Katie Workman

Fans of THE MOM 100 Cookbook will be thrilled that Katie Workman has delivered another top-notch family cookbook. She has this cookbook chock full of fantastic recipes for everyone in your house. Her ingenious plan of taking one recipe and making it fit multiple taste buds and more than one meal, called "Fork in the Road", will make dinner time stress-free.

Before the cookbook came out, I was able to try a couple recipes and share my experiences with social media. I tried her Simple One Skillet Chicken Alfredo Pasta as well as the One Pot, No Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies. Both were super easy and delicious. With each recipe in the cookbook you can choose to take the "Fork in the Road". For the cookies, you could add dried fruit. For the Chicken Alfredo, options included adding sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms or broccoli. I added the broccoli for color and making more of a complete meal for our family.

After the cookbook arrived, I tried the Honey-Glazed Carrots. One of my favorite foods is cooked carrots. I always order them as my side any time we go to Cracker Barrel. But, I rarely cook them because no one else in the house likes them. I decided to try Workman's version one day for lunch and I was so glad I did! They fed me for a couple days and I didn't have to share a single one!

Workman shows using cut-up carrots in her recipe, but I decided to just use the baby carrots I had on hand instead. I stuck with the regular recipe rather than the "Fork in the Road" option of making the Honey-Orange-Soy Glazed Carrots.

As you can see, the carrots had this delicious glaze and were easy to pierce. The flavor was sweet, but not over the top. I loved them and they also were delicious reheated the next day.

There are so many other recipes I am anxious to try from the DINNER SOLVED! cookbook, including Fish Tacos, Hummus, Mexican Tortilla Chicken Soup, and Big Chewy Brownie Cookies to name a few.

Workman offers tips for getting your kids involved in the preparing and cooking process as well. Tips for making part of the meal ahead offers a time-saving measure during the crunch time after school. The photos are appealing and give you an idea of how the recipe should look. Even the Carrot-Ginger Soup with Shrimp looks good enough to sip right off the page.

Most families will easily find recipes to fit all their needs from breakfast to dessert. Recipe ingredients include items you would have in your pantry or fridge or can easily be picked up in a quick stop at the store. Thai, Mexican, Italian, or American cuisine are all covered in Dinner Solved! There are truly dishes for everyone.… (más)

Subtitled 100 Recipes Every Mom Needs in Her Back Pocket Solutions For All The Cooking-For-Two-Kids Dilemmas That Everyone Faces Every Day (whew- that is a mouthful!), this is a well-organized book filled with solutions to moms' problems.

Every mom wants to feed her children healthy, home-cooked meals, and Workman's book can help with that often-overwhelming process. She starts with basic information, like 5 Basic Tips for Getting Your Kids to Eat More Things, and 17 Amazing Ingredients, olive oil and canned tomatoes among them.

Each chapter starts with a dilemma- Enough with the frozen chicken nuggets is one. Then Workman gives a number of solutions to the dilemma in the form of easy to make recipes. Some of the solutions include Roast Chicken Several Ways, Lemon Chicken, Barbequed Chicken, Homemade Chicken Tenders, and Taco Night.

The recipes are easy to follow, and on the right margins she includes Cooking Tips (don't be afraid of the broiler), Make Ahead (broil the chicken and make the sauce a day ahead) and What the Kids Can Do (let the kids juice the lemons, combine the ingredients for the sauce, shake it up, and pour over the chicken), all for Lemon Chicken.

Another interesting aspect of the book is what she calls A Fork in the Road Recipe. At the end of those recipes is a little box that gives you an alternative way to cook the dish. In the Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas recipe, if your kids don't like things spicy, you can cut back on the chili powder and garlic in the enchilada sauce. You can also use different baking dishes to make the enchiladas; one with enchiladas with the spicier sauce and one with the less spicy sauce.

There are so many recipes in this book that I would try, even though my kids are all grown and will eat pretty much anything. Shrimp Risotto, Fork-in-the-Road Chicken Kebabs, and Vegetable Frittata among them.

There are lots of photos, and Workman walks you through every recipe step-by-step. It's a terrific resource for those who are intimidated by cooking or think it's too difficult. (You can make nutritious meals for your family, even if you have picky eaters.) It also has appeal to the more experienced cook who is looking for easy, classic recipes. And at $16.95, it is a real bargain.… (más)