Considering I actually crave leafy greens, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Green Smoothies has become my new favorite go-to cookbook in the morning to whip up superfood smoothies to start the day. Author Bo Rinaldi, co-owner of the acclaimed Blossoming Lotus restaurant in Portland, Oregon and the website VeganFusion.com, is an avid proponent of a vegan lifestyle. His smoothie book is a thirst-quenching, health-boosting resource that shows you how to incorporate ultra-nutritious ingredients into smoothies as a means to naturally increase your energy, rev metabolism, burn fat, cleanse out body toxins, and satisfy your daybreak hunger. Here is one of over 100 green smoothie recipes you’ll find when you page through his book. Read More
Just because you’re following a vegan diet does not mean that the nutritional values of your meals has significantly improved. Just as with a non-veg diet, it is all too easy to get lured into a junk food trap where you’re eating foods that are high in sugar, high in fat, high in calories, and low in nutrients. Though these nutritionally-devoid meals may satisfy your hunger for comfort food and temporarily curb your junk food cravings, they are not a long-term solution for your health nor your vegan diet. Alicia Simpson, author of Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food, can certainly relate — and she wants you to succeed in overhauling your diet so it benefits your health and she wants you to love the food you’re eating. Read More
Chef Alain Passard astonished the food world in 2001 by removing red meat from his three-Michelin-starred Paris restaurant, L’Aperge, and dedicating himself to cooking with vegetables from his very own organic farm. Over 10 years later, L’Aperge is one of the world’s greatest restaurants and visionary Passard has inspired a new generation of chefs and meat-free cooks to craft and dig in to sublimely prepared vegetables and fruits. Passard’s upcoming cookbook The Art of Cooking with Vegetables (Frances Lincoln, June 2012) is a celebration of vegetarian cooking that even meat-eaters will admire. Read More
Wouldn’t you love to eat killer food without killing yourself, animals, or the planet? Vegan Brian Patton, who is the YouTube cooking sensation known as the Sexy Vegan, not only says you can certainly do it, but he gives us 100 fail-proof and flavorful vegan recipes in his recently released book The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude (New World, March 2012). Here’s more on this inspiring vegan cookbook. Read More
To the joy of home cooks everywhere, one of the best vegan and vegetarian restaurants in the country is now bringing its earth-friendly, upscale fare and flare to the home kitchens of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike. Expanding the horizons of vegan cuisine, the Candle 79 Cookbook (Ten Speed Press, 2011) offers conscientious, flavorful, modern recipes from New York’s premier sustainable restaurant. Here is an amazing vegan butternut squash to put on your holiday table and throughout the cold weather months. Read More
While your friends might think of all vegans as granola-munching herbivores, chowing down on tofu and kale salads, you know that image doesn’t really reflect the modern vegan. Lane Gold, author of Vegan Junk Food: 225 Sweet, Salty, and Scrumptious Treats for the Ultimate Pig-Out! (Pig Not Included) offers fabulous vegan solutions so you can slip in undetected with your omnivore friends. We caught up with Gold to learn more about her vegan cookbook and her upcoming involvement in the Green Festival in LA at the end of this month. Read More
With a name like Banana Split Waffles, who could possibly not want to eat breakfast? This decadent vegan breakfast recipe from Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites (Fair Winds, July 2011) by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman, will get your family to the table for the most important meal of the day! Read More
If the craving for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups keeps you up at night, don’t deprive yourself of the delectable chocolate and peanut butter duo. Emily Mainquist, founder of vegan bakery Emily’s Desserts in Baltimore, Maryland, shares her healthier — and vegan — version of the commercial candy. Even better, Mainquist’s recipe, which is featured in her recently released cookbook Sweet Vegan: A Collection of All Vegan, Some Gluten-Free, and a Few Raw Desserts (Kyle Books, May 2011), is a no-bake vegan dessert that comes together in minutes and chills for an hour. If you happen to have a peanut allergy, simply replace the peanut butter with almond butter or another nut butter of your choice. Read More
Sweet Vegan: A Collection of All Vegan, Some Gluten-Free, and a Few Raw Desserts (Kyle Books, May 2011) is a must-have for vegan bakers and dessert lovers. Mainquist, founder of Emily’s Desserts, a Baltimore bakery specializing in vegan-only desserts, has turned the baking world upside down with her vegan baking skills and non-vegan-pleasing desserts. Read More
You are what you eat, and Mimi Kirk, author of Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty (Skyhorse Publishing, June 2011), encourages eating passionately and compassionately. Filling up on raw foods is not only in line with a cruelty-free lifestyle, it will also healthfully fuel your body with the nutrients your body needs to look and feel younger. We don’t know if Kirk’s fennel salad will take years off your appearance, but we do know that it will tantalize your taste buds with every flavorful bite. Read More
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