Monday, February 26, 2018

What's the Best Cookbook for New Vegans? (Part 1)

Chloe Coscarelli's books are the books I recommend to every new vegan. Her recipes are easy to make and consistently amazing.  Well, some are just okay, but nothing is ever bad.  Ever.  Some reviews confuse me because they knock her books for not being healthy.  FYI vegan doesn't automatically mean healthy.  If that's what you're looking for, then go look for someone who claims to make healthy vegan food, don't knock someone who doesn't.  I think her recipes are the ones that can convince non-vegans that vegan food is good because it tastes like the things they are used to eating.  Her books are my go-to, especially for desserts when I go to parties.

Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen is pretty pasta focused, but amazing.  You have to make the apple cake.  Takes 5 minutes to put together, with an amazing result. You can feed any of these recipes to a non-vegan or even someone lactose intolerant and they'd never believe these recipes weren't full of butter and cream.

Chloe's Vegan Desserts is an amazing collection of easy to make desserts.  The lemon poppy seed muffins are amazing! Don't be a cheap ass like me and use almond milk instead of a can of coconut milk, it really does make a difference.  Bake some vegan treats yourself for an eighth of what they cost at vegan bakeries.  Then with all that money you save, go buy her new book.


What's great about those two books is also great about Chloe Flavor, the recipes have minimal, easy-to-find ingredients and simple instructions.  Normally, I'm the type that wants a picture per recipe, but I don't mind that this doesn't have that.  I know her recipes are going to be good, so if my choices are more recipes or more pictures, I'll take more recipes.



So far I've made the French Toast, Sweet Tamale Cakes, and the Fiesta Mac & Cheese.  The French Toast was really good, using something similar to a crepe batter to coat the bread.  The tamale cakes were a little sweet to me, similar to cornbread.  But the siracha mayo you serve it with was banging!  I wasn't sure about the Fiesta Mac & Cheese, it did have a picture and it wasn't that pretty.  Even my daughter, who likes mac n' cheese any way she can get it, was unsure about this one.  The end result was so good! Full-flavored, rich and creamy, it reminded me Hamburger Helper sans dead cow.

IS IT VEGAN-FRIENDLY?  Of course.  

WOULD I BUY IT?  Hell yes.  Bottom line, Chloe Coscarelli makes great food.  If you get to go to her restaurant, go, it's worth it.  In the meantime, go buy 
Chloe Flavor, and then go buy her other books.  These are the recipes that will convince your family and friends that vegans aren't sitting around eating nothing but salad, tofu, and Buddha bowls.  You can thank me later.

I received a free copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  There was no obligation to give a positive review, and if you read my blog, you know I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of girl.  I mean what I say and say what I mean, that holds true for my review.



Thursday, February 15, 2018

Book Review: Sweet Potato Soul by Jenne Claiborne

If you've ever been on that little site called YouTube, you may have seen the lovely JennĂ© Claiborne on her YouTube channel cooking delicious vegan meals.  On her blog and channel, she cooks many different styles of food, but this book focused on Southern food.  Atlanta born and raised, she works to show people you can still eat delicious Soul Food sans meat, eggs, and dairy, and not feel like you're missing a thing. Sweet Potato Soul: 100 Easy Vegan Recipes for the Southern Flavors of Smoke, Sugar, Spice, and Soul is her first foray into the printed cookbook world.

Her intro story is fascinating. so don't just breeze by it.  All these recipes are very accessible, with easy to find ingredients.  Beautiful pictures!  Quite a bit of sweet potato use, but that shouldn't be a surprise considering the title.  Seriously, how amazing does the cover picture of Fried Cauliflower Chicken look?  Sweet potato cinnamon rolls and jalapeno hush puppies are on my long list of recipes I want to try from this book. 




IS IT VEGAN-FRIENDLY?  Duh.  It's a vegan cookbook.  "100 Easy Vegan Recipes for the Southern Flavors of Smoke, Sugar, Spice and Soul."  Yes, of course, it's vegan-friendly.

WOULD I BUY IT?  Yes, if for no other reason, I've been watching her on YouTube for what feels like forever.  For no real reason other than a lack of time, I haven't actually tried any of her recipes before, so I'm super excited to see if they taste as good as they look on TV.  


I received a free copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  There was no obligation to give a positive review, and if you read my blog, you know I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of girl.  I mean what I say and say what I mean, that holds true for my review.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Book Review: Power Plates by Gena Hamshaw

Gena Hamshaw, of Food52 fame, has put out another book, Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals.  

She starts the book by talking about ingredients, followed by how to batch cook beans and grains.  There's even a bit on macronutrients if you follow that kind of thing.  The book ends with meal planning ideas.  The pages are a good weight, and there are gorgeous pictures of every recipe.  There is a lot of roast this, puree that.  Nothing complicated.  The book is divided into six sections, Breakfast, Salads, Soups, Bowls, Skillets and Stovetop and Bakes.  She gives the same advice I give everyone, try a recipe as it was originally intended, onwards from there, make it your own by modifying ingredients to suit your taste.

There's a misconception that vegan food is not only expensive but time-consuming to make.  This book helps to disprove that idea.  All the recipes are easy to make and uses ingredients that I have in my pantry.  Albeit, not everyone has bulgur wheat or miso, but I didn't see anything I couldn't find at a local market or on Amazon.  I do like that none (well, none that I saw) of these recipes relied on faux meats or commercially-made vegan products.  It's all veggies, fruits, beans, and grains.



IS IT VEGAN-FRIENDLY?  Duh.  It's a vegan cookbook.  "100 Nutritionally balanced, one-dish vegan meals."  Yes, of course, it's vegan-friendly.

WOULD I BUY IT?  Yes, I'm made many recipes from Gena Hamshaw's Food52 Vegan: 60 Vegetable-Driven Recipes for Any Kitchen.  Just about everything in that book was really good, so my guess is that everything in here is equally amazing.  I would definitely buy Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Vegan Meals for anyone trying to switch over to a plant-based lifestyle but is lost on what to make.

I received a free copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.  There was no obligation to give a positive review, and if you read my blog, you know I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of girl.  I mean what I say and say what I mean, that holds true for my review.