The Chopped Cookbook: a review

I don't know about you, but I could watch the Food Network for hours upon hours. During college, the network regularly accompanied me while I worked up a sweat on the treadmill. That's normal, right?
One of my favorite shows to watch has always been Chopped. I love learning about new ingredients and seeing the different ways the contestants use them. So imagine my delight when I discovered The Chopped Cookbook by Food Network Kitchen was available for review.*

To simply read through the book without trying the recipes, you'll find lots of great information like:

• pantry items grouped by purpose they serve in a recipe (this is great for knowing what ingredients can be substituted for each other)
• general cooking tips
• new but not completely unusual ingredients and what you can substitute them for if you can't find them at your local grocery
• what to look for and how to store fresh vegetables

The book explains how to take the random items from your pantry, fridge, and freezer and turn them into a quality meal you're sure to love. It even says multiple times, not to worry about it if you don't have all the ingredients for a recipe, swap it out for something comparable.

As I drooled over these pages trying to decide what to make, I became aware that a good half of the recipes would not fly with the current palates of my young family, but I find that to be true with just about every cookbook I've picked up in the last few years. I found several options in each section of the book that I was sure would please the family and at least one in each section that I had all of the ingredients to make (at least if you factor in swaps).

Later, I handed the cookbook to the kids to see if they had any interest in the delicious looking pictures and they did. They picked Black Forest Dessert Pizza, Skillet Spaghetti Casserole, and Thin Lemon Pancakes with Sweetened Sour Cream and Blueberries.

For my tester recipe, I chose a basic, kid friendly, lunch appropriate dish that reminded me of an old Alfredo recipe of mine. The Tortellini with Cream Cheese Alfredo and Peas was easy and delicious. The books instructions minimized my overall cook time and had everything finishing at the same time. After one of his bites, Wyatt said, "mmmm" to which Zeke responded, "I like it too." David thought it was a little pea heavy, but Wyatt couldn't get enough of them. I'll definitely be making this one again.

I can't wait to try out more recipes and suggestions from this wonderful cookbook.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

To buy the book from Random House click this link.

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This post was originally published on 5/30/14 @ oneincomefamilyliving.blogspot.com. I wrote it and transferred it here.