(Giveaway!) Cookbook Review: “Recipes Every College Student Should Know” by Christine Nelson
Hello foodies! Today I will be reviewing a cookbook that was sent to Penn Appétit: “Recipes Every College Student Should Know” by Christine Nelson.
Here is a link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Every-College-Student-Should/dp/159474954X
There are seven different sections within this cookbook:
1. Cooking 101
2. Quick Breakfasts
3. To-Go Lunches
4. Cook Once, Eat Twice
5. Dormmate Dinners
6. Date-night Dinners
7. Sweets and Snacks
I’ll break this review down by looking at three different categories, which will hopefully give a better overview of the book.
Relevance & Organization – 5/5
The recipes are short, succinct, and to the point. The book is truly catered for college students, who are on the go and busy. For some recipes, Christine Nelson also provides several different methods of cooking the food, either using a stovetop, microwave, or both. Within each section, recipes are grouped together based on cooking methods. For example, the microwavable recipes are placed together and the recipes that can be prepared using either a microwave or stovetop are grouped together. This offers another level of convenience for readers.
Creativity – 5/5
In general, the recipes are not too fancy, and most can be completed in five or less steps. The necessary ingredients are all easily found in grocery stores. Besides recipes, the book also has several pages on “Cooking 101”. I found this section to be particularly helpful because it goes over different types of kitchen equipment, defines important cooking terms, and provides the college students with a list of “must haves” they should stash in in their kitchen and pantry. This book will definitely come in handy when I am shopping for kitchen supplies next year! I appreciate how these pages are not too text-heavy too. Shortcuts like using paper towels instead of vegetable strainers provide college students with ideas to save time and make cooking a slightly more simple task.
Overall Aesthetics – 4/5 I love the picture of bright yellow top ramen sprawled across the book’s cover, side, and back. If I were to guess, I would say that you could probably find this book tucked away in a cutesy-cutesy Japanese stationary bookstore. The book is pretty small–close to the size of a pocket book–so it is easy to carry around and does not take up too much space. The pages are a bit drab since the book is printed in black and white. I also think that I would’ve enjoyed this book more if it had more pictures or small icons inside, but that probably would have taken up more space and detracted from the simple aesthetic the author was going for.
I would recommend this book to college students who want inspiration for easy recipes or who are just learning to cook! This was a fun read, and I look forward to trying out some of these recipes in the future!
Thank you for making it all the way to the end of this post! I will be giving out a copy of “How to Eat a Lobster: And Other Edible Enigmas Explained”. Here are the rules to enter the giveaway:
1. Follow Penn Appétit on Instagram (@pennappetit)
2. Like Penn Appétit on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pennappetit/)
3. Fill out this Google Doc form: https://goo.gl/forms/wSX9bOmh81HUJZIZ2
Peace Out Girl Scout,
Justin Yue
Penn Appétit Blogger