Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Promotion

Free shipping on $45+ Shop Now!

Cook90

The 30-Day Plan for Faster, Healthier, Happier Meals

Cook90 Open the full-size image

Contributors

By David Tamarkin

By Editors of Epicurious

Formats and Prices

Price

$15.99

Price

$20.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $15.99 $20.99 CAD
  2. Hardcover $30.00 $39.00 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 11, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

Challenge yourself to cook 90 simple meals in a month, and reboot the way you eat, cook, and feel — from the editors of Epicurious, the web’s most trusted recipe site.

Can you COOK90?

It’s easier than you think. For 30 days, challenge yourself to cook every meal — and you’ll transform the way you eat and feel.

The 150,000+ people who take the COOK90 challenge every year know that cooking for yourself is one of the most satisfying, effective, and easy ways to improve your wellbeing.

With expert support from the editors of Epicurious, the web’s most trusted recipe site, you’ll say goodbye to pricey takeout, crummy pizza delivery, and fast food that’s no good for you. And you’ll say hello to all the benefits of home cooking: healthier and more delicious meals, a fatter wallet, a clearer mind, and sharper skills.

With more than 100 recipes, strategies, and four weeks of meal plans for every way of eating, you can save time, money, and sanity with a simple promise:

I will not rely on restaurants, roommates, Cups o’Noodles, or my family to feed myself. Instead, enjoy meals like: Baked Feta with Chickpeas and Greens, Steak Soba Salad, Braised Rotisserie Chicken with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Kale, Start your day with Perfect 7-Minute Eggs or Cocoa Oats with Yogurt, Honey, and Hazelnuts, and end it with a Cinnamon-Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie or Salted Almond Apple Crisp.

And you’ll do it all without upending your life. By repurposing leftovers and planning ahead, you make cooking work for your schedule, not the other way around. Take the COOK90 challenge, and become a better, faster, healthier, happier cook.

Excerpt

MOJO CHICKEN WITH RICE AND BEANS, HERE



RECIPE INDEX

FAST MEALS (READY IN 30 MINUTES OR SO)

Baked Feta with Chickpeas and Greens

Beer-Steamed Mussels with Mexican Chorizo

Braised Rotisserie Chicken with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Kale

Butternut Squash Soup with Cheese and Crackers

Carrot Flatbread with Ricotta and Pickled Onions

Chicken Tacos with Quick Refried Beans

Chickpea Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Greens

Fried Rice with Chicken and Broccolini

Grain Bowl with Rotisserie Chicken, Spiced Chickpeas, and Avocado

Green Curry with Rotisserie Chicken, Bell Pepper, and Sugar Snap Peas

Grilled Lemon-Oregano Chicken with Radicchio and Lentil Salad

Grilled Steak and Radishes with Mustard Butter

Lamb Meatballs with Harissa, Tomato Sauce, and Yogurt

Mojo Chicken with Rice and Beans

One-Pot Pasta Primavera with Shrimp

Pesto Pasta with Cauliflower, Burst Tomatoes, and Breadcrumbs

Quick Chicken Tikka Masala

Quick Sesame Chicken with Broccoli

Shawarma-Spiced Chicken Pitas with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce

Sheet-Pan Pasta Bake with Rotisserie Chicken and Kale

Skillet Pork Cutlets with Arugula and Peperonata

Slow-Roasted Sheet-Pan Salmon with Broccolini and Lemon

Smoky Beans and Greens on Toast

Spanish Frittata with Herby Yogurt and Greens

Steak Soba Salad

Sweet Potatoes with Chorizo, Mushrooms, and Lime Cream

Thai Coconut-Ginger Soup with Tofu

Vietnamese Pork Patty Salad with Rice Noodles

White Shakshuka

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Crispy Broccoli, Red Pepper Flakes, Lemon, and Feta

FASTER MEALS (READY IN 15 MINUTES OR SO)

Antipasto Salad Jars

Breakfast Salad

Cheesy Rotisserie Chicken Enchilada Skillet

Freeform Farro Salad

Green Egg Salad Jars

Green Grains and a Fried Egg

Greens on Toast for One

Herby White Bean and Tuna Jars

Mojo Squash Sandwich with Goat Cheese and Pickled Onions

Moroccan Lentil Soup

Pasta with 15-Minute Meat Sauce

Pesto Pasta Frittata

Rice Bowl with Smoked Fish, Quick Pickles, and Dill

Sardine Sandwich with Lemon Mayo and Lots of Parsley

Shrimp with Herby White Beans and Tomatoes

Spaghetti with Anchovies, Garlic, and Breadcrumbs

Spaghetti with Tuna and Lemon

Spiced Chickpeas with Salmon, Radishes, and Greens

10-Minute Sausage Skillet with Cherry Tomatoes and Broccolini

Warm Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Asparagus and Creamy Dill Dressing

DINNER-PARTY READY

Beer-Steamed Mussels with Mexican Chorizo

Braised Rotisserie Chicken with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Kale

Carrot Flatbread with Ricotta and Pickled Onions

Cod with Thyme-Roasted Cauliflower and Sherry-Tomato Sauce

Lamb Meatballs with Harissa, Tomato Sauce, and Yogurt

Mojo Chicken with Rice and Beans

Pan-Seared Steak with Cilantro Salsa Verde and Crispy Broccoli

Party Hummus with Spiced Lamb or Beef

Porchetta Chops with Crispy Potatoes and Greens

Pork Shoulder Ragu

Skillet Pork Cutlets with Arugula and Peperonata

Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Zesty Basil Sauce

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Cumin-Roasted Carrots and Yogurt

CHICKEN

Braised Rotisserie Chicken with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Kale

Cheesy Rotisserie Chicken Enchilada Skillet

Chicken Tacos with Quick Refried Beans

Crispy Chicken and Potatoes with Cabbage Slaw

Fried Rice with Chicken and Broccolini

Grain Bowl with Rotisserie Chicken, Spiced Chickpeas, and Avocado

Green Curry with Rotisserie Chicken, Bell Pepper, and Sugar Snap Peas

Grilled Lemon-Oregano Chicken with Radicchio and Lentil Salad

Mojo Chicken with Rice and Beans

Quick Chicken Tikka Masala

Quick Sesame Chicken with Broccoli

Shawarma-Spiced Chicken Pitas with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce

Sheet-Pan Pasta Bake with Rotisserie Chicken and Kale

Simple Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

Slow Cooker Green Chicken Chili

Warm Rotisserie Chicken Salad with Asparagus and Creamy Dill Dressing

Yogurt-Braised Chicken Legs with Garlic and Ginger

VEGETARIAN

A Week’s Worth of Oats

Baked Feta with Chickpeas and Greens

Blueberry-Tahini-Oatmeal Smoothie

Butternut Squash Soup with Cheese and Crackers

Carrot Flatbread with Ricotta and Pickled Onions

Chickpea Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Greens

Cocoa Oats with Yogurt, Honey, and Hazelnuts

Dutch Baby with Apples and Cheddar

Everyday Granola

Freeform Farro Salad

Grain Bowl with Spiced Squash, Mushrooms, and Curried Yogurt

Green Egg Salad Jars

Green Grains and a Fried Egg

Greens on Toast for One

Lemon-Garlic Lentils

Mango-Ginger-Yogurt Smoothie

Mojo Squash Sandwich With Goat Cheese and Pickled Onions

Moroccan Lentil Soup

3 p.m. Energy Bites with Ginger and Turmeric

3 p.m. Energy Bites with Oats and Dried Cherries

Overnight Oats

Perfect 7-Minute Eggs

Pesto Pasta with Cauliflower, Burst Tomatoes, and Breadcrumbs

Pesto Pasta Frittata

Ricotta (or Cottage Cheese) with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Mint

Spanish Frittata with Herby Yogurt and Greens

Spaghetti with White Beans, Harissa, and Dill

Thai Coconut-Ginger Soup with Tofu

White Beans with Garlic, Thyme, and Red Pepper Flakes

White Shakshuka

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Crispy Broccoli, Red Pepper Flakes, Lemon, and Feta

NOODLES

One-Pot Pasta Primavera with Shrimp

Pasta with 15-Minute Meat Sauce

Pesto Pasta with Cauliflower, Burst Tomatoes, and Breadcrumbs

Sheet-Pan Pasta Bake with Rotisserie Chicken and Kale

Spaghetti with White Beans, Harissa, and Dill

Spaghetti with Anchovies, Garlic, and Breadcrumbs

Spaghetti with Tuna and Lemon

Steak Soba Salad

Vietnamese Pork Patty Salad with Rice Noodles

Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Crispy Broccoli, Red Pepper Flakes, Lemon, and Feta

BREAKFASTS/BRUNCH

A Week’s Worth of Oats

Blueberry-Tahini-Oatmeal Smoothie

Cocoa Oats with Yogurt, Honey, and Hazelnuts

Dutch Baby with Apples and Cheddar

Everyday Granola

Green Grains and a Fried Egg

Mango-Ginger-Yogurt Smoothie

Overnight Oats

Perfect 7-Minute Eggs

Pesto Pasta Frittata

Ricotta (or Cottage Cheese) with Tomatoes, Lemon, and Mint

Sisterhood Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Spanish Frittata with Herby Yogurt and Greens

White Shakshuka

BASICS

A Big Pot of Rice

Basic Vinaigrette

Cumin–Brown Sugar Rub

Crunchy Garlic–Chile Oil

Everyday Granola

Garlic Mojo Sauce

Lemon-Garlic Lentils

Hummus

Perfect 7-Minute Eggs

Pickled Red Onions

Roasted Butternut Squash

Roasted Garlic–Herb Sauce

Simple Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken

Simple Tomato Sauce

Simple Yogurt Sauce

White Beans with Garlic, Thyme, and Red Pepper Flakes

DESSERTS

Cinnamon–Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie

Chai-Spiced Tea Cake

Grilled Chocolate Sandwich with Jam

Salted Almond Apple Crisp with Barely Whipped Cream

Sheet-Pan Brownies

Shots of Chocolate

Sisterhood Sour Cream Coffee Cake



SPANISH FRITTATA WITH HERBY YOGURT AND GREENS, HERE



GRAIN BOWL WITH SPICED SQUASH, MUSHROOMS, AND CURRIED YOGURT, HERE



PART ONE

Welcome to Cook90



Introduction

I wish I had a great story to tell you about how COOK90 began, a story about how my great-grandmother’s recipe for banana bread inspired me to start a revolution. But I don’t even know my great-grandmother’s name, and I can’t stand bananas. And if you’re holding this book, you’re not here for stories anyway—you just want to cook.

I get it. I just want to cook, too. And that’s more or less COOK90’s origin tale: On January 1, 2016, I made a resolution to cook more. And I did—every meal, every day, for the entire month. And though it was harder than I expected, it was also easier, and even the difficult days were worth it, because it changed my cooking forever.

And not just mine. Since I started COOK90, the number of people who have signed on to do it with me has climbed to over 150,000. Their cooking has changed, too. I know, because they write me letters and slide into my DMs to tell me that COOK90 changed their relationship with cooking, with food, with their own health, even with their partners. Imagine: all that change, all that catharsis, just because we all “wanted to cook more.”

Except that’s not the whole truth.

The truth is that every one of us has additional, personal reasons for doing COOK90. Some want to be faster in the kitchen, or improve their health, or save money. Others want to push themselves beyond the handful of recipes they already have in rotation. Some want to cook more vegetables or more Indian food, or have a reason to drag that waffle maker out of the basement. Many just want cooking to feel better—they want cooking to take up less headspace.

The fabulous thing about COOK90? No matter why you start, you’ll reap all these benefits, and more, without necessarily even realizing it. Because the simple fact is that you cannot cook for 30 days straight and not come out a better, faster, healthier cook. When you COOK90, your days become healthier, because cooking is an inherently healthy behavior. Cooking becomes faster, because daily cooking is a cycle in which each meal naturally connects to the next. And your food simply gets better, because you’re practicing cooking three times a day—how could it not?

You do have to put in the work, though. And I don’t just mean the cooking. COOK90 is a holistic lifestyle shift, and it begins outside the kitchen—before you turn on your oven, before you decide on a single recipe. In fact, you’ve already begun—because COOK90 begins with this book.



THE COOK90 RULES

Cooking 90 meals straight is no small task, so if you’re going to do it, you may as well squeeze every benefit out of the challenge that you can. These rules are here to help you do that. Without them, COOK90 could get too easy—you’d rely on the same old recipes, making (and eating) them over and over again. Instead, these guidelines force you to push yourself, expand your repertoire, find new recipes, learn new tricks, and ultimately become a better cook. Which, of course, is one of the reasons you’re doing this in the first place.

1. COOK EVERY BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER IN A MONTH-LONG PERIOD

Delivery, takeout, microwaved frozen dinners, canned soup, energy bars, the lasagna your grandmother made for you—these don’t count as cooking. They are the distractions from cooking that COOK90 is designed to overcome.

2. NEVER COOK ANYTHING MORE THAN TWICE…

COOK90 is about rebooting your cooking life—and getting you out of your rut. The point is to learn new recipes, pick up new skills, and keep your daily cooking as diverse as possible. So the rice and beans you’ve been cooking three times a week for the past ten years? Make them once, make them twice, and then—forget them.

3. … EXCEPT FOR BREAKFAST

Breakfast is its own beast. You can eat the same thing every morning if you want to—but you still have to cook it. (And yes, that includes your coffee, too.)

4. RELY ON LEFTOVERS, BUT NOT TOO MUCH

Half the joy of making a killer chicken parm is eating it the next day for lunch (or, sometimes, at midnight the same day you cooked it). And since COOK90 is about taking advantage of all the benefits of cooking, as well as about fitting home-cooked food into a busy life, leftovers—and nextovers (more on that here)—fit right in.

But! Just as we don’t cook the same dish more than twice, we also don’t dip into leftovers more than twice. So take Sunday night’s leftovers to work for lunch on Monday. And go ahead, take them to work again on Tuesday. After that, move on and flex your muscles by cooking something new.

5. TAKE THREE BREAKS

This is crucial. You get three passes during COOK90—three meals to eat at a restaurant, have delivered, or let your girlfriend/husband/roommate/toddler cook for you. Don’t be a hero—use them! Use a pass when you have a wedding to attend or a business lunch you can’t get out of. Or use them when you feel stressed out, or are just plain dreading the thought of spending another night at the stove. COOK90 fatigue is real (see here). These passes will get you through it.

6. SHARE

Be loud about your cooking! Take photos of your dinners, tag them #COOK90, and share them with your friends, with strangers, and with me (@davidtamarkin). Doing this is half humblebrag, half accountability. The more people who know you’re taking the COOK90 challenge, the more motivated you’ll be to complete it. (Trust me, your aunt who spends too much time on Facebook will definitely notice if you skip a day—that woman notices everything.)



SLOW-ROASTED SHEET-PAN SALMON WITH BROCCOLINI AND LEMON, HERE



How Hard Is This Going to Get?

COOK90 is about fitting cooking into your life seamlessly, and making daily cooking easier than you thought it could be. If you do everything this book tells you to do—the pantry building, the meal plan making, the systematic shopping—you’ll cook for a month and not break a sweat.

But let’s be realistic. This is high-intensity interval cooking. It may be a big change from what you’re used to, and there’s no warm-up—you just dive right in. So you’re going to sweat sometimes.

What will that look like? Feeling jealous of your coworkers when they go out for sushi and leave you at your desk with your leftovers. Becoming distraught when you accidentally burn dinner and need to scramble to make a pantry pasta. Getting cranky in the morning because you’re sick of making your own coffee (you miss your daily oat milk latte, and maybe the cute barista who makes it).

Usually these moods pass as quickly as they come on; often, the stress-relieving act of cooking will make them disappear. Still, you should pay attention to what’s bothering you. When you feel as if you can’t spend another minute in your kitchen, there’s usually a logical reason. Maybe your meal plan was wildly ambitious. Maybe you didn’t buy enough groceries. Maybe your family is eating way, way more than you thought they would, and they’re not leaving you any leftovers for lunch. Find the root of the problem, fix it, and move on to your next meal. You’ve just figured out one more key to cooking every day; you won’t be making that same mistake again.

COOK90 Fatigue

Sometimes cooking crankiness doesn’t pass quickly enough. For me, this happens around Day 18: I wake up annoyed and stir crazy, and I never want to see an onion ever again.

This is COOK90 fatigue. Perfectly normal, and easily combated by any one of the actions below.

1. TAKE A NIGHT OFF

This is exactly what the COOK90 passes are for. Screw making chicken tikka masala at home, and order it for delivery instead.

2. CALL A MEETING OF YOUR COOK90 CLUB

You’re all in this together, right? (See the sidebar on this page.) So send the signal that you’re about to break down and order pizza. Your compatriots should be over with groceries for homemade pizza in no time.

3. COOK IN A FRIEND’S KITCHEN

You might just need to get out of the house. Find somebody who doesn’t have plans and tell them you’re coming over to help them with dinner. No, they don’t have a choice. Yes, you’ll bring a salad. No, you won’t chop the onions, you need a break from onions, can this friend step up for once and please chop the damn onions?

4. EAT FROM THE PANTRY

You know there are shrimp somewhere in your freezer (see here). Or at least a bag of frozen spinach (see here). Find some pasta? Garlic? Anchovies? Good. Turn to here and you’re all set.

5. BAKE SOMETHING

Let somebody else handle dinner; tonight, you’re only doing dessert. And because baking is a different kind of cooking—a little slower, with a reward that lasts a few days—it’ll be a good change of pace. Nobody else is around to handle dinner? Then dessert is dinner. Own it!

COOK90 Clubs are exactly what they sound like: a group of friends, or two or more families, that tackle COOK90 together. The clubs take many forms: Two families might meet for dinner every Wednesday night (one family makes the pasta, the other makes the salad and dessert). A group of coworkers might meet every day to eat their homemade lunches together (trading is encouraged). Some clubs don’t do any cooking or eating at all—they just meet to meal plan together, or swap recipes.

These clubs are not support groups but sustainability groups. Doing the challenge as a group makes you accountable; maybe a little healthy competitiveness kicks in. Most of all, the clubs are a reminder that you may be spending the month cooking for yourself, but you’re not doing it alone.

Don’t have friends or family who want to join you on COOK90? You can still have access to the camaraderie and support of a COOK90 Club. Just hop on Instagram and search for the #COOK90 hashtag. Click it, and boom—you’re a member of the biggest COOK90 Club of all.

What Happens When COOK90 Is Over?

You go back to your normal life, and you bring the skills you sharpened during COOK90 with you.

The habits you get into on COOK90 are sticky. Sometimes I end a round of COOK90 and think I’m going to spend the next three days eating in restaurants. But instead, I keep on cooking. I’m already deep in a cooking cycle, and there are usually nextovers in my fridge that need to be cooked, and a meal plan that I may as well finish out. And I feel so comfortable in my kitchen by this point that I don’t see any reason to leave.

Sometimes I continue to COOK90 for another two weeks, cooking just as vigorously and exhaustively (well, maybe there are a few more breaks thrown in—there’s a ramen shop down the street from me that’s hard to resist).

But the COOK90 lifestyle does eventually fade. And that’s when you start to see the real impact of your thirty-day cooking binge. You’ll continue to do the things that you found most useful (meal plans for me), and drop the things that just aren’t realistic for your life (back to the coffee shop!). And you’ll find that even when you’re not officially doing COOK90, that one intensive month of cooking improves the way you cook the rest of the year. And when that year is up? We sharpen our skills by doing COOK90 again.

COOK90 & Health

Cooking is a healthy behavior—physically, mentally, and financially. So while COOK90 is not a diet or cleanse, it will make you feel better than you felt before you started.

All the planning helps. When we’re intentional about our cooking, most of us will pencil a good mix of vegetables, proteins, and carbs into our meal plans. And because we use nextovers (here) and leftovers, almost none of our ingredients will go to waste—and neither will the money we spent on them. Add to this the well-documented fact that food cooked at home is healthier (and, breaking news: cheaper!) than food cooked at restaurants, and you start to see how cooking is a physically and financially healthy habit.

And while I have no research to back this up, I can tell you from personal experience that cooking can be stress relief, even an act of mindfulness. Peeling carrots, scrubbing mussels—these things take me out of my head. Suddenly I’m no longer stewing about the ridiculous thing my boss asked me to do; instead, I’m in the moment, cooking dinner, and finding that that’s a much better place, mentally, to be.

12 More Questions People Ask About COOK90

WHAT COUNTS AS COOKING?

Genre:

On Sale
Dec 11, 2018
Page Count
272 pages
Publisher
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13
9780316420136

You May Also Like

The Ark of Taste
The Ark of Taste $35.00 $44.00 CAD
Will Write for Food
Will Write for Food $18.99 $23.99 CAD
Why We Cook
Why We Cook $27.50 $34.50 CAD
A Taste of History Cookbook
A Taste of History Cookbook $30.00 $39.00 CAD
Buttermilk Graffiti
Buttermilk Graffiti $15.95 $21.95 CAD

David Tamarkin

About the Author

David Tamarkin is the Editor and Digital Director of Epicurious. His recipes and articles have appeared in Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Details, Food Network Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Time Out New York, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Condé Nast Traveler, Cooking Light, Wine & Spirits, and many other publications.

Learn more about this author

Editors of Epicurious

About the Author

Learn more about this author