cookbook club

Appetite For Reduction Review

3 Comments

Layout

  • Is the layout clear? I think that the layout is very clear and starts with information at the beginning and then goes on to a wonderful number of recipes.
  • Are you able to easily tell the ingredients apart for the instructions and the notes? Yes it is very easy.
  • Are the instructions easy to follow? Yes the directions are easy to follow.
  • Are the recipes numbered or is the section labeled? The recipes are both numbered in the table of contents and index and the sections are labeled.

Aesthetics

  • Does the cookbook feature photos? This cookbook does feature photos.
  • If yes, is there a photo for every recipe? The photos are not for every recipe, only a small selection.
  • Do the photos of the recipes look like the actual results? I would say that overall from the recipes that I have made and by the recipe photos are accurate to the photos.
  • What kind of paper is the book printed on? The book is printed on nice off white paper and is a heavy texture which is great for extending the life of the book.
  • How is the quality of the photos? The photos are alright- they look nice but aren’t overly professional.

Recipes

  • How many recipes are in the cookbook? There are 125 recipes.
  • What kinds of recipes will you find in this cookbook? This book includes a number of recipes for soup, salad, tempeh, tofu, beans, sides, pastas/grains.  The recipes take a twist on traditionally fatty recipes and makes them lower in fat/healthier versions.
  • Is there a theme to the recipes? I found that many of the recipes are a play on Isa’s recipes from her other books- versions that are healthier than her other recipes.
  • Are the recipes complex or simple? would they be good for seasoned cooks and/or beginners? I found that the recipes are simple and would be great for beginners and for seasoned cooks looking for healthier versions of their favorite foods/flavors.

Chickpea PIcatta

Ingredients and supplies

  • Are the recipe ingredients easy to find? Most of the ingredients are easy to find.  There are only a few ingredients that you may not be able to find in the international section of your grocery but there are not many recipes that include these ingredients.
  • Are there any items that stand out as being expensive or specialty? Nothing is expensive – specialty would be miso, coconut milk, tamarind.
  • Are there particular appliances that will be required such as blenders, juicers, dehydrators, ect? A blender or food processor is needed for a few recipes such as salad dressings.

Information

  • Does this cookbook provide additional useful information? This cookbook does have a section at the beginning discussing fat and other nutritional information that is helpful for vegans.

Other important Information

40 Clove Broccoli and OMG Onion Rings

The recipes I tried:

My favorite dishes were the onion rings and ye’abesha gomen.  I thought the flavors and concepts were really well done and I will be making them again.  The 40 Clove Chickpea and Broccoli was okay but I didn’t really understand why so much broth was used- it caused my broccoli to be mushy.  The chickpea piccata was not my favorite but it was good and I would like to try it again possibly tossed with spinach and pasta.  The Portobello Pepper Steak Stew is a great option to serve your omni friends.

We now move on to our third book Skinny Bitch Ultimate Cookbook– if you would like to participate there is still time just contact me.

 

Menu Planning Troubles

5 Comments

The newest Cookbook Club starts tomorrow- we will be reviewing Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. I ordered my book from Amazon the other day and received my copy yesterday and was so excited to get down to menu planning for the next few weeks, however my excitement turned into shock and disappointment.  As I flipped through the cookbook I came to see that most of the recipes are centered around oil/Earth balance, faux cheese and SUGAR! The most appalling thing for me was how much sugar is used in many of the recipes I really just can’t believe it and on top of that they list the nutritional value for each serving of the recipes but don’t include sugar which is just strange to me- they include calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, protein, fiber and carbs but not sugar- why not sugar because you probably wouldn’t buy this book if you saw how much they use?

Maybe I’m being a little too quick to judge this cookbook since I haven’t made any of the recipes yet so I am going to spend the next few weeks testing out the recipes and letting them speak for themselves.  However, there are a few recipes that sound really good but are just not healthy (or at least healthy enough) for me that I will be making modifications of.  So after two hours of reviewing the cookbook and planning my menu here are the next two weeks:

Have you tried out this cookbook yet? What are you thoughts? Have the book and want to test it out with us?- send me an email and I’ll add you to the review list!

Weekend Wrap Up: Art Shows, Cooking and Movies

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The Hubz and I started off our weekend with a bagel and coffee from City Market and then headed to my G-Ma’s to visit, have lunch and then we headed to her art show.  Over the past 10 or so years my G-Ma has taken up painting and each year there is a seniors art show where she features her art work- check it out:

G-Ma's Art

G-Ma and Aunt Carol with G-Ma's Art

'rents and G-Ma art the art show

After spending the afternoon at G-Ma’s art show we headed to my parents house to visit with them before they head to warm, sunny Florida for 6 weeks *colour me jealous*. When we arrived we were greeted by this site:

The roof on the old barn at my parents house caved in last week due to the heavy, wet snow causing the entire barn to crumble.  It is a huge loss for them and sad to see.

We spent the remainder on the night relaxing, looking over old photos:

My G-Ma and Grandpa (Dad's parents)

I love looking back at old photos and checking out the fashion back then- don’t they look so classy? Whatever happened to nice dresses and suits?

For dinner I decided to try out some of the seitan that Upton’s Naturals sent me in one of the recipes from Appetite for Reduction for the Cookbook Club. I made the Caulipots and the Portabello Pepper Steak Stew – my first recipes from Appetite for Reduction and both I really liked and so did the ‘rents and Hubz.

The Portabello Pepper Steak Stew does not call for kale but my mom had some that needed to be used up so I added it to the stew and it was a great addition.  The stew was nice and peppery and the sauce was so tasty.  I have to say salt was the only thing that the recipe needed a little more of but that may have been do to the vegetable broth that I was using.  The Caulipots were good but I think I would try one of the variations that the cookbook includes because I really felt that there was a lack for flavor- again may have been partially due to the broth.  Overall though I liked both recipes an it is a good start to this months Cookbook Club.

Sunday we headed home early so that the Hubz and I could get some work done at home (on our computers).  We spent most of the day except when we headed out for groceries sitting on the couch enjoying leftover stew and caulipots as well as a few Oscar Best Picture nominated movies in preparation for our Oscar party next Sunday.  We watched:

Out of the four we watched Winter’s Bone was by far my favorite- the movie is not weighed down by A List celebrities and the acting and story is really amazing. I would recommend that everyone see this – it is really a powerful movie.  We still have to watch The King’s Speech, The Fighter, True Grit and Toy Story 3, however we are only planning to watch the first 3 and if we have time we will watch Toy Story 3 before Sunday.  So far my top three nominated films are Black Swan, Inception and Winter’s Bone. Which one is your favorite? Are you planning anything for the Oscars?

My Thoughts on Veganomicon

4 Comments

Layout

  • Is the layout clear? The layout of the book is clear; it starts with a detailed table of contents that breaks the book down into introduction and other things you may need to know before you start cooking. It then lists the categories and all of the recipes and their page numbers.  I really like how it is set up because it creates a directory at the front of the book that works as a reference tool when looking for specific recipes.
  • Are you able to easily tell the ingredients apart from the instructions and the notes? Are the instructions easy to follow? The ingredients list is very easily distinguishable in the recipe.  The ingredients are in bold, headings are in light green and directions are in standard black text. This makes the recipes easy to follow.  Additionally the commentary for each recipe is at the top and in italics which again separates it from the ingredients and directions.
  • Are the recipes numbered or is the section labeled? The recipes are referenced by category and page number in the table of contents and are easy to locate throughout the book.

Aesthetics

  • Does the cookbook feature photos? If yes, is there a photo for every recipe? Veganomicon features one section in the middle of the book with featured photos. In this selection of photos, they’ve included photos of recipes from every category. However, with more than 250 recipes in the book you will not find a photo for every recipe.
  • Do the photos of the recipes look like the actual results? The recipes that I have made that do have photos were the Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls and Chickpea Cutlets both of which their photos looked like my results.
  • What kind of paper is the book printed on? I actually really like the paper that the book is printed on.  I am no expert in papers but it is a nice heavy, off-white paper that doesn’t strain the eyes and compliments the ink.
  • How is the quality of the photos? The photo quality is decent.  The photos look nice but they did not seem to be professionally done. I really wish there had been more photos.

Recipes

  • How many recipes are in the cookbook? I didn’t take the time to count them all, but according to the Post Punk Kitchen website there are over 250 recipes in Veganomicon.
  • What kinds of recipes will you find in this cookbook? The kinds of recipes you can find in the book are: snacks, appetizers, little meals, dips, spreads, brunch dishes, salads and dressings, sandwiches, vegetables, grains, beans, tofu, tempeh, seitan, soups, casseroles, on-pot meals, pasta, noodles and risotto, sauces and fillings, baked goods, cookies and desserts. Basically everything you could imagine and recipes with influences from around the world.
  • Is there a theme to the recipes? While there was no common cultural theme, the recipes all seemed to be common, everyday type meals.
  • Are the recipes complex or simple? Would they be good for seasoned cooks and/or beginners? I found that the recipes for the most part were pretty simple with the exception of a few dishes involving seitan which becomes slightly more complex.  I think that the book could be good for both seasoned cooks and beginners.

Ingredients and supplies

  • Are the recipe ingredients easy to find? For the most part all of the ingredients are easy to find.  There are a couple of dishes that have items such as jicama or yuca which can be a little more difficult to locate in certain areas, but there are very few recipes that have items you can’t find in your average grocery market.
  • Are there any items that stand out as being expensive or specialty? Besides those two items there isn’t really anything that stands out as specialty and nothing too expensive.
  • Are there particular appliances that will be required such as blenders, juicers, dehydrators, ect? For some recipes you will need a food processor, blender and/or immersion blender and possibly a crepe pan.

Information

  • Does this cookbook provide additional useful information? This cookbook does start with an introduction section that provides you with information about cooking beans, grains and vegetables.  It also gives you a list of items that are needed to stock a Veganomicon pantry and the kitchen equipment you will likely need.  Lastly it discuss the icons that are used throughout the book and various cooking and prepping terminology.

The Recipes I Tried:

Specifically for the Cookbook Club I tried the following recipes:

Snobby Joes

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste? The recipe turned out pretty bad.  This is one of my least favorite recipes in the book.  I found that it ended up as a big pile of lentil mash and the flavor was really lacking- it needed additional spices.
  • Was the recipe easy to follow? The recipe was not very easy to follow- I started out confused because the recipe calls for 1 cup uncooked lentils but does not specify what type of lentils to use.  Now I think this is where the recipe went wrong because I used red lentils, what I had on hand, and I think that they became over cooked.  Due to the fact that no specific lentil was named in the recipe and no photo of the recipe in the book It was hard to tell which would be best.  Additionally, I found that the addition of the maple syrup to the recipe just made it too sweet and was really unnecessary.

Chickpeas Cutlets

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste? I thought that this recipe turned out well and even looked similar to the photo in the book.  They were tasty and an easy way to introduce people to products made with vital wheat gluten.
  • Was the recipe easy to follow? I did have a few issues with the recipe.  One of the major issues I had was the layout of the recipe.  The second step is to add all remaining ingredients and when I did this I went in the order they are listed; logically that seems like the way to go.  Well when doing this you add the liquid ingredients to the vital wheat gluten before you have added all of the spices which caused the mixture to clump up and not combine well and I had to add additional water to get the mixture to come together.  Now what I have learned from my experience using vital wheat gluten you really need to mix the dry ingredients and the wet separately and then add the wet to the dry to get an even mixture. Aside from the issue with the ordering of ingredients, I really did like this recipe. Although, if it had been a few years ago before I had started working with vital wheat gluten I would probably have not known what to do and just given up and thrown the mixture away.

Mustard Sauce

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste? I really loved the flavor of this sauce.  I served it over the chickpea cutlets and they really made a great pair.  Now I am a huge sucker for mustard of any kind, so this was perfect to me.
  • Was the recipe easy to follow? My criticism of this recipe will only make sense to those who have the first edition or possibly earlier additions of the book because edits have been done throughout the book and specifically to this recipe.  The issue I encountered with this recipe was that there was a step missing that added essential ingredients from the ingredient list.   If you know how to make a sauce you will know when to add these missing ingredients, but for those who don’t you may want to look at newer editions of the book.

Lower-Fat Banana Bread

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste? I made this recipe as muffins. This recipe was as big hit with the husband.  He has been asking me to make more every since he finished off the last muffin.
  • Was the recipe easy to follow? The recipe was easy to follow, tasty and lower in fat which was a win overall.

Sauteed Seitan With Mushrooms and Spinach

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste? This recipe tasted good and came together easy. It is a good easy weeknight meal that is filling and could be served with pasta, bread, rice or you could even put it in a wrap.
  • Was the recipe easy to follow? This recipe was easy to follow and overall came out just like I had expected.

In addition to the recipes I tried for the Cookbook Club I have also made the Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls, Saffron-Garlic Rice, Chickpeas Romesco and Caesar Salad.  Out of all of the recipes I tried the Spicy Temeph Nori Rolls and the Chickpeas Romesco were the favorites and probably the only recipes i would  make again.

Overall I think that Veganomicon is just an okay vegan cookbook. I don’t think that it lives up to the title of the “Ultimate Vegan Cookbook” that it is given on the cover.  There are a number of recipes that  I just won’t make because they are filled with oil and the recipes I have made all lack seasoning.  For me when I think of the “ultimate vegan cookbook” I think of a book that I will keep going back to for reference, for my favorite recipes and for inspiration.   I don’t get any of this out of Veganomicon. I think out of all of the Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero cookbooks that this is my least favorite.  Isa’s Vegan Brunch or Isa and Terry’s Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World or Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar are three books I go back to over and over again for reference and inspiration and they include some of my favorite recipes.

What do you think about Veganomicon?

Also don’t forget to check out what other Cookbook Club members are saying and learn how you can sign up to participate in the the next cookbook review – Appetite For Reduction.

Veganomicon: Snobby Joes

11 Comments

I have been working my way through the recipes in Veganomicon for the Cookbook Club. Last night I tried the Snobby Joes, a play on the traditional Sloppy Joes.

I was a little confused with this recipe because it calls for lentils; just lentils. It doesn’t specify whether they should be red, green, brown or French; this complicates the recipe because cooking time for red lentils versus green/brown/French is dramatically different. I decided that I would try it with the red lentils because when I think of sloppy joes the first thing I think of is the rich red tomato sauce.
I served the Snobby Joes over brown rice because I didn’t have any bread. The recipe was just okay; the red lentils got really soft and turned into a pile of mush. I also thought that the maple syrup in the recipe was really unnecessary and made the dish too sweet. I would have tried a little molasses instead to add more depth of flavor and a just a tiny bit of sweetness.

Did I like this recipe? Well it was edible but not great. Would I make it again? No. I also wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, however if you do try this recipe go with a green, brown or French lentil.

It’s Burning Up In Here

7 Comments

This afternoon was spent menu planning for the next few weeks.  I know you are probably thinking weeks??? is she crazy?! Yes I am a little crazy but that’s besides the point.  Next week is the kick of of my Vegan Cookbook Club which means I will be trying out recipes from Veganomicon, our first book.  I also am still working on recipes for my upcoming e-book, the blog and a third e-book so I had major menu planning that needed to be done.

Benefits of menu planning:

  • Savings- By planning meals ahead of time you can save money because you are less apt to do spontaneous dining out.  Also when you plan ahead you can make a list of what you need and can avoid making spontaneous purchases.
  • Healthier- When you eat at home you can have control over your portion sizes, amount of salt and fat and  you know the quality of your ingredients.

On the menu tonight was Bangers & Mash with a caramelized onion gravy…..however Bangers & Mash turned into Mash.

Then it happened-I went to remove the sheet pan from the oven that had my vegan sausages and my oven mitt betrayed me causing me to drop the pan into the oven spilling everything into the bottom of my oven leaving me with a few carrots and three burned fingers.

I ran immediately to a sink to run my hands under cold water which helped for a minute but then resulted in me running around the house in search of the first aid kit for sting relief napkins.

The Hubz took over the kitchen and replaces the sausage with a 1/2 a veggie burger each. Crisis averted. Now I sit on the couch with ice on my fingers. Oh the risks of cooking!

Cookbook Club

4 Comments

Lately the Hubz and I have been talking about starting our own book club, just the two of us.  We would read the same book and then have a discussion about the book over dinner.  All this talk about a book club got me thinking about how it would be fun to start up a cookbook club.

How it would work

Each month, a new vegan/vegetarian cookbook will be announced via email group and on the blog. Once the book is announced, participants will have one week to get a copy of the cookbook and then one month to read, try new recipes and analyze the cookbook. During the month, participants should feel free to blog/tweet/facebook about their experience with the cookbook.  At the end of the review period, each participant will have one week to right a final review about the cookbook and post it to their blog.  If a participant does not have a blog, they can write their review and it will be featured on Cook.Vegan.Lover. Once all the review posts are up, I will link them from my the new Cookbook Club tab (that will soon be up on Cook.Vegan.Lover.)

When doing your final review of each months cookbook each of us will address the topics in our blog post:

Layout

  • Is the layout clear?
  • Are you able to easily tell the ingredients apart for the instructions and the notes?
  • Are the instructions easy to follow?
  • Are the recipes numbered or is the section labeled?

Aesthetics

  • Does the cookbook feature photos?
  • If yes, is there a photo for every recipe?
  • Do the photos of the recipes look like the actual results?
  • What kind of paper is the book printed on?
  • How is the quality of the photos?

Recipes

  • How many recipes are in the cookbook?
  • What kinds of recipes will you find in this cookbook?
  • Is there a theme to the recipes?
  • Are the recipes complex or simple? would they be good for seasoned cooks and/or beginners?

Ingredients and supplies

  • Are the recipe ingredients easy to find?
  • Are there any items that stand out as being expensive or specialty?
  • Are there particular appliances that will be required such as blenders, juicers, dehydrators, ect?

Information

  • Does this cookbook provide additional useful information?
  • What additional information beyond recipes does this cookbook include? Is it easy to follow?

Other important Information

You need to make the recipes! Yes, to get an accurate representation of the cookbook you need to try out at least 3-5 recipes.  Additionally when you right your review you should make sure to include your experience while cooking the recipe:

  • How did the recipe turn out? How did it taste?
  • Was the recipe easy to follow?

Be honest when discussing the recipes you tried- if you didn’t like it then explain why.

Okay now that you know what this is all about are you interested in participating? If you answered yes then please email me with your 5 vegan/vegetarian cookbook picks to lindsay@cookingforaveganlover.com by January 8, 2011 put “Cookbook Club” in the subject line. I will then tally up the votes for the cookbooks to decide which cookbooks we will be reviewing.  I will email participants as well as post the list to Cook.Vegan.Lover. with the start date, end date and post by date.
*You must participating in the current month book review 1 week prior to the start date. Also you do not have to participate every month.