Book Review: Incredible Plant Based Desserts

I was generously offered a e-book copy ahead of release of Incredible Plant-Based Desserts by Anthea Cheng from the publisher for a honest review through Netgalley. My review also appears on Goodreads.

The book starts with some kitchen gadgets that may make your life easier. Then, even though it is called Incredible Plant-Based Desserts, the book starts with some breakfasts. Some of these may be  familiar or unfamiliar. I know I'm not a fan of ONOs or smoothies, so I didn't try some of these based upon that. There are some fun recipes, such as popsicles that people with kids would do well with. The snacks section was full of things I would consider desserts and not snacks, but that's probably my age showing.


Many of the recipes are sweetened by dates. Unfortunately, I do not care for dates - at all. Which means that any recipe that required dates would not be one I would try. I learned that even using dates for sweetening is not something I enjoy based on recipes I have made in the past. However, if you are looking for a less refined sweetener, dates is the way to go.

The layout is pretty. There are beautiful, vibrant color images, and little thought bubbles in painted swirls.

I only tried two recipes: the Chocolate Brownie Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies and the Cookie Dough Bars. I initially planned to try about six recipes. However, there are two big drawbacks to the recipes in this book: the ingredients can be expensive and hard to find (I paid $15 for just one ingredient for the cookie dough bars) and the resulting treats taste healthy or like non-vegans expect vegan food to taste. Unfortunately, for my family and I, those are deal breakers. My family asked me not to make any more of the planned recipes after two such duds.

I found the recipes to be very easy to make and not particularly time consuming. They also were very rich. So if you like rich treats, these will be right up your alley.

I would recommend this book to vegan families and parents who are trying to make healthier treats for the kids. Many of the recipes engage kids to participate with the decorating and are lunchbox ready.

Cookbook Review: The Lotus and The Artichoke

I love The Lotus and The Artichoke blog. When Justin P. Moore started his Kickstarter to fund a vegan cookbook, I supported it. 

I received the e-book cookbook and I pre-ordered for my mother the physical copy. We both agree it is a beautiful book. She is interested to make a few recipes. I already made a few of the recipes that appear in the cookbook. Every recipe I have tried has been good and some have made it into the Codex. 

There are only 1000 printed, softcover copies of the first edition. You can purchase a signed copy as of the writing of this blog (12/29/12). 

The book opens with a photo journal of the travels of Justin. The Table of Contents is organized by continent of food origin. The e-book has page links to the recipes in the contents, which is nice. We get a nice Introduction regarding the history of Justin's eating and cooking preferences, followed by setting up the kitchen. 

Each chapter begins with Justin's experiences in that continent's cuisine. 16 pages in, we get our first full page photograph of food and a recipe. Not every recipe has a photo, but darn near every recipe does. I look forward to trying a number of the recipes in this cookbook. 

The website highlights these features to the book: 

• 216 pages of amazing recipes, photographs, tips & tricks
• 100+ vegan recipes inspired by world travel and over 20 years of dedicated kitchen experiences and adventures
• 80+ full-color photo pages of mouth-watering delights
• Cool, custom artwork: Hand-carved blockprints & miniature paintings
• Easy to follow layouts, description, and details on how to prepare delicious and stunningly beautiful meals

Overall, I suggest purchasing either the physical copy or the e-book. 

Cookbook Review: 30 Day Vegan Challenge

This book spent less than a year on the bookshelves, which is really too bad. It has a lot of excellent reviews, so I'm not sure why it came off the shelves in such a short time. I managed to get an e-book version from my local library. I had been reducing my meat intake for about a year, became vegetarian, and then read this book. I first read it cover to cover, and then I used it for my first 30 days of being vegan as a guide.

The days are split into different topics to help educate the new vegan on many aspects of lifestyle choices, nutrition, and animal rights. The challenge lies firmly in the ethical vegan camp. Yes, there are health benefits to becoming vegan, but it's for the animals that Colleen Patrick-Goudreau challenges people to become vegan. 

There were many full color photos of the food, many recipes, and a guide at the end of the book for suggestions of what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the 4 weeks of the challenge. 

I tried many recipes in this book. Some were good, some were not. The levels of difficulty ranged from easy to difficult. Unfortunately, Ms. Patrick-Goudreau does write on the assumption that you have been cooking for yourself for some time and can throw stuff together with a just a skeleton of an idea of a recipe. This may or may not work for some people.

About a year after this book was published, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau started a multi-media program by the same name, The 30 Day Vegan Challenge. It's a fantastic program and worth the cost. I began during an initial offering of $20. I think the regular price is $35. For all the recipes you get, the support, and guidance, if you are vegetarian, this is worth taking a look, if you are considering going vegan, this is worth taking a look, and if you are related to someone who is vegan, this is worth taking a look.

The topics by day are:

Upon Sign-up – Welcome Message from Colleen
- Day 1 – Taking “Vegan” Out of the Box
- Day 2 – Stocking a Healthful Vegan Kitchen
- Day 3 – Reading Labels
- Day 4 – Getting to Know the Grocery Store
- Day 5 – Eating Healthfully Affordably
- Day 6 – Trying New Foods
- Day 7 – Making the Time to Cook
- Day 8 – Starting the Day off Right: A Bevy of Breakfast Ideas
- Day 9 – Eating Out and Speaking Up
- Day 10 – Packing Lunches
- Day 11 – Rethinking Meat Cravings: Fat and Salt Taste Good
- Day 12 – Discovering there IS Life After Cheese
- Day 13 – Cutting out the Middle Cow and Getting Calcium Directly from the Source
- Day 14 – Plant-Based Milks
- Day 15 – Putting to Rest the Great Protein Myth
- Day 16 – Better Baking without Eggs
- Day 17 – Strong Like Popeye – Increasing Your Iron Absorption
- Day 18 – B12 - A Bacteria-Based (Not Meat-Based) Vitamin
- Day 19 – Finding Abundant Options while Traveling
- Day 20 – Skipping the Middle Fish: Getting Omega 3s from the Source
- Day 21 – Keeping Things Moving with Fiber
- Day 22 – Demystifying Tofu: It’s Just a Bean
- Day 23 – Special Considerations for Particular Groups
- Day 24 – Eating by Color
- Day 25 – Eating Confidently and Joyfully in Social Situations
- Day 26 – Finding Harmony in a Mixed Household
- Day 27 – Compassionate Fashion: It’s Cool to Be Kind
- Day 28 – Understanding Weight Loss – Part One – Calorie Reduction
- Day 29 – Understanding  Weight Loss - Part Two – Calorie Expenditure
- Day 30 – Keeping it in Perspective: Intention Not Perfection
- Wrap Up and Reflection

Cookbook Review: Real Stew

We found Real Stew in the in the clearance bin at Half Price books. We should have just left it there. It seemed like the recipes were good and interesting, but they weren't. We tried a few recipes from this book and assuming that most recipes are representative, they were a lot of effort, with a lot of ingredients, and not very good. It was a big disappointment.

The book is about 388 pages, in brown and yellow and no photos of the stews. A good cookbook really should show photos of at least some of its recipes. This just has drawn pictures of various types of dutch ovens and pots to make stew in.

Overall, we don't recommend this cookbook.

Recipe Book Review: The New Whole Grains Cookbook

Awhile ago, I decided I wanted to start posting reviews of recipe books. Why? Well, who doesn't have a pile of cookbooks on their shelves? We certainly do. Some are better than others. I do find I have a preference for ones with good pictures. Pictures of foods are definitely required and they cannot be drawings. Books that don't stuff as many recipes on one page is also preferable.

Unfortunately, sitting down to write a book review on a cookbook never made it to the top of the priority list. Until today. So, today I thought I'd start with a cookbook that started a huge change in the way I eat: The New Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell.

I first tried eating a more whole grains based diet after listening to The Nutrition Diva push it over and over again in her podcast. I picked up two cookbooks to learn how to cook with more whole grains than I have in the past. This being my preferred one.

The book is filled with lots of beautiful photos of the food in the recipes. This is a big selling point, so that one can look and decide if the recipe looks like something you want to make.

I went through and made nearly every recipe in the book. We tried lots of whole grains. The book is subdivided by food-type - that is, breakfast, breads, warm whole sides, cold whole sides, soups and dumplings, whole entrees, and desserts. Each section has between 8 and 15 recipes.

There is an introductory section describing a variety of grains, their history, and how to cook them. This is a nice overview and not terribly in depth. If you want a more in-depth explanation, look elsewhere.

As I mentioned, I made most of the recipes in this book over the course of several months. I gained quite a few keeper recipes, and there were quite a few things I made and we just did not care for it. And that's okay.

Overall, this is a 4 out of 5 star book. I will go back to it for several recipes and highly recommend it to anybody who is looking to expand their whole grain palette.