Peas And Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals The Whole Family Will Love (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
I made the black bean burgers and butternut squash fries today. They were both great. The fries are truly better than regular potato french fries. I used a fresh squash and can eat these fries every week.They are an excellent side dish. The black bean burger was the most flavorful one I've ever tasted. The recipes are easy and creative, and I like that Matheny isn't a professionally trained chef. Her writing style is funny and upbeat it felt like her recipes have been perfected through trial and error in her own kitchen. I am going to try the grilled almond butter and strawberry sandwich this week. It sounds like a great combination. I got this book from the library but am going to buy a copy for keeps. I was introduced to the Peas and Thank You blog through a few of the vegan food bloggers I follow. I actually spent quite a few work hours combing through her blog archives and bookmarking recipes to try. Full disclaimer: I am not vegan. I am not vegetarian. I dabble, but I have not committed. My house practices Meatless Monday and I was looking for a book of quick, easy, and tasty dishes for my family. At first, I just really liked the author’s sense of humor, but as I read more and more of the blog, I started to realize her recipes were really fun for a novice vegan cook. Does she rely on faux meat and soy products? Sure. But is her fare accessible and easy? Yes. I picked up a paper copy of the book because I don’t use my nook in the kitchen (bad experience with a pot of noodles). So right off the bat I was hoping for a lot from the book since I purchased a physical copy. In my experience, some vegan books can come off as pretentious and preachy. For those of us who simply need some vegan guidance, those books really don’t hit the spot. I wanted something that was more grounded in the “transition” phase of veganism. No hardcore raw foodies exist in my house, so accessible vegan food is key in any vegan cookbook I buy.Since I knew the author’s voice from her blog, I decided I wouldn’t mind if a lot of the recipes and stories were recycled from that content. A few were recycled, a few were extensions of recipes or reinterpretations, and a few were completely new. I spent about two days reading the stories from the book before I moved on to the recipes. Is the author a bit self-deprecating and emasculating? Yes, but I knew that from reading her blog. I bookmarked quite a few recipes on my first pass through and jumped in right away. At this point I have probably made about 30 recipes from the book. I have one meat-eating husband and one picky two year old son. While none of the recipes have blown me out of the water with flavor, all have been things the whole family will eat. That alone makes the book a great purchase for me. A couple recipes have become family favorites and have actually been requested by my boys. There are a few recipes that just didn’t work for my family. Most everything, though, has been pretty solid. I like that the book provides dairy substitutions (the hubby simply won’t eat dairy free cheese). I also like some of the pea tips that are printed in the sidebars. While I don’t think this is a great book for a cook who is familiar with veganism and all it’s intricacies, it was a great purchase for my family, who needs meatless meals I can actually cook.
What do You think about Peas And Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals The Whole Family Will Love (2011)?
I found the anecdotes kind of annoying, but found about two dozen recipes I want to try.
—Exercitatus
You have to love a cookbook with a recipe entitled "Hugh Jass Salad."
—mandy822
one of the best cookbooks fore vegan dieters.
—angelina
