This is the most important book I have read this year.

Honest, insightful and wise, this book looks at not only the importane of nourishing yourself but also gives you to the tools to do it effectively, whatever your budget, equipment or experience. In a time when food poverty is at an all-time high, stress about access to food has been exaggerated during the pandemic and we all feel a little bit crazy (or, in my case, crazier than usaul), this book is a lifesaver. As soon as I can get to the shops I will be trying out as many of these as possible; nourishing myself isn't always easy and things get in the way. This book has been a beautiful, vulnerable reminder not only of how to do that, but why it - and I - am important enough to warrant it.

I can say without hesitation that every home, school and library needs this book.

I love the idea of this book - quick and easy meals for those days where you're feeling low. I particularly enjoyed the 15 minute meal section.

There's a good selection of budget meals that are tasty, nutritious and quick for days where you can't face cooking or the thought of preparing a meal is overwhelming. Most diets are covered - including vegetarian and vegan so something to suit everyone.

I did find a few of the recipes had a lot of ingredients or the recipe itself was fairly elaborate - not ideal if in the depths of depression and slightly out of place within this particular book. However, a handy book to have and well worth a look.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a really lovely and helpful book. Anyone who has had mental health issues knows the struggle to make/have something to eat. And something that's good for you and going to help you feel better at that. This book has comfort food, nutritious food, and recipes so simple they are hardly recipes (I mean that in the best possible way). This book will help you to nourish yourself when all you want to do is hide in your bed. It will also give you ideas for some simple everyday recipes that you can cook again and again! Highly recommended!

Fab book.

Love Jack. Watch her on TV, follow her on twitter too.

I highly recommend this book.

So many amazing quick and easy recipes! We made the fish crumble and absolutely adored it in particular.

I love Jack Monroe, she is an inspiration, I love her cooking, it’s real, practical and affordable but it’s also amazing. This was such a great idea for a cookbook and like her other books which I own (and I’ll be buying a copy for the kitchen of this) it’s got amazing mouthwatering recipes in, that are easy to make, clearly explained and make you want to cook them all. It’ll be difficult choosing what to make first. Practical and beautiful food.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This came at exactly the right time for me. I have loved Jack's work and books for ages but this was such a perfect selection of feel-good recipes for a dark and changing time. Can't recommend enough.

Plot

Recipes and musings from Jack Monroe.

Ending – Thumbs up or meh

Meh because I had finished it (sad face)

Book surmised in 5 words or less

A comfort hug cookbook.

A keep you up all night read?

Although it’s a cookbook, it would be the perfect book to read for those nights when I can’t sleep.

My thoughts

Thank you to Jack Monroe, publishers Bluebird and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I’m terrible for buying cookbooks, browsing them and sticking them on the shelf never to see the light of day again. I’m not a natural or confident cook, more a throw it together and hope for the best. I hate washing up so don’t want to be bothered with a recipe that demands lots of dishes and I don’t want a recipe using 101 obscure ingredients that I can’t find.

This latest installment by Jack Monroe ticked the boxes for me. Reading more autobiography than bam in your face cookbook, each recipe is preceded with an intro by Jack typically with some info on the inspiration for the recipe. I liked the selection of recipes, some simple, some more involved but all seemed achievable with mostly stock cupboard ingredients (frozen veg/tinned veg, bulk standard spices etc) and with limited kitchen time or hassle factor and plenty that are “simple but something different” that I quite fancy trying.

Some of my favourite recipes that are on the top of my list to make included Honey Nut Milk, Sleepy Hot chocolate, eggy cup, jalapeno cheese scones, Cacio e Pepe, Sausage squash and apple traybake and hot apple pies!

The price point of this book is also an attractive factor for me. It’s not going to break the bank and is the perfect gift idea for cookbook fanatics with added TLC.

The illustrations gave this book the cherry on the top.

What will I take from this book?

I want to find out what sauerkraut tastes like. I’m intrigued by the ice cream cake and I am now eating 3 Brazil nuts a day!

Favourite bit of the book

Food first aid

Not all of the recipes were to my taste (I have a personal vendetta against corguettes), but I really appreciated the frankness here. This is a very open, and honest book - I empathised with just how difficult it can be to cook for yourself someties, and it was a relief to see recipes presented which acknowledged this reality. As my tastes in food (and cooking habits) are quite predictable, I found the "just bung it in the oven" (paraphrased!) and sweet stuff chapters most relevant, but I earmarked recipes throughout the book. As the recipes themselves are simpler, I'm more likely to actually attempt to make them. I definitely got lots of meal ideas and inspiration from Good Food for Bad Days, even if I'll change up some of the flavours. It also made me feel the urge to buy a bullet-style blender!

Review will be live on 11/6/20

I'd like to start off this review by giving a huge thank you to the publisher for allowing me to have the opportunity to review an eBook copy of this book. I am a huge fan of Jack Monroe and have all of her other books, so I'm incredibly happy and thankful for this opportunity.
So far, I have made two of the dishes featured in this book. I love how simple Jack's recipes are, and it's a huge bonus that they are good for you and don't cost huge amounts. As a single parent I like to be able to feed my children well, and for a low cost. - which often doesn't happen with other cookbooks.
We have currently made Cheese and Oregano Rusks and Orange and Blueberry Oat Bars from the book, and are really looking forwards to trying the Five-a-Day Couscous and the Jaffa Cake Mug Pudding.

Another fantastic family, budget and health friendly read from Jack!

Good Food for Bad Days by Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe is an absolute legend, known for her bootstrap store cupboard recipes and anti poverty campaigns. She writes honestly and candidly about mental health and her own personal challenges.

Her newest book is more luxurious than her previous ones, full of comforting recipes for tough days. She includes mugs of warming goodness, nutritional blasts, tasty snacks (mmmm popcorn AKA ‘lunch’) and ready fifteen minute meals.

As someone who can lack motivation for making tasty, healthy food; especially when alone, this book is a gift.

It’s an essential book for improving self care. It’s practical, inspiring and open hearted. A manual for eating well when everything feels like a struggle.

Thanks to @netgalley and @panmacmillan for my eARC.

"This is a very dangerous piece of knowledge to have; the ability to rustle up a hot sticky pudding in a matter of minutes that tastes like a pile of melted Jaffa cakes."

Jack Monroe is one of those chefs that I've heard lots about, but never actually seen any recipes by. Today that changed and I am not sure I could ever go back!

This book is honest. She's straight up with her situation and the reason why she's written a cookbook that she wanted to call ‘Depressipes’. This book is filled with easy to make comfort food, and I can truly say I have never been through a cookbook and wanted to try nearly every single recipe.

The recipes themselves are practical, made with cheap ingredients that can easily be found in any UK supermarket.

But it's not just the recipes. This book is just fun.
For example, here is the description on how to knead bread:
"First, drive your palm into the dough and push it away from you like a mugger trying to nick your mobile phone on a dark night. POW! Grab it by the scruff of the neck at the back and pull it back towards you. Flip it over. Throw it down. Whack it again. BAM! This should feel satisfying and slightly bizarre."

This book is a game-changer and I highly recommend anyone who can get their hands on it, should do so.

It's difficult to review cookbooks (I figure you need to actually try the recipes before you review a book like this), but I love Jack Monroe's 'depressipies' and how she's focused on making good, nutritious things for people who sometimes struggle to get out of bed. It features lovely illustrations of the dishes, as well as tid-bits of advice and stories from her own life about when these recipes helped her. A great cookbook for right now.

I love Jack Monroe's books. They are always full of helpful advice, hints, tips and easy ways to produce tasty food - and save money at the same time.

Good Food for Bad Days is a little different in that this is Jack talking candidly about the kind of food that has helped her keep on a even keel, even when times have been very hard, and each chapter has a very personal preface about the whys and wherefores of the recipes to follow.

This is comforting food. Easy food which can be made in a jiffy for times when you just do not have the energy or inclination for more, and food to life your mood - all done with the special touch that makes Jack's recipes so user (and store cupboard) friendly.

There are lots of yummy recipes in these pages that I can't wait to try!

What I like most about Jack Monroe’s recipes is that they are simple to follow with easy to get ingredients, and thankfully this cookbook continues with this tradition. A decent selection of recipes, both sweet and savoury. If you like Jack, you’ll love this book!

This book is a must have if you regularly have that can't or don't want (for whatever reason to cook) either for yourself or your family. Its full of really quick and nutritious recipes that don't take too much prep but assures you that even though your mood is low, you won't be missing out on good nutrition which is needed. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jack really should have her own cookery show. I don't enjoy cooking but there's something warm and comforting reading her narrative of her recipes that gently tells me that I can do it. Hey!, I might even try baked oats one day. She's a bit like a Southend Nigella! ( Btw, I live in the Southend area)

I was lucky enough to be sent this, and I absolutely adored it! I love Jack’s way of writing, the style of the recipes and hearing about her life- we’ve already made a couple of dishes and they were delicious.
This would be a fantastic gift for someone in your life who needs a little help, as someone who suffers with bad anxiety (like there is a good one!), I found it so helpful to read- it was like speaking to a friend.

Good Food for Bad Days is a cookbook that focuses on eating when you're feeling bad. From one pan recipes and things you can just stick in the oven to recipes that take under 15 minutes or things that are great to keep in the fridge, the book is divided into practical sections and the recipes tend to have alternate ingredients and ways of freezing them if possible. It is also part memoir (as cookbooks often can be), with Monroe's reflection on mental health and anecdotes about when to eat the recipes.

This is a practical cookbook but also a kind of inspiration to find the food and simple recipes that might work for you when you're feeling bad and still need to eat. Practically, actually making the recipes on bad days isn't necessarily very likely, but there's a lot of good ideas for things you can make and freeze, and comforting yet healthy meals that aren't too expensive. The book has a candid tone and the feel of someone just sending you some recipes that might help, with their own asides where you might want to change them.

As someone who never owned a blender, I've always found it hard to make a lot of the meals in Monroe's books, but I actually got a stick blender recently so I'm far more likely to try making some of these. People who like cookbooks full of aspirational, more complex cooking probably won't enjoy this one, but it's a good kind of cookbook for those looking for something that is simply practical and more of a pick me up than an in-depth guide.

Something different from the usual cookbook. I am a foodie, it’s one of my main comforts in life but let me tell you a little about my relationship with food. I often struggle with anxiety and when I’m at my worst my relationship with food is terrible. It’s not that I don’t want to eat I just cannot be bothered to make food at all. That’s where this wonderful book can help me. Jack has written a book filled full (75 recipes) with amazing if a little quirky recipes to feed all of my mindsets. There are recipes for when you just need some quick and easy nutrition with “no faff”, for when you can indulge in taking your time with a recipe and every point in-between. The recipes are easy to follow and interesting, there are lot of combinations you never thought you needed in your life until you read this! The commentary through the book is reassuring, warm and non patronising and I enjoyed the foreword from Matt Haig.
This is a book I would not just recommend but I am going to actively purchase for a couple of friends who I think could really benefit from it (And not just in the hope they will make me Ice Cream Cake)

I have always been a fan of Jack Monroe from her blog Cooking on a Book Strap, her campaigning to her buying her recipe books. Good Food for bad days is a slightly different book.
It starts with a very honest account of her life and her mental health and how herself gets through her good and bad days. Things that many of us can relate to today. She also tells us of the different foods and how they enhance our moods and then there is the recipes. Once again, they are affordable recipes that she has written with love. Ingredients that you may have in your cupboard. I can’t wait to try some of the recipes like Jaffa cake mug pudding, Re calibration supper and Sticky Beer and Lime Chicken with vegetable rice. Yummy. This book reminds me of a comfort blanket or even a best friend always there when you need a pick me up. I liked this so much I went a brought the paperback. Out today