The great thing about this book is that in a day and age where a lot of food staples are being upgraded with often expensive ingredients (avocado toast, anyone?) this book keeps it simple with pantry staples. Teens and young adults often don't have a lot excess income to learn how to cook, especially not the highly specialized, often sponsored, meals they see social media influencers swearing by. This book allows them to learn simple techniques and filling recipes without breaking the bank.

It was a nice cookbook considering I don't cook very often my husband does most of the cooking but will definitely be adding some of these recipes to weekly meal plan! Fun and easy meals ! I haven't got to try any yet but they all look so good I'm the pictures!

The first thing you should know about this cookbook is that it's really designed for teenagers and college kids who are just learning how to cook. It's laid out in three sections depending on whether you live with a roommate, in a dorm, in your first apartment, etc.

It's a pretty good primer if you want to make standard, fairly unhealthy but nice tasting American food and have no food allergies. Think grilled cheese, pasta with salt and parmesan, stuff like that. Then the author tells you how to make it fancier, but again not necessarily any healthier. As an example, she has your make a batch of macaroni and cheese from a box and then hack it by adding ingredients like cream cheese, bacon, salsa, ham, spinach, crushed crackers (on top), etc. Some of these will make it tasty and original, although new cooks may make some unfortunate pairings. Most of them will not result in a healthy dish.

Some color photos are provided and there's lots of basic information like what to stock in your pantry and how to do basic cooking techniques. No nutritional information is provided, and no talk about how to maximize the nutrition of your dishes. This seems like a real wasted opportunity for young people who may not know things like if you steam vegetables you'll retain a lot more of the vitamins, which fats are healthy and not, or what to add to dishes to up the protein, fiber or nutrients and still taste great.

The book itself is colorful and easy to read, and includes lots of good basic cooking information like how to use knives or make a vinaigrette. This would make a good beginner cookbook for new cooks, although I would recommend pairing it with some healthier ones. It is not well suited for gluten free, vegan, paleo, etc. folks, and is another cookbook that seems to forget that quite a lot of people eat outside of the Standard American Diet these days (which is probably a good thing). It is certainly a good text for lots of beginner cooking skills and ideas, though.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

I was provided a free early reader copy by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. The title of this book is deceptive. I thought it was about making meals only using standard ingredients from your pantry. While some of the recipes follow this pattern, it really is a cookbook for readers who either aren't familiar with cooking or need a confidence booster. I disagree with their method of cinnamon toast, but hey, to each their own.
Besides the title, the main thing that bothered me was that the pictures didn't always fit with the recipes. For example, there's a picture of fried rice tens of pages before a recipe for fried rice.
But all of my complaints aside, I could see giving this as a gift to a high school grad as some easy recipes to make in a dorm room or a first apartment.

Where was this book when I was a newlywed? What appears to be a simple and basic beginner’s cookbook is actually a clever concept to teach novice cooks how to enhance their cooking and create tasty dishes.

The recipes are simple - scrambled eggs, toasted cheese sandwiches, pasta, etc. However, Hack Your Cupboard goes beyond the simple, beginner recipes and suggests add-ins, seasonings, and combinations to make the recipes more tasty and a tad more sophisticated.

There are many photos the offer inspiration and there is a variety of recipes to choose from. Each page is easy to read, well-designed, and very attractive. All of the recipes use a few basic ingredients, creating a tasty dish that is made from scratch.

The book is nicely organized and it that will serve the user over several years and milestones. There is a section that discusses dorm cooking, food safety, and the appliances and equipment that would suit a dorm room. From there it moves to apartment life, stocking a pantry, and roommate etiquette. Finally, there is a section the addresses that first apartment and how to equip and stock your own kitchen.

Even though I am well-beyond using a cookbook like this, I enjoyed paging through it. For what it is designed to do, it does it brilliantly! Hack Your Cupboard would be a great gift for someone heading off to college and would definitely be useful even beyond those first years.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Hack Your Cupboard by Alyssa Wiegand, Carla Carreon is a gem of a cookbook. The two authors cleverly show how to whip up delicious meals using pantry ingredients. I especially loved their tips for college students on how they could keep a small pantry to prepare quick dorm meals.

Some of the recipes you'll find in their cookbook include:

Sliced Avocado toast with Olive Oil
Simple Brownie
Drop Biscuits
Baked Brie
Teriyaki Salmon

The photos showing how to use kitchen equipment are invaluable and will help novice cooks learn their way around the kitchen. Their tips will help both novice and intermediate cooks too.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

Great cookbook for the novice in the kitchen. Great gift for newlyweds, young singles or college students.

This is a really great beginner's cookbook. It's great for new cooks as it teaches a lot of basics, but also offers more advanced information once you get comfortable in the kitchen.

It has sections for building a pantry, microwave recipes, how to roast/pan-fry/saute, and more. The authors include a lot of tips and variations, which are awesome, as well as information on how to actually read a recipe, which many people don't know (for example, "a cup of peanuts, chopped" is different from "a cup of chopped peanuts").

I also really liked the graphics, fonts, and photos in this book.

I wasn’t sure about this book at first - I think what I expected was more riffs on pantry/staple meals for the home cook. That’s not what this book is, and my knee-jerk reaction was to be annoyed.

HOWEVER! What this book IS is a fantastic road map for the either the young person moving out for the first time AND/OR the very very novice cook that feels overwhelmed even stepping foot in the kitchen.

Though it’s broken up into helpful sections like Your First Kitchen, Dorm Room Dining, Your First Solo Apartment, etc - you don’t need to actually be a young person to gain knowledge, tips, and a general handle on cooking here. The book is very much like a “how to level up in the kitchen”, starting at ground zero. It starts with the absolute most basic things (scrambling eggs! toast!), and in each section gets a little more complicated. What I loved is that each section also adds on the next-level kitchen equipment you need - you’re not getting a huge overwhelming list in the beginning of EVERYTHING - you’re given smaller, more manageable lists along the way. Because really, if you’re just mastering toast, you probably don’t need a microplane grater yet, you know?

The full-color photographs are fantastic - when you’re just starting out you really need that kind of visual aid to help you on your path to “am I doing this right?!” I also loved the little color “hack” bubbles that are on most recipes - everything from budget hacks (switch out the salmon for chicken) to spicy hacks (add 1/2-1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes). They’re on almost every recipe, which is great, because it helps the new cook learn to tweak a recipe to their taste/budget/ingredients on hand.

If you have young adults in your life (or older adults that want to learn to cook but are afraid!) this is an excellent choice! I’ll be buying it for my kids.

Sporting great photographs and very approachable recipes, this is the perfect cookbook for emergent cooks!

It's broken down into three sections: recipes for those headed to college, living with someone else, and lastly, solo cooking.

I would very much recommend this as a high school graduation gift and plan to give away a few copies next Spring!

Thank you Alyssa Wiegand, Carla Carreon, Lerner Publishing, Zest Groups and NetGalley for giving e a PDF of this cookbook in exchange for an honest review!

It’s not always easy to try out a new recipe, especially when the risk of failure brings with it the risk of a hungry night at home. But sticking to what you know and love can get pretty boring after a while. So what’s a lazy, cash-strapped chef to do? Well, with the help of Hack Your Cupboard, you can grab whatever’s handy (ramen in a pinch) head to your pantry, and get to work! After a discussion of what food storage areas typically have (and what they ought to have), each section of the book provides age-specific guidance for the kinds of environments you’re likely to be working in. What results is a book that you can take with you as you move on to ever-larger spaces and ever more ambitious meals, from the family pantry to a dorm room fridge, a first apartment, and beyond. With dozens of photographs as well as dream dinners for every level of chef, this is the cookbook for anyone who wants to break out of a kitchen rut without breaking too much of a sweat.

WOW. I am seriously going to the market and start stocking up. I am loving the new ideas and products I personally have never tried. Easy new dishes to kick up the same old same. Love the photos as well. I will be buying the Hack Your Cupboard as well.
Thank you, NetGalley for the advance copy to review!

With a title like Hack Your Cupboard, I expected this book to be filled with creative ways to use the everyday ingredients you have on hand to create something delicious. While it wasn't necessarily that it IS an excellent first cookbook for beginners. There are some great ideas, including some really neat ramen flavoring combinations that I look forward to trying, and tons of tips on how to stock your dorm/pantry and basic techniques. The pictures are bright and uncluttered, pages are easy to follow. This would be a perfect gift for high school graduates on their way to college, paired with a grocery store gift card and maybe some cute measuring spoons or towels.

I really like this book. I have grown as a cook over the past year and a half as I have been more able to cook. I’ve used blogs and Pinterest for my increased knowledge but there were great tidbits even I gained from this book. I have a 20 year old son I plan to buy purchase a hard copy of this book for. I plan to use some of the ideas given in this book to help start his new kitchen. This may be a little more than what he needs in terms of gourmet foods but he is a reader and I do think he will enjoy this book. Cooking may be as easy as breathing to some people but for the rest of us, we may need a guide and a little bit of advice. The pictures are also fabulous. I pre-ordered a copy on Amazon 😉

This is an excellent cookbook that is good for the novice to the experienced cook. It starts with simple basic cooking techniques like scrambled eggs or cinnamon toast to a fancy dinner. I particularly love the college dorm hacks. I'm an experienced cook, but I learned a couple of cutting techniques. The recipes are delicious, and utilize ingredients from your kitchen that are generally on hand. My favorite recipe is the granola. It's cheap and easy to make.

Hack Your Cupboard lives up to its name and would be a great book for teens, college students, or anyone who has to cook for themselves for the first time. The authors include helpful tips on food preparation, storage, basic pantry ingredients, and setting up a kitchen. I would love the book to be longer and have even more recipes, but they covered the basics and provided a great jumping off point to transform readers from hungry and helpless to inspired and fed in no time.

Marinating the cucumbers and tomatoes in the dressing before making the green salad is a great hack, to add some flavor to the vegetables. Its good to know options to convert a salad into a full meal.
Korean spice gochujang
Japanese Yuzu Kosho
Mushroom and egg bowl, bread pudding, brownie in microwave
The best part is how seemingly simple things come together to make a great fiesta..
Lots of sandwiches.
My favorite Avocado toast
Pie chips with Berry Dip is a novel dessert.
Very colorful pictures.