[.ca] 20 Minutes to Dinner: Quick, Low-Fat, Low-Calorie, ... (ISBN 1570670277)

This is the book I'd wish I'd had 10 years ago ...:
... when I became a vegan. Perhaps this book ought to have been entitled "30 minutes to dinner" instead - yet this shouldn't put any people off, and as the previous comment rightly states, the negative critics given by some people is completely unjust! Bryanna is - in my opinion - one of the most innovative vegan cooks, and I can recommend any of her books (I have them all myself). Not only is the book about quick vegan meals, they are also extremely low-fat, yet all are rich-tasting delicious meals - AND as also mentioned below - the ingredients are easily available in health food stores (even in Denmark where I live!) If you do not have a food processor, get one now, as this is one equipment that Bryanna uses very frequently in her books. The opening chapter is about cooking & shopping tips, and this is very useful for planning your meals, as well as making a lot of your basics yourself - it's cheaper and you're sure not to get any weird extra-ingredients! There's a chapter on speedy dips and spreads, lovely soups and chowders (check out the sea vegetable chowder!), inventive salads (the oriental noodle salad is sooo delicious!), pasta dishes, quick pizzas, extensive sandwich and all kinda stuffed breads ideas, grilled alternatives to meat (tofu & seitan), stirfries, ... the book is simply jampacked with ideas and variations so that you can use what you have at hand. It is a superb cookbook, and it's definitely recommended!

Passes New Orleans food test!:
I own four cookbooks by Bryanna Clark Grogan, and plan on buying the rest. They are all EXCELLENT. I was born and raised in New Orleans, so I think I can claim to know what good food tastes like. The negative reviews of this book just blow my mind. The only people who might not like Bryanna's recipes are folks who think a McDonald's drive through is gourmet eating. And Bryanna's recipe ingredients are not hard to find at all; I don't know what that reviewer is talking about. I live in the country, two hours drive from a major city, and most of the ingredients can be found in my local, very rural grocery store. For those in an urban environment, ANY health food store will have nutritional yeast flakes and kelp. Hello! Don't you have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes? Switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet means opening your mind and having some new experiences, food-wise and shopping-wise. That is part of the fun. Grogan's Chinese cookbook exposed me to Chinese mock meats, and now I get to have a lot of fun shopping in Chinese markets when I go to town. Live a little! And the mock feta isn't going to taste *exactly* like feta...do you expect a vegetarian Boca burger to taste *exactly* like a Big Mac? As for the rice issue, I use Quick Brown rice, available in ANY grocery store...cooks in FIVE MINUTES! Some of you really need to expand your shopping and cooking horizons.

Bryanna Clark Grogan kicks butt in the kitchen!:
EXCELLENT! A must have. I have been vegan for a little over 7 months now and this is the first book I've found that is consistently good, fast, healthy,economical,and so delicious that even my non-vegan husband didn't pull a face when I presented him with the carrot-oat patties and brown gravy. Recipes for substitutes for egg, meat, fish, cream, and cheese are found throughout the text (the Melty Pizza Cheeze is mild and not disgusting like a lot of the faux vegan subs)as well as quick meal suggestions. I own a few other vegan recipe books and, although they have beautiful recipes, I find that they are not fast or simple enough for the everday- gotta -get- the- meal- on-while-kids-are-screaming- life that I lead. Some say the recipes take 30 minutes-I don't think that matters. If it is under 45 minutes then it is a quick meal. Gourmet vegan menus can take hours sometimes. This book will be the one with gravy splatters and juice stains. I highly reccommend it.

Indispensible!:
I have shelves of vegetarian cookbooks, but this one I use constantly! I bought it as an impulse to qualify for free shipping, but it has become my most-used book. There is so much information - ways to adapt recipes with other ingredients and to use basic sauces to create a selection of others. The lists of suggestions on the side have a wealth of information; I can't imagine running out of ideas when you have this book. Everything I have tried has turned out well. (I wish there were pictures but you can't have everything.)

Provides ideas for vegan cooking:
I recommend this cookbook in my book "Creationist Diet." I do so as my book includes a chapter on "The Benefits of a Vegan Diet." But since following a vegan diet can be rather "strange" to many people, those desiring to follow such a diet need ideas on just what to eat and how to prepare it. And this cookbook provides both. For instance, I would have never thought of using chickpeas to make "tuna salad" or tofu to make "egg salad." The idea of "20 minutes to dinner" is appealing to busy people today. However, I have found that some of the recipes take longer than this to make. But some are worth the time. The recipe for "quick pizza dough" does take a little effort, but it is worth it to make a good tasting pizza that is made with whole wheat rather than white flour. The introductory information in this book is helpful as well. It provides some general tips on vegan cooking and shopping. And I particularly like the recommendation to eat organic as much as possible. A recent study showed that there is a significant amount of pesticides residue on non-organic produce, far more than on organic produce. As regards texturized vegetable protein (TVP), it is a very useful item for making "imitation" meats. However, it should be noted that one could be allergic to TVP while not being allergic to soy in general. There is "something" about the processing method that turns soybeans into soy flour and then into TVP that makes it even more of a potential allergen. Overall, I would recommend this cookbook for ideas on how to follow a vegan diet. And for reasons why such a diet is healthy, see my book "Creationist Diet: Nutrition and God-given Foods According to the Bible."