Damn Delicious

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 4 JUL 2016

Frustrated with the lack of time she had to prepare a healthy meals, Rhee taught herself how to use shortcuts, leftovers, and pantry staples. She shared her suggestions on her blog, which informs this bound collection of useful tips and 100 recipes for quick meals. While there are recommendations for shaving calories, such as swapping out Greek yogurt for sour cream, mayo, or cream cheese, Rhee's focus is on speed, which often comes at the expense of flavor or lower calories. Her sheet-pan steak and veggies, in which a steak sits atop mixed vegetables and is broiled, could easily have benefited from searing both sides of the steak in a skillet while the veggies get a head start on roasting, and easy swaps, such as using low-calorie mayo for the crispy chicken bites in Bang Bang Chicken or substituting half-and-half for heavy cream in a one-pot zucchini mushroom pasta, are overlooked. Readers can make those decisions for themselves: nutritional information is provided for each dish. There are still plenty of simple, flavorful, fast dishes here: slow cooker Korean beef, avocado pasta, linguine with clams, balsamic salmon with strawberry mango salsa, and spicy cinnamon sugar candied nuts are simple to source and well within the reach of even the most novice cooks. Those pressed for time or new to the kitchen will get the most out of Rhee's book. Though the concept of simple meals that come together quickly is not new, this book is a handy addition to the shelf.