I am not a vegan or even a vegetarian. That being said, I’m not a huge fan of meat either. I like a little chicken or a little fish now and then but I can go days without eating any meat at all. I was excited to review Ann Gentry’s Vegan Family Meals:Real Food for Everyone for the opportunity to have a few new recipes for those days I don’t feel like eating meat. *I received the book in e-book form from NetGalley.com free of charge, but my review expresses only my opinions and I was not paid for it.
First, I’d like to say this book is definite eye candy. I loved all of the beautiful pictures, they were lovely and rich and made me want to try the recipes they illustrated. If I have one complaint it is that not every recipe came with a photo, but as a lot of recipes are featured I can kind of understand that.
The cookbook is divided into seven sections, Breakfasts, Sandwiches and Snacks,Soups, Family Style Salads, Simple Meals, Grains and Vegetables and Desserts. I won’t go into all of the chapters but these were my favorites.
Breakfasts- I’ll be honest I’m mostly a cereal in the morning girl, unless we need to go grocery shopping then I usually make toast or pancakes. But I really thought the recipes for quick oats and quinoa and nutty raspberry muffins looked really good. I was also excited to see a recipe on how to make nut milk, this is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now and it looks pretty simple to do.
Sandwiches and Snacks- Edamame and Spinach Hummus with Endive Spears. If this chapter contained this recipe alone I’d say it was a good chapter. (There is of course a lot more to this chapter and I enjoyed it. It was a little ambitious for me to attempt, but if you want to try it there is even a recipe for how to make vegan cashew cheese.) The author makes a very good point in the intro to this chapter, most people think of snacks as something full of sugar and then need something salty right after to feel balance. This of course never creates balance and throws your body off. I like her approach to snacking which is to find a way to give your body more of what it needs, vegetables and nutrient rich foods.
I found this cook book to be full of interesting recipes, beautiful images and lots of information about clean living and a vegan lifestyle. A few of the recipes might not be tried simply because some of the ingredients are not what I’d usually buy but they have introduced me to these ingredients and my curiosity just may get the best of me.
We are not a vegan family but I can see us enjoying a lot of the recipes featured. Like Ann Gentry says herself, this book is not be limited to vegans alone. It is helpful for those of us who want to be a little more healthy too.
