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Tigerlily
May 1st, 2005, 04:16 PM
I have "How It All Vegan". I have tried a couple of recipes and I like them. The book is very good but I'm on Weight Watchers and a lot of the recipes are too high in calories/fat for me to enjoy while trying to follow my WW plan.

"Recipes from an Ecological Kitchen" is another good book I picked up at the library but the recipes always yielded 6-8 servings (I'm cooking alone!!) and they weren't quick, easy stuff either.

Tigerlily
Jun 14th, 2006, 10:08 PM
Is it just me or are the foods in How It All Vegan are really boring? They are just like typical SAD foods, just veganized. I wasn't a big fan of SAD food even before going vegan, so I find this cookbook a little boring.

Syren
Jun 15th, 2006, 03:54 PM
^ I do find How it all Vegan a bit standard... by the time La Dolce Vegan (the third in the series) came out, though, it's pretty inventive and useful. :) And I find that How it all Vegan has its place, even if it's not as fantastic as the later ones. It still has some gems.

Smoothie
Jun 15th, 2006, 04:06 PM
i think how it all vegan is one of the best cookbooks - not really for the recipes, but because it has a lot of basics that you don't know when you've just turned vegan. it's one of the reasons i'm working in a organic vegan kitchen:D it gave me the basics to experiment with a great result:D

Gorilla
Sep 5th, 2006, 10:43 PM
a friend of mine bought me How It All Vegan for my birthday last week. it seems quite American (not necessarily a bad thing but not great when it comes to measurements, terminology, specific products etc.) and i haven't tried any of the recipes yet but they seem fairly straightforward.

Tigerlily
Sep 5th, 2006, 10:48 PM
The authors are Canadian, Gorrilla. ;)

I hate how a lot of recipes rely on fake cheese, milk replacememnts, egg replacement, etc. If an omni bought the book, looking for innovative recipes, they would be disapointed. Why would they go out an buy powdered egg replacer when they can just use a real egg? Or why would they spend a small fortune on vegan cheese for that bean dish when they could use dairy cheese? I heard of a few omnivores and lacto-ovo vegetarians who bought the book and they all said the same thing.

I gave it two stars (bad). None of the baked goods turned out right for me, except for the date squares (but even they were a little too crumbly).

Gorilla
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:01 PM
LOL fair point, but the US and Canada often have the same products, measure everything in cups :rolleyes: and use words like 'zucchini' and 'sloppy joes' ;)

j/k :p

i can't say i like the sound of the 'mock chopped liver' or the 'fart sandwich' :eek:

i haven't rated it yet as i haven't tried anything from it. it does have quite a lot of explanation about what being vegan means and what to avoid, which might be good for beginners but doesn't interest me now.

Tigerlily
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:05 PM
Yeah, I use the animal ingredients list quite frequently.

Gorilla
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:17 PM
i was just looking at that actually and i notice it says vitamin D2 can be made from animals so isn't always vegan - i don't think that's right? :confused:

IndigoSea
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:24 PM
I like those books for the tips and tricks, the cosmetics recipes, kitchen tips, and all that fun jazz. The recipes looked too boring to ever bother trying though. I haven't gotten the Dolce Vegan one yet. Is the food in it any good?

Tigerlily
Sep 5th, 2006, 11:49 PM
i was just looking at that actually and i notice it says vitamin D2 can be made from animals so isn't always vegan - i don't think that's right? :confused:

I don't know. It confused me too. :o

PygmyGoat
Sep 6th, 2006, 09:35 AM
I voted 'average' for this. It is well presented and nice to look at, but I found the same problem as Tigerlily with the actual recipes. I live in the middle of nowhere and I can't get fake Cheese, etc. Also I couldn't keep converting - why don't they show cups and UK measurements? :rolleyes: .

I have actually given up on cookery books, having spent a small fortune on them over the years. I find things turn out better if I just cook by instinct. The more I weigh and measure and fuss, the more disasters I have!! :D .

Tigress
Sep 6th, 2006, 09:44 AM
I was going to buy the set of these from Amazon but have been put off now ...

Tigerlily
Sep 6th, 2006, 02:38 PM
Yeah, Tigress, don't.

Tigerlily
Sep 8th, 2006, 01:27 AM
I guess I was in a cranky mood yesterday went I wrote those posts. I found my copy and I have flipping through the pages. I found all sorts of doodles saying "yummy" and little hearts by certain recipes. :o I guess I did like this book! :o Just the baking section never worked out for me, but recipes were good.

So I change my statement. If you're looking for a cookbook with veganized "SAD" food, this is it! I really liked the potato soup recipe.

pavotrouge
Sep 16th, 2006, 04:43 PM
"How it all vegan" was my first vegan cookbook and I'm really disappointed by it.

I also like the basics you can learn from it, the list at the end of the book etc.

But I have tried a lot of the recipes and have to say- being a quite good cook- I haven't liked any of them. The baked stuff doesn't turn out well and most of the "recipes" are things I could just have thrown together myself without needing a book for it.

Pretty boring...but I have also heard that the following books of the authors are better...I'm not buying any of them because "How it all vegan" was such a waste of money...

assilembob
Sep 16th, 2006, 09:42 PM
wow. I guess I just must be boring in the kitchen...because the "How it all Vegan", "Garden of Vegan" and "La Dolce Vegan" books are my favorite cook books! They are the only ones I actually use because the recipes are fast, simple and the taste good. I rarely add fake cheeses to things (because they are too expensive) and I love that they give you lots of alternatives for egg replacement in the first book.

I don't much use the baking recipes...I liked the brownines I tried...I am very selective on my baking and am not terribly good at it so I can't vouch for those at all.
But I love all the soups, (especially from HIAV the Rustic Tomato Lentil, Sweet potato squash & Apple, Butternut Tomato and the Auntie Bonnie's Lively Lentil Stew and from GOV Auntie Bonnie's Black Bean, Wholesome tomato rice and the Hungry Person Stew) the pancakes are good...the GOV lunchbox section has some great stuff in it, HIAV Mashed Garlic Potatoes with Kale, Classic Spinach Lasagna (A big hit with my former students!)...Basically everything I have tried I liked...

pavotrouge
Sep 23rd, 2006, 07:35 PM
*lol* Don't take it as an isult, me finding the recipes boring might also be result of having learnt to cook from Italian and Asian people mainly, so I find a lot of "traditional" Western food bland.

vgnwitch
Sep 24th, 2006, 12:05 AM
i was just looking at that actually and i notice it says vitamin D2 can be made from animals so isn't always vegan - i don't think that's right? :confused:

I was always under the assumption that D2 is vegan and D3 is animal [lanolin, more specifically]. I've yet to hear anything to the contrary. :confused:

jamboxrock
Sep 24th, 2006, 03:39 PM
I like those books for the tips and tricks, the cosmetics recipes, kitchen tips, and all that fun jazz. The recipes looked too boring to ever bother trying though. I haven't gotten the Dolce Vegan one yet. Is the food in it any good?

I love La Dolce Vegan. It's the only one I have out of the three. I picked up HIAV in a bookstore last week and flipped through, and it just didn't catch my attention. But La Dolce Vegan has been great. I think I like it for exactly the reasons you guys seem to not like it...it's a lot of veganized, easy American style food. Casseroles, breads, pizzas, stuff like that. And honestly, I haven't found that it relies heavily on fake meats and cheeses, cause I don't like to use that stuff a lot. Or maybe I've just been avoiding those recipes. My favorite recipes so far are Wolffie's Southwestern Corn Casserole (I missed my mom's corn pudding, which is chock full of eggs and butter. This was way different but to die for.) and Tara's Chocolate Cake (Made this for my own birthday. A couple restaurants around here sell vegan chocolate cake, and I always brag that mine is way better.). I also really like the Yeast-Free Pizza Crust. For some reason I am afraid of yeast. Never have made real bread. I'm scared I'll screw it up.

Anyway, I guess that's my endorsement for the book, as someone who grew up on the SAD diet and misses it sometimes :)

Bluey
Oct 10th, 2006, 06:10 AM
I have this cookbook and I really like it. Must try the upside down pudding cake...yummo

Roxy
Oct 10th, 2006, 07:07 AM
Tonight I made the Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup from page 53 of this book.

It's sooooo good!! Towards the end of the cooking, it goes nice and thick, almost like a stew. Good cold weather food!! :D

thecatspajamas1
Oct 10th, 2006, 07:14 AM
I really like the vegan household and children tips in the back of the book. I haven't really tried many of the actual recipes.

jojobee42
Oct 21st, 2006, 07:03 AM
Such a cool title........ :)

JenRnnrGrl
Oct 21st, 2006, 07:00 PM
When I was first looking for some good vegan cookbooks, I read a lot of rave review about HIAV. So, of course, I ordered it from Amazon.

As some of you have said, I was rather disappointed with the substitutions of vegan cheese for regular cheese, egg replacer for regular eggs, etc. I was also disappointed at how unhealthy some of the recipes were (lots of butter, oil, sugar, etc).

There are a couple of recipes my husband and I enjoy out of HIAV, though. We generally steer clear of the desserts!

Oh, the other complaint I had was the fact that there didn't seem to be a lot of main dish recipes. And the recipes are also not very friendly on my eyes (especially the titles)!