooked couscous mixed in with the 'lamb' or 'beef' (I used lamb) --instead of break crumbs. Yum yum (if you eat meat) -
This is an ARC from Netgalley.
Normally I love watching Giada on Food Network, she always makes yummy looking Italian recipes and it is pleasant to watch her show. Giada's daughter will be 4 years old by the time the book is published and the author wanted to make more healthy meals for her family and share them with others. While the pictures make the recipes look even more appetizing, I found the recipes to be a bit too mainstream and boring. 2 1/2 stars. -
Another beautiful book from The Food Network's darling, Giada De Laurentiis! In this cookbook, Giada kicks off her heels and gets comfy with quick and easy family cooking. The recipes are indeed simple, relying on a good mix of fresh ingredients and pantry staples to get a family-friendly meal on the table with little fuss.
See my full review here -
http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies.... -
Love love this book! easy recipes to prepare and create . I bought this book Wednesday when Giada was here in town and attended the "chat" with questions already prepared by bookseller host and questions sent in by audience. these recipes are her ideas and she suggested substitions if needed. love this book and cannot wait to try each recipe. seriously but read this book in 2 days. Yes, it took is autographed.
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Great Flavor, Quickly
Giada has created the perfect cookbook for today’s working home cooks. The recipes are quick, use every day ingredients, and are easy to follow. The added bonus is that the recipes are unusual, flavorful, and healthy. My very picky family enjoyed the unusual flavor mixes. It is definitely an excellent book to add to your collection. The second part of the title says it all.
Received Galley from NetGalley.com
