Cookbook Review: Make Ahead Meals by Michael Smith

I received this book a while ago from Penguin Canada (Thank you so much!) and I had been meaning to review it earlier, but you know how life is- it always seems to get in the way! During the entire time I had this book I managed to try a number of recipes. Find out what I thought of Michael Smith's Make Ahead Meals below!

Make Ahead Meals 

Title: Make Ahead Meals
Chef: Michael Smith
Publisher: Penguin Canada 

Release date: September 1, 2015 

First of all, before I get into the recipes, I have to mention that I absolutely love the layout of this book and the way it is divided. Michael Smith gives several helpful hints in the introduction portion, especially tips and tricks about filling your fridge and freezing some of these meals ahead of time. What a great time saver when you come home from work and really don't want to cook! I thought it was a great idea that each of the recipes was photographed and used as an index at the back of the book. You kn ow what they say, you eat with your eyes first, so this definitely made it difficult when I was trying to figure out what recipes I wanted to try! So many of the recipes sounded (and looked) amazing, that I had such trouble deciding which I was going to try! 

In the end, I made three breakfast dishes- the Amazing Morning Microwave Muffins (pg 14), the Fruit Muffins (pg 16) and the Baked Western Quiche (pg 5)- and two "dinner" dishes- the Vegetarian Minestrone with Not-So Vegetarian Hummus (pg 58) and the Chipotle Chicken Enchilada (pg 196). 

Amazing Morning Microwave Muffins 

My husband and I always prefer sleep over getting ready for work in the morning, so we definitely do not have the time to mess around in the kitchen preparing breakfast before heading out the door. This is why I decided that the first recipe I would try would be a breakfast. The Amazing Morning Microwave Muffins peaked by interest because they were "fresh" muffins that didn't require much time. I really enjoyed the fact that the muffins were super quick to make, but they really disappointed me. I found them tasteless and dry. We added cinnamon and chocolate chips on the second batch we made, and this made them a little better, but they still weren't spectacular. I really loved the concept of this muffin, but didn't find that they hit the mark. I think I will try to play around with the ingredients to get some actual "amazing" morning muffins.

Fruit Muffins 

Since we weren't big fans of the Amazing Morning Microwave Muffins we decided to give the Fruit Muffins a shot. I really enjoyed the muffins and thought they were delicious. My husband had one complaint, one which has NOTHING to do with the actual recipe- the seeds of the fruit got stuck in his teeth... I'm starting to get the impression that my husband just likes to complain (please let me know if this is all husband's or if I'm in a club of my own ;)). Anyways, the recipe came out really well and the muffins were moist and tasty. They were really nice to just grab and go. Definitely ones that I will be making again.

Baked Western Omelet 

I had bought some peppers for a recipe that I didn't end up making and I was trying to figure out what to do with them when I came across this recipe. It looked delicious in the picture so I figured I would give it a shot. It was super tasty and really easy to make. I made the omelet on Sunday evening and we had enough for the entire week. I would have added mushrooms to the recipe, but that's only because I am a mushroom addict and would put mushrooms in everything if I could. I under seasoned the recipe, but as I'm sure all of you know, it's hard to determine how much seasoning to add to recipes like omelets since you can't taste them before cooking. My husband really liked this recipe and definitely wants to make it again.

Vegetarian Minestrone with Not-So-Vegetarian Hummus 

I brought my cookbook over to my mom one day because she gets a kick out of trying new recipes just as much as I do. She was flipping through the cookbook and saw that this recipe had anchovies and immediately said we had to make it. I'm glad she said that because we enjoyed it. The soup was super easy to make once everything was cup up. We changed the kale to spinach since we aren't fans of kale. The hummus wasn't anything special and didn't do much for the soup. As I said, we enjoyed the soup, but it was lacking something and I can't quite put my finger on what it was. The soup was tasty and i would definitely make it again, just have to play with the ingredients a bit.

Chipotle Chicken Enchilada 

Who doesn't love a Chicken Enchilada? They are fast and super tasty, so when I saw Michael Smith had a recipe for Enchilada's, I knew I had to give it a shot. His recipe, like all the other Chicken Enchilada's was really yummy. We swapped the chicken breast for ready made rotisserie chicken because I was being super lazy that day and didn't want to cook the chicken breast (plus it was a Tuesday and rotisserie chicken was on sale at Metro :)). We also added cheese to the inside of the enchilada because my husband is a cheese-aholic and has no problem admitting it. I am definitely going to keep this recipe on speed dial whenever I need a quick recipe to make that is yummy yummy yummy!


Overall, I really enjoyed Michael Smith's Make Ahead meals. I thought they were tasty and were great to make on the weekend and enjoy during the week. One of the great things about his recipes is that they don't take that long so you don't feel like you lose your entire weekend to cooking just so that you don't have to cook during the week. I highly recommend all of the recipes I tried (except for the Amazing Morning Microwave Muffins- but those just need some tweaking). If you are looking for some tasty but quick meals to make, definitely pick up this book- you won't be disappointed.

I give this cookbook:

4 out of 5 forks 

Thank you Penguin Canada for allowing me to review this book!