Ridiculous it may sound – a recipe book for men titled “Man-Up Your Meals” is what I got for Christmas. I decided to show this to you because since my previous cake recipe post Essential Baking Tools and Easy Cake Recipes (and it was supposed to be the only post about cooking!) I’ve received a few messages from guys asking if I knew any good basic recipe books.
As I said previously, I cook from scratch daily only because I consider this way as healthier and tastier. Otherwise I don’t particularly enjoy cooking, or watching cookery programmes.
Except that I’ve always found joy in watching Nigella Lawson’s. Again what I really LOVE about her programmes is elsewhere rather than her recipes themselves; lighting effects in her kitchen, the selection of cool stylish background music, the camera angles – impeccably focused on Nigella’s tits – No no! Her programmes always highlight the timeline of the day. Morning sunlight coming in from one side, or the reflection of the night lights on the window, well-apertured and always artistic. Of course Nigella herself is always elegant.
Having said that, I don’t mean I’m not interested in Nigella’s recipes – I’ve tried quite a lot of hers. Panettone Stuffing Squares, using leftover Panettone. Breakfast bars (flapjacks) using condensed milk. They’re great.
“Oooh, I luuuve the sweetness of honey. Just ooze over my flap…jack.”
Recipe Book For Men – Man-Up Your Meals
So this 127-page book containing about 50 recipes is really cool. As you may have expected, they’re all “a man’s recipes”, if such things exist – a lot of bold, everyday food with a twist rather than Michelin star types. Each recipe on the left page, photos on the right.
It’s got 4 chapters;
- Snack Attack – for snack recipe – not necessarily light lunch!
- Hunger-Busting Man Meals – big bold recipes
- Mega Puds – great easy desserts
- Get Set To Impress – for proper dinners
Not surprisingly there are a lot of big meat dishes and, as a vegetarian, some of them I just have to ignore (just like any other cooking books). There are veggie dishes such as Four Cheese Macaroni, Triple-cooked chips, Fettuccine Alfredo, Jumbo Potato Wedges with Dips. Others are recipes using meat but we can easily substitute it with either Quorn or vegetables.
“Mighty 5 egg omelette with chorizo, red onion & blue cheese” – using Quorn Chorizo. Chicken Jalfrezi – replace chicken with roasted vegetables. Supermarkets do frozen Mediterranean roasted vegetables in a bag for around £2 (Sainsbury’s is really good, chunky & tasty. Tesco’s is OK, not as great as Sainsbury’s). So we veggies can use those instead.
The difficulty level is (as you can see above) expressed by Darwin’ s evolution chart, and most of the recipes are on apes level.
There are 1-2 pages of a little article in each chapter. “How To Brew Your Own Beer”, “How To Cook The Perfect Steak’, and just as you get into the pudding section, you’ll see “Don’t Forget The Gym”. And “The Big Eat Challenge” is the article in the last chapter.
I’ll just pick up some unusual ones from this book;
- Beer waffles with ham & cheese
- Fiery fish finger sandwich with Russian dressing & rocket
- Texas Long Star chili
- Boozy chocolate cheesecake
- Chocolate mousse with a chilli kick
- Prime rib of beef with traditional horseradish sauce
- Rocky Road doughnuts
There are a lot of classics such as “The Best bacon butty” “Meatloaf” “Double-decker burgers” “Piri Piri chicken” “Rack of Lamb” “Beer-battered fish & chips” “Spaghetti & meatballs” “Awesome apple turnover” and so on.
If you get this book and try some recipes, do let me know how you’ve got on!
What a fun cook book! I LOVE recipes therefore I LOVE cook books. I had never seen this book before. Even though you don’t like cooking looks like you are quite the gourmet cook. Do most of these recipes contain items that are normally in your kitchen?? Or do you have to make a new shopping list for each recipe? Also, are there lots of ingredients in the recipes? I know my husband and brothers only like to cook things that have maybe 5 ingredients and ingredients that are already found in the kitchen. Very interesting book though! I’ll have to take a look at it!
Hi Becky, thanks for your comments, I’m glad you like it. I’d say you can cook any of these using the stuff you already have in your kitchen… Quite a few of them are American BBQ, Texan or Mexican influenced so oregano & cumin pop up here & there. Oh yes “unsalted butter” which I’ve never bought in my life!
Number of ingredients depends on the recipe but 8 – 15 at most (including butter, salt & pepper), some are definitely easy, I think the book is very friendly to guys like me – easy to read, never complicated. Your husband & brothers would like it, I hope! Thanks again!
Hi Raymundo
I had to learn how to cook the hard way. My dog did not even wanted to eat my leftovers. I wished I had a recipe book that was designed for men.
I would love to try that mighty meatball sub. As far as I am concerned I am happy with only meat and potatoes. LOL.
Hi Viljoen, how’re you doing? If you’re happy with just meat & potatoes, the book is for you (with a touch of other ingredients though), unless you start to eat your dog’s leftovers! I’ve tried the meatball sub – using vegetarian meatball. Lovely. Devine. Go and try it!
The cook book looks amazing and could definitely come in handy. Sometimes you just don’t know what to eat and a grilled cheese sandwich seems like what its gonna be because its fast and easy but with this book you could easily try a new recipe every night and never get bored. Would be especially great for university/college students!
Thanks Dennis for your comment, yes the quick and easy recipes are definitely useful for students. You don’t really ever need a recipe book, you know? Especially if you have an iPad/tablet in the kitchen, you can check anything online. But this one – because it’s got full of great images, visually “tantalising”, and this funny shaped book is easy to turn the pages.