[.ca] New Laurels Kitchen (ISBN 089815166X)

My Family Used This book Even When We Weren't Vegetarians:
This book really has in-depth information on nutrition that's good for any family. In the nutrition section, vegetables and fruits are listed along with the vitamins they contain. This way, you can plan better on getting vitamins in your meals. Laurel talks about how by eating less meat protein, we absorb vitamins in our fruits and vegetables easier. This makes it easier for the vegan and vegetarian can meet al their health needs. The bread recipes are easy as (forgive me!) rice crispies, but the results are often artisan breads because of their fine, simple ingredients. Try the english muffins, pumpernickel bread, whole wheat french, the black bread and my favorite, oatmeal. My husband loves the tamale pie. The vegetarian shepherd's pie is another staple. I also love the minestrone soup, the baked eggplant parmesan ( you can use any crumbs, not just crackers!) and stuffed peppers. I like the way the menus are layed out. It makes it easy when you first start out. It's also a good book for introducing yourself to the concept of whole foods and getting away from packaged foods if you haven't already. They are very strict about sugar when they talk about nutrition in this book, which makes alot of the recipes great for diabetics. However, it's a little too strict at times, if you're not a diabetic since as the main author states her belief is that, "sugar is sugar is sugar." There are too many important enzymes in fruit to worry so much about the sugar! So much of the information is in depth, and that's what makes this book a standby for me. There are instructions on how to make yogurt at home, also soybean milk. There is eomthing really wholesome about the book, which I find appealing as well. Well-put together and organized I definitley suggest this book for your cookbook and nutrition library.

Great, Healthy Recipes:
This is one of my most-used cookbooks, even though I am not a vegetarian. This book is perfect for anyone looking to get more vegetables into their diet. It contains many simple recipes that taste astoundingly good. For example - I never liked cauliflower until I tried the cauliflower soup recipe from this book.

An old, well loved standby:
In my eight years of vegetarianism, I find myself turning back to Laurel's Kitchen again and again. It never ceases to amaze me how the deceptively simple recipes create delicious food, time and time again. I suspect that the reviewer who complained of "lackluster recipes" just skimmed through, without bothering to prepare any of them. The strength of this book lies in its minimalist recipes, letting the quality of the ingredients shine through. In this respect Laurel's Kitchen is a welcome relief from the many vegetarian cookbooks which rely extensively on fancy techniques, ingredients, or equipment which you may not have at your fingertips. Not that I'm opposed to gourmet vegetarian cooking; but for day to day, simple, hearty food, I refer to Laurel's Kitchen before anything else in my cookbook library. Bonus material includes guidelines for new vegetarians, wider implications of a vegetarian diet, and a slew of handy nutritional charts.

Amazing Nutrition Information!!:
I bought this book because I was interested in the nutrition aspects of vegetarianism. This book has an amazing amount of nutrition information. It is a great resource for planning a complete vegetarian diet. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but there appears to be a great variety of recipes. The book is worth having just for the nutrition information.

Classic, tasty and diverse:
This was the very first cookbook I ever bought. I had drifted away from eating meat without even noticing, the first time I ever had to fend for myself in the kitchen. After a couple months of eating eggs and cheese I concluded I had to learn to really be a vegetarian. This book helped me understand the basics of a healthy diet that wasn't just "meatless", it had totally forgotten about meat. There are some recipes that are just plain nice to know about like the fruit compote from dried fruit, some of the delicious non-yeasted breads, (I'm too distracted to make good yeasted breads without my bread machine), and the various sauces for vegetables. It would be lovely to make everything from scratch like Laural and company did, but I just don't have the wherewithal to spend that much time in the kitchen anymore. I was vegetarian for 14 years but started eating meat again when pregnant the first time. Now that my children are getting older and able to appreciate foods that are combined, I plan to get out my copy of Laural's Kitchen and use it more. Even if they balk, I'll be adding various side dishes, some of the lovely sauces so I can dress up my servings of vegetables and introduce my kids to more vegetarian dishes. Even while I haven't been using these recipes, I've appreciated the comprehensive nutrient charts as a reference.