6 Cookbooks for Your New Years Resolution

Your resolution: “I will teach my kids to cook.”
Your cookbook: The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, by Rosanna Pansino
You know if you’re to have any chance of prying that game controller out of your 11-year-old’s hands, you’ll need to replace it with an edible cookie version. YouTube star and nerdtastic baker Rosanna Pansino can show you how. Pansino’s new cookbook is full of geek-themed sweet treats for math nerds, fantasy fans, gamers, and techies. She starts with basic recipes, like butter cake, sugar cookies, and cinnamon rolls, and then shows you, with easy-to-follow photos, instructions, and templates, how to geek them up into D&D-worthy Twenty-Sided Dice Cookies or Apple Pi Pie. A great cookbook to break out on a snow day.

Your resolution: “I will host more parties.”
Your cookbook: Thug Kitchen Party Grub: For Social Motherf*ckers, by Thug Kitchen
Put the pigs-in-blankets down. Step away from the Fritos. It’s time you learned to entertain like the bad-a$$ mofo you are. Enter the irreverent duo behind the beloved, bestselling Thug Kitchen. In their new party guide, the formerly anonymous team offers dozens of profanity-laced vegan recipes for “bougie brunches,” cookouts, potlucks, cocktail parties, and just about any time you need some quality plant-based food to soak up all that alcohol (cocktail recipes included).

Your resolution: “I will finally master a gnocchi my Nonna would be proud of.”
Your cookbook: Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Great Italian Cook, by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali
The recipe has been in your family for sixteen generations. No pressure, right? Not when you have Lidia by your side. They’re not handwritten on disintegrating war ration cards, but the more than 400 recipes in this master class of a cookbook from the Italian American national treasure and her daughter are sure to become family heirlooms. Truly everything you need to know—tools, techniques, ingredients, even a guide to culinary travel in Italy (to help you decode the four terms for sheep in Italian)—is included, arborio to ziti. Buon appetito.

Your resolution: “I will make dinner for my family and not stress about it.”
Your cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime: Comfort Classics, Freezer Food, 16-Minute Meals, and Other Delicious Ways to Solve Supper!, by Ree Drummond
Weeknights are hectic. Ree Drummond—homeschooling, ranching, working mother of four—knows this, which is why she published a collection of more than 125 hearty, nutritious meals that will satisfy hungry husbands and finicky four-year-olds alike. Sample lifesavers: Meatballs that can be made ahead and frozen for any of three delicious recipes, 16-minute Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce, and breakfast for dinner. Thanks to the Pioneer Woman, the question, “What’s for dinner?” just got a whole lot less stressful.

Your resolution: “I will finally go vegan…for real.”
Your cookbook: Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen, by Kathy Patalsky
If you’ve been toying with idea of going totally animal-free, you’ve probably come across Patalsky’s blog, Healthy.Happy.Life, with its oodles of plant-based recipes, product reviews, and how-tos. This cookbook of over 220 mouthwatering vegan recipes (Philly “Cheese” Sandwich and Fried Risotto Balls, anyone?), plus tips on stocking a vegan pantry, will not only get you started but keep you going—at three meals a day, that’s more than 73 days of no-repeat recipes. As Patalsky says, “welcome to the plant-based party.”

Your resolution: “I will lose weight.”
Your cookbook: The Whole30, by Melissa Hartwig, Dallas Hartwig
Okay, this cookbook is about a lot more than losing weight, but shouldn’t it be? The Whole30 is the step-by-step follow-up guide to last year’s bestselling It Starts with Food, by husband-and-wife certified sports nutritionists Melissa and Doug Hartwig (Doug is also a functional medicine practitioner). With cut-and-dried explanations, rules, recipes, and meal plans, this book takes the guesswork out of once and for all stripping your diet of unhealthy foods and eating habits. There’s a lot of “no” to this program: no dairy, no grains, no sugar, no booze, no weigh-ins, no counting calories, no excuses…but after 30 days, the way it will have you feeling all “hell yes.” Shedding pounds will only be the icing on the cake (that you no longer want to eat).