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Ask Angie: Cookbooks/Recipes

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Hi Angie!

I was reading the weight loss thread, and I noticed you said you do a lot of french and asian cooking. Brendan and I are both fans of french cuisine, and I've wanted to try it at home. It seems like a lot of french cookbooks are kind of complicated though, or have a LOT of preparation involved (2+ hours sometimes). Is this just true of french recipes in general, or am I looking at the wrong books? I currently own "Jacques Pepin Celebrates," which is a great book, but kind of involved. Could you recommend any cookbooks or recipe sources that might be more for beginners? I don't mind if something takes a longer time to cook, or even if preparation takes up to an hour. I just don't have time to debone fish or whole chickens or anything like that on a weeknight. Anyone else's recommendations would be appreciated as well (of course).

Also, christie asked what you packed for Greg's lunches. I was curious, too. All I can usually think of for lunches is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which gets kind of boring after a while.

Thank you!

General

53 replies

Latest reply was from Kristen

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Oh! Ana, you are very cute. Christie too. I am really bad at relaying recipes because they are all in my head and I don’t use cook books. But I’ll try to help you both out and here’s a start.

As far as French cooking goes, we like basic French peasant food – the simplest prep with the best ingredients. That’s all I do at home. The best salads, bread, cheese, soup, fish, shell fish, chicken dishes and desserts. Nothing else, because then I can’t eat what I make because I don’t eat mammals. Is Brendan also vegetarian, Ana? If my French cooking is of interest to you, let me know and I can elaborate.

Greg’s lunches are my labour of love. He gets one of the following each day unless he is home for lunch, in which case we eat salad, bread and cheese, and a bit of fruit and chocolate (again, very French). When it’s cold, I add in a cup of homemade soup.

So packed lunches consist of either:

1. A sandwich – with turkey, or chicken, or cheese, or avo & tomato, or salmon, or roasted vegetables, supplemented with rocket, mayo, butter and South African chutney. It’s on the best thick dense dark bread filled with seeds, nuts, flax and whole grains. Nothing carb cutting. Nothing that looks like a wrap.

2. Last night’s leftovers – this could be anything, but never potatoes or pasta. Greg heats this up at work.

3. A salad – but not a green salad because those we’ll only eat as soon as they’ve been prepped. We are VERY fussy about our green salad! I make crab and fish salads with beans, edamame, tomatoes, chick peas. I go wild and throw it all in and make a dressing. It keeps really well and tastes fresh when he eats it at lunch time.

Greg also gets a granola bar and a handful of snax like nuts, sesame stix and perhaps some some grapes. At work, he drinks hot tea, iced tea or water and that’s it. I go to GREAT efforts to keep Greg’s lunches varied because he gets bored of food fast. And when that happens, things derail.

Don’t know if this was the info you were looking for, but let me know if I can help you further.

Maya

Veteran

I know this isn't exactly what you asked for, but I used to be uninspired when trying to make lunches too. Most brown bag lunches seem to be sandwiches with lots of meat, which, even if I wasn't vegetarian, would probably bore me. I found this book very helpful. The recipes are delicious, varied, and very easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetari.....038;sr=8-1

Michelle

(website)

Veteran

Angie, I'm sitting here at work drueling over Greg's lunches. I'm certainly up for more details, but I may start tinkering with this formula on the weekend for myself and my Corey.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Great book Maya, and I think I've had that in my hands. I should get it.

Good for you, Michelle. Let's hear what Christie and Ana have to say.

christie

Thank you for elaborating Angie. I really appreciate those tips. It is an endless fight for me to get Greg to eat lunch. He doesn't like to eat much, or he'll forget to take something. He ends up eating candy or cookies. I also could stand to make my own lunches because I often go out to grab a sandwich or soup. It would save quite a buck to eat in. (This is of course if I eat. When I'm stressed or busy, I completely forget). Angie, do you make your own bread?

For dinners, Greg and I eat quite the same way as Angie.--very peasant style food. Ana, a cookbook I like is "Alice Water's Simple Foods" (Or something like that). Like Julia Child, she breaks down cooking into its most basic elements with several good recipes. Some of these things you can make on weeknights, others are more appropriate for weekends. She doesn't provide many recipes, rather she explains the basics of cooking. When I'm feeling uninspired, I like to read through this book for ideas on different ways to cook chicken or a certain vegetable. Also, I buy all of my food at the farmer's market or get it from my garden, and that helps to ensure I eat vegetables and keep from getting bored (no asparagus or rhubarb in September, no tomatoes in March).

cciele

Veteran

I also pack lunches for my DH, and it's typically leftovers + some fruit. He doesn't mind them; I know some people do though.

christie -- I have that cookbook! The Art of Simple Food. I really enjoy browsing through it, and the recipes are simple (heh) but good. Lots of emphasis on getting fresh, whole foods.

Ariadne

Veteran

Angie, please, please, please post more info on your French cooking. It sounds to die for.

Maya

Veteran

Angie, that book is lovely. I am a horrible cook...absolutely awful...don't even know how I survived on my own...but those are easy as anything and on a whole other level from the average sandwich. It's also nice because lots of recipes I find often rely too much on soy products and tofu (both of which I love, but in limited quantities), and this relies exclusively on veggies and legumes. Totally worth having around for inspiration, and all the ingredients can be varied, omitted, and substituted to your heart's content.

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone! I will look into those books, Maya and Christie.

Angie, Brendan is not a vegetarian. He eats everything, red meat, etc. But he doesn't mind vegetarian dishes at all, and he'll mostly eat whatever I cook. I actually started eating *some* meat, too. Recently, I've had to reevaluate my eating habits and diet because I started gaining weight, and when I got my cholesterol checked, it was actually higher than before I became a vegetarian (and it was too high then, too, and the main reason I decided to go veg). It's just been really hard to eat healthily at school if I want anything other than a salad. A plain salad isn't enough for me, I'm always starving within an hour or two. I will still eat vegetarian meals a lot though, if I'm at home or a proper restaurant. Anyway, I'd be very interested to know more about your French cooking!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You have convinced me to get that book, Maya.

Brianna, I am SO BAD at writing out recipes as you may have noticed with the bread & butter pudding recipe I shared on this forum. Hmmmm, what to do! Who wants to come to Seattle for a cooking lesson?

Ana, what meat are you eating these days? You need a healthy but HEARTY salad, or sandwich to take with you to school. I suspect that you can't heat anything up? Like fashion and style, good food and good eating is all in the details. Your body will feel completely sustained if you feed it GOOD food – not food that is necessarily low in calories, just high quality food in moderate amounts. Stay away from things that are fake and focus on the good stuff. Greg has high cholesterol too so eggs, cream and butter in moderation and little bits of cheese, but only the BEST cheese. Very little red meat or shell fish. I know you know this!

Well, where should I start with sharing the first recipe? I'll try!

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Me, me! I want to come for a cooking lesson!

I'm mostly eating fish, like salmon, tuna and tilapia. I like fish and seafood a lot. I eat chicken (they have roasted and baked chicken at school as a choice, or I eat it on a salad). I don't really like chicken that much though. I would say I eat mostly fish (and salmon most often because it's easy to cook a million different ways).

I started eating a lot more slowly, and I'm not eating as much. It's been hard to break that habit of just eating everything on my plate. I've also started eating snacks between meals (fruit and a handful of nuts, or a piece of Ezekiel bread toast and natural unsalted peanut butter, usually), and I eat breakfast everyday. That's been the hardest thing to get into, because I'm not usually hungry in the morning. I eat yogurt with fruit and nuts in it, or flax granola, and I put protein powder in it. Sometimes I'll have toast with no butter, and scrambled egg beaters, or I'll make a breakfast/protein shake. I've cut down on how much salt I eat (I've never been in the habit of salting my food once it's cooked anyway), and I don't drink soda or anything like that, only unsweetened ice tea, hot tea, espresso or water. I've also cut out all deep fried foods, because I can't just eat those every once in a while right now, I'll want to eat them all the time, and I eat whole grain bread or pasta. At home I sautee or "pan fry" in olive oil sometimes. It's going well so far, but I often times don't really know what to cook for dinner since I'm trying to eat differently. I can definitely get behind eating smaller amounts of really good food. That's how I like to eat naturally, anyway. I just got into the bad habit of eating everything since Brendan and I got married, because that's what he always did. He's trying to get better at doing it too, but I think it's going to be like smart casual dressing--I'll do it for a while and make it a habit, and then he'll come around eventually and decide it would be a good thing for him to try out too.

Yay! Can't wait for your French cooking posts!

Kristen

(website)

Veteran

Just jumping in quickly to recommend Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone". It's a huge tome of a cookbook, with amazing explanations about all kinds of different vegetables and general ways to prepare them, followed by great recipes for each one.

This has been great for learning how to prepare new-to-me vegetables; we belong to a CSA (community-supported agriculture), where we receive a box of produce from a local farm collective once a week all summer and fall. So we get a lot of veggies we may have never tried before! I'm really looking forward to this year's crops.

Ele

(website)

Angie, I am so excited for your YLF cooking lessons! (I would gladly fly to Seattle for a real-life one, too, but I have a feeling you were kidding about that;)

I am obsessed with cooking and food (I write three food-related blogs), but realised that I don't have that much experience with French cooking. That will definitely need to be rectified soon.

Having said that, I probably eat similar diets to some of you. I'm mainly vegetarian, although I do have seafood on occasion. I like salads but hate green ones- so boring! I prefer bean- and legume-based ones, or with other, "stronger" veggies. My favourite is a borlotti bean and tuna salad with green onions and lemon dressing, perfect for a weekend lunch.

Speaking of lunch, I wish I could get my boyfriend to take leftovers or a packed one to work. He spends so much going out and buying it every day, and I'm sure it's not doing his health any favours, either. I think for him, part of the appeal is getting out of the office at lunchtime, clearing his head with a change of scenery. I can understand that, too.

KristenKP, I completely agree with you suggestion. VCFE is one of my favourite books. I got it when I went veg about a year ago and it's really wonderful. I plan on reviewing it on one of my blogs next month. My other favourite "tome" of veggie cooking is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which was the first book I reviewed on my blog (and the only to get 5 stars!).

Hmm, I definitely need to add some French books to the mix now...

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Kristen, I like that book too.

Ele, and anyone else, if I’m not shopping, I’m happiest in the kitchen, so by all means join me. I’d love to cook with you!

Hands down, the link below is my favourite book on French Cooking. I have SO MANY, don’t use any of them, lived in France, wing it and am much happier with the results. I get ideas from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/French-C.....038;sr=1-3

Ana, I like the way you’re thinking. Eat slower and savour each mouthful of the good food you are feeding your body. We eat 6 times a day. It really works for us, and it sounds like it’s working for you and B too. My suggestion is to listen to your tummy. If you are not hungry in the morning – don’t eat. Greg is hungry and eats brekkie at 7 –ish. But I can’t get anything down accept tea until 9.30 – 10 and that works just fine too. Why don’t you wait until you’re hungry before you eat? Do you eat Sushi?

Let me think of an easy first Summer recipe. Hmmm. Do you eat crab sticks? It’s actually fish with zero cholesterol. We only eat tuna fresh and raw, so I won’t be providing recipes with canned tuna, but you could substitute it if you like? Once you have the knack of this particular recipe, you can embellish and substitute in loads of ways. Keeps for a few days in the fridge and is perfect as a packed lunch. Delicious on a hot day. Let me know if this is of interest to anyone. I made it up but it has it's roots in French cooking :0)

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Kristen, I have that book too! It is nice. I like how she gives recipes for home made condiments in there as well.

Angie, I do eat sushi and sashimi, since that was something I really enjoyed before I became vegetarian. I've always really loved all seafood (except squid, but Brendan loves squid, so he eats it when we got to a restaurant), so I will eat "crab stix." I'm excited to see the recipe!

As far as breakfast, I am like you, Angie. I might give waiting for breakfast a try. During school, I usually get up at 6:00, and have a cup of tea, and I have to be at school by nine for class. I'm usually hungry around 8:45-9:30, in the middle of class! Heh. I think I will take something with me though, so I don't end up eating anything from the coffee shop at school. Sometimes I will have a cappuccino before class, if I'm really tired. I once heard a quote that says, "A Mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems," which I am starting to believe is true.

Lena

I'm following these threads with great interest. Thanks for sharing your ideas everyone.

Since everyone is talking about cookbooks, here are my 2 cents. I hope it's ok to post them in this thread:

Another vote for Deborah Madison's books. I really like her vegetarian soups cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Vegetabl.....038;sr=8-1

I also really like Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cookbooks. I constantly mine her "World Vegetarian" for new ideas about cooking vegetables and legumes. I highly recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-J.....038;sr=8-1

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Lena, I second your Madhur Jaffrey recommendation. Brendan and I are HUGE fans of Indian food. I've been trying to get a handle on cooking it at home, but it's still not as good as this little Indian restaurant right across the street from our apartment. We eat there at least once a week, the whole staff knows us, heh. Anyway, we have Madhur Jaffrey's "World of the East Vegetarian Cooking." It's a great book, I just need more practice.

Lena

Ana, I know what you mean about more practice. There are times things turn out really well, and sometimes not so much. Still very tasty, but something is not quite right. I feel I'm doing something wrong with some spices. For example with garam masala: a dish turned out really well one time, and the rest of the time I'm either adding it too early or too late, or not doing something right. And maybe I should bite the bullet and make my own mix; she says that store made ones are not always good.

I don't eat at restaurants very often, but when I do go, I always analyze the Indian dishes

cciele

Veteran

One kitchen item I can't live without is the crockpot. It helps tremendously with meal planning and timing. This is an excellent vegetarian crockpot cookbook that I highly recommend:

Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are
http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Ve.....038;sr=8-1

marianne

I have both Debora Madison's book and Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" and I am glad there are other fans here on the forum. "World Vegetarian" was the first serious cookbook that I got many years ago that was extremely helpful - I liked the breakdown by vegetable type and it also introduced me to many new ingredients. I still use it occasionally but mostly for reference, as well as Madison's book. Lately I've been improvising a lot or getting inspirations from blogs like 101 cookbooks.

Angie, would the French cooking book you recommended be suitable for vegetarians? I also asked you on the other thread, but it probably got lost - I was wondering what kind of bread you buy - or do you bake your own? And thank you for elaborating on your packed lunches - I am always looking for new ideas for those. And if you ever do a cooking demo, I am there!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

*chuckle* Ana & Lena. You have to go to London for the BEST Indian food on the planet. It’s become the national cuisine. So fab.

Unfortunately French food is very hard for vegetarians, Marianne. Don’ get the book I recommended :0(. But if you stick to French bread, cheese and salads – you are good, good, good.

Yes! I saw your bread question but forgot about it – sorry. I purchase lots of different dark breads. Don’t bake any myself. There is GREAT fresh dark bread at QFC, Safeway and Whole Foods and at the little bakery in Leschi (I’m in Madrona but it’s easy to walk there). I have not had luck with bread at Essential Bakery – but you have so I should give it another bash!

So do I have permission to get the first recipes rolling? I’d like to share that versatile seafood salad first. Then I’ll share a salad dressing that will change the way you feel about green salads. I'm warning everyone again though - I find it very hard to supply exact recipe quantities because I eyeball everything. If that's okay, who’s in?

April

Veteran

Me!

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Yes, definitely post recipes, Angie! You might have to start a food/recipe blog, too!

Brendan agrees with you about Indian food in London. He said it's very different than what you get in the US. There is a large Indian population here in Austin, so there are lots of Indian groceries and restaurants and things. He says the food here is good and he likes it as well as the the stuff in London, but in a different way. He did say that when he lived in London, he rarely ate out, because the cost was a lot higher than it is here, so he's not sure if he can make a proper comparison. When we go to England, Indian food is definitely on our list of things to try, since I've never been there.

CCiele, I have the vegetarian slow cooker book too. Very good. I also like "Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes." Really hearty, yummy recipes. Especially great for cold weather.

Dawn

(website)

Me too!

The Indian food in London is amazing. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water and think about going back to London again. I love that city! Alan cooks really good Indian food, it's so mouth-wateringly delicious. The thing that I love about Indian food is that there is a wide range of recipes for vegetarians and meat-eaters.

I'm not a very good cook yet as I have only been cooking for a couple of years but I have found that good quality ingredients make the biggest difference with food. As I have no health problems (yet), I can generally eat what I want but as diabetes runs in my family, I really need to take care of my diet by not eating too much junk food and by generally being healthy.

marianne

Thank Angie! I just wanted to check about the book but I didn't have much hope. Both times I've been to France I struggled a bit with food - except in Nice we ate at a fabulous veggie place, but it was a few years ago. As for bread, I only buy a couple of kinds of Essential, and one kind of Wild Wheat, but I actually prefer denser bread, and that's why I asked. Sometimes I get packaged German pumpernickel to get the density
Oh, and I also thought Indian food in London was amazing!

Ele

(website)

I am 100% in, Angie! I absolutely can't wait for the cooking classes to start. *rubs hands together in glee*

I second (or is that fourth?) the comment about the Indian food in London. It's wonderful, and it's everywhere. I just did a quick count of the restaurants around me, and there are six Indian places, and that's in a 3-block radius. They're all delicious, too. I would definitely miss the Indian food here if I moved away! Luckily I'm getting quite good at making my own, so I won't be in too much withdrawal, when the day comes.

Lena

Hee, yet another reason for me to visit London

Ooh, Marianne, I'm a big fan of German pumpernickel. I think I have a package stashed away somewhere...

Can't wait for Angie's recipes!

Kari

Veteran

I would be thrilled to see posts about good recipes (from Angie or from others.) I am very much a novice in the kitchen, but would love to improve. Please bring it on!

Michelle

(website)

Veteran

Bring on the recipes!

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