Cook Book Review: A Man, A Can, A Plan.

Readers of Men's Health magazine may be familiar with the title of this book. In each issue they highlight a simple recipe to make using canned foods in their Malegrams section. Well this book is a much bigger selection of those recipes and the charming Ms. Skeelo got it for me for Christmas. I have now tried about a dozen of the recipes and can say conclusively this book is awesome! It is not just meant for single guys, though it seems to be marketed that way. It is meant for anybody who works their ass off all day and just wants a good quick meal when they get home (most of the recipes I have made take less than 20 minutes including prep time. One's that have taken longer only take longer because they require time in the oven).

Some of the highlights (shorter cooking time) I would recommend are the Black-Jack Quesadillas, Fried Bean Tomatoes, Cowboy Stew, and Three Alarm Sloppy Joe's. For a bit longer cooking time I would suggest the Cowboy Stew and Bombay Chicken 'N Rice. When the guys are over you need to go with the Border Patrol Casserole, Game-Day Stew, or Beans-on-Fritos Pie (this one is also highly recommended if you are hung-over).

The book is organized by main ingredient such as chicken, ham, fish, beans, etc. There is a veggie section but if you have read this far you probably won't be buying the book for the veggie section. There is also a beer section with four recipes.
Each recipe gives health information such as number of calories, grams of fat, and grams of protein per serving. Some also include small fact or health tidbits (Did you know Tuna can help prevent old age blindness?).

Another great thing about the book is that most canned goods have a pretty long shelf life so you can load up at the grocery store every couple of weeks and always have something available when you get home.

I highly recommend this book for all guys, married or single. And watch shortly for my review of A Man, A Plan, A Grill now that BBQ season has arrived.

5/5