120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery ๐Ÿš€ Weโ€™ve moved into our new bookstore and warehouse ๐ŸŽ‰

Meals You Can't Mess Up

100+ Actually Easy Recipes for Big Flavor with Little Effort
Brief Description
Get comfortable in the kitchen with more than 100 impossible-to-mess-up recipes by Shay Spence, with a foreword by Ree Drummond. Cooking can often be time-consuming, expensive, wasteful, and stressful for those who are not practiced in the kitchen. In Meals You Can't Mess Up, food and... Read More
Format: Hardback
$5500
Pre-order
Releases 22nd September 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "Meals You Can't Mess Up" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Get comfortable in the kitchen with more than 100 impossible-to-mess-up recipes by Shay Spence, with a foreword by Ree Drummond.

Cooking can often be time-consuming, expensive, wasteful, and stressful for those who are not practiced in the kitchen. In Meals You Can't Mess Up, food and travel writer Shay Spence sets out to create dishes that are as foolproof as possible. He considers the four greatest recipe pain points identified by his social media followers: longer-than-expected prep and cook times, too many expensive ingredients, a mess of dishes at the end, and excessive prep work.

First off, no recipe in this cookbook calls for more than ten ingredients, and most can be cooked in just one pot or pan (and never more than two). Furthermore, each recipe falls into at least one of these categories:

  • 30-ish Minute Recipes: Street Corn & Black Bean Tacos, Burst Tomato-Basil Tortellini With Burrata
  • 6-Ingredient (or Less) Recipes: Lebanese Lemon Chicken and Potatoes, Strip Steaks with Blue Cheese Fondue and Broccolini
  • One-Dish Recipes: Ratatouille and Brie Puff Pastry Tart, Beer Cheese Broccoli Orzo Soup
  • No-Chop Recipes: Cheater's Chicken Parm, Cubano Dogs

This book gives you a collection of easy recipes that you can make to get yourself comfortable in the kitchen, or help you learn some new tricks if you already are. As you make your way through this book, you'll find calm in the kitchen as you whip up one easy dish after the other, and if you don't... well, at least now you know some super-quick, easy recipes to get you the hell out of there as soon as possible.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780593968710

Publisher: DK

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 22 September 2026

Country: United States

Imprint: Dorling Kindersley

Contributors:

  • Foreword by Ree Drummond

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 206.0mm

Height: 260.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Shay Spence is a food and travel writer with over a decade of experience in culinary and social media. After attending the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC, Shay spent seven years as the Food Editor for People Magazine. He now works as a full-time social media content creator, while securing bylines in mainstream publications such as People, Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure. Over the past few years, Shay has amassed over 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 499,000 followers on Instagram by showcasing creative recipes, restaurants, and travel destinations through an expert lens. Shay was also a contestant on the second season of Gordon Ramsay's Next Level Chef on Fox, where he was featured on ten episodes. His career highlights include writing two People magazine cover stories on Ree Drummond, the Food Network's Pioneer Woman, and fulfilling a lifelong dream of going to Ina Garten's house in the Hamptons to write a cover feature on her. He lives in Key West, Florida with his husband.

More from Cooking & Food

View all
  • Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO
    New Release
    Ottolenghi SIMPLE TOO
    For the three million home cooks around the world who lovedย Simple, Ottolenghi brings us 135 brand-new easy recipes that are full of flavour, intensity and creativity For the millions of home cooks who loved Ottolenghi SIMPLE, discover the pleasure of keeping things SIMPLE TOO.Itโ€™s a noisy world out there, so stop, take a minute or two, listen to the soup...
    Hardback
    $5999
    Elsewhere:
    $7500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • How We Cook
    New Release
    How We Cook
    Welcome to How We Cook: The Two Raw Sisters' best cookbook yet, with more than 100 ridiculously good recipes that will help you cook with confidence. The Two Raw Sisters are here to make healthy eating feel easy and genuinely achievable. Inside, you'll find adaptable base recipes, from granola and smoothies to salads and soups, to muffins and rocky road,...
    Hardback
    $4299
    Elsewhere:
    $4999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 20 Minute Meals
    New Release
    20 Minute Meals
    Fast food is good food in 20 minutes or less with Jamie . . . 20-Minute Meals solves all your dinner dilemmas, giving you quick, tasty meals every night of the week. These incredible recipes will be on the table in just 20 minutes or less. With a maximum of ten ingredients in each recipe and 70% hitting daily nutritional...
    Hardback
    $5599
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Saint Peter Saint Peter
    Pre-order
    Free Gift
    New Release
    Saint Peter
    In 2026, Saint Peter marks a decade at the forefront of global dining โ€“ a restaurant that has quietly but decisively reshaped the way we think about fish. In Saint Peter: Chapter & Verse, Josh Niland brings that world to the page for the first time: a landmark work that captures the philosophy, precision and daily rhythm of one of...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $9000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Soph's Plant Kitchen 30 in 30: 30g of protein, 30 minutes or less
    An essential cookbook for anyone looking to increase the amount of plant protein and fibre they eat without spending hours in the kitchen. Instagram sensation and Sunday Times bestselling author @Sophsplantkitchen has created her very best plant-based, high fibre recipes: all with at least 30 grammes of protein, all on the table in 30 minutes or less and all mouth-wateringly...
    Hardback
    $4800
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Lunchbox Bible
    From the team behind the bestselling sensation Baby Food Bible, Lunchbox Bible is your go-to recipe book for feeding children healthy, allergen-friendly, and nutritionist-approved food thatโ€™s guaranteed to please. With 75 recipes and a visual library containing 75 different lunchboxes, this comprehensive guide has been carefully created with time-poor parents in mind. The recipes are simple, quick, nutrient-dense, and get...
    Hardback
    $4700
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    New Release
    Disney Moana: The Official Cookbook
    Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far youโ€™ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $5299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    19% off
    Fitwaffle's Easy 6
    Discover how simple cooking can be every day with over 100 easy, tasty recipes using only 6 ingredients. "My mission is simple. I want to help people feel more confident in the kitchen and show that baking and cooking don't need to be complicated. Whether you're brand new in the kitchen or you've been doing it for years, my goal...
    Hardback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $5000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    19% off
    So Good Express
    Simple, nutritious recipes for when time is of the essence. Bringing together delicious and easy-to-follow recipes with the sound advice of a fully qualified nutritionist, number one bestselling author Emily English shows us that good food can make you feel amazing and bring you joy, every single day. Blending her nutrition expertise with a love of simple, fresh food, Emily...
    Hardback
    $3900
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • BBQ
    Britain's best-selling chef shares his BBQ passion and secrets. We all love a good BBQ, but too often they centre around some slightly burnt sausages and burgers. Not anymore! Jamie's got 90 recipes to show us just how brilliant and versatile barbecuing can be, whatever the season. With recipes suitable for both charcoal and gas BBQs, Jamie shares his key...
    Hardback
    $5499
    Elsewhere:
    $7000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • No Stress Recipe Queen
    On Sale
    17% off
    No Stress Recipe Queen
    Take the chaos out of the kitchen every night of the week with the Masterchef favourite, globally beloved Insta cook and bestselling author of Air Fryer Queen and Easy Dinner Queen. Welcome to the No Stress Dinner Club! Put major taste on the table with these delicious, easy and stress-free recipes by the bestselling queen of simple, fun, and fuss-free...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $3299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • On Sale
    11% off
    My Mediterranean Life
    Transform your health and boost your energy with more than 200 easy, delicious recipes for weight loss, longevity and disease prevention.Bestselling clinical nutritionist Sarah Di Lorenzo combines her family's cherished recipes, her extensive clinical expertise and science-backed research to present a contemporary adaptation of the Mediterranean diet.ย The Mediterranean diet involves the type of eating observed in the worldโ€™s Blue Zones...
    Paperback
    $3300
    Elsewhere:
    $4699
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

Cooking & Food lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!