Category Archives: Appetite for Reduction

Yay us for cooking through our first VegCookbook, Appetite for Reduction.  Here’s what y’all had to say about it:

Blog posts

• Gotta Eat by Yoga G33k
• Something New to Try: a Veg Cookbook Club by Veggie Goes Vegan

Photos

All by Lean Lundquist on Instagram

• Miso Udon Noodles with Beans and Greens
• Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chili with Corn & Scallion Muffins
• Thai Roasted Root Vegetable Curry
• Pineapple Collards & Butternut Coconut Rice

Comments

Thanks Andrea of Learned On, Brigitte, Celeste, Courtney of Yoga G33k, Debra of Breathelighter, Elisa of Veggie Goes Vegan, Gabriela of Source Consulting Group, Ian, Jana of My Life as a Runner, and Leah for all of your comments on this month’s posts:

• Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili for the Super Bowl
• February VegCookbook: The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
• Eggplant Provencal + Black-Eyed Pea and Tempeh Beanballs
• Gathering Ideas for Our February VegCookbook
• Quinoa, White Bean and Kale Stew + Tortilla Soup
• 2 Yummy Pasta Dishes from Appetite for Reduction
• Haven’t Gotten Appetite for Reduction Yet? Try These Sample Recipes
• 4 Favorite Appetite for Reduction Recipes

I’m looking forward to cooking through The Vegan Table with all of you in February!

Full disclosure: The links to Appetite for Reduction and The Vegan Table are linked to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase, after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale.

Happy Meatless Monday VegCookbook Cooks!

Inspired by Leah Lundquist’s Instagram photo of Classic Black Bean and Veggie Chili with Corn & Scallion Corn Bread, I decided to make it myself this weekend.  Yum.

Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chili with Corn & Scallion Corn Bread (pp. 236-237, p. 244)

Although the recipe called for 3 T of chili powder, I only used 1 tablespoon, and it was still flavorful. I liked the corn bread, but it wasn’t that attractive.  I’d like to make it like Leah did, as muffins.

I also made Smoky Split Pea Soup.

Smoky Split Pea Soup p. 223

This was also delish (the smoked paprika is what makes it red). It didn’t turn out as creamy as I wanted it to, so I blended it with an immersion blender to thicken it.

What did you cook this week?

I’ll do a round-up of everyone’s comments, photos, tweets and blog posts about our month of cooking from Appetite for Reduction tomorrow.  Be sure to use the hashtag #vegcookbookclub, or link back to vegcookbookclub.com, so that it’s easy for me to find.

Happy Meatless Monday VegCookbook Cooks!

Last week I went outside my cooking comfort zone twice. It was my first time making my own meatless meatbals with the Black-Eyed Pea & Tempeh Beanballs recipe from Appetite for Reduction.

Black-eyed Pea and Tempeh Beanballs on Spaghetti with Mom's Marinara pp. 190-195

The hubs really liked them, but honestly, they were a little too tempeh-tasting for me.  I *did* love the addition of sliced zucchini and scallions from the Cajun Beanballs and Spaghetti recipe. Instead of making the Spicy Cajun version of Mom’s Marinara, I made it with mushroom and onions. Delish.  I love knowing that I can make my own spaghetti sauce now, and don’t have to buy it.

My second cooking adventure was cooking with fennel for the Eggplant Provencal recipe. I had to watch a video to learn how to clean the fennel!

Eggplant Provencal pp. 260-261

This photo doesn’t make it look very appealing, but I loved this dish. It reminded me of a beef stew that my mom made when I was little.  I’ll definitely be making it again. A terrific winter meal.

What recipes did you try this week?

You can participate in the VegCookbook Club in a variety of ways:

• Write about the recipes you tried in the comments. What did you like? What didn’t you like?  What changes did you make?
• Ask a question in the comments.
• Share a link to a post from your own blog about the recipes you made this week.
• Post photos of what you made in the VegCookbook Flickr group.
• Tweet about what you cooked with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub
• Post a photo on Instagram of what you cooked with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub

Full disclosure: The link to Appetite for Reduction is connected to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale.

It was cold this week, and I had a cold, so it seemed like a good time to make soup.  I’m a big fan of soups ’cause they’re a one-pot meal, and make lots of leftovers. Maybe we’ll cook from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons in February, or March. What do you think?

Both of the soups I made this week were delish:

Quinoa, White Bean & Kale Stew (pp. 245-246)

The hubs and I both seasoned our soups with balsamic vinegar to taste. Vegetarians ~ This soup is yummy with a hard boiled egg in it. When we were in Peru years ago, we ate a lot of quinoa soup, and it was often served with sliced egg.

Tortilla Soup (pp. 208-209)

I looove this soup. The challenge is to not eat the rest of the bag of tortilla chips while you cook! I chose the mild route, and used a green bell pepper (instead of a poblano pepper), omitted the jalapeños, and used only a dash of red pepper flakes.

What recipes did you try this week?

You can participate in the VegCookbook Club in a variety of ways:

• Write about the recipes you tried in the comments. What did you like? What didn’t you like?  What changes did you make?
• Ask a question in the comments.
• Share a link to a post from your own blog about the recipes you made this week.
• Post photos of what you made in the VegCookbook Flickr group.
• Tweet about what you cooked with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub
• Post a photo on Instagram of what you cooked with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub

Full disclosure: The link to Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons is connected to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale.

Happy Meatless Monday VegCookbook Cooks!

This week I made two delish pasta recipes from our January VegCookbook, Appetite for Reduction:

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine (p. 188)

Pasta e Fabioli with Spinach (p. 185)

Both were yummy.  My only complaint is that we ate all of the Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine in one sitting, and didn’t have leftovers!

What recipes did you try this week?

VegCookbook Cook, @leahlundquist, posted a photo on Instagram of her Pineapple Collards (p. 94) and Butternut Coconut Rice (pp. 80-81).  Doesn’t it look delish?

Full disclosure: The link to Appetite for Reduction is connected to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale.

Happy weekend, VegCookbook Clubbers!

Have you made any recipes from Appetite for Reduction this week?  If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy yet, VegCookbook Club member, Yoga G33k, offered a great tip: Try the sample recipes on author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s website, Post Punk Kitchen:

• Chickpea Picata
• Caribbean Curry Black Eyed Peas with Plantains
• Quinoa, White Bean and Kale Stew
• OMG Oven Baked Onion Rings
• Hottie Black Eyed Peas with Ginger Mashed Potatoes Sweet Potatoes and Apples

I’m looking forward to hearing about what you’ve cooked, and seeing your photos in just a couple days on the next Meatless Monday!

Full disclosure: The link to Appetite for Reduction is connected to my Amazon Associates account.  If you make a purchase after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale.

Welcome to our first Meatless Monday together! Meatless Monday is a nonprofit initiative of The Monday Campaigns. Their goal is help reduce meat consumption by 15% to improve personal and planetary health.

I received a review copy of our January cookbook, Appetite for Reduction, in late 2010 and cooked from it throughout 2011. Below are four of my favorite recipes (so far):

Spinach Linguine with Edamame Pesto (pp. 174-175)

Yum, yum. I’ve made this multiple times.  What makes it extra delish is the sauteed red onion, mushrooms and thyme. The pesto does get a little sticky when it cools, so you’ll want to serve it as soon as it’s ready.

Strawberry-Spinach Salad (p. 51) with Balsamic Vinaigrette (p. 17)

I’ve made this salad multiple times, and (as you can see from the photo) have served it with the Spinach Linguine with Edamame Pesto.  Not the best salad for winter, but one to look forward to when strawberries are in season.

Quinoa Puttanesca (pp. 75-76)

What makes this recipe a favorite is that it’s tasty and quick to pull together, especially if you have cooked quinoa hanging around. Even though it doesn’t have any beans, tofu, or nuts, because of the quinoa, this dish has 8 grams of protein per serving.

Goddess Nicoise with Green Garlic Dressing (pp. 25-27)

I’ve only made this once, but I definitely want to make it again on an evening when I have a little extra time. I often write in cookbooks (is that bad?).  For this recipe I wrote, “Very delicious. Takes 1.5 hours (with clean up).”

I’m looking forward to hearing about the Appetite for Reduction recipes you try this week. Remember, there are lots of ways you can participate in the VegCookBook Club:

• Share about the recipes you tried in the comments. What did you like? What didn’t you like?  What changes did you make?
• Ask a question in the comments (e.g. What the heck is nutritional yeast?)
• Share a link to a post from your own blog about the recipes you made this week.
• Post photos of what you made in the VegCookbook Flickr group.
• Tweet about what your cooked with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub

Happy VegCooking!

A big thanks to everyone who responded to my post on Have Fun, Do Good, VegCookbook Club 2012: Wanna Join?

Based on your comments, Facebook messages, emails, and tweets, your choice for our January VegCookbook is Appetite for Reduction: 125 Fast and Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz!

I’ve created the VegCookbook Club for anyone who would like to eat less meat and animal products.

You can join for a variety of reasons:
• Environmental
• Animal rights
• Health
• A creative cooking challenge
• To be part of a cooking community
• To have fun!

How the VegCookbook Club works:
• Each month I’ll select a vegetarian, or vegan cookbook for us to cook from together.
• Each Meatless Monday I’ll post about recipes that I tried from the cookbook.
• In the comments of my post, you’ll share the recipes you made from that month’s cookbook, and let everyone know how they turned out. You can leave a comment, or a link to your own blog post.
• We’ll ask questions (e.g. What the heck is nutritional yeast?).
• We’ll add photos of what we made to the VegCookbook Flickr group.
• We’ll tweet about our VegCooking with the hashtag #vegcookbookclub
• On the last Meatless Monday of the month, I’ll do a round up post with some of your comments, blog posts, photos, and tweets, and announce the next month’s VegCookbook.

My hope is that the VegCookbook Club will:
• Be a fun and creative community
• Provide inspiration, support and motivation for us to eat less animal products
• Encourage us to cook more often for ourselves, our family, friends and community

If you have any questions, or suggestions, feel free to email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com, or connect with me on Twitter at @BBravo or on Facebook.

Happy VegCooking!

I’ll be announcing which VegCookbook we’ll be cooking from together soon!  For info about how the VegCookbook club works, check out the About page.