Awesome Cookbooks for the Busy Parent by DK Canada! #mbsGG

DK books recently sent me three cookbooks to review. I gotta say – this was especially exciting for me. As much as I’m enjoying my time raising my little girl and reviewing baby stuff, this is a really nice change of pace from everything baby. I’m sure lots of moms and dads out there know what I mean. Plus, food is my true passion – always has been! So when my sister asked me if I wanted to review a few cookbooks, the answer was easy! A big yes!

I received The Illustrated Quick Cook – time-saving tips, after-work recipes and cheap eats and The Illustrated Step-by-Step Cook – over 1000 photographs, fully illustrated sequences and The Family Cookbook My first impression when I received them? They are huge! These cookbooks are like encyclopedias, and I mean that in a good way. This was super exciting for me.

Both books offer bunch of ‘Useful Information’ on the inside of the hardcover – things like measurements, conversion charts, weight and volume equivalents, and roasting times and temps. Super useful! Sometimes even looking up conversions online is one extra step I don’t feel like doing…

I love cookbooks with lots of photos and these cookbooks have great pictures of the recipes. The photos are really appealing – they definitely make you interested in trying out these recipes.

Let me get into each of these books now.

The Illustrated Quick Cook – time-saving tips, after-work recipes and cheap eats

At the front of the book, they have a ‘Recipe Chooser’ – pages and pages of pictures of recipes so you can easily flip through and pick something that peaks your interest!
Then the book is divided among ‘Everyday’ recipes and ‘Food for Friends’ – both categories that I love! I love the ease of everyday type recipes and I love having friends over and cooking up a storm. This is perfect for me.

What’s even better is that this whole cookbook is dedicated to quick recipes, so you won’t be spending hours preparing anything from this cookbook. Perfect for a new mom!! They also have these little “Cheat” tips – things like buying a particular type of sauce for marinating instead of making it from scratch – if, of course, you just don’t have time!

The Illustrated Step-by-Step Cook

The content of the book is broken down by different kinds of foods (starters and light bites, comfort foods, pies, tarts and cakes, etc…) and food for certain occasions (home from work and food to share)
The coolest thing about this book is that it breaks down the recipe for you step-by-step, which for some recipes (like the Beef Noodle Soup or Pho) is super useful cause the recipe is quite involved.

There’s a recipe in these books for just about everyone – they cover a wide range of ethnic foods from Vietnamese to Indonesian to Mexican… they include lots of different cooking techniques, and they also include easy and quick recipes as well as recipes for those days when you have a little more time to spend in the kitchen. These books will get lots of use in my house!

Among many of the recipes that pique my interest, I’m planning on trying out the Thai-style minced pork with noodles from the Illustrated Quick Cook book and the Indonesian Fried Rice from the Illustrated Step-by-Step Cook book to start, but there are too many to mention here that look absolutely delectable!

The Family Cookbook

The Family Cookbook is divided in six sections: Babies and toddlers, Family meals, Easy entertaining, Food to go, Baking and Cooking with kids.
The recipes in The Family Cookbook are easy to follow and the ingredients are readily available. This book is filled with recipes my kids will actually eat!