The China Study Family Cookbook by Del Sroufe

The China Study Family Cookbook by Del Sroufe ISBN-13: 9781944648114 Paperback: 302 pages Publisher: BenBella Books Released: May 30, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
So you've learned about the benefits of a plant-based diet, but now you need to successfully make the transition and convince your family to do the same. The China Study Family Cookbook is the family-friendly cookbook and guide you’ve been waiting for. It’s time to make plant-based eating easier and even more rewarding for your family.

Chef Del Sroufe--author of The China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook and Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook--provides 100 easy, flavorful recipes—with reinvented family classics. The cookbook includes:

Mac & Cheese
Cream of Tomato Soup
White Bean and Squash Chili
Wheatberry Sloppy Joes
Meatball Subs
Hush Puppies
Creamed Corn Casserole
Breakfast Tacos
Biscuits and Gravy
Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Donuts

The China Study Family Cookbook offers stories from plant-based advocates whose whole families have adopted a plant-based lifestyle—and how they got their spouses and children on board. It also gives tips for getting your kids involved in the kitchen and fostering their love of plant-based cooking. The China Study Family Cookbook even includes strategies to negotiate the family menu from families made up of both those who eat plant-based and those who don’t.


My Review:
The China Study Family Cookbook is a whole food, plant-based (vegan) cookbook containing 100 recipes. It's intended for families, so most of the recipes were for 4 or 6 or 8 people. The author also explained how to get kids involved with making the food (so many of the recipes are fairly easy to make). He also assumed that the reader had little experience in the kitchen, so he explained things like knife safety.

The cookbook is targeted at people who are used to popular, Standard American Diet foods. He has healthy versions of hot cocoa, baked donuts, Mac & Cheese (with no cheese), meatballs (with no meat), and so on. The intent is for a similar taste and texture experience, but with much healthier ingredients. Some recipes did use gluten-containing grains or tree nuts (if this is a concern for you), but others didn't. There were pictures of the finished products, many of which looked very tasty.

There were also some short articles about people who went vegan, why, and how they did it when the rest of their family wasn't interested in eating vegan. Overall, I'd recommend this cookbook to people with families who are interested in adding more whole-food, plant-based meals to their diet.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

The Book of Greens by Jenn Louis, Kathleen Squires

The Book of Greens by Jenn Louis, Kathleen Squires ISBN-13: 9781607749844 Hardcover: 328 pages Publisher: Ten Speed Press Released: April 11, 2017

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
From one of Portland, Oregon's most acclaimed chefs comes this encyclopedic reference to the world of greens. It's for any home cook who wants to cook delicious, vegetable-focused meals, but is tired of predictable salads with kale, lettuce, cabbage, and the other usual suspects. Chef Jenn Louis has compiled more than 150 recipes for simple, show-stopping fare, from snacks to soups to mains (and even breakfast and dessert) that will inspire you to reach for new greens at the farmers' market, or use your old standbys in totally fresh ways.

Organized alphabetically by green, each entry features information on seasonality, nutrition, and prep and storage tips, along with recipes like Grilled Cabbage with Miso and Lime, Radish Greens and Mango Smoothie, and Pasta Dough with Tomato Leaves.


My Review:
The Book of Greens explains how to use 40 varieties of leafy greens in your cooking and provides 175 recipes that include those greens. These are not "healthy" recipes. She adds the greens to dishes that use cheese, cream, eggs, fish or meat and use a lot of oil or sugar. Since she's trying to get a specific blend of taste and texture, I doubt the dishes will taste as good if you remove or replace some of the ingredients. She's traveled a lot, so there are recipes from other cultures in addition to adding greens to more Western foods.

The book is organized around the Greens information pages. The Greens are listed alphabetically and include pictures of the greens and information about what season they grow in, what foods they pair well with, and how to choose, clean, store, refresh, and cook them. After the information page for a specific Green, she provided recipes that used that Green. The recipes usually served 4 but varied between serving 1 and 12 people. Some recipes were simple, while others had many steps and involved more time and effort.

The book also had a few templates, like for how to make a salad (add a food from this list, then add a food from this group, and so on). I did find the information pages about the greens to be useful, but I'd expected a book that helped healthy eaters to find new, tasty ways to eat their greens. But it's more targeted at foodies than health nuts.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

YumUniverse Pantry to Plate by Heather Crosby

YumUniverse Pantry to Plate by Heather Crosby ISBN-13: 9781615193400 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: The Experiment Released: May 16, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
Cooking at home is good for you, but sometimes it’s nice to eat without planning (and shopping) ahead of time! Enter YumUniverse Pantry to Plate: Improvise Meals You Love—from What You Have!—Plant-Packed, Gluten-Free, Your Way!

In this one-of-a-kind recipe playbook, healthy living enthusiast Heather Crosby shares ingenious master recipes that home cooks can customize endlessly. For example: Pick any grain, one or more veggies, and a complementary aromatic, sauté them together in your choice of sauces, and voilà! You’ve just improvised a hearty, nutritious “scramble.”

Are you a recipe renegade who likes to bend the “rules”? A new vegan or vegetarian seeking more kitchen confidence? Are you tired of going shopping for just one missing ingredient in a recipe? Infinite possibilities await you in your own YumUniverse!


My Review:
YumUniverse Pantry to Plate is a vegan (no meat, dairy, or eggs), gluten-free cookbook. The author provides 30 recipe templates that you can customize based on what you like (or have on hand). She also provided 100 recipes based off of those templates so you can see some of the possibilities. Most of the recipes take between 15-40 minutes to create.

These recipes look fairly simple in terms of cooking skill required. However, the author didn't spend much time explaining how to cook or what the different ingredients can bring to the overall taste, so it may be hit or miss in terms of the resulting taste of the dish. Also, many of the recipes had a lot of added sweetening and/or oil, though these were usually optional additions.

I've tried several of the recipes. They tasted good, and one was quite tasty. One turned out to be less work than the template format made it look like. Overall, I felt like these recipes were more for committed gluten-free vegans than for tempting people to eat more vegan meals.

The templates: For breakfast, a veggie and grain stir-fry, granola, pancakes and waffles, muffins, warm cereals, or breakfast cookies. In addition to some recipes for sauces and creams, she provided templates for compotes and fruit butters, coconut yogurt, and dairy-free milk. For lunch and snacks, it's gluten-free crackers, amazeballs, dairy-free fermented cream cheese, dips and spreads, crunchies, fermented veggies, bites and tots, veggie fries, and soups. For main meals, it's cheesy comfort food, epic salads, veggie sushi makis, tacos and wraps, 'banza bakes, veggie burgers, and hand pies. For sweets, it's cookies, crispy bars, brownies, coconut-based ice cream, and crisps and crumbles.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

The Dawn of a New Era by Edward P. Cheyney

The Dawn of a New Era by Edward P. Cheyney ISBN-13: 9780061384004 Trade Paperback: 389 pages Publisher: Harper Torchbooks Released: 1962

Source: Bought at a book sale.

Book Description from Amazon:
The first book in The Rise of Modern Europe series. The merit of this book consists in its mature presentation of the best results of modern scholarship within a broad but defined range of topics. Its value is enhanced by authoritative bibliography, compiled, like others in this series, with helpful critical comments.


My Review:
The Dawn of a New Era is the first book in The Rise of Modern Europe series. It covered all of Europe during 1250-1453. The chapters were organized by topic rather than chronologically.

The author talked about how this was a period of expansion in trading, which led to a growing middle class that had wealth. These merchants could then lend their money, which kings needed, so they were increasingly included along with the nobles and the clergy in government-related councils. He talked about how this worked out in various countries.

He talked about various peasant-class insurrections, the Hundred Years War, and the decline of the power of the Catholic church over governments. He talked about John Wyclif, the Lollards, and John Hus. He talked about the increased use of vernacular language in speech, literature, and university, church, and government documents. He talked about Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, and Giotto. He also talked about Marco Polo and the Far East as well as the eastern frontier of Europe.

Frankly, it reads like a textbook. Some parts, like the section on the insurrections, came across as disconnected facts that I'm unlikely to remember. However, I did find interesting the sections that showed how one thing lead to another (like the rise of middle class wealth led to their representation in the government).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.