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Posts Tagged ‘healthy’

Cookbook Review: Vegan Vittles by Joanne Stepaniak

June 21, 2012 3 comments

Image of a country kitchen.Summary:
A farm sanctuary is a farm whose sole purpose is to save animals from farm factories and slaughter.  The Farm Sanctuary in upstate New York was started in 1986.  In this cookbook, one of the proprietors has gathered vegan recipes inspired by farm life.  Think down-home cooking that is cruelty-free.

Review:
As a country girl, I was delighted to find a down-home cookbook free of animal products.  Everything about the cookbook hearkens back to classic American cookbooks from the layout to the simple black and white pictures at the beginning of each section to the layout of each of the recipes themselves to the sayings peppered throughout the book.  (The sayings are veganized versions of classic American ones).

The cookbook starts with an intro to the Farm Sanctuary, followed by a very personal explanation for her veganism by Stepaniak.   This is followed by the more scientific explanations for eating vegan and how to do it properly.  Substitutes and special ingredients are explained, and the intro is rounded out by a sample weekly menu.

The recipes themselves are divided into: tips and tails (hints and basics), beverages, breakfasts and breads, uncheeses butters and spreads, hearty soups and stews, salads and dressings, sandwiches, the main dish, sauces gravies and condiments, and happy endings (desserts).  Each section starts with a photo of one of the rescue animals and their story.  It’s a sweet, light-handed approach to veganism that I appreciate.

So what about the recipes?  They are definitely geared toward beginner plant-based cooks with a desire to replace their animal-based recipes with similar tasting ones.  There’s a plethora of traditional American recipes with the animal products simply switched out.  As a long-time vegetarian, I found this focus not quite my style, but I can see it being enjoyed by newbies or when hosting omni friends and family or to find that one thing you still really miss like bacon or meatloaf.  Personally, I found the dairy substitutes far more useful and interesting, since these can be expensive to buy, but are far healthier for you then the dairy norm.

I was able to find quite a few recipes of interest to me that I copied out.  So far I’ve only been able to try one, but it was amazing!  I tried Chuckwagon Stew on page 89. Seeking to replicate a hearty, country stew without the meat, the stew is built around tempeh.  The ingredients were easy to find (I got everything at Trader Joe’s), cheap, and the recipe was a quick one to make.  I fully admit I inhaled half of it that very evening.  I am eager to try the rest of the recipes, particularly the Crock Cheeze on page 74 and the Seitan Salami/Pepperoni on page 40.

Overall, this is a country style, omni-friendly vegan cookbook that lets the animals and recipes shine for themselves.  The recipes predominantly use grocery store ingredients, the exceptions being vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast, which are easily ordered via Amazon.  They are also simple enough that any moderately skilled cook should be able to follow them with ease.  I highly recommend it to omnis and veg*ns alike, as the recipes are happy, healthy, and friendly.  Personally, this is definitely going on my to own wishlist.

5 out of 5 stars

Source: Public Library

Buy It
Note that the second edition has a different subtitle and more recipes.

Categories: cookbook, Genre, Vegan Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday Fun! (On Health)

June 10, 2011 2 comments

Hello my lovely readers!  I hope you all enjoyed your first full week of June.  Here in Boston, we’ve been having quite the little heat-wave….with accompanying short tempers to go with it.

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about health.  What makes a person physically and emotionally healthy.  It seems like such a simple concept, but there are incredibly wide and varied opinions on what exactly it takes to give someone good health and what the signs of good health are.  For instance, personally I don’t eat meat, partly for beliefs and partly because I feel healthier when I don’t.  Yet there are people who swear they need red meat to feel healthy or fish or whatever.  If we can’t even agree on simple guidelines for physical health, how can we possibly agree on them for the more complex world of mental and emotional health?  So here we all are trying to sort our way through all the different advice out there and find what works for us.  For some people with more hurdles or baggage to get over, it’s a longer process than for others.  I think what matters the most is that the person is trying, but unfortunately some people don’t give a whole lot of credit to trying.  But if someone is trying to be healthy and it’s hard for them, why should they get less credit than someone who is naturally pretty healthy?  Perhaps I’ve just become more empathetic because I work at a hospital.  I see people truly struggling just to be functioning members of society, and then I see the stigma they face on top of it, and it just makes me sad.  Being a healthy person in the modern world is hard and stacking stigma on top of it isn’t going to help or fix anything.

It reminds me of an usher I met when I was out at the Boston Ballet this year.  She was chatting with my friend and me, and she said, “Sometimes you just gotta get really drunk and forget about your problems for one night.”  I think that’s something some people who’ve been dealt a better hand in life forget.  Sometimes people who’ve been dealt a bad hand get tired.  Sometimes they choose an unhealthy coping mechanism because the reward is immediate and easy to see whereas the negatives aren’t.  Maybe that overweight girl you see on the bus reaches for comfort foods because she was abused.  You don’t know.  It’s not easy to constantly try.  It’s not easy to swim against the stream all the time, and most Americans don’t know the best coping mechanisms for when they’re down or sad or just simply tired.  Maybe I’m too optimistic, but it does seem to me that our culture uses a lot of negative reinforcement instead of positive.  Somebody gets depressed or overweight or whatever and culture tells them it’s their fault for being lazy for being sad just get happy, etc…. when what those people really need are some encouragement.  Yes, you can do it.  Yes, it’s ok to take a night off and relax sometimes.  Yes, it will be ok in the end.  Just keep trying.  You’re doing great.

Categories: Friday Fun! Tags: , , , , , , , ,