Dear friends, what a treat I have to share today! Our babysitter—who has the same allergies as Jacob—recently let me borrow a cookbook: Allergy-Free and Easy Cooking: 30-Minute Meals without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Fish, Shellfish, and Sesame. I love it, and you’re about to love it, too, even if you don’t have to avoid anything in your cooking.

Since I’m in to lists this week, here’s what’s great about it:

1. It’s easy to sub back in things that you don’t need to avoid. For us, that’s most often gluten and wheat in the form of flour.
2. It’s an accessible introduction to grains I’m not accustomed to: quinoa, Arborio rice, etc.
3. It has an Indian dish in it, and I’ve wanted to learn how to cook Indian food for a couple of years now.
4. The recipes don’t require a ton of fancy ingredients or cookware, and they really are relatively quick.
5. The recipes are healthy!
6. Each recipe is a full meal: if the entrée isn’t complete on its own, the recipe shows how to create a side dish at the same time. Genius.
7. So far, everything’s delicious. We’ve all gone back for seconds and thirds.
8. There’s a broad range of dishes in terms of cuisine (they are essentially all dinners, though).
9. It would make it easy to cook for someone with different allergies than Jacob has. There’s nothing odd to shop for or unheard-of brands I’d need to seek out.
10. It’s gotten me out of a rut I’d been in, allergies or not.

If you’re in a rut like I was, or you just want to learn how to cook with some alternative (healthy, but not exotic) ingredients, check it out!