Low-Lift High Reward, Like My Bicep Curls

Never have I ever, Snack Dinners, and a Guest Chef!

Low-lift High reward

My trainer is always cueing this in class. If you are feeling tired, on a time crunch, or just don’t feel like being in the gym that day, the key is to lift heavier weights for fewer reps. This will help reduce systemic fatigue, shorten your workout, and get you ripped in no time…the last one is wildly untrue, especially for women, it takes time to build muscle. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Low-lift high reward is also the THEME of a BRAND new cookbook by this week's guest Chef.

WELCOME TO GUEST CHEF FRIDAY!

A highly entertaining addition to the coveted weekly cookbook newsletter. I have been having so much fun writing and cooking that I thought WE must explore as many recipe authors, cookbook creators, and food artists as we can! I have so many great friends and fellow Substack creators who are MASTERS in the food realm, and I want you to know about ‘em.

This week we are celebrating Georgia Freedman! She just released her new cookbook, Snacking Dinners this week! What is a snacking dinner you ask? Freedman gives us her POV.

Snacking dinners are the ultimate form of self-care, a meal of favorite foods expanded to be balanced and perfectly satisfying, magical in their simplicity and promise, and both a delicious treat and a cooking shortcut.

While this type of low-lift, high-reward meal has recently been refreshed under the “girl dinner” trend, snacking meals have always been the secret weapon of busy people (especially women) of all ages, from professionals who get home too late and too tired to stand over a stove to harried moms who need to get dinner on the table fast (and make it fun for a picky audience). They’re endlessly versatile, accommodating to any food preference, and can be scaled up and down easily, making them as perfect for a solo eater as they are for a family full of young kids.

Image courtesy of Georgia Freedman

A book after my own heart! I made an entire business based around the idea of Snacking Dinners. (Over-the-top cheese platter, anyone?) Not a fan of the gendered trend of girl dinner, we will leave that on TikTok where it belongs and forever more refer to our piece meal situations as SNACK DINNERS!

Each recipe in the book is designed to feed one and encourage you to make flavorful, delightful meals for yourself. Such a smart idea. How many times have you looked at a recipe and thought well that would be nice, but I don’t want to eat shrimp gumbo for 17 meals so I am just gonna order a pizza instead (extra pepperoni and a side of parm). Know that each recipe can be scaled up if there happens to be more people joining you for your snack dinner BUT if it’s only you know that YOU ARE ENOUGH (I read a lot of self-improvement books.) Snacking Dinners by Georgia Freedman

Recipes I cooked:

Shrimp Cocktail with Citrus-Gochujang Seafood Sauce

Zuni-inspired Celery Sticks

Add-ons: Kettle Cooked Apple Cider Vinegar Chips & Spiced Nuts

Another very clever addition to this cookbook is the curated themed groupings of snacks. If you feel so inclined, you can bundle a couple of snacks to create one EPIC and filling snack dinner. I leaned into her Old-School Steakhouse Bar theme. It had two recipes and two store-bought add-ons, no reason not to bust out this combo for your next fuss-free meal for you or your crew.

Shrimp Cocktail with Citrus-Gochujang Seafood Sauce

Never have I ever cooked my own shrimp specifically for a shrimp cocktail.

I would like to formally apologize to the academy. I didn't know I should do such a thing. I just assumed all shrimp cocktails came in those large round plastic containers with the bowl of cocktail sauce plunked down in the center, crack it open, and let the shrimp gorging begin.

Today is the day my friends!

I poached shrimp for my shrimp cocktail. You definitely don’t have to. If you are going extra low-lift, you can buy pre-cooked shrimp (at the seafood counter or from the freezer section). It was simple. Next time I will purchase my shrimp with the shell removed (not the tail), I assumed they would be cooked shells on. They are not. Shrimp juice squirted on me multiple times when I was removing the shells. Ew. Not necessary.

Freedman recommends using 21-25 size shrimp. The numbers refer to how many shrimp per pound, the lower the number the larger the shrimp will be. We have medium shrimpies for our cocktail today.

Poaching the shrimp requires few ingredients and is ultimately very versatile. The most interesting part of this poaching process is that you start the shrimp in cold water and bring it to a simmer. To know exactly when they are cooked you temp the cooking liquid (not the shrimp themselves). Fascinating! It worked. My shrimp were incredibly tender and not overcooked in the slightest. (Always a minor concern.)

Freedman’s cocktail sauce has ruined me. In the best way.

Where all bottled cocktail sauce belongs.

Freedman’s seafood sauce is incredibly simple AND you get to add more or less of what you like. I just so happen to LOVE horseradish and I added an extra spoonful to my sauce. There is also the addition of Gochujang, a spicy, sweet, fermented Korean chili paste. It is incredibly versatile (marinades, stir-fries, or dipping sauces) and gives the sauce lots of depth, dimension, and spice!

Zuni-inspired Celery Sticks

Zuni-inspired refers to the famous Zuni Cafe in San Fransisco; I have never been, so my expectations were unassuming. The idea of this recipe is to make a delicious creamy filling and then put said filling into celery sticks (think elevated ants on a log). I respectfully said nay and made my filling a dip. Which just means I put it into a bowl instead of filling each stick of celery.

Listen. If you can’t be bothered. You can’t be bothered.

The filling was INCREDIBLE. Mayo, anchovies, parmesan cheese, olives, lemon, parsley, and yuzu koshu. Measure, mix, taste, DEVOUR! We used yuzu koshu in an Alison Roman recipe if you want to reminisce.

My Conditional Love of Anchovies

Yuzu koshu is a fermented Japanese hot sauce, citrusy, spicy, and a little funky. Freedman says it’s optional; I say it’s NECESSARY.

As for the Add-ons

Hi, my name is Nicole and I am a chip-aholic.

I have had an obsession with potato chips since my early days. My mom told me that when I was sick as a child I would not want soup I wanted CHIPS! And that still stands to this day. Maybe it is not chip specific but about the salt. (Pauses to consider life, and salivate over soy sauce.)

To round out the meal I bought some Apple Cider Vinegar chips. Salt and vinegar are my ultimate go-to chip BUT these sounded fun. Marketing wins again, although they do taste different, I won’t commit to better. I dipped my chips in both dips, for the record.

For the spiced nuts, I bought them. That’s that. If you are an over-achiever make your own, but leave me out of it.

The Old-School Steakhouse Bar combo in action:

I highly encourage an animal companion, Housewives binge not required, sub Severence, Love is Blind or any trending true crime series to wind down and enjoy your spoils.

Snacking Dinners has over 50 recipes and 10 themed combos to experiment with! You will never run out of inspiration and tasty snack ideas. This book is the most fun and practical cookbook I have come across in a while. Get your Snack on here!

A big thank you to Freedman for letting me cook her delicious recipes! You can also follow along with the Snacking Dinners Newsletter here.

If you know someone who desperately needs Snacking Dinners in their life, show some love to Freedman and me and share this post! OR gift them the book…if you made your own spiced nuts you are doing this. We love you and also judge you.

Cheers,

The Culinary Maven, Nicole S.