Early this summer I decided to buy a new cookbook. I (and my family) were a little tired of the same old same old. After reading reviews and even testing some recipes from other books (listed on the author’s website), I purchased this one.

I have not been disappointed. While I am far from having cooked every recipe in the book, my family has liked every single dish I’ve made. That is nothing short of a miracle.

Liz offers suggestions for side dishes to accompany her main courses. These suggestions are a good start to rounding out the meal. However, I always have to add another vegetable or two–but that’s simple enough.

She assigns a food theme to each day and uses that to plan meals for two weeks at a time. Her theme nights all revolve around the type of cuisine being served: Italian, Mexican, Grill, Pizza, Comfort, etc. I have used themes for quite some time, but mine are based more around the type of meat or the craziness of that night’s schedule: quick and easy, slow cooker, ground beef, chicken, with Mexican and Italian thrown in there.

I liked her cuisine-style themes, but it’s not a good fit for our lifestyle. I’m still working on meshing her themes with mine. For example, I need to make sure I throw in a ground beef night or two or I’ll end up with a freezer full of ground beef at the end of the year and nothing else. Also, I have one (at least) insanely crazy night each week where dinner has to be in the slow cooker so we can all eat whenever it is that we’re home that night. For me, I have to look at the week’s activities before I can plan dinner.

I have loved cooking out of this book. The recipes are simple and EVERYONE eats them.