Over the past few months I have been really craving a lighter diet. I don’t mean calorie wise. I’m not talking fat-free. I can’t really explain it, but I guess I’m really talking mostly about vegetables. I think this is a natural feeling as we head into spring and will soon begin to have more available from the garden and farmer’s market.
I’ve been trying to find ways to cut back on our grocery budget and also looking for recipes to make and take along to baseball tournaments. My friend Elizabeth recommended a vegan cookbook to me called The Oh She Glows Cookbook from the author of the Oh She Glows Blog. (I am new to it, but it sure seems to be full of great recipes.) She told me that the cookbook is full of whole foods based recipes that aren’t too complicated, and that most importantly are highly edible. She wasn’t lying. I typically only find a couple of recipes in any given cookbook that I will actually come back to, but I have been preparing foods from this cookbook regularly now for weeks. Some of our favorites are a crazy dip made from cashews that my kids absolutely love and is appropriately named “life affirming warm nacho dip,” potato salad that relies on avocado rather than mayo for the dressing, a chickpea salad similar to chicken salad, orange-maple miso soba noodle bowl, and my latest obsession, “metabolism boosting green citrus tea.” I haven’t been able to get into the raw buckwheat breakfast porridge, but the apple pie oatmeal is great. It makes sense that a vegan cookbook would be full of great ways to eat vegetables. Most of the recipes are gluten free as well which is a bonus. This is the best cookbook I’ve come across in years.
A second cookbook that I have been enjoying is the The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It’s so full of recipes that I have barely had time to look at them all. I made a really amazing frittata recipe the other day for breakfast and it was loved by everyone in the house. I checked this one out at the library, but I may end up buying it too. I think it’s time to purge my cookbook shelf to make room for new ideas! Do you have any current favorite cookbooks? I know so many people use Pinterest to find new recipes to try, but I don’t have a handheld electronic device (can’t find the right word?) to view the internet on, so it’s kind of a pain for me. I just prefer real cookbooks.
I like Smitten Kitchen and Dinner a Love Story, even more for the reading than the cooking. 🙂
I highly recommend Veganomicon! It is my go to vegan cook book. So many great ones in there. I just got her new one, too ‘Isa Does It’ is also great. I can’t do diary so I find vegan cookbooks to be a great jumping off point. Plus my kids like what I have made from these books! That is always a bonus.
I’ll second both Cynthia Lair’s “Feeding the Whole Family” and Tamar Adler’s “An Everlasting Meal” both wonderful additions!
Hi, Ginny!
I use a mix of bookmarked internet recipes (which are great in a pinch to look up if you want a very particular thing and you are HUNGRY) and real cookbooks. i recently decided i’ve reached my saturation point with cookbooks and that i needed to really use them more.
right now i am LOVING mollie katzen’s heart of the plate cookbook. I also find a lot of awesomeness in rose eliot’s 30-minute vegetarian. also, been loving Apples for Jam.
i LOVE the look of the potato salad. what’s in the cast iron pan? i’m going to totally request the oh she glows book from paperback swap. the other’s been on my list for ages, it’s very popular!
My favorite is Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Fantastic recipes, and mostly organized by vegetable, so whenever things are ready in the garden (or in my case, in the box from the CSA), you can find an assortment of good options for what you have at hand.
to piggyback on this, i requested her newest, Vegetable Literacy, a stunning visual encyclopedia and cookbook all in one. definitely request it for a gift, it’s pricey but a priceless addition to any whole foods kitchen.
All of these recipes sound amazing! I am always looking for new good healthy recipes. My husband is quite the meat and potatoes man, my three children too! while I could eat vegetarian happily most days., it’s tricky to reconcile all of our tastes most days. I love Moosewood cookbook, her cauliflower cheese pie is one of our favorites, we also love a good coconut curry over rice. Thanks for the suggestions!
I have a handheld electronic device, but I really don’t like using it in the kitchen. Prefer the big old laptop or a tactile book. The only thing popping in our garden is chives (the frost and snow killed our radish seedlings). We’ve been having a lot of egg dishes topped with chives lately. Itching to spring here, too. Excited to check out the Oh She Glows cookbook. Thanks for the recommendation, sounds yummy.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks (or perhaps it was hidden in a comment and I just missed it). I have two of these, and they are super fantastic!
Every recipe I have tried has been astoundingly good, plus they also give a lot of good information about foods and ingredients, and often they give meal suggestions for which two or three dishes to serve together. Most of them seem to have the ‘look inside’ feature on amazon, if you wanted to get an idea of the style.
I agree!
I really prefer cookbooks too, although I probably have too many! At the moment we especially like the River Cottage Everyday and Veg Everyday ones. Thanks for the “glowing” recommendation, I’m scanning the blog now while nursing! (Sorry for the tragic pun)
My Canadian recommendations are: the REBAR: Modern Food Cookbook (vegetarian, large portions) – our current favourite is the ‘Three Sisters Burrito’ but make all kids of the soups regularly too; and, the WHITEWATER COOKS series. We use all three, but I think we use the first (orange cover) the most. The Lemony Lentil soup, minestrone, veggie chili, veggie burgers… we make a long list of them
Feeding the Whole Family, by Cynthia Lair. The only cookbook besides my 1964 Joy of Cooking that is falling apart at our house.
I found the Smitten Kitchen cookbook to be a little too unhealthy for my preferences with lots of white flour and refined sugar. The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook is my go to for light meals, but desserts are great too – try the dark chocolate drizzled oatmeal shortbread for an amazing gluten free cookie. I’ve been cooking something from sproutedkitchen.com or mynewroots.com at least once a week or the past two years…. so many delicious recipes from these two new moms.
My go-to cook book for vegetables is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. It’s got one or two or a handful of solid recipes for any vegetable you can imagine, plus a great section on sauces. I use her peanut sauce recipe on everything. Yum.
I agree Tricia. Deborah Madison’s cookbook is terrific, simple and highly adaptable. It covers every vegetable, and teaches you how best to prepare them. I use the soup and gratin sections a lot. It’s my go to book when I want to come up with something new.
Me toooo!!! I’m so craving veggies galore! My kids commented last night at dinner that I had made another ‘very green’ dinner … everything was covered in green … pesto, roasted kale, green beans, spinach leaves … yum! I’m going to have to rely on the Web sites for now …
God bless all of you!
do you know this blog
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/
I have their first cookbook, the GF recipes in here were not for me, too many starches, gums, ingredients etc, but I did enjoy many of the other recipes. It also focuses on an elimination diet plan
I recently borrowed a friends copy of their second book Nourishing Meals and just LOVE it, I had to buy my own copy and have been bookmarking more than I can get made
it is dairy, soy and gluten free, but a lot of recipes are also egg free
I am highly addicted to several things in there already
The GF recipes in here are much less complicated and match the way I have found I bake GF with no gums and no starches.
Some of the book recipes are on the blog, and they have a new book coming out.
Try the Tex Mex casserole fro Oh She Glows (I used real cheese instead of vegan cheese), SO yummy! And family-pleasing.
“Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon is a wonderful cookbook for everyone, but it is especially great for families with growing children. Her recommendations give children a great healthy start in life. I only wish I had known about it when my kids were growing. But 2 of my grandchildren are reaping the benefits of it now. It’s awesome! 🙂
I love the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and the Oh She Glows is on my wish list for Mothers Day. If you like making pies the Twenty Four Blackbird pie book is awesome especially the Honey Oatmeal pie, so good.
Despite the convenience of tablets and e-readers, I still prefer an actual book…must be a tactile thing. I usually check Pinterest on my desktop computer at work (shhh…) and print off recipes as needed. The result is an overflowing binder with numerous food stains on it… a personalized cookbook of sorts! I share your love of Smitten Kitchen and Oh She Glows… lovely girls, lovely blogs!
I love The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and have made a number of things in it. To satisfy your craving for vegetable-based dishes, I would recommend two different cookbooks. The Sonoma Diet Cookbook and The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook might interest you. They both have entrees that contain meat, but I feel as if the emphasis is on the vegetables. I especially love the Sonoma Diet Cookbook. My husband has loved every single thing that I have made from it.
Spring is the time of year that my interest in eating “lighter” is high. Helps to get out of the winter funk.
I, too, much prefer a real cookbook and my kitchen shelves are full of them!
I have a lot of cookbooks and I found that I was not using them and turning to google to find recipes in a pinch. Then along came Eat Your Books. This is an amazing website that has indexed all your favorite cookbooks so you can search all the recipes from the books electronically and then go to the cookbook on your shelf for the recipe you decide on and start cooking! It is worth the annual fee ($25)! They also have lots of blogs indexed, like Smitten Kitchen, so you can add them to your bookshelf.
http://www.eatyourbooks.com/
Sounds yummy! We started grocery shopping every other week and paying with cash. We have been saving a ton this way! I think it makes me much more conscious of what I am putting in my cart. With all of the saved money we recently just bought a free range beef quarter. I’m so excited (can you tell)!
I love the cookbook Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson. A coworker gave it to me a few years ago for my birthday and I regularly turn to it for dinners. The recipes are fairly easy and they are good for making variations on as well. I do love Oh She Glows – I read her blog regularly but have not picked up a copy of the cookbook. Perhaps I should!
The cookbook I turn to the most is America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I think it’s a traditional American cookbook, like Better Homes and Gardens, but I can always find something to make that week by thumbing through it. Amazon shows that they also have Healthy, Baking, and Quick versions. I will definitely check out Oh She Goes. I have to GF and like to do Paleo-ish recipes for breakfast. (sjn821 on Rav)
Love your photos! Especially the tire swing. Cooking is such a relaxation for me. I love opening any vintage cookbook up and connecting with loved ones. Make me think they are still here with me.
My current favourite is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Everday for some different vegetable dishes with multi-cultural influence. Nice and easy too.
Practical Paleo is a huge hit here. And ditto on the needing veges in spring feeling!
I’m eagerly waiting for my copy of http://nourishedkitchencookbook.com/ Nourished Kitchen: Farm-to-Table Recipes for the Traditional Foods Lifestyle. she has had a peek preview happening on her blog for folks who have preordered it and I’m bursting for it to arrive in my letter box.
Love Leanne NZ who is wanting to eat warmer foods now we are into autumn.
I am most grateful for this post as I am a vegetarian and I don’t like to cook so I am beginning to get very bored by my limited food selections lately. Having chronic fatigue I need good food fast!
thank you for the heads up on the cookbook and blog. i have been in a serious food rut. thatcookbook looks great.
I felt similar about food lately. And oh the rain pictures, I’m a rain lover and that last shot ist amazing.
This cookbook is fairly small but I have loved every recipe that I’ve made out of it:
The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam.
Library hold done! I’ve been a little stressed about not having anything started in the garden yet, but with new snow on the ground today I find my stress unfounded. I have time! Maybe I’ll go through my John Scheepers catalog today.
My favorite cookbooks are:
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian -Mark Bittman (Lots of vegetables and whole grains. Each recipe has a list of possible substitutions/variations underneath it, which might be handy with your family’s dietary needs. My boyfriend and I have agreed that most of his recipes benefit from adding a little more seasoning than called for, but we like things to be very flavorful.)
Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever – Diane Phillips (obviously this one has more hearty food, but it’s really handy to throw things in the slow cooker before running errands or leaving for work and coming home to a hot dinner. The confetti split pea soup is one of my go-to meals now. It satisfies the meat eaters and the vegetarians in my family)
An Invitation to Indian Cooking- Madhur Jaffrey (I’ve only had a chance to make a few of the recipes in this one, but they were all fantastic. And it’s fun to just flip through and read)
Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook – Clifford A. Wright (another “winter” cookbook. I grew up in the Northern Midwest in the 90’s, dreading “casseroles” that were mostly made of canned/processed foods. This book has modern takes on those casseroles, mostly using whole foods. Or at least “real” foods)
Some favorite summer recipes I’ve found online and written down:
Linguine and Pea Pesto (Smitten Kitchen blog)
3 bean salad with dill dressing (Homesick Texan blog. I substitute whole milk yogurt for the mayonnaise)
Red lentil soup (101 cookbooks blog, she and her family are vegetarians so this might be a good source for meals with lots of vegetables).
Recipe cards don’t work for me, I write recipes down on lined notebook paper and keep it in a special binder in the kitchen. If handwriting things is a pain, you could always print recipes from online and utilize a hole punch.
More than any other author, I use Heidi Swanson recipes. I can’t get enough of her blog (101 Cookbooks), which has tons of amazing recipes (sortable by ingredient!), and I also love her cookbooks “Super Natural Cooking” and “Super Natural Everyday”. Most recipes are gluten-free and can be made vegan, although she loves her eggs. Another interesting cookbook to try is “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” by Yotam Ottolenghi. Not all of the recipes are plant based, but there are plenty that are, and they seem exotic and exciting, despite the very normal ingredients. This would be a good one to check out from the library. I hope you enjoy!
i SECOND jerusalem!! try the conchiglie pasta. amazing.
ANYTHING Ottolenghi! Jerusalem especially. Blogs: Green Kitchen Stories, My New Roots, 101 Cookbooks (and her cookbooks too!). I look forward to hearing more about your food adventures 🙂 xo
My favorite cookbook is Love Soup, by Anna Thomas. It’s a nearly all-vegetarian cookbook that features delicious recipes not only for soup, but also many tasty side dishes as well. However, what I love most about it is the beautiful writing. The author’s love of food and fellowship shine through every sentence, making it an almost decadent pleasure to read, whether you cook the food or not!
I am reading a WONDERFUL book at the moment called An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler.
It is more of an “intuitive” cooking book of guidelines for making do with what you have and creating delicious meals from scraps, odds and ends, etc than a full out recipe book, but it is outstanding! I have the kindle copy but am looking forward to purchasing a hard copy which will be full of bookmarks, highlighting, and post its, I am certain.
An Everlasting Meal is absolutely life changing!!! I love this book and recommend it to everyone I know who wants to cook, good, nourishing food for themselves and their families. So glad someone mentioned it here!
We’ve been loving the Oh, She Glows recipes! The fries and all the smoothies have been put into our regular rotation. I also just received Rawsome Vegan Baking and I’m so excited to try those recipes. What a stunning book! (And I think most are gluten free.)
We love the Smitten Kitchen cookbook in our house as well. One of our favorite recipes in it is the Gnocchi with Tomato Broth. My 3-year old helped me roll out the gnocchi snakes before cutting them into rectangles with his knife. We also love the apple cider caramels, and that recipe makes enough for a crowd!! So many delicious things to make in that cookbook!
Love the cookbook “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon. Uses whole foods and lots of fermented food ideas. Like soaking your oatmeal overnight with a little yogurt in it to ferment it. Also soaking and sprouting your whole almonds before eating them to help them digest much easier. Great book….highly recommend it.
I alternate between cooking blog websites and my many cookbooks; I too LOVE reading and using cookbooks! I find that I have various books for different recipes, but that I don’t have one cookbook I gravitate towards using, though there is a church cookbook I use a lot for fast (vegan) times… so many times I will read through a cookbook, dream of all the things that I want to make and then BAM, life happens (this time moving houses) and I can only do a little of what I dream! It’s great that you’ve been able to make so many things recently! That’s really wonderful! I will have to check out the cookbooks you mentioned! The GF one you wrote on a few years back I bought after reading it on your blog and it now has my ‘go to’ GF cheesecake recipes! 🙂
I feel the same way! I’ve been subjecting my family to recipes from the Happy Herbivore cookbooks — mixed results but some have been delicious! I need to try Oh She Glows!
I don’t use a lot of recipes, too many of them are much too small for our large family. But i do get a lot of ideas from Pinterest, or even just by googling recipes with the ingredient i want to use. then i go out on my own, creating simple recipes, with just an ideaof what is supposed to be. I’m similar when spring comes. Give me light, fresh foods!
A lot of people think I’m crazy when I tell them that a lot of nights I use a Rachael Ray recipe! I do have to triple my recipes because of my large family, but her meals are tasty and quick to make! I enjoy the Pioneer Woman as well. Everything that I have made from her cookbooks has been excellent. Honey Plum Soy chicken is crazy good…can be enlarged…and can be served on egg noodles for a filling, delicious meal.
I love cooking, food, and eating. I also love reading about food. So my recommendation to you is Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach. This book is about a family that cooks and eats dinner together every night. Jenny writes about marriage, kids, family recipes, meal prep…everything! I like that its written in diary or blog form in a friendly style, super enjoyable with plenty of recipes to try. I hope you’ll try it from the library. I loved it so much, I bought my own copy!!!
Since Lupine has become sensitive to eggs once more a good vegan cookbook can be a life-saver. Thanks for the suggestions. Looking at snow out my window this morning I’m happy to see signs of spring in your world. I’ll be right over. 😉
It’s so good to hear you prefer real cookbooks too. I love finding that rare quiet moment to thumb through the pages of favorites. I like beautiful pictures to accompany the recipes. This is where I find my inspiration! I love Deb’s book, she is such an amazing cook…. and I just added Oh She Glows to my list. I’ve made several things from her blog that were very good!
I do love the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and I just requested the Oh She Glows cookbook from the library based on your recommendation. I like to check them out before I consider buying them. Making a bigger effort to eat more vegan….like at least one day each week. Makes me feel healthy!
I don’t have any cookbooks that I just love. I do like More with Less quite a bit. And I just ordered Extending the Table
http://www.amazon.com/Extending-Table-World-Community-Cookbook/dp/083613561X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397569556&sr=8-1&keywords=extending+the+table
and I’m really excited to get that. I mostly use Pinterest for new ideas.
I use my computer or iPad for a lot of cooking right now, but I LOVE a good cookbook. Have you checked out Food52 (online and in cookbook form) or BudgetBytes (online) yet? I use those lots!
I so need both of those cookbooks…until then…I rely on their websites;)