Peta's Vegan College Cookbook

I bought this a few months ago because I saw it in WHSmiths, and it looked interesting and full of quick recipies.
They are in no way healthy - they focus more on speed and ease (some are high in fat/sugar/salt) but I adapted one of the recipes in this book (Chick magnet chicken casserole) and it is now my favourite meal.

There are some other clever ideas in this book as well - such as if you want to make a quick spaghetti bolognese, use a jar of pasta sauce and some burger crumbles (such as Granose) and a fairly quick recipe for making ice cream (without needing an ice cream maker).

I have about 30 Vegan cookbooks and this is one of the few that I regularly use.
The only downside is that it is all in cups etc.

The cups measurement issue can be solved with a quick trip to a Wilkinsons store. They do a cups jug there.

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Glen Lambert

The cups measurement issue can be solved with a quick trip to a Wilkinsons store. They do a cups jug there.

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Oh I have a nice posh set of cup measurers from Tesco, the problem is that I need to know how much cals/carbs/sugar/fat/salt I am getting from food, because all food in the UK has nutritional info per 100 Grams, when I make something from a recipe using Cups, I have to measure the amounts in Cups, then weigh them to convert to grams, then calculate the cals/carbs/sugar/fat/salt. It just makes things a bit harder.

The other problem with using cups is that when a recipe makes more than 1 serving, and your the only Vegan in your house, you either have to make the full recipe and have leftovers or reduce the recipe to make less servings, I find this more difficult to do with cups (I.E. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup flour and it make 4 servings then I have to measure 1/4 of a cup, then weigh it to find the amount in grams, divide by four then weigh out that much. But if the recipe is already in grams or ounces I can simply divide the whole recipe by 4).

Out of curiosity why do you need to know all cals/carbs/sugar/fat/salt data?

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Glen Lambert

Out of curiosity why do you need to know all cals/carbs/sugar/fat/salt data?

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The carbs and sugar are the most important ones because I am diabetic and need to know how many carbs I am eating so I can judge how much insulin to use.
I am also suppose to have a healthy diet (I.E no more than 6 grams of salt a day, low in sat fat) and the calorie content is useful for weight management.

I am not obsessive about it, I wont work out all the figures to the 3rd decimal place but if I am eating pasta for lunch knowing that I am having 75 grams means that I will use a certain amount of insulin, if I am having dessert I will have more.

Obviously when I eat out I have to guess and sometimes such as Christmas and Birthdays I relax and eat what I want, but if I bake a cake its good to know how much sugar there is in it:)

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Firestorm

(I.E. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup flour and it make 4 servings then I have to measure 1/4 of a cup, then weigh it to find the amount in grams, divide by four then weigh out that much. But if the recipe is already in grams or ounces I can simply divide the whole recipe by 4).

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Alternatively you could measure out a tablespoon of flour. There are 16 tbsps in one US cup.

I really like the look of all the meals but my biggest issue with it is that it relies heavily on fake meats and fake dairy, which are both expensive and hard to find/limited selection where I live :(

I have flicked through this as an ebook. I was a bit confused by its aim- it is meant for students but depends on exclusively on expensive vegan processed food, surely students are meant to broke?! Maybe students in the US are different to students in Europe :/.
TBH I think they put more thought into the stereotypical puns that make up the recipe names than the recipes themselves. I thought that they were uncreative and unappealing and I have no problem with high fat/processed food.

I have to agree Blueberries, I used to use this book quite a bit (especially when I lacked time and needed a quick meal - which it can be useful for) but I haven't picked it up for over a year now, a lot of the recipes are a bit uncreative but there are a few that stand out "Chik magnet chiken casserole" is actually quite good, but I have adapted it quite a bit over the years!

I have made 8 things from this book this week (Chick magnet casserole, hashbrown casserole, broke ass cinnamon rolls, muesli, in a pickle chickpea salad, WTF wings, not your average burritos, the morning after scramble) and will be making another tomorrow.
I have to admit barring the Muesli they have all been really tasty and not too unhealthy, they're not fine dining recipes but I have worked late a few nights this week and the food has been quick, easy and tasty.
The chickpea salad is really really excellent & I will be making again next week.