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Reviews
The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die by Rachel A. Rosen, Zilla Novikov
aveincobalt's review
5.0
Are you depressed? Broke? Out of spoons? If so, this is the cookbook for you! This is a cookbook for when you are so exhausted you just eat a handful of trail mix before going to bed. Everything in here is as low effort as possible. It isn’t gourmet and it knows it. This is a gentle and humorous reminder that you can eat better.
kestrellady's review
5.0
This is a fantastic (and funny!) little cookbook of meals you can make from stuff in your cabinets when you have no energy to cook. I’m already looking forward to adding some of these to my cooking rotation. And it’s available online for free!
ink_spun's review
The sad bastard cookbook is truly the most fitting name for this book. I know I am not a foodie but who eats plain rice with sauce what the hell. (The rice recipes were extremely questionable for me, who usually eats rice three times a day. The rest of the recipes looked great though.)
Funny, easily readable and complete with little scrawly side notes in the margins, I loved this!!
Funny, easily readable and complete with little scrawly side notes in the margins, I loved this!!
antamune's review against another edition
5.0
Hilarious while being helpful
As someone that struggles with mental illness this was a great idea for easy meals. I have to adjust most recipes I look at due to allergies but I could recommend this cookbook to anyone that is neurodivergent or struggles with mental health. I'm going to buy the physical book as gifts for a few friends!
As someone that struggles with mental illness this was a great idea for easy meals. I have to adjust most recipes I look at due to allergies but I could recommend this cookbook to anyone that is neurodivergent or struggles with mental health. I'm going to buy the physical book as gifts for a few friends!
rubywarhol's review
5.0
I have 17 cookbooks. They've been sitting on my shelf for the past 8 years. Not once in those 8 years have I opened one of them, thought to myself "wow, this is a recipe I can realistically cook today", and then proceeded to cook that recipe.
This cookbook is different. Like many others, it promises to offer simple, cheap, tasty veggie recipes. But here's the thing: It KEEPS that promise.
These are things you can manage to make even on your worst days, and you will still feel good about it because it has a cute name like "parfait" or "bubble and squeak", except it's a simplified version of the dish and the instructions are written so that even someone with an attention span of 0.2 milliseconds who is also very very bad at cooking can understand them.
Plus most of the recipes don't even require 500 ingredients that will go off in your fridge after 2 days. In short, it's exactly what I've been looking for my entire life.
And yes, I actually read through this book entirely like it's a novel because it was funny and, despite its title, rather uplifting.
https://nightbeatseu.ca/works/the-sad-bastard-cookbook/
Thanks for the free PDF!
This cookbook is different. Like many others, it promises to offer simple, cheap, tasty veggie recipes. But here's the thing: It KEEPS that promise.
These are things you can manage to make even on your worst days, and you will still feel good about it because it has a cute name like "parfait" or "bubble and squeak", except it's a simplified version of the dish and the instructions are written so that even someone with an attention span of 0.2 milliseconds who is also very very bad at cooking can understand them.
Plus most of the recipes don't even require 500 ingredients that will go off in your fridge after 2 days. In short, it's exactly what I've been looking for my entire life.
And yes, I actually read through this book entirely like it's a novel because it was funny and, despite its title, rather uplifting.
https://nightbeatseu.ca/works/the-sad-bastard-cookbook/
Thanks for the free PDF!
novella42's review
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
This is my new favorite cookbook. Not even joking. This is what I wanted Crip the Kitchen to be. It's hilarious, compassionate, useful, and extremely practical.
This thing is perfection for high pain, low-spoon, depression, and executive dysfunction days. When you cannot bear to make another goddamned decision, flip through this thing and grab something that sounds doable and in-stock in your kitchen.
Here's the true magic of this book: it ASSUMES you have 0.001% energy! If you happen to have more energy, it gives you "Middle-Tier" and "God-Tier" options in case you want to add more complexity. GAME-CHANGER, y'all.
Every other goddamned cookbook on my shelf assumes the opposite, that you have endless energy and capacity, and translating that down to "okay, I can switch this out for frozen veggies, and maybe I can skip these steps?" is a ton of mental energy and is usually guesswork that can have real mixed results. I tend to feel ashamed when I read cookbooks because these days I usually have to simplify them--or just read kid's cookbooks for simplicity. This is NOT a kid's cookbook. The authors write with respect and a comradery that feels like a massive relief. They also swear a lot.
Their little snarky side notes are hilarious and genuinely helpful. For example, they take into account stuff like the way grapefruit can mess with antidepressants like SSRIs. They also make you question the nature of time and reality in the "Bag Salad" recipe. And before you ask, "why do I need a recipe for bagged salad, FFS" let me just say that when your brain feels like deep-fried mashed potatoes and you're already low enough on blood sugar that you're having a hard time thinking straight, prioritizing, or making decisions, a situation which is only getting worse as you sit in your kitchen in a puddle 'o shame and discombobulation, wouldn't it be nice, wouldn't it be helpful, if you flipped open this book like a form of gentle, neurodivergent divination, and the authors took your hand and said "dude, we get it, we've been there," and reminded you the variations of toppings you could add to a salad, and reminds you of the ways you could get fancy but ALSO reminds you an exact count of the extra dishes you'll have to wash.
If you said, why yes, YES, that would be nice and helpful, then this is the cookbook for you.
I also wanna say, it's not just for people with disabilities, chronic illness, and mental health conditions. Life gets hard sometimes, with breakups and grief and losing a job or being exhausted after a move or the birth of a baby. We could all use something like this every once in a while. I think it'd make a fantastic gift in a care package for someone who's going through something rough. Though, maybe gauge whether the recipient would be insulted by "Sad Bastard," or if, like me, they feel like lolsobbing about it in the best way.
I snagged a hardcopy, but also, it's available free on Kindle and ALSO as a PDF if you sign up for the publisher's newsletter. I freaking love these people.
Here's the true magic of this book: it ASSUMES you have 0.001% energy! If you happen to have more energy, it gives you "Middle-Tier" and "God-Tier" options in case you want to add more complexity. GAME-CHANGER, y'all.
Every other goddamned cookbook on my shelf assumes the opposite, that you have endless energy and capacity, and translating that down to "okay, I can switch this out for frozen veggies, and maybe I can skip these steps?" is a ton of mental energy and is usually guesswork that can have real mixed results. I tend to feel ashamed when I read cookbooks because these days I usually have to simplify them--or just read kid's cookbooks for simplicity. This is NOT a kid's cookbook. The authors write with respect and a comradery that feels like a massive relief. They also swear a lot.
Their little snarky side notes are hilarious and genuinely helpful. For example, they take into account stuff like the way grapefruit can mess with antidepressants like SSRIs. They also make you question the nature of time and reality in the "Bag Salad" recipe. And before you ask, "why do I need a recipe for bagged salad, FFS" let me just say that when your brain feels like deep-fried mashed potatoes and you're already low enough on blood sugar that you're having a hard time thinking straight, prioritizing, or making decisions, a situation which is only getting worse as you sit in your kitchen in a puddle 'o shame and discombobulation, wouldn't it be nice, wouldn't it be helpful, if you flipped open this book like a form of gentle, neurodivergent divination, and the authors took your hand and said "dude, we get it, we've been there," and reminded you the variations of toppings you could add to a salad, and reminds you of the ways you could get fancy but ALSO reminds you an exact count of the extra dishes you'll have to wash.
If you said, why yes, YES, that would be nice and helpful, then this is the cookbook for you.
I also wanna say, it's not just for people with disabilities, chronic illness, and mental health conditions. Life gets hard sometimes, with breakups and grief and losing a job or being exhausted after a move or the birth of a baby. We could all use something like this every once in a while. I think it'd make a fantastic gift in a care package for someone who's going through something rough. Though, maybe gauge whether the recipient would be insulted by "Sad Bastard," or if, like me, they feel like lolsobbing about it in the best way.
I snagged a hardcopy, but also, it's available free on Kindle and ALSO as a PDF if you sign up for the publisher's newsletter. I freaking love these people.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Cursing