Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Update Complete!



Veggiegirl.com has been updated and is live!! This blog is moving over there, so be sure update your Google Reader. You can even sign up to receive blog updates by email now! All of the blog archives from this site have moved over too! Please visit and let me know what you think of the revamped site. Also, if you have this blog linked on your website, please change the link, as nothing new will be posted over here.

To pique your interest, here's a picture of a chocolate peanut butter pie that I will be posting in a few days. Yes, those are chocolate covered pretzels on top. It's the perfect Valentine's Day dessert!

And as extra incentive, I will be giving away an autographed copy of Melliser Elliot's The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life next week!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Cookbook Project Week 5: Appetite for Reduction

The update to Veggiegirl.com is coming along swimmingly, so things will be pretty quiet over there on this blog while I'm working on the new one. I will be sure to let you know when the new blog is in place. In the meantime, back to my cookbook project...

This week's cookbook is Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. This book was just published a few months ago. I really didn't need another cookbook, but the Decemberists made it buy it.  Actually, it was getting good reviews and some of the recipes looked really yummy so I bought it. The book is full of nutritional info and the recipes include lots of veggies, especially greens, so it gets a big thumbs up from me. The dishes are really delicious too - they're not what you would expect from "diet food". Just like with other cookbooks in my project, I was able to get two meals from most dishes, so Dennis and I were able to have leftovers for lunch from most of these meals.

My one teeny tiny complaint about the book is that recipes start on right hand pages and continue onto the back of the page. I use a covered recipe stand, which makes flipping pages while I'm cooking difficult. As a designer myself, I know that it's good practice to start something a right hand page, because people look at pages on the right first. But for a cookbook it's not very practical. I love my recipe stand because it keeps my books from getting covered in my dinner and it spares counter space in my tiny kitchen, but I wasn't always able to use it while cooking with this book.

 Forty Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli was one of the recipes that made me want to buy this book. This was super duper easy to make and really tasty. I doubled the recipe so I'd have some leftover for lunch the next day because I knew we'd each eat more a "serving" size.

 Chickpea Piccata was actually the clincher for me when considering buying this book. It's served with Caulipots (mashed cauliflower and potatoes) and arugula. It was really delicious. 

 Upside Down Shepherd's Pie is also served with Caulipots, so I made a double batch. This was really nice and warming - the perfect dish for winter!

Isa posted the recipe for this Tempeh Helper on her blog about a year or so ago, so I've made this recipe a few times already and I really love it. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of broth powder and two cups of water. In the past I've skipped the powder and water and just used liquid broth, but this time I followed the directions and used a powder. I wasn't crazy about the flavor of it, so this dish wasn't as good as it was in the past. It's still a favorite of mine though!

I love tacos, so I really wanted to try Zucchini, Black Bean and Olive Tacos. These had a really nice flavor. The recipe made eight tacos, but they weren't filling, so Dennis and I actually had four each for dinner!



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