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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 25 2006 at 4:47am | IP Logged
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I know there was a recent post about *Children's* vegetearian cookbooks, but I was wondering whether you all had experience with Jean Lemlin cookbooks and how well you liked them. I am a fledgling half vegetarian (meaning we have meat 3 to 4 days per week) with a not-so-willing-to-be-vegetarian family. I need to know what to do with tofu, as an example of just *how* fledgling I am.  So if you have any favorite cookbooks, please share your experiences with me. I'd like to know mostly whether I can find ingredients in a regular grocery store, how difficult the recipes are, and whether you liked the results. Thanks,
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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esperanza
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| Posted: Jan 25 2006 at 6:25am | IP Logged
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Tina,
This looks like a good thread to read. My 17 dd is vegetarian (she is much healthier these days  )
I enjoy much of the food she eats, too.
I made chile on Sunday in the crockpot for everyone else...put aside extra veggies to saute added more like zucchini and used the same spices and sauce..she loved it.
Tofu can be cubed and sauteed and simmered in many nice sauces (ethnic) to put over rice with lots of veggies..my dd loves Chinese and Indian foods. Garlic, ginger and lemongrass are always in the fridge. We find most items in the grocery stores that cater to ethnic and health food items (which are most these days)
We use the internet for finding recipes, otherwise we kinda make it up with what we have. I'm going to look at one of these cookbooksby Lemlin.
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In His Peace,
Tammy Gonzalez in VA
dh-Johnny
mom to Tara-'85, Noelle-'88, Jeremy-'91, Elizabeth-'93, Emma-'96, Dominic-'99, Gabriel-'01, Elijah-03
and Jacinta-06
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folklaur
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| Posted: Jan 25 2006 at 8:39am | IP Logged
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Some I like are:
The Enchanted Broccoli Forest
The Moosewood Cookbook
Still Life with Menu
These are all Mollie Katzen books. I happen to particularly like her cookbooks. Also, most of the "Moosewood" cookbooks are pretty good.
I also like From a Monastery Kitchen
I don't have very many other cookbooks that are just vegetarian. I also have a not-so-willing family  .
My daughter likes Rachel Ray cookbooks, and she has a vegetarian meals book,
Veggie Meals: 30 minute meals , but she always uses a LOT of cheese/dairy, IMO, and we can't eat that much with tummy problems.
I don't like tofu at all, so I can't help you there. I know my BIL has been vegan/vegetarian for years, and he will just saute it up with soy sauce or whatever.
HTH,
~Laura in AZ
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Jan 25 2006 at 10:22am | IP Logged
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When we switched, we got a bunch of cookbooks from the library to see if they were any good. Here are our favorites:
New Vegetarian Cuisine which has a great chapter on weekday meals which are quick and easy.
Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook has some good recipes. We sort of pick and choose, but one I love tells you how to make homemade ravioli with wonton skins.
Better Homes and Gardens Vegetarian Recipes Cooking for Today has a bunch that are good, but they tend to be higher fat. It has a Spinach Rice casserole that blends the tofu in like ricotta. It's a great recipe for Weight Watchers.
To avoid making too many high fat meals (cheese is a favorite staple in so many recipes) we design a week long menu that includes 2 or 3 bean or tofu dishes, 1 or 2 cheese, and a few that are just vegetable based.
We are mostly able to find the ingredients in our commissary or local supermarket. Occasionally we make a run to a health food store for something "weird". That used to mean Tahini, bulgur, and soyrizzo, but now we're finding more and more of those kinds of things in the regular store. Some of the recipes have been total stinkers, some pretty good, and some awesome. We found that the kids warmed up to some things over time, but I doubt most of them (or my husband) will be a whole hearted vegetarian. In fact, Bill was telling my BIL that our being vegetarians "was a phase." What? No one told the cook!
I forgot to mention that this
Moosewood Low-fat Favorites is a good one. Moosewood includes some seafood recipes if your family will like those.
Good luck!
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Jan 27 2006 at 3:06am | IP Logged
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Oh, that *is* funny, Rachel. I don't think my husband thinks of our eating healthier as a phase. He's just as excited as I am about it. He's just tofu-shy. 
I must confess that the main reason we are switching away from meats and cheeses (and this last is a much slower process because that's what we mainly depend upon, that and beans to get our proteins) and to leafier substances because since my last pregnancy I have had several strange things happen with my digestive system. I seem to have more energy and am more able to manage the stresses of life when I eat more vegetables and fruits and less of EVERYTHING else (I always overdo the bread group anyway, so I don't have to worry about that).
We ate meat and cheese yesterday (spinach casserole) for my dd's 10th birthday. Then we had a spice cake over which I had labored for a long time ~ it's one of our more high maintenance cakes. After the meal and especially the cake, I was tired. I was overloaded with *something* and felt just drained of all my energy. Isn't food supposed to *give* you energy? And my digestive system was sending fireworks to my brain and loudly grumbling to me asking why in the *world* did I irritate it yet again. That just proves to me that what I'm aiming toward is the right thing.
I'm a little concerned as to the time involved and difficulty of the recipes. Some of those Moosewood books look a little intimidating. You're recommending cookbooks to a woman who didn't know how to cook regular rice (only the Minute variety) until I was married.  However, I'm encouraged that some of you are moms to large families. Also, the ingredient lists set my head buzzing sometimes because I haven't seen some of these things before. Yes, there *are* a lot of new things in the commissary (I saw Ugli fruit the other day...had only seen that in Eating the Alphabet before this). But I have to be completely educated anew about food. I have put many of your recommendations (as well as many others) on my Wish List.
Now the trick is to get my husband to look at it! I keep reminding him that it's there and that it's fairly brimming with things I would buy for myself but I'd rather have from him (so that he can fill the square of giving me gifts). He keeps saying, "Just show me where it is." However, he's looking for employment, we're leaving England in a few months, and we're going on vacation starting tomorrow...so when are we supposed to find time to sit on the computer (like I am right now ) together?
I found Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven at a discount bookseller ~ I was able to borrow this one from a library and browse before I bought it ~ as well as a few other books (The Middle Path Cookbook, A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen, and Vegetarian and More. Since there is such a discount on these books, and there are even occasional coupons to use at this site (I'm giving away my best-kept secret!  ) I felt that I could ~ dare I say it? ~ gamble on them. I chose these particular ones due to the fact that they appear simple, they *look* like they are geared toward the new vegetarian and/or the vegetarian whose families do *not* want to be vegetarians. And the reviews at Amazon are fairly good.
I'm hoping to knock our meat-eating down further, but what do you think about the bunch of growing boys who are definitely meat-eaters here? I have one who is bucking the three-days-per-week-no-meat rule I've alerady imposed.  What happens when I make it four days a week? Or should I? Is this lifestyle as healthful for children as it is for adults?
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Vegetarian cookbooks
