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Book #6: 365 30-Minute Meals from Better Homes and Gardens



About the Book
This book was published in 2012. I bought this book back when I had a very busy schedule with minimal free time but still wanted to make quick and delicious meals. This book is full of quick, family friendly, and healthy recipes that can be made in about a half hour. There are recipes for breakfast, sandwiches, pizzas, soups & stews, main dish salads, pasta, meatless, and grilling.  One of my previous favorites from this book is the Quick Skillet Lasagna.

About the Author
This book is from the editors at Better Homes and Gardens.  The Better Homes and Gardens headquarters and test kitchen is in Des Moines, Iowa and is the oldest media company test kitchen in the United States. They first started testing recipes for the magazine in 1928 and published their first cookbook in 1930. If you are interested in the recipe testing process here is a link with all of the details.

The Recipe I Chose To Make
I decided to make Espresso-Rubbed Steak with Green Chile Pesto.  I'm limiting my grocery shopping during lock-down and had flank steak in the freezer and all of the spices on hand.  I was able to get the peppers for the pesto at the farmer's market. I served Black Bean-Cilantro Rice from the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2015 cookbook on the side.


How Was It? 
This steak was delicious!  The spice rub was very flavorful and the entire family loved it.  The Green Chile Pesto was very spicy.  The recipe called for 2 peppers and since I got mine at the farmer's market they were very large.  We love spice so this was not a problem for us but might be for those who do not care for spicy food.  We have extra pesto that I plan to top our morning eggs with. This recipe was very quick and I plan on making it again soon!

What’s Next?
The next cookbook in my Cook the Bookshelf Challenge will be Southern Living's Cooking Light from 1983, the first Cooking Light cookbook!


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