If you follow along on Instagram, you probably know that most of our meals this year have come from our favorite cookbook. We purchased the Defined Dish Cookbook back in February and we have been loving it ever since it arrived! Since it’s been three months since we purchased it, I wanted to give a little update + Defined Dish Cookbook review of some of our favorite recipes!
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I must admit, I’ve been bad about taking pictures of our meals! Honestly, they’ve all been so delicious that we dig in and I forget to snap some photos. I will be better about documenting the meals moving forward, I pinky promise! I did however, add a ‘Defined Dish’ Instagram Highlight with almost all the recipes we’ve made. Be sure to head to Instagram (@RileySitton) and check it out.
I’m going to share each of the recipes below, but since they’re not my recipes I will just be sharing the name and a brief review. I only like to publish recipes on here that I created or if I can link directly to the author’s post. Since the Defined Dish shares all these recipes in a book and not online, I won’t distribute her property. I will say this cookbook is definitely worth the $17. Even RJ is a huge fan, which is great because it fits well with his new dietary restrictions! Ok, let’s dig in!
DEFINED DISH COOKBOOK REVIEW – recipes we’ve made
- Skillet Chicken Picatta
- Chicken Picatta is one of my favorite meals ever, so I was excited to make this dish. This is one of the few we tried that I had to visit Whole Foods to grab an ingredient (arrowroot flour) but everything else is readily available at any store. Out of all the dishes we’ve made in the cookbook, this was the most involved. It wasn’t one skillet, was slightly messy and took some prep effort but it was well worth it. The chicken picatta was delicious, better than I have at some restaurants and made enough that we had leftovers for the second night. I will definitely make this dish again!
- Greek Lemon and Oregano Potato Soup
- I think this is my favorite dish we’ve made so far, but potatoes and lemons are two of my absolute favorite foods. This soup is completely from scratch and very easy to make. It’s one pot, which makes me even happier! You do need a blender or immersion blender to make this dish, but I recommend having an immersion blender on hand anyway! RJ was hesitant to try this as he’s not a huge lemon fan, but he absolutely loved it as well. We made this soup three times by the book and once with a modification. We omited the lemon and added milk, cheese, ranch dressing seasoning and bacon bits to make a loaded potato-esque soup. It was good, but the original is still my favorite. I highly recommend, and serve with some soft bread!
- One Pan Mexican Chicken & Rice
- This one was so easy that RJ actually made it! Plus, it was absolutely delicious. It made me question why we hadn’t been cooking rice this way the whole time. It made a ton of food, we were able to eat it two nights in a row and still have some leftover. Plus, one pan anything makes me so happy because easy to make, easy to clean up. If you haven’t tried this dish yet – add it to your list ASAP!
- Steak Street Tacos
- RJ picked this one out, he’s a big steak fan. I, on the otherhand, am not. I like steak but not really in dishes. Needless to say, these were still good! Just not my favorite out of the whole book. However RJ, who loves steak, loved these. They were quick and easy, didn’t take many ingredients and were filling. If you’re a steak fan, I think you would enjoy this easy taco night!
- Weeknight Lamb Bolognese
- If you ask RJ his favorite of the whole book, this one would be very high up there. Maybe even his favorite. We did substitute the lamb for beef and it was really good! It tasted better than some of the bolgonese we had while traveling in Italy. It was super easy to make, smelled delicious and was the perfect pasta night addition! We will absolutely make this again soon.
- One Pot Hamburger Helper
- This was another dish that RJ requested. As I’m typing this, I’m realizing he’s been getting his way quite a lot and it’s time for me to try something on my list haha! Either way, it was very good. Another one pot meal that makes me very happy (this is one reason I love her book – most things are SUPER easy to make, easy to clean up and don’t require loads of effort). We substituted ground turkey and it worked well! I think I would personally like ground beef better, but either way it was good. RJ aboslutely loved this one as well.
- One Pot Chicken Pot Pie Pasta
- I have heard such good things about this recipe, I actually bought this cookbook after seeing another blogger making this recipe! So, I was excited to try it. It was super easy, didn’t need a ton of ingredients and was absolutely delicious! Both RJ and I were huge fans of this one.
In addition to these recipes we made, I purchased this cookbook for my mom. She made the Greek Meatloaf and the Beef Enchiladas and absolutely loved both! I relized this is less of a Defined Dish cookbook review and more of a list of things we made and loved (which is everything). I can’t rave about this cookbook enough! It offers suggestions to make the recipes dairy free, gluten free or Whole30 compliant, has a children’s section, so many different recipes and every recipe we’ve tried is both easy and delicious.
Have you tried any that we need to add to our list? I hope to come back in a couple months with an update and better photos – but check out a few screengrabs I snagged below! If you have any questions, let me know. I hope you love this cookbook as much as we have!
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