How I Plan To Use Them More
[/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 0 0 3px”]
[/one_half_last]
I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut lately. I’ve mostly just gotten really lazy. Like many of you, I’m just very busy. While I enjoy cooking, and like to think of myself as a pretty good chef, I just prioritize other things (mostly work) during times when I could be cooking. I find myself working until I’m so hungry I can’t possibly wait to cook anything. I need something fast and quick. Lately I’ve been on a salad kit kick. You know, those pre-made salads you can get in the grocery store that have a dressing packet and various toppings? They’re delicious. I just add some sort of plant based protein (tofu, veggie burger, black beans, etc) and call it a day. If I’m not doing a salad, it’s usually something frozen from Trader Joe’s. Now I’m speaking mostly about dinner here. If you’ve ever watched any of our What We Eat In A Day videos over on our YouTube Channel, you know I don’t typically change up what I eat for breakfast/lunch. Right now, I’m on a yogurt kick for breakfast. For lunch I either so a smoothie or some hummus and crackers with a handful of almonds. Dinner is where I play around. I have so many cookbooks I never look at. I buy them, flip through them and mark recipes I want to make, and then never look at them again. I’m also not a big grocery store list maker. I like to go to the store and wander around, only buying what sounds good in the moment. With the method, even if I wanted to make something out of a cookbook, chances are I wouldn’t have the proper ingredients on hand. And if I have to go to the store to get something, you can forget about me making it. By that point I’ve lost interest. A new goal I’ve set for myself is to cook something out of a cookbook once a week. That’s totally doable, right? If you want to play along, here are my favorite plant based cookbooks I’ll be using.
Minimalist Baker
This one one of the first cookbooks I flipped through and truly thought to myself that I’d make every single recipe inside. It’s so good! It’s filled with 101 plant-based, mostly gluten-free, easy and delicious recipes. I’ve made several amazing things from this cookbook already, but my favorite are the Thai quinoa meatballs. You can’t go wrong with anything in this cookbook, but if you want to get a feel for some of the recipes there are a bunch of great ones over on their blog.
Chloe’s Kitchen
This cookbook is from the creator of By Chloe, one of our favorite vegan restaurants in New York City (for the record she is no longer affiliated with the restaurant). Everything in this cookbook is vegan, and I would say most of the recipes take a traditional dish you know and love, and remake it using all vegan ingredients. If you’re new to plant-based eating, I would say this is a good cookbook to start with as you’ll see familiar recipes and flavors in here. I haven’t actually made anything out of this cookbook yet, but am excited to try out some of the vegan desserts!
Weekday Weekend
As an avid follower of their blog, I was SO excited for this cookbook to come out. You’ve probably seen their unique recipes all over Pinterest. The way the cookbook is organized are the “weekday” recipes all follow 5 rules: 1) eat a variety of foods; 2) no refined or artificial sugars; 3) no refined white flour or white rice; 4) no dairy; 5) no alcohol. For the “weekend” recipes there are no rules. So you can choose to follow this lifestyle plan, or just use the cookbook as a normal cookbook, picking out whatever recipes interest you. There is a recipe for sesame, sea salt, and dark chocolate cookies that I really need to test out soon!
Natural Feasts
I really liked her first cookbook, Deliciously Ella (and the blog too!) so I recent picked up Natural Feasts. I haven’t had a chance to try out any of the recipes yet, but it’s packed with lots of yummy sounding goodies! My biggest pet peeve of vegetarian cookbooks is recipes like “how to roast veggies” or “spaghetti sans meatballs”. Doesn’t everyone know how to make that? I don’t need a cookbook full of those types of recipes. This cookbook gives interesting and unique flavor combinations you probably haven’t thought of. I think this will be a great one to really dig into this fall.
Do you use cookbooks? What are your favorites? Please send over all of your recommendations!
-Ash