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bug_lightyear's review
4.0
A very interesting book, but paradoxically not really accessible to me and my disabilities. I wish the subtitle of this book mentioned almost all recipes required an instant pot or air fryer, as I don't have any and don't have the space or budget to buy one of these things, I can't really use any of the recipes.
I liked the history of foods from different cultures, especially having grown in a multicultural family myself.
This book still made me think about how I could make my kitchen more accessible to myself, and even if I'm not able to right now, maybe in the future I can take some of these ideas and recipes for meal planning and enjoy more home cooked meals.
The ebook displayed weirdly on my tablet, cutting off tables and pictures, but maybe that's because I use large font instead of publisher's default.
I liked the history of foods from different cultures, especially having grown in a multicultural family myself.
This book still made me think about how I could make my kitchen more accessible to myself, and even if I'm not able to right now, maybe in the future I can take some of these ideas and recipes for meal planning and enjoy more home cooked meals.
The ebook displayed weirdly on my tablet, cutting off tables and pictures, but maybe that's because I use large font instead of publisher's default.
gdulecki's review
5.0
I just started seeing a nutritionist and one of the first things I said to her was that I love cooking but it causes me so much pain with my disabilities. And then two weeks later my partner comes home with this cookbook!!!! I love how the recipes are broken up by spoons needed for them, and how accessible they all feel to me. I went through and bookmarked the ones I want to start with, and I’m so excited to make my way through this book!!!
arianadcav's review
5.0
i love this book so far and we haven't even started cooking yet!! i have a hard time planning ahead but there are so many tools in here that are really practical to actually cook the way i want to!
wunder's review
5.0
This is the most systematic cookbook I've ever read. It is organized entirely around personal energy budgets, that is, how do you make great food without getting more tired.
Recipes are organized by how much mental and physical effort they take, using "spoon theory". You can read more about spoon theory here, but the idea is that you start the day with a certain amount of quanta of energy ("spoons") and at some point you can run out of spoons (energy). The chapters start with "Little Effort, Low Prep Times", move up through "Some Effort, Medium Prep Times", and go to "All Your Spoons".
Lots of emphasis on what can be done well ahead and stored (spice mixes, chopped onions) to make meals easier on the day. The recipes rely on kitchen power tools—an electric pressure cooker (Instapot), bread machine, and air fryer—with descriptions of how to use a stovetop pressure canner, a food processor, and so on.
So what about the food? I haven't cooked from this yet, but it sure looks tasty—butter chicken, daal makhani, tahdig, and salmon and pear salad all in the first chapter.
To see how it all comes together, read the appendix, "How to meal plan and prep for surgery recovery". This has a meal plan for six weeks, a shopping list, the canning needs, and a cooking schedule.
And Hallelujah! the book has a full table of contents listing all of the recipes. So many cookbooks skip that. Including a full TOC means it is so easy to skim the available recipes and choose one.
Though this is subtitled "for the disabled cook", this is really for anybody who wants to save energy in the kitchen. Even if you want to prep everything on the day, you can learn something from the streamlined efficient recipes here.
This belongs in the library of every senior living center and the personal library of a lot of occupational therapists.
One last thing, the photographs are beautiful.
Recipes are organized by how much mental and physical effort they take, using "spoon theory". You can read more about spoon theory here, but the idea is that you start the day with a certain amount of quanta of energy ("spoons") and at some point you can run out of spoons (energy). The chapters start with "Little Effort, Low Prep Times", move up through "Some Effort, Medium Prep Times", and go to "All Your Spoons".
Lots of emphasis on what can be done well ahead and stored (spice mixes, chopped onions) to make meals easier on the day. The recipes rely on kitchen power tools—an electric pressure cooker (Instapot), bread machine, and air fryer—with descriptions of how to use a stovetop pressure canner, a food processor, and so on.
So what about the food? I haven't cooked from this yet, but it sure looks tasty—butter chicken, daal makhani, tahdig, and salmon and pear salad all in the first chapter.
To see how it all comes together, read the appendix, "How to meal plan and prep for surgery recovery". This has a meal plan for six weeks, a shopping list, the canning needs, and a cooking schedule.
And Hallelujah! the book has a full table of contents listing all of the recipes. So many cookbooks skip that. Including a full TOC means it is so easy to skim the available recipes and choose one.
Though this is subtitled "for the disabled cook", this is really for anybody who wants to save energy in the kitchen. Even if you want to prep everything on the day, you can learn something from the streamlined efficient recipes here.
This belongs in the library of every senior living center and the personal library of a lot of occupational therapists.
One last thing, the photographs are beautiful.
nitebeing's review
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
4.0
we need more cookbooks like this, especially by and for neurodivergent folks (why don't all recipes have an "equipment needed" list???). most people don't stop to realize the ableism of kitchen design & cooking practices. would've rated higher if the author had a slightly better analysis & acknowledgement of class, and had processed a bit more of his own internalized ableism & explicitly made more room in prep times & ingredient variations as some recipes are still much too energy intensive to be doable by many Disabled folks (either at all without a simplified version or especially within the stated time frames, many would take me quite a bit longer).
novella42's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
I love that Jules Sherred saw the need for this book and wrote it himself. I love his attention to energy levels many "spoonies" and fellow disabled and chronically ill people live with. Sorting recipes into low, medium, and high energy days is something I do all the time. I loved his pre-surgery meal planning menu.
I love the heart and soul he poured into the book, the fact he shared his favorite recipes along with the cultural and personal history behind them. His photography is gorgeous and the food all looks truly delicious.
All of that being said, I also struggled with some internalized ableism as I read through the book and knew my personal prep time would be 3-5 times the length of his listed prep times. I don't know what it is about cooking from a wheelchair with C-PTSD, but everything takes so much longer. I feel like I'm having to employ so much concentration to plan or just remember all the steps everyone else finds so simple. Ten minutes to dice seven different vegetables and find and measure out six different spices? How??? That's going to be at least half an hour on a very good day, probably longer. I know it's just my internalized ableism that made me feel ashamed when I saw the time frames for his recipes, which all looked complex to me, even the shorter ones.
I often felt overwhelmed by the number of ingredients in most of the recipes he used, and found myself doing the extra mental math I do for most cookbooks, of "skip all those spices, use this spice mix/find a jar of curry sauce" and "skip chopping these ingredients and microwave a bag of frozen veggies to add instead." I know that probably defeats the purpose of a cookbook, but I just won't be able to make most of this without figuring out a lot of shortcuts.
I wish there were "super simplified" tips at the end of each recipe doing this kind of adjustment. But maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book and should just stick to "5 ingredient dinner" cookbooks or box meals. I guess I was expecting something more like the Depression Cooking Zine by Sonali Menezes.
Jules' love of delicious and complex food is beatiful and aspirational for me. Maybe someday.
I would love to see him apply this same kind of attention and love to a Low Spoons cookbook.
I love the heart and soul he poured into the book, the fact he shared his favorite recipes along with the cultural and personal history behind them. His photography is gorgeous and the food all looks truly delicious.
All of that being said, I also struggled with some internalized ableism as I read through the book and knew my personal prep time would be 3-5 times the length of his listed prep times. I don't know what it is about cooking from a wheelchair with C-PTSD, but everything takes so much longer. I feel like I'm having to employ so much concentration to plan or just remember all the steps everyone else finds so simple. Ten minutes to dice seven different vegetables and find and measure out six different spices? How??? That's going to be at least half an hour on a very good day, probably longer. I know it's just my internalized ableism that made me feel ashamed when I saw the time frames for his recipes, which all looked complex to me, even the shorter ones.
I often felt overwhelmed by the number of ingredients in most of the recipes he used, and found myself doing the extra mental math I do for most cookbooks, of "skip all those spices, use this spice mix/find a jar of curry sauce" and "skip chopping these ingredients and microwave a bag of frozen veggies to add instead." I know that probably defeats the purpose of a cookbook, but I just won't be able to make most of this without figuring out a lot of shortcuts.
I wish there were "super simplified" tips at the end of each recipe doing this kind of adjustment. But maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book and should just stick to "5 ingredient dinner" cookbooks or box meals. I guess I was expecting something more like the Depression Cooking Zine by Sonali Menezes.
Jules' love of delicious and complex food is beatiful and aspirational for me. Maybe someday.
I would love to see him apply this same kind of attention and love to a Low Spoons cookbook.
niceonehros's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Excellent resource, actionable, and inspiring
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