Eat, Drink, and be Vegan- my new favorite cookbook!

Eat Drink and be Vegan by Dreena Burton is definitely my new favorite cookbook! I actually got it for Christmas 2007 from my boyfriend's sister. I was still new to the vegan lifestyle at that point and was obsessed with dessert and comfort food recipes. I was making AT LEAST ONE dessert recipe each week, and was always experimenting with ways to replicate my old faves into new vegan creations. I was in LOVE with vegan cheese and mockmeats. So when I flipped through ED&BV the first time, I saw recipes that looked delicious but a little too "different." I saw the words "spelt" and "oat flour" and "whole wheat" instead of the usual "unbleached wheat flour" that I was used to. I also noticed that she didn't have as many traditional comfort food recipes or use a lot of margarine, mock meats, or vegan cheeses like most of the cookbooks I was familiar with. At that point in my vegan transition, I wasn't ready for these healthier, purer, more-advanced recipes. So I'm sorry to say that ED&BV got lost on my shelf while I gave my attention to my other books like La Dolce Vegan and The Joy of Vegan Baking.

Now here I am, over a year later, in a much different place as far as my diet and eating desires are concerned. While I still LOVE vegan cheese and mockmeats and go crazy for desserts, I have significantly cut back my consumption of these things. I am no longer in the beginning part of the vegan transition. I am now drawn to simpler ingredients, lighter recipes, more whole grains and less refined and processed products. So, as I flipped through ED&BV recently, I saw it with brand new eyes. These recipes that seems "a little weird" or "too healthy" before are now exciting, amazing, and wonderfully healthy!

This cookbook is full of unique recipes that you won't find in traditional vegan comfort food cookbooks. There's a whole section on different hummus recipes! The breakfast section has recipes for crepes made with spelt flour! The entres include items like enchiladas, chimichangas, pastas, Thai pizza, and Moroccan phylo rolls! In the dessert section you will find white chocolate macadamia cookies, pumpkin cheese pie, and gluten free chocolate chip cookies. There's definitely an ethnic flair to a lot of her recipes and they all seem to be made with health in mind. I am so grateful for this cookbook; it's exactly what I need and want right now. Just go check it out at the bookstore, flip through the recipes, and see if they catch your eye and taste buds. This book is perfect for anyone wanting to transition to a diet containing less refined, processed products and more whole grains, whole wheat/spelt/or gluten free flours, pure sweeteners, and exciting, unique meals. She leaves plenty of notes on the sidelines with suggestions and ways to adjust the recipe to individual taste and needs, which makes me feel very comfortable and well-informed about the best way to make the recipes.

Here are all the recipes I have tried (and they were ALL amazing!)
-Breakfast Crepes (pg.28); I filled these with soy yogurt (dairy yogurt for the non-vegan boyfriend) and applesauce. I made them for dinner and served them with an asian pear, walnut, and raisin salad with raspberry vinaigrette (topped with goat cheese for the bf.)

-Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas (pg.68); I made these with nama shoyu instead of tamari and served them over a salad with cucumber, tomato, carrots, avocado, and a lemon-olive oil dressing. SO GOOD!

-Peanut Banana Tortilla Turnovers (pg. 111); I made these with Molassa-Sauce (pg. 111) to dip, and also dipped them in vanilla yogurt. I served them with the same salad I had made for crepes.

-Lemon Broiled Green Beans (pg. 160) (see picture below); Me and my friend, Robin, made these for our weekly Food/Movie night along with Mac-Oh Geez! from Dreena Burton's recipe blog (be sure to check out that blog along with her eat drink and be vegan blog!) The green beans made a perfect side dish. The recipe is incredibly simple but the result is so flavorful you won't believe it!

-Mac-Oh Geez! (see picture above) is well worth an entire review on its own! I can't recommend this recipe enough. It was so creamy and delicious. While it's not quite the same as traditional mac n cheese, it was definitely a winner in its own right. The flavor of the sauce was similar to an alfredo or Stroganof. We topped our servings with salt and nutritional yeast and ate until we were exploding!

-Another recipe worth mentioning is Tomato Basil Quesadilla (pg. 38); while I didn't actually make this recipe, it did inspire me to create my own. The original recipe uses her Roasted Red Pepper and Almond hummus (pg. 52) recipe with tomato, basil, and tempeh bacon, and filled between a tortilla. From this, I was inspired to make Roasted Red Pepper and Hummus quesadilla. I bought the hummus from PCC and roasted my own red peppers (preheat oven to 400 degrees and place pepper on baking sheet for 35 minutes. Remove from oven when done and then place in covered bowl for 10 minutes. Then remove outer skin and cut into slices.) I spread the hummus on a tortilla, topped one half with 4 red pepper slices, folded the tortilla in half, and then grilled each side on a lightly oiled pan until warm, slightly brown and crispy. I served these with salad topped with the Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas and Trader Joe's Goddess Dressing. SO YUM!

I can't wait to make more recipes from this cookbook. Listing all the ones that sound incredible would take hours! I also have her two other books, Vive Le Vegan and The Everyday Vegan on my Amazon.com wishlist, so hopefully I will get those eventually too!