I love cooking and baking, but sometimes feel overwhelmed taking the time to cook from scratch on weeknights. I stay pretty busy in my M-F life; between work (and sometimes having weekday evening work events), Junior League commitments, working out, spending time with Ryan, meeting up with friends, chores in my apartment...etc! I'm not even a wife or parent yet and I already feel pretty busy most weeknights.
I am a connoisseur of cookbooks with a decent sized collection on my bookshelves, and I also have many food blogs that I enjoy reading. But even with all of these recipes at my disposal, sometimes I still feel overwhelmed and too pressed for time to jump into anything. I can't tell you how many times I've tried a new cookbook recipe thinking it will be quick, and two hours later I'm still working on it. For years now, I've been looking for an organized "database" of sorts for recipes that are actually both quick and delicious that I can easily turn to on busy weekdays. Something that's easily accessible and doesn't involve digging through cookbooks or food blogs when in a pinch. For a couple years I really enjoyed doing the Hello Fresh meal kits, but their prices kept getting higher and higher.
What has finally helped to solve my weeknight dinner recipe dilemmas? The A Month of Dinner recipe booklets by Larson Folkerts! I have been loving these for the past six months, and it's about time I finally write a dedicated review of them on the blog. These recipe booklets have helped so much with my weeknight dinner woes, and I think they can help you a lot too!
What is A Month of Dinner? Is it a cookbook or a food blog? Neither of the above!
A Month of Dinner is a series of recipe booklets / meal planning guides created by Larson Folkerts. Larson isn't a professional chef or food author, but she is a 20-something Texas wife and mom who is passionate about cooking on a budget! She's mastered the art of meal planning weekly dinners on a budget for her family and wanted to share the wealth of knowledge she's built with others. And I am so glad she did! Larson did a great interview on another blog where she shares more about her love of cooking and what inspired her to start A Month of Dinner-
you can read it here to learn more about her!
I found out about Larson and her A Month of Dinner recipe booklets from one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Katey from
Chronicles of Frivolity. I have followed Katey for almost 10 years now, and I trust her recommendations wholeheartedly! So when she was recommending Larson's recipes, I quickly followed
Larson on Instagram.
Both
A Month of Dinner volumes (currently there are two!) feature four weeks of five recipes. Four out of the five weekly recipes are dinners, and one is a dessert. Each A Month of Dinner (AMOD) volume comes to you in a beautifully organized PDF file. I save mine on my phone and my computer desktop for easy access, but you can also print hard copies and put them in a binder if you'd like! Larson carefully curates each week's recipes to all use similar ingredients so that your grocery shopping is easier, but she also writes you a full grocery list for each week! This helps to save so much more money on your grocery shopping than picking random dinner recipes out of cookbooks or Pinterest for the week, since every recipe in AMOD is curated to use similar ingredients with other recipes that week. Larson also includes a list of pantry staples to keep on hand at all times in the start of each copy of AMOD. Since I do like to cook and bake, I had a lot of these staples in my pantry already. But there were a few unique items listed that I have since added to my pantry, and I've found them to be helpful additions.
I own AMOD Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I have found that more of my favorite recipes to make repeatedly are in Vol. 2, but Vol. 1 still has some great ones as well. Each volume costs just $14.99, and there is bundle pricing for both volumes for under $30! Larson is currently working on AMOD Vol. 3- it is supposed to be released for sale later this spring and I can't wait to get my hands on that one when it's out!
All of Larson's recipes can be easily adapted to be gluten-free or dairy-free depending on your diet preferences. They use regular ingredients found at average grocery stores- no need to visit any fancy specialty stores to find uncommon items!
Here are some of my favorite recipes I've made from both AMOD volumes:
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies (Vol. 2) - These are my favorite dessert recipe from AMOD! Ryan has told me they are his favorite cookies that I make. The dough freezes very well so it's easy to make a bunch and pull out of the freezer when needed!
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| Beef Taco Skillet and Mexican Rice (Vol. 2.) with Creamy Jalapeño Sauce (Vol. 1) - The most delicious tacos that I have ever eaten!! This taco skillet can be served on its own, but I like to turn it into soft tacos. Larson's Mexican rice recipe is super easy, too! |
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| Jalepeno Cheddar Salmon Burgers (Vol 2.) with Creamy Jalepeno Sauce (Vol. 1) - Such a unique and tasty way to cook fish at home! These are absolutely delicious. I serve them with frozen French fries, but AMOD has many side dish ideas that would work well with them, too. |
Sausage & Pepper Pasta (Vol 2.) - This pasta is so easy and tasty! I've made it for Ryan a few times, and we have discovered our favorite way to eat it is to add a little store-bought Alfredo sauce into it as well. Larson's recipes are perfect for making easy modifications to like this!
Also- just wanted to say that no part of this blog post review is sponsored. 😊 I genuinely have been loving using the AMOD volumes for easy weeknight recipes and desserts over the past six months. Larson has quickly become one of my favorite follows on Instagram, you can tell that she truly has a heart of gold! I love giving publicity on my blog and Instagram to small businesses that I love, and I hope you'll be inspired to check out Larson and her recipe booklets!
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese
