It is a goal of mine to have as many sit-down dinners with Maggie – and our guests – as I can each week. My summer garden continues to grow and I am so anxious for those first tomatoes (my favorite part of summer). You hear talk on all fronts about managing time, finding the right balance between work and family, healthy lifestyles, and “doing it all”. Keeping Maggie, and all of those other things in mind, you can imagine that I was intrigued by a cookbook called, One Pan, Two Plates.

Carla Snyder’s recipes really do make just enough for two adults. If we’re facing one of Maggie’s pickier days, there might even be enough for a small lunch for me the next day. There is little waste if you follow the recipes as written. Plus, I have found, with prep time included, you can be sitting down at the dinner table well within an hour. That works well at our house, where homework, playtime, and bedtime all have to be considered in the evening’s plans. There are options on how to enhance each dish for the “extra-hungry” and Snyder has added wine pairings for each meal as well.

While there are not too many vegetarian options in the book, some of the meals are easily adaptable, particularly the pasta recipes. That will come in handy as my garden continues to grow. I recommend the Lemony Risotto with Asparagus, Carrots, and Chives. We went very light on the cream when making this recipe and the results were still delicious.

There are 70 recipes to choose from in this cookbook. The ingredients are easy to find and the photographs are lovely. One Pan, Two Plates comes highly recommended for those who want to eat a home-cooked meal, but don’t want to devote your entire evening to cooking and clean-up. In fact, we could eat outside and still have enough sunlight to pull a few weeds in the garden.

One Pan, Two Plates is published by Chronicle Books.