Yummy & Pocket-Friendly Recipes for Fair Food, Street Food & Lunch Boxes
Posted on August 24, 2021 at 6:00 am
By Crystal Miller
This year’s Pig Out in the Park—the annual gathering for foodies and music lovers—has been cancelled, but you can still enjoy tasty food to celebrate the end of summer!
For fair food at home, great lunch box recipes, and creative culinary creations, I offer you these lists of cookbooks that you can check out! I found some gems and hope you’ll try a few.
Also because sometimes it is easier to learn by watching someone else do it first, I included DVDs of some great cooking and baking shows.
Get ready to branch out and try some recipes from cookbooks that offer carnival food, street food, and wacky fun treats.
Fair & street food
Are you craving some fair food? Try your hand at making it at home with Fair Foods: The Most Popular and Offbeat Recipes from America’s State & County Fairs, by George Geary.
And since you’ll often find local street-food vendors at fairs, check out Street Fighter: The Official Street Food Cookbook, by Victoria Rosenthal, to help you fix hand-held feasts that will make your mouth happy.
For more street food fare from around the world, check out Sweet, Savory, Spicy: Exciting Street Market Food from Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and More, by Sarah Tiong.
Digital cookbooks on OverDrive
If you’re a fan of eBooks, here’s a great collection of cookbooks available through OverDrive. Virtually flip through the cookbooks from these curated booklists on your preferred device:
Cooking on a budget
Many of us are looking for ways to save money, and food is one of the non-negotiables on anyone’s budget. Here are some great cookbooks for anyone cooking on a budget.
- 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget: Simple Tips and Tasty Recipes to Help You Cut Out Processed Food Without Breaking the Bank, by Lisa Leake
- Frugal Mediterranean Cooking: Easy, Affordable Recipes for Lifelong Health, by Melanie Lionello
- Secrets of Great Second Meals: Flexible Modern Recipes that Value Time and Limit Waste, by Sara Dickerman
- $10 Dinners: Delicious Dinners for a Family of Four That Don’t Break the Bank, by Julie Grimes
- Bueno y Barato: Aliméntate Bien a 4$ al Día, by Leanne Brown (Traducción al espanol por Jorge Baldizón y María Alamo)
- Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day, by Leanne Brown
- Well Fed, Flat Broke: Recipes for Modest Budgets and Messy Kitchens, by Emily Wight
- Supermarket Healthy: Recipes and Know-How for Eating Well Without Spending a Lot, by Melissa D’Arabian with Raquel Pelzel
Lunch box ideas
A homemade lunch doesn’t have to be boring! Fall is the right time to spice up yours and your family’s lunch boxes with these yummy portable ideas.
- Peanuts Lunch Bag Cookbook: Packable Snacks, Sandwiches and Tasty Treats, by Charles M. Schulz
- Best Lunch Box Ever: Ideas and Recipes for School Lunches Kids Will Love, by Katie Sullivan Morford
- Beating the Lunch Box Blues: Fresh Ideas for Lunches on the Go! by J. M. Hirsch
- Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go, by Wendy Thorpe Copley
- Mug Meals: More Than 100 No-Fuss Ways to Make a Delicious Microwave Meal in Minutes, by Leslie Bilderback
Fun food for kids (and kids at heart)
These are some cookbooks to inspire your creativity in the kitchen. They do say you eat with your eyes first!
- Mermaid Food: 50 Deep Sea Desserts to Inspire Your Imagination, by Cayla Gallagher
- Awesome Edible Kids Crafts: 75 Super-Fun All-Natural Projects for Kids to Make and Eat, by Arena Blake
- The Unicorn Cookbook, by Alix Carey
- Disney Eats: More Than 150 Recipes for Everyday Cooking and Inspired Fun, by Joy Howard
Cooking & baking shows
I really enjoy watching other people cook! If you enjoy sitting back and feeling inspired by watching others do the cooking and baking, then here are some shows available on DVD that you can check out from the library.
- The Great British Baking Show, seasons 1–5
- Milk Street, season 1
- Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking, seasons 1–5
- I’ll Have What Phil’s Having
- Cook’s Country, various seasons
- The Story of Cheese
I hope you enjoy some fun in the kitchen when trying out a new recipe inspired by your cookbook finds at the library.
Crystal Miller is a Business and Career Development Librarian and has been working in libraries for 15 years. She has a master’s in library science from Simmons College and has worked at the Harvard Development Office Library, MIT Libraries, and the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. When she’s not at the library, she can be found at the dog park with her three fur babies or with a cookbook in hand, flipping through the pages, looking for the next recipe to try out.
Tags: cookbooks, cooking shows, fair food, lunch box recipes
