Just thinking out loud here, but I can't seem to figure out who the audience is for this particular book concept? If the concept of No Recipe? No Problem is to be prepared to wing it in the kitchen, wouldn't a person who just throws things together skip the book altogether? The basis of the book is a "cooking circle" assembled by author, Phyllis Good. This group is a collection of everyday people from diverse backgrounds (high five for that), but they really don't seem to be an authority on the subject. Seemingly simplistic ideas are presented like wisdom from the sands of time, but really a person could garner the same information by reading the preparation instructions on the box of pasta in their pantry without having to flip to a page in a book. Novice cooks may learn preparation techniques, but in the age of YouTube videos and audible answers bouncing back in seconds when asking Alexa at which temperature to roast a chicken, this tutorial feels clunky and dated.
There is plenty of excellent advice on food preparation and the author does a wonderful job compiling it in one place. However, it is like the instructions of a recipe without providing the ingredients and their measurements. If repackaged and rebranded, I could see this book turning into a useful resource instead of a flip through it once and never open it again manual.

I really like this book. When you are struggling for ideas you can head straight here. It is split into the usual categories for cooking but love the ideas and anecdotes added to help you formulate your own versions of meals. Will go back to it time and time again.

This recipe book is a little different and I found it useful especially in lockdown! I'm trying to use up what I have before shopping so this was perfect.

Wow... what a book! No recipe No problem is a must have for any kitchen. Impromptu guide for anyone who just loves to throw stuff together or make a meal out of what you have on hand. This is an old school method with a bunch of organized ideas!

What did I like? Interesting method since I cook a ton of vegetables and try very hard to eat them before spoilage. It’s a handy book and it helps you encompass ingredients already in your cupboard. Over three hundred pages and a wealth of information!

Would I recommend or buy? Yes, I’d definitely recommend to anyone looking to budget meals or just learn to cook with what you have on hand. This is a skill any cook can use! I would love a copy!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review! Five stars for usefulness!

I am the type of person who loves cooking and cooks from scratch everyday but I always follow a recipe. I very rarely stray from what a recipe calls for. Which I realise is ridiculous. This book has given the confidence to be more freestyle in my approach. A great read with lots of practical tips to help people get dinner on the table with far less fuss.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

There are some parts of this book which are quite useful - charts of cooking times and the best way to prepare certain vegetables, for example. However I couldn't work out what level of cook it was aiming for. There is quite a lot of fairly basic information in it - too much for someone who is already confident enough to play around with recipes and ingredients - but not enough that this would make an adequate reference for someone who was new to cooking. Then there are parts of it which are likely to be completely intimidating to a novice cook. Someone who doesn't know how to use basic techniques like searing and microwaving isn't likely to be confident enough to take up the suggestion of a freestyle pesto. And someone who is comfortable in the kitchen, altering recipes and winging it, probably doesn't need a book like this.

Freestyle cooking - I think this is what I’ve been doing subconsciously for years.
Some good ideas here - what do I have on hand, how much time do I have and what am I hungry for?
Substitution of ingredients makes sense as it gives you numerous options with what you have available.
What are the basics you need - good ideas here.on cupboard and fresh items.. Also I tend to overbuy fresh food so am always looking for ideas to use them up.
Highlighting the best way to cook them e.g. roasting,, stir frying., etc.
Enjoyable and informative book.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.

I love these types of books. And I love just winging it every once in a while without recipes. This book can help you learn to do it easily too. If you love cooking you need this book

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of No Recipes? No Problem!

I love to eat but I'm a lousy cook so any cookbook that promises easier techniques to help me in the kitchen is a book I want to get my hands on.

I envisioned this to be laid out like a cookbook with recipes and ingredients but it's more informal.

Tips and tricks are offered by cooks from a virtual cooking community and their ideas and stories are relatable, helpful and valuable.

Techniques, ways to cook ingredients and even tricks for when you don't have a certain ingredient on hand is available here. I didn't realize how easy it was to make certain dishes and sauces until I read this!

This was a fun and informative book with good photos. Highly recommend!

This cookbook does a great job at including kid-friendly, adults-(probably)-only, and DIY to everyone’s own tastes. Many of the recipes also have notes at the end for substitutions and other tips. It’s a great cookbook to give as a gift to new families or more established families who may need some new staples.

I really enjoyed this "cookbook" and it really inspired me to try out things on my own instead of just following a recipe. I like that they pointed out tools for every kitchen and ingredients to have on hand. That is really helpful since I always have a backup dish on hand with those ingredients.

Great book! I really loved it, there are lots of great tips to get you to try cooking freestyle, and as recipe nut it was such a good way for me to get at ease in the kitchen and really learn to enjoy cooking rather than being so uptight and it being a means to an end. I really love that I can learn to do this and not worry that it's going to be duff!

I love that are a lot of different contributors within this book, I think that really allows the reader who may have little or no cooking skills, poor confidence in the kitchen or whatever, an extra boost, it certainly worked for me. The cooking circle really allowed me to look at recipes that interested me and build on them, adapting them to being my own and making them work for me, swapping out ingredients that maybe, I didn't really like with things I really enjoyed. It's changed the way I look at cooking and allowed me to have extra confidence and motivation with my cooking and in myself.

I liked the diversity in recipes and I honestly couldn't get enough of this book, I will definitely be buying this one! The book includes foods like pizza's, soups, pasta's and eggs etc etc. And although the book is majorly designed for meat eaters, there is of course the change to replica the technique of chopping and changing what works for you with the ingredients you have. So if you were perhaps looking for gluten free or an allergy free recipe you can add or takeaway whatever doesn't work for you. I think it's pretty genius in that respect though, the book doesn't actually offer any vegetarian or gluten free recipes per se.

I recieved this free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, and would like to thank them, the publisher and the Author, Phyllis Good for allowing me the opportunity of reading this excellent book, changing my association with food and cooking, hundred percent recommend. All opinions are my own.

Why is this the first time I've come across a cookbook like this? This is what I need as someone who cooks almost everyday now and hate to follow recipes. I don't enjoy planning meals and listing down my marketing list according to dishes I might cook. My style is looking at what I have in the fridge and deciding that day (and often just before that meal itself) what I want to cook.

No recipes no problem is therefore perfect for me. Some charts in there are priceless to me! Ha!

I also appreciate that some asian cooking ideas are included. I hope more cookbooks like this especially ones that focus on asian cuisine will be published.

5 stars for the concept of this cookbook and all the great information contained within! I will have to get myself a hardcopy!

No Recipe? No Problem! by Phyllis Good is the cookbook for people who don't use recipes. I've long kept a well stocked pantry and make many dishes using complimentary items instead of following a recipe. This on-the-fly type of cooking helps create less waste and teaches the cook to get creative. I love the suggestions and the tips for using all items that you have on hand. I routinely have "refrigerator soup," using all the items in my fridge that are leftover or getting close to going bad or veggies going soft. Great cookbook and one I would add to my collection!

This is a really useful book, which teaches you how to freestyle recipes. As a person who will often throw things into a pan and hope for the best, this gave me a lot of information on how to pair food and ingredients.

What a gem. This book doesn't have "recipes," per se, but tons of ideas for using what's in your kitchen. Cooking charts, lists of ingredients that go together, instructions for basic techniques, lots of pictures with short, single paragraph instructions to put together salads, stews, soups, stir fries, and so much more. No special recipes for special equipment other than a stove and microwave--you can do everything in this book with a bare bones kitchen. There are no baked goods other than pizza as those do require exact ingredients, so this is just meals and snacks. This has answers for folks who come home from farmers' markets wondering what to do with the glorious stuff purchased without a plan. It's equally valuable for folks faced with unexpected company to feed, with plenty of tips for stretching ingredients and what to do when you work late and didn't get to the grocery store in time to pick up dinner ingredients. It encourages even timid cooks to rely on their taste buds and step out into the unknown.

I grew up with a mom who cooked this way. For the most part, her put-togethers were very good, but even if something didn't turn out wonderful, but was never awful. On the downside, some of the best were never duplicated, and this book does recommend that cooks write down what they do. It's the way I cook most of the time, having spent decades learning. It's a wonderful book, and I plan to give one to my 22 year old grandson as soon as it's published--he likes to cook and keeps some food around, but is rarely organized enough to use recipes properly, so this fits his style perfectly.

This book makes me want to cook, which is saying something because I don’t really cook. I’m more of a kit-and-follow directions kind of cook, but this is a fun, colorful, easy to read book that makes me want to pull out random things from my fridge and pantry and see what treat I can come up with. The book seems to focus on vegetarian fare, this isn’t to say there wasn’t any meat, there is, it just looked like the majority were veg. The recipes with meat, can be made without and are just as good. The bowl and pizza recipes were my favorite (the Freestyle Hot Breakfast bowl was delicious).

This book is perfect for the recent grad, or as a gift for someone whose just bought their first home / apartment... or that aspiring chef. It might sound weird, but a lot of cook books are so stodgy and uptight, like you’d be afraid to get it dirty, this one looks like it belong in the kitchen. Like it wants you to use it, get it dirty, and play (have fun) with your food.

Firstly, thank you so much the NetGallery and the publisher for allowing me a copy of this wonderful book! This is not your usual type of cooking book, it is aimed more at those who free-style and like to mix things up. Phyllis doesn't just show you a simple recipe, she teaches you the basics but the basics that you can use time and time again, for example. the coconut curry recipe is beyond easy and I can now mix it up how I like but keeping the key skill to the recipe. The book is very well illustrated, uses bright colours and looks appealing. I can 100% imagine having this in my kitchen.

Rating 3.5 Stars

This is a unusual cookery book as it doesn't really contain proper recipes - it provides you with the tools and ideas for freestyle/improvisational cooking by looking at what you have in the fridge, freezer or cupboard and coming up with an idea for what to eat.

The techniques and ideas from this book come from 14 cooks from around the USA/Canada plus the author - they also provide tips such as making extra, freezing in meal sized portions, good substitutes, tools and more. They also provide a list of ingredients that are staples in their cupboards.

The book is divided into 11 chapters:
- Vegetables
- Pastas & Grains
- Big Proteins (meats and fish)
- Sauces
- Bowls
- Salads
- Soups
- Sheet-pan meals (tray bakes)
- Pizzas
- Eggs
- Toast Toppers & their cousins

There are many technique tables contained within this book on the best ways to cook vegetables (sauté, roast, stir-fry, braise, steam, grill or microwave), grains either in a saucepan or pressure cooker, meats with their cuts , temperatures and cooking times, . Many of the chapters also have explanations on how to sauté, broil, stir-fry, different ways to cook eggs or sear the meat.

The oven temperatures are in imperial measurements and there are some colour photographs of the recipe ideas alongside some illustrations.

If you like to throw meals together from what you have in the cupboard then this gives you some interesting ideas but if you are looking for exact recipes to follow then this is might not the book for you.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

The premise of this book is that if you have the basics in place, you can design and create lovely meals without using a recipe.
A group of cooks share their tips so you have the tools to get creative - for example, to design a salad that has crunch, colour and a vinaigrette or dressing you can design by choosing from basics (eg a creamy dressing could have mayonnaise as it’s base or an alternative such as Greek yoghurt).
I really liked some of the ideas - for example, the layered bowls such as the Poke bowl.
I also liked the permission to get creative in line with my own taste - for example to make a more acidic salad dressing.
I have no doubt I’m going to use this wisdom to innovate a bit. I’m planning a tofu layered bowl for tomorrow’s dinner!
Recommended whole-heartedly.