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Cast Iron Recipes books:
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Cook it In Cast Iron is a great cookbook which goes into the seasoning process pretty well.
Cook It in Cast Iron: Kitchen-Tested Recipes for the One Pan That Does It All (Cook's Country) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1940352487/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_SNXYFEG0TZW4J18V1VSZ
This is my absolute favorite! This also explains the how and why cast iron works, and it ranks cookware by brand and material.
Cook It in Cast Iron: Kitchen-Tested Recipes for the One Pan That Does It All (Cook's Country) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1940352487/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nKnjFb697AJJS
I recommend this book.
It has an accessible skills-based approach with fully illustrated step-by-step recipes for each new concept.
We use this recipie
From our most used cook book.
I don't suggest it as you need to watch the pot and add liquid as necessary. And yes, for a pot roast, generally it's a 4-5 hour cook time.
But... If you have a pressure cooker, it can be cooked very nicely in about 50 - 70 minutes. I confess that I use my pressure cooker over the long, slow cook of the oven, especially in summer when it's too hot to run the oven that long but you want to have pot roast, or ribs or make pulled pork.
I have both a stovetop pressure cooker and an Instant Pot, and I love them both, but the Instant Pot is easier and requires less attention.
In a pressure cooker, I even make tender bbq pork ribs from frozen in less than 50 minutes with a 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce, then place under my broiler. It's not authentic, but when you need to feed your family and can't spend hours doing the "low and slow" cooking in an oven, a pressure cooker will do the job quickly!
And sometimes you just have to "cheat" to feed your family the food they love when you can't spend all day in the kitchen.
Before Instant Pot, I had a stove top pressure cooker. And this cookbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Vickies-Pressure-Cooker-Recipes/dp/0764597264
I swear by Miss Vickie's recipes. And there's a lot of information about cooking everything in a pressure cooker, from rice to beans to every meat and pasta. And it works with an Instant Pot if you decide to get one.
it's not really any different than cooking at home.
but here's a book i bought a few years back and enjoyed
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612121586/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
>Bonus points for books that teach recipes involving a camp fire as opposed to stove, cast-iron pans/ovens,
I'm not sure how you're expecting to cook then. you use cast iron, over coals built from a campfire.
and in my case with the current drought here in california, campfires are not allowed so you need to use a propane or butane stove in certain areas.
Proteins such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, steak, bone-in pork chops. And when it comes to chicken, get thighs! The dark meat is the best. Doesn’t dry out near as easily.
If you like walnuts and or pecans, look up some seasoning recipes. Pecans are very versatile when it comes to being baked. They’re great with savory seasonings or candied.
The vast majority of my recipes are paleo/ keto combo. But not strict keto. Tried it and hated it.
This cookbook, Made Whole, is still one of my favorites. I’ve gifted it a few times. The recipes are fantastic, but there is also a load of information in the book.
The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Great Cook - not cheap but it's worth the money.
The Castaway Kitchen website by Cristiana Curp is awesome for dairy-free recipes.
https://thecastawaykitchen.com/recipes/?fwp_diet=keto She also has a couple recipe books. My favorite is: Made Whole https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1628602945/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_7DY2TV90D9R7TTKK0ZAS
The ATK Cooking School Cookbook is very solid and might be what you're looking for. There's about 600 recipes that cover just a broad genre of cooking and baking and the steps are laid out nicely.
Check your local library for this book. The recipes are probably for 4-6 people, you can usually halve a recipe without issues.
America’s Test Kitchen books on the Science of Good Cooking and then Cooking School are both really helpful when it comes to explanations. The first is more on principles and the second has lots of explanations and step by step instructions for basic things like poaching an egg.
I mean learning to cook is just good advice in general.
I recommend picking up a copy of the America's Test Kitchen Cooking School book. It approaches cooking first with illustrated instructions, then providing recipes to practice the methods with.
In maybe a less combative tone, cooking really isn’t that hard and you can make yourself really delicious meals for not meaningfully more time or money than required for smoothies.
I really like One Pan Two Plates , but Serious Eats and WaPo’s Voraciously blog also have a lot of series/posts on “stress free” meals. Voraciously actually just did a 12 part “how to use your kitchen” series that was really informative even as someone who has been working at being a better cook for a decade.
If all of those still seem too daunting, look up how to roast a chicken. It’s like 20 minutes of active cooking time and it’s easy to find a recipe that’s seasoned a way you like. Also, you get a ton of delicious leftovers!
The biggest benefit to all of this is that, if you ever go back out on the market, everyone is impressed by someone who can cook!
Good luck!
Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed and Michelle Tam's Nom Nom Paleo are where my brain immediately goes. They're paleo and (mostly Whole30), but have a heavy focus on eating real food and not a whole lot of desserts. They do, however, feature sweet potatoes and such on occasion.
Personally, I'm waiting anxiously for this book to come out, but I think that would probably be above the price range you're looking for.
You might do better to just find a collection of recipes you can keep printouts of, or even something like the one week meal plan.
I tend to look for the longest cooking ingredient from the table I have from miss Vickie's cook book https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Vickies-Pressure-Cooker-Recipes/dp/0764597264
as it has amazing cooking time tables included
There are so many great ones! My favorite, which I have gotten for multiple people as a gift when they want to learn to cook:
If you are interested enough to invest in a book, Cooking with Fire is a good general resource to get you started. My personal taste leans towards dutch ovens and potjies but those are both heavy to trek in if you are hiking and camping but if you are car camping or cooking on the beach or in your backyard those are both fantastic tools. Gonna be experimenting with open fire spit roasting this winter I think.
You can actually just build a tripod from wood on site. The book, "Cooking with Fire" details it nicely and is a great book in general. In short, find appropriate branches and lash them together.
If you are wanting metal, this is a great introductory blacksmithing project. Charcoal blacksmithing can be done with very limited (possibly zero) initial investment. If you have a local steel supplier (almost all larger cities do) you want 1/2" round bar. If blacksmithing isn't your thing you can actually cold work mild steel but you'll need a bender.
No matter what you do, making one out of steel will probably cost more than just buying one but if you make the investment you'll end up with some tools and skills that you can use for other projects. If cheap is your goal just go with wood.
I try to eat mostly paleo so the America's Test Kitchen Paleo cook book is great. In fact, America's Test Kitchen anything is great.
It's not health related but you can certainly modify the recipes to be low-carb but I also really like 2 plates, 1 pot I haven't come across a recipe I didn't like in that book. I will say that I usually have a ton of leftovers from the side portions of the meals.
And here's a link to her book. It was published in 2008 though, before electric pressure cookers were really a thing (and before Instant Pots):
https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Vickies-Pressure-Cooker-Recipes/dp/0764597264
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527
America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. This paired with Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab should cover everything from what essential equipment you need in your kitchen (along with comparisons and recommendations), why this technique is used with which food, why things taste the way they do, scientific, tested explanations presented in an easy-to-understand way, along with plenty of recipes with illustrations and step-by-step walkthroughs.
I recommend these two together rather than individually because Food Lab doesn't touch sweets or desserts. ATK, however, can has a wonderful section on baking that I find indispensable for somebody who has only recently taken up the dark side of baking. (Their pie crust is worth the book.)
America's Test Kitchen - Cooking School Cookbook
This will get you from how to boil water to braised osso buco and creme brulee (or even further) if you want it to. I'm a well trained chef, and I still reference this book.
In the past year i've gone from spending $600+ to currently spending $250 a month for one person. I had no idea how to cook and this book has literally EVERYTHING you need to know about cooking.
It's by America's Test Kitchen and they explain their recipes in ways that anyone, even someone with little to no cooking experience, can make a delicious meal.
It's Eggplant Rabbit Rhode IV from Louisiana Kitchen. Basically you deep hollowed-out eggplants, and top them with a spicy cream sauce. Served with Hasselback potatoes. Source: boyfriend.
http://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Louisiana-Kitchen/dp/0688028470
What do you like cooking?
Cooks Illustrated has a great cookbook for beginners that goes over technique and has awesome recipes. Might be worth looking into