30-Minute One-Pot Meals: Feed Your Family Incredible Food in Less Time and With Less Cleanup

This cookbook is everything a cook could ever desire in a cookbook. Prior to purchasing this cookbook, I made sure to make one of her recipes from her cooking blog (“Jo Cooks” – Google it) and it was fantastic (Spicy orzo pork ragu). The recipes in this cookbook are just as good, so if you look those recipes, you will no doubt like the collection in this cookbook.The recipes are straight forward, yet flavorful – and every ingredient for every recipe is a pantry staple that can be easily bought if you don’t already have it on hand. 100% of the recipes have a glorious color photo of the finished product (which is unheard of in a book at this price point). And the book has enough variety to keep you interested without becoming too eccentric.Here are some bullet points of the book’s strengths• Straight forward organization. Table of contents is based entirely upon the type of cooking vessel that chapter uses (i.e., sheet pan; Dutch oven; chef’s pan, etc)• No repeats within the book. There are no two recipes that are even remotely similar. The author clearly put a lot of thought into ensuring you get your money’s worth.• The recipes are simple and legitimately can be finished within 30-minutes. In fact, if you do some ingredient prepping in advance as I do (such as chopping onions, slicing carrots, measuring out ingredients, etc), you can likely can complete the recipe even quicker.• The volume of food a given recipe produces is ‘just right.’ Many will feed 4 hungry people (I usually bring smaller portions to work for the week for lunch – the main reason I purchased this book). I know this seems like an odd thing to mention. However, I see so many other cookbooks where recipes will produce large volumes of food that you may not want. Not this author – the portions are ‘just right.’• For the recipes that are baked, be sure that your cookware can go to higher temps because some of the recipes call for 450+ degrees – I assume this is to expedite the cooking time (this is not really a pro or a con than it is just an observation)In a nutshell, this author has nailed the balance between approachable and delicious in a straight forward manner that anyone, from home cook to professional chef, will find worthwhile.I have posted a picture of the Moroccan Chicken cous cous (from page 135 of her cookbook). It was absolutely fantastic. The recipe called for only 8 ingredients (I am not counting the salt, pepper, bay leaf, olive oil and parsley garnish as ‘ingredients’). I made sure to re-purchase the ingredients because this is one of those recipes I will make repeatedly (yes, it’s that good).UPDATE (06/23/2017). 2 pictures posted. I made the Pasta E Fagioli – pronounced “Fa-Zool” (Page 152, from the “One Dutch Oven” chapter). Excellent, excellent recipe. Recipes uses basic pantry staples (I had every single ingredient) which are all very economical, common ingredients. The recipe comes together very quickly, very convenient and is very delicious. The next time I make this, I will double the recipe.UPDATE (07/15/2017). Picture posted. I made the Sausage, Mushroom and Spinach Rice (page 87). It turned out fantastic. I made no alterations to the recipe. I was worried that the rice wouldn’t cook up properly – I always seem to have difficulty with recipes of this nature where the rice is cooked directly in the dish with other ingredients and not separately. The combination of the spinach, mushrooms and smoked sausage seems to be a good one. Definitely worth making again, but will move on to making other recipes

I've been following Jo's blog for years now, and am so happy to see that her first book is out! I had already prepared some of the recipes in it, and loved every single one. It's funny, I find them so simple, easy to make, in other words very approachable, and yet the results always strike me as fancy (which would never describe my cooking style), aside from being simply delicious. I've made Jo's food for dinners during the busy work week, as well as for dinner parties, and both my husband and our guests have always been equally impressed. I myself am impressed that someone like me (very inexperienced in the kitchen and always on the run, with little time for cooking) can actually execute something so tasty and great looking. I guess I've always bonded with Jo after having read her biography. I have a busy job, and zero culinary experience, which always intimidated me and stopped me from trying new things. Jo, however, came up with easy and yummy recipes that I always feel confident preparing, and I am so grateful to her for that. I'm so looking forward to trying all the other recipes in this book!

I love this cookbook. The instructions are easy to follow. Uncomplicated. Food tastes delicious! I think this author comes up with really delicious recipes in all her cookbooks!

Nice and easy recipes, but a lot of ingredients become similar.

Have tried nearly every recipe in it and haven’t found one I don’t like. Kid friendly and saves so much time. I love it so much I’ve bought many as gifts.

This is a great cookbook. The recipes are delicious and easy to prepare. I love the format of the cookbook - there is one recipe and picture per two page spread and the cookbook is designed to lay flat when open to any part of the cookbook! Wonderful and easy to use! I received this cookbook as a gift from my brother and have purchased several copies as gifts to other friends and family! HIghly recommend.

I'm glad to see other reviewers mentioning that these recipes are deceptive in their timing. We've made three recipes so far, and only one of them took 30 minutes or less to make. Sometimes she lists the prep time as 2 minutes or 5 minutes, which only makes sense if literally all you are doing is measuring out the ingredients. Of the recipes that we have made so far, the proportions have been slightly off, and the flavors have been nothing earth-shattering.My main complaint is the organization of the book. Personally, when I am meal planning, I think about what type of protein I want for that meal or I think about a flavor profile. Unfortunately, this book is organized by the vessel that you cook the meal in, so that the table of contents literally just lists "dutch oven" or "casserole dish" or whatever. So you have to flip through the entire book to figure out which recipes are chicken recipes, or you have to use the index which is also not incredibly fast.I got this book to supplement our 1 Pan Two Plates cookbook which I absolutely adore. Those recipes have excellent flavor profiles, the book is well organized, and I've learned a lot of easy techniques to up my game. She also includes wine recommendations for each meal, and she specifically identifies wines that are affordable and easy to find in your local grocery store. She also has notes explaining what you can substitute in for something if it's difficult to find. I would highly recommend picking up 1 Pan Two Plates instead!

What a great selection of recipes! It’s great for meals during the week when I don’t get home from work until 6, this way I’m eating before 7 after some fast cooking. I’m hoping to work my way through this book and try things out of my comfort zone in the kitchen. Definitely recommend for people who don’t have that much time to cook or just want to make something simple but delicious!

This book has very nice and good recipes!! I love Joanna Cismaru and her recipes really appeal to me. I recommend this book to every fan.

This is a great one pot meal cookbook. Jo's recipes never fail. Highly recommend.

Bought this recipe book for my son-in-law for Christmas since he has long been a talented "backyard bbq man" and recently turned to cooking in the kitchen. I wanted to give him a recipe book that would start him off on delicious "one pot" meals. This book arrived, in perfect condition and hit the bullseye. Delicious, flavourful, easy one-pot meals have been chosen from all over the world, each dish accompanied by a full-page colour photograph. True, we have not yet tried any recipe, since this is a Christmas gift yet to be given. But after taking a look through its pages, I have ordered another for myself!

Nice recipes. Book arrived very quick,mthankyiii.

Cooking!