Dad What’s For Dinner? Lifesaving Recipes to Avoid Meltdowns, Have Fun in the Kitchen, and Keep Your Kids Well Fed

Cookbook By: David Nayfeld
with Joshua David Stein

“I want it to help you answer the question of what’s for dinner-and what’s for breaks, and what’s for lunch; a response to every Daddy, I’m hungry. I need a snack,” David Nayfeld, Dad, What’s For Dinner?. I know that most of us at some point in our lives struggle with the question what’s for dinner and when I saw this cookbook I wanted to see what answers it included.

This cookbook is a great resource guide for those struggling with figuring out what to cook night after night. Most of the recipes serve four and include notes on storage, reuse and leftovers. My favorite feature is the label that is included on for the time each recipe will take. The three labels are: meltdown meal, weeknight meal, and project cooking. Meltdown meals are ready in 30 minutes or less. Weeknight meals are made in 30 to 60 minutes. Project cooking recipes are more involved and made for those days you have more time – these can take an hour or more.

Another great feature of this cookbook is that the mess from each recipe is labeled – 1 is a minimal mess and 4 is substantial mess. David shares my view of cleaning as you go, even if you have only a minute. If the dishwasher is clean I always empty it before starting to cook so you can immediately load it as you cook with the dirty dishes.

As always it was incredibly difficult to decide what recipes to try first. Keep reading to find out what I made and my overall thoughts on Dad, What’s For Dinner?.

Peanut Butter Brownies

I love brownies! Although I have to admit I am normally an all-chocolate chewy fudge brownie girl, but I saw these and they looked so pretty and tasty I wanted to test them immediately. Being a dessert it didn’t have a meal rating but did have an estimated time of 35 minutes – just remember it has to sit 30 minutes after it finishes baking, which was incredibly difficult because they smelled so good! The mess rating was 2/4 which was pretty accurate and I made sure I used as many things that were dishwasher safe as I could and while the brownies were baking I loaded everything up and only had to wash a few items by hand.

The recipe is really straight forward and other than dark chocolate chips and whole wheat flower I had everything in my pantry – which is always a great start to trying a new recipe. These are super easy to put together, just make sure you measure everything out before getting started, and I suggest you use a kitchen scale to get the exact amount. The only issue I had with the recipe was that it said to add the peanut butter and remainder of chips to the top of the batter and then spread – I found the chips made it hard to spread the peanut butter. Next time I will put the peanut butter on, spread it and then sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top.

I was surprised that I liked these as I am not a huge fan of dark chocolate. That being said they are so decadent I could only have one in a sitting. Luckily, they keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Would I make these again? Exactly as the recipe calls probably not just because of the dark chocolate, however, I am intrigued by this recipe and plan on trying it again using milk chocolate. I will share my results. If you love dark chocolate, then immediately run to your local bookstore and pick up this cookbook just for this recipe, you won’t be disappointed!

Spaghetti Al Limone

Growing up and still till today my dad rarely uses any spaghetti sauce – just butter. When I saw this recipe I thought of him, as this looked like a great way to have spaghetti without a red sauce. And I was right – this was so delicious! It’s listed as a meltdown meal – ready in 15 minutes and a mess rating of 1/4 and it really was this quick and easy.

The recipe is straightforward and simple. I do wish the recipe had a measurement for the amount of lemon juice as the juice of 2 large lemons isn’t the easiest to measure. Sometimes your lemons give you a lot of juice and sometimes they give you a litte juice. Next time I will use a little more lemon juice.

I cooked this up for a quick lunch and it’s perfect on its own or you can serve it with some leftover warmed up chicken or steak. The spaghetti al limone is going on my list of things to make on a regular basis. It’s simple, quick, and tasty – all things that I love.

I loved Dad, What’s for Dinner?. The recipes are easy to understand, make and the addition of the notes on the time and mess, make it easier to pick a recipe that’s perfect for the time you have. This cookbook is great for any home chef but especially for any parents who want to get their kids involved in cooking. We all know kids will try more things when they are involved in the cooking.

Here is a short list of just a few of the recipes I still want to try from Dad, What’s for Dinner?: chicken enchilada stew, one-dish halibut with summer vegetables, zucchini parmigiana, creamy polenta, and cuppycakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. Have you picked up this cookbook yet?