Cassy Joy Garcia - Cook Once Dinner Fix: Quick and Exciting Ways to Transform Tonights Dinner into Tomorrows Feast

quick & exciting ways to transform tonights dinner into tomorrows feast

Cook Once Dinner Fix

Cassy Joy Garcia

Best-Selling Author of Cook Once, Eat All Week

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2021 by Fed and Fit, LLC

Photography copyright 2021 by Kristen Kilpatrick

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2021

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Interior design by Jennifer K. Beal Davis

Cover design by Jennifer K. Beal Davis

Cover photographs by Kristen Kilpatrick

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Garcia, Cassy Joy, author. | Kilpatrick, Kristen, photographer. Title: The cook once dinner fix / Cassy Joy Garcia ; photography by Kristen Kilpatrick.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021013328 | ISBN 9781982167264 | ISBN 9781982167271 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Make-ahead cooking. | Cooking (Leftovers)

Classification: LCC TX652 .G3612 2021 | DDC 641.5/55dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021013328

ISBN 978-1-9821-6726-4

ISBN 978-1-9821-6727-1 (ebook)

For my dear Fed + Fit readers. Whether youre new to my work or have been around from the beginning, this book is for you. Im honored by your trust and hope this book serves you well.

I have to be honest with you. Unlike any resource Ive created before, this book feels like the most me. You see, this is how I really cook (well, 90 percent of the time). Ive spent nearly ten years publishing recipes in digital and print formats, and while I still stand by those recipes, the meals that appear on our familys table night after night arent a patchwork of stand-alone dishes. Instead, theyre meals that nod to one another by way of strategic time- and money-saving ingredient hacks. While I will meal prep when needed (such as before a week when our schedule is especially packed), and while I do sometimes throw myself into the production of more-involved one-off dishes (like slow-roasted lamb for a special occasion), those meals are the exception to my household rule.

Whats the rule? Get a healthy, delicious dinner on the table as painlessly as possible. Spend just enough time in the kitchen to enjoy the cooking process, make sure the food is flavorful, and be proud that you pulled off yet another crowd-pleasing meal without breaking the bankor your back.

As both a personal and a professional pursuit, my job is to fix dinner. I personally fix dinner for my family almost daily, and as a professional pursuit, I also work to fix the dinner approach. For many people, the current model for getting dinner on the table is broken.

It feels hard! Why is that?

My theory is that were all overcomplicating and overcommitting, and I want to guide you through how to make dinner an easier process. I want to show you that dinner doesnt have to be difficult to be delicious, and it doesnt have to be expensive or consume all of our precious time. We can have our cake and eat it, too: we can enjoy dinner without feeling exhausted or depleted from the effort. That is the purpose of this book: to give you confidence, ease, and prowess in the kitchen, all in a way that fits your budget.

I started fedandfit.com way back in the summer of 2011, when you still had to explain what a blog was if you mentioned you had one at a cocktail party. Before launching my healthy-recipe website, I went on a long personal journey toward a healthier, happier me. In my early twenties, I struggled with chronic pain, headaches, what felt like a constantly growing waistline, and an addiction to restrictive, dogmatic diets. In order to really break the yo-yo diet cycle, I committed myself to learn about real nutrition and how to just be well (versus losing the same twenty pounds over and over again). I discovered the power of real food, of still enjoying indulgences, of moving my body, and of giving myself grace and freedom from my physical expectations.

My world changed, but it changed slowlythe way I now understand is best. Over several years, I healed my body, my gut, and my mind. On a mission to help others find true wellness, I launched fedandfit.com as a destination for no-rules wellness.

For the past ten years, the content on Fed + Fit has maintained its orientation toward our true north: to empower health. With a growing team of staff writers and editors, in addition to our expanding list of guest contributors, we are working hard to bring you a well-rounded approach to wellness. At Fed + Fit, you wont find us shoulding on you about endless wellness trends. Instead, youll find a distilled collection of our very best healthy lifestyle tips and tricks.

From casual blogger to editor in chief of an online wellness destination, I have been honored to continue to serve our larger community with a grace-filled approach to healthy living. May we enjoy the occasional indulgent sweet, may we find joy in fitness, may we feel confident with our nutrition choices, may we be kind to our bodies, and may we not sacrifice our stability in the name of dinner. May we have it alljust maybe not in the way we expected to.

What makes this book different from other recipe books out there? Thats a great question, and Id be asking it, too. Let me break it down for you.

To put it as briefly as possible, the dinner series concept involves transforming one (or more) cooked component from one meal into a second, completely different meal. Picture cooking a fabulous classic pot roast for one dinner and planning ahead to have purposeful leftovers, then strategically transforming those leftovers into the best shredded beef (I call it barbacoa) tacos youve ever tried.