Monday, November 18, 2019

Mini Reviews [35]

Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook: 100 Mouth-Watering
Recipes for Time-Crunched Vegans by J.L. Fields
Synopsis (via Goodreads): Versatile vegan recipes for quick and easy meals.

Whether you’re a full-time vegan or just interested in eating more plant-based foods, variety will spice up your life. The Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook brings a new selection of fresh meals to your table, pronto! From one-pot to pressure cooker, choose your favorite cooking method—without being held hostage for hours in your kitchen.

This flavorfukitchen.

This flavorful vegan cookbook doesn’t require a long list of ingredients or a huge time commitment. The preparation techniques are simple—there’s even a chapter devoted to not cooking at all (Gazpacho, anyone?). Every recipe lists nutritional information, and most include tips for ingredient substitution, adding more protein, or other easy customizations.

The Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook includes:

100 tasty recipes—Whip up meals full of personality and variety like Artichoke Heart Salad, Spicy Pinto Bean Skillet, Mushroom Stroganoff Bake, and more. Fast, easy, or both—Choose from chapters on 30-minute recipes, sheet pan and casserole meals, 5-ingredient dishes—or even recipes with no cooking required! Dietary options—This vegan cookbook lets you adapt menus to your needs with handy labels for gluten-free, nut-free, oil-free, or soy-free diets. 

Eat easily, healthfully, and deliciously with the Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook.

๐‘‹๐‘‹๐‘‹

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. 

It is so hard to find a cookbook that I'll use regularly, especially one that's 100% vegan. Typically, I'll end up using only a handful recipes, so keeping the entire book has always felt a little pointless. Does anyone else do that? Buy an entire cookbook just for a couple of recipes? Well, I am happy to report that there are quite a few recipes in the Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook that I'm looking forward to making. I've skimmed the entire book, marked the pages that snagged my attention, and successfully made Creamy Portobello Soup

My son had to leave school early on Friday because he had a fever, and soup is a pretty standard response when someone is sick. Me? I always want potato soup (the chunky kind my mom makes, but that I can never get exactly right). However, my son loves mushrooms. I remembered seeing a recipe in this book, so I stopped and grabbed some friendly fungus on our way home. 

There are a lot of cookbooks out there that claim their recipes are "fast and easy," but most of the time that's simply not true. Thankfully, Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook is exactly what it claims to be. The recipe I followed was straightforward and required very little of my time. Bonus: I already had most of the ingredients (just not the main one, haha), and was able to prep this meal and have it ready in 15-20 minutes.

I also really liked the variety in this cookbook, and appreciated the inclusion of the recipe index and dietary labels at the end. Whether you're a vegan or not, this cookbook is definitely worth looking into. Side note: I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil instead of 1 teaspoon, waaay more salt that what was required, and 2 mushroom caps instead of one (in case anyone decides to give this recipe a whirl). 



How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
by Joanna Faber & Julie King
Synopsis (via Goodreads): A must-have resource for anyone who lives or works with young kids, with an introduction by Adele Faber, coauthor of How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, the international mega-bestseller The Boston Globe dubbed “The Parenting Bible.”

For over thirty-five years, parents have turned to
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk for its respectful and effective solutions to the unending challenges of raising children. Now, in response to growing demand, Adele’s daughter, Joanna Faber, along with Julie King, tailor How to Talk’s powerful communication skills to children ages two to seven.

Faber and King, each a parenting expert in her own right, share their wisdom accumulated over years of conducting
How To Talk workshops with parents and a broad variety of professionals. With a lively combination of storytelling, cartoons, and fly-on-the-wall discussions from their workshops, they provide concrete tools and tips that will transform your relationship with the young kids in your life.

What do you do with a little kid who…won’t brush her teeth…screams in his car seat…pinches the baby...refuses to eat vegetables…throws books in the library...runs rampant in the supermarket? Organized according to common challenges and conflicts, this book is an essential emergency first-aid manual of communication strategies, including a chapter that addresses the special needs of children with sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.

This user-friendly guide will empower parents and caregivers of young children to forge rewarding, joyful relationships with terrible two-year-olds, truculent three-year-olds, ferocious four-year-olds, foolhardy five-year-olds, self-centered six-year-olds, and the occasional semi-civilized seven-year-old. And, it will help little kids grow into self-reliant big kids who are cooperative and connected to their parents, teachers, siblings, and peers.


๐‘‹๐‘‹๐‘‹

How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen was a phenomenal book! Parenting isn't easy, and I always wonder what I could be doing better. I don't like feeling frustrated with my children (but we all know it's unavoidable), and this book offered insights into their way of thinking, and how they might perceive a situation. Oftentimes, what I'm frustrated about can be easily resolved if I take the time to address their concerns in a way that makes them feel really listened to.

This book provides tools that have improved my understanding, bettered the communication between me and my children, and created a more positive environment for everyone. It's not always a quick fix, and it doesn't work every time, but there has been a noticeable difference in our day-to-day lives and how we respond to problems. The tools are effective more often than not, and I think that says a lot about the benefits of this book.

The girls will be three this month, and my son is five, so they've started fighting more often and using words like mine. The arguing, fussing, and crying were driving me crazy. This book helped me implement tools that made my children feel like they were being heard. It's amazing how many problems can be resolved just by acknowledging their feelings. They calm down and explain what's wrong without whining, and my ears are endlessly thankful.

I have highlighted this book to within an inch of its life (not an exaggeration), and have flipped back through the chapters whenever I'm struggling to communicate clearly with my kids, or when I think they're fighting more often and coming to me with this or that conflict. Sometimes just changing how I say or ask something can make a situation more positive and provide better results. If you're a parent, I cannot recommend this book enough!

18 comments:

  1. I really love books that actually help you instead of just making you feel more shame or regret or whatever. Great reviews for these both!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I don't want to read something that makes me feel worse about myself, haha. I like books that make me acknowledge my flaws, but then offers advice or suggestions on how to make myself better. There's always room for self-improvement!

      Delete
  2. It is so great to find a cookbook with a ton of recipes you will actually use. It is also wonderful to find some advice that seems to work. Your kids are at a an age that can get a little stressful (although always adorable).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right? Most of the time my cookbooks sit unused unless there's a VERY specific dish I want to make. This cookbook is something that I'll use weekly! I love, love, love my kiddos. However, they're also capable of making me feel like a crazy, incompetent person. I'll think I'm saying something very rationally, and they still act like the world is ending. Parenting is fun! ;)

      Delete
  3. I'm not a full vegan, but I've been cutting a lot of meat and dairy consumption out of my life. I know it isn't much but it is a start. Trying to be healthier and helping the environment around me one step at a time! Hope your son feels better :)

    Elle @ Keep on Reading

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even cutting back on your meat and dairy consumption has a huge impact! Don't sell yourself short -- everything helps. I'm trying to get my parents to cut down on their red meat intake, but that's purely for health reasons. I know they'll never give up meat completely, but they do consume waaay more than they should. My son is feeling better! Thanks!

      Delete
  4. Good soup is my go-to cure too. Hope your son's feeling better now?

    Love the look of this vegan cookbook. I've been vegan nearly a year now and have a regular rotation of meals I love, but am always keen for new ideas. Your only doing a few recipes regularly from a whole bookful sounds very familiar so I'm encouraged that you feel you'll try more from this collection :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Everyone is sick now, haha. I think we all had something different, and now we're just switching them out. Hopefully we can spend the weekend recovering.

      Yay! It's always nice to meet another vegan. I love sharing and swapping recipes. Like you, there are a handful of recipes that I love and make often, but I'm always looking for new things to try. I've had a chance to try more recipes from this book, and it's definitely a keeper! Easy and fast -- perfect. :)

      Delete
  5. You'll probably find Faber & King's book useful communicating with adults too! ;-) I use so many of my teaching assistant techniques outside of school with great success, it's scary (or bloody hilarious). ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have! It's all about how you approach a situation/conversation, and the wording is so important. My problem is not always having the patience to see it through, but I'm working on it. :)

      Delete
  6. I don't even keep cookbooks anymore because I can find all the recipes I want online.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I find myself doing this more and more often, but I can never find the same recipe twice! It's also a hassle trying to write them all down (whenever I find recipes I like and want to make again), which is why I default to cookbooks. They just get gross after awhile, haha.

      Delete
  7. Sounds like the cookbook is a hit. It's always annoying to find "fast and easy" recipes that actually take 17 ingredients, 30 minutes or just prep time, plus cooking. It's like, um, this is fast and easy for who exactly? I used to love toi peruse cookbooks and had a big collection. I've weeded them down to almost nothing now because I just find recipes online for free. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right?? When it takes me close to two hours to make something that's supposed to be FAST and EASY, I want to scream. ;) I've started using more and more online recipes, but can never find them when I want to remake something, haha. <3

      Delete
  8. Lindsi this could not come at a better time! My whome family decided to become vegetarian and I am struggling as I don't have that much time to prepare meals and don't want to waste either!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It took us about a year to figure things out and find our rhythm! Most vegan/vegetarian foods are bland, so spices are key. I don't like tofu on its own, but love it when it's cooked the right way. This cookbook has been stellar so far. :)

      Delete
  9. I love healthy recipes - not vegan but I don't eat any red meat and am trying to cut out everything but fish.
    Ah, the fighting children. I tried everything. Finally they grew out of it!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When we first started, we cut things out slowly to give ourselves time to adjust. Fish and dairy were the last two things to go. As for the fighting children... it's not as bad as it could be, so I'll take what I can get! ;)

      Delete

Click the "Notify me" box if you want to be notified when someone responds!

“Stuff and nonsense. Nonsense and stuff and much of a muchness and nonsense all over again. We are all mad here, don't you know?”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless