cover image The Busy Mom’s Cookbook: 
100 Quick, Delicious Home-Cooked Meals

The Busy Mom’s Cookbook: 100 Quick, Delicious Home-Cooked Meals

Antonia Lofaso. Avery, $28 (224p) ISBN 978-1-58333-470-6

Single mom and Top Chef contestant Lofaso presents a collection of easy, approachable recipes and suggests taking the time (even if it’s a mere 15 minutes) to dine as a family. Her tone is realistic and encouraging—“Enjoy! It’s just food!” Helpful chapters include “The Better Brown Bag,” which features a DIY (in seven minutes) cheese and charcuterie plate as an alternative to a shrink-wrapped meat-and-cheese packaged lunch. In the “School-Night Dinners” chapter, nothing takes longer than 30 minutes to make, even shrimp and sausage corn chowder and chicken paillard with baby peas and potatoes. While making the recipes appealing even for picky eaters, Lofaso introduces a variety of ingredients: pizza with prosciutto and burrata, bacon, brussels sprouts; goat cheese pie; and sautéed edamame with pickled ginger and ponzu have a hint of gourmet appeal. There’s also a “Kids in the Kitchen” chapter, which comes with a warning about getting kids involved with cooking: “There will be disasters.” But she adds, “Someday your kids will tell the story of how you taught them to make their favorite dishes.” (Sept.)