30 Quick Easy Meals - Rachel's newest cookbook that we collaborated on in generating the idea!  The recipes? All Rachel!

How often do you find yourself trolling pinterest looking for recipes but all of them are so labor intensive OR they just take tons of time? All the time, right?

Admittedly, some of the recipes I've posted lately either take a long time between cooking and assembly, OR they're just labor intensive!

Well, to remedy that and to help you through all of those times when you really need a quick, delicious, healthy meal--I would like you introduce you to this cookbook--30 Quick Easy Meal By: Rachel Vdolek.

Rachel and I went to high school together! She was one of my good friends in high school and was part of a gang of people that I hung out with all the time. Well, as can only be expected, college and life pulled all us in that group of people apart.  Recently, I reconnected with Rachel on facebook. I knew that she had majored in Engineering in college and had worked in that field for an extended period of time. When I asked her about that I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had since moved away from the engineering field and was actually pursuing a completely different field! Food! She had been writing cookbooks, had an etsy shop of kitchen and DIY related projects, among other business endeavors to help her pursue her passion for food!

Smoked salmon, asparagus, and feta with a raspberry vinaigrette

So, I bought one of her early cookbooks--The Spring Kitchen. She's got cookbooks for all the different seasons to promote recipes featuring seasonal ingredients. This was one of her first cookbooks! And let me tell you...Engineering's loss is my stomachs gain! I mean, check out that salad above! Doesn't that look amazing!

Her recipes are delicious! And simple! Which as a busy graduate student I could totally appreciated. As I was working through (and thoroughly enjoying) through this cookbook, I noticed that it called for a lot fancier ingredients, so one day we started talking about ways to simplify...via facebook message of course (since we leave across the country from each other)...and she said...

Hmmm...maybe I will get your help on writing a cookbook for graduate students.

Needless to say, I freaked out a little bit...and the idea developed from there...

Or just busy people on a budget. Minimal prep/cook time and minimal ingredients. Nothing too fancy. Simple, healthy eating! Oh man I'm so inspired right now! Can we please do this?

And pretty much this thing just exploded from there. I sent her some ideas of what I was thinking...and she just ran with it!

From there...she generated this beautiful cookbook-- 30 Quick Easy Meals.

What does it contain? Deliciousness like...

• Broccolini Bow-tie Pasta
• Chicken & Corn Chowder
• Beef Tacos