Kathy Hester - The Easy Vegan Cookbook ; Make Healthy Home Cooking Practically Effortless

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.THIS BOOK WOULDNT BE POSSIBLEWITHOUT MY SUPPORT SYSTEM OF READERS,TESTERS, BLOGGERS, FRIENDS AND AGENTS.THIS BOOK IS FOR ALL OF YOU! In this book youll find tips, ideas and recipes to help make every dinner you cook a more pleasant and easier experienceeven after one of those days. Personally, I find it easy to get excited about cooking for a big dinner party for friends, but harder when its just Tuesday night dinneragain. We all need to remember that its okay to make things easier.

I dont know about you, but I tend to be an overachiever. The word easy often makes me feel like Im not doing enough; but, when you get right down to it, theres not much difference between eating a dinner that you worked on for 20 minutes and eating a dinner that you prepped for eight hours. If dinner is the only goal of the evening, its not necessary to wear yourself out planning and making it. Most of the recipes in this book can be put together fairly quickly. Some will have cooking times of up to an hour or so, but that includes hands-off time during which you can do household chores, watch TV, hang with your kids, or just read a book and have a glass of wine. Try to remember that a recipe typically takes more time when you first make it.

And, if youre new to cooking, it will take a little longer to break down and cut up veggies. Dont worry, youll speed up in no time. We all started there.

I try to make my recipes adaptable for as many diets as possible. Almost all of these recipes can be made gluten-free, soy-free and/or without oil. I give substitutes if the original recipe includes something youd rather leave out.

I will specify soy milk for the biscuit recipes, but they come out great with almond or coconut milk, too. However, only soy milk curdles like buttermilk, so thats why its my first choice. Feel free to use these recipes as a starting place, and change them to suit your needs and tastes. I never follow a recipe exactly, and I dont expect you to either! The nutritional information is provided as a ballpark figure, so if you have a medical condition that requires you to keep strict track, I encourage you to enter the recipes into the nutritional calculator recommended by your doctor. Heres why the nutritional information I provide may differ from yours when you make a recipe at home: The recipe options differ in nutritional value and calories. Nutritional content of certain products varies among brands.

Nondairy milks vary widely, and if you use plain in place of unsweetened, the difference can be significant. Nutritional information is calculated on each recipe as written, using unsweetened almond milk as the default nondairy milk. If there is a range in the amounts, such as 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, the lower amount is used for calculation.

Its true that being organized makes life easier, and with cooking its no different. But I will be the first to admit that I skip planning when my life gets hectic. The main advantage of writing up a meal plan every week is that those 30 minutes of planning can result in your having to make only one shopping trip instead of multiple trips.

That can be hours saved, especially if you usually go after work when the stores are crowded. The disadvantage is that planning commits you to eating specific meals during the week, and for some households that just doesnt work. Cheryl, my picky eater, can come home with a craving that my plan didnt include. One solution is to plan with one day open for a meal from the freezer or pantry. Even if you do plan meticulously, youll still want to keep your pantry and freezer stocked so you dont go hunting all over for tomato paste or the last of the brown rice. (Not that that ever happens in my house!) Dont forget to think outside the box when you dont have every ingredient called for in a recipe. (Not that that ever happens in my house!) Dont forget to think outside the box when you dont have every ingredient called for in a recipe.

You can substitute sweet potato for butternut squash, collards for kale, cooked rice for cooked pasta. All these substitutions are simple to do and work out great. Use seasonal vegetables whenever possible. Im not going to tell you theres any one way to cook every day or that you must plan meals. You know what fits best into your life. But if youre looking for a few ideas to grease your routine, youre in the right place.

One easy trick I use when life gets crazy is planning a certain type of food for each night, though without a specific recipe. This method leaves my plan open enough that I can use up all those turnips from my CSA (community supported agriculture) box or the last of the black beans. If I let Cheryl know, she can even start craving it before she comes home. For example: MONDAY: stir-fry TUESDAY: pasta WEDNESDAY: Mexican THURSDAY: tofu, tempeh or seitan FRIDAY: slow cooker soup or stew You can save time during preparation, too. Hate the thought of cutting onions and prepping veggies night after night? Take one or two nights a week to prep so that, when you come home, all you have to do is cook. You can freeze chopped, uncooked onions and green peppers in the portion sizes youll need.

Its nice to have a happy surprise on a day that you need to get dinner on the table quickly. Prepping ahead can also cut down on food waste. I used to convince myself that I would use everything from my CSA, but I ended up with leftovers that were too far gone to freeze by the time I got to them. Now I wash, dry and break down my greens and store them in the refrigerator in sealed containers, each packed with a paper towel to maintain freshness. The greens are then ready to throw in a stir-fry or stew, and I can easily freeze what I dont use.

I think of my freezer as an extension of my pantry. I think of my freezer as an extension of my pantry.

When I want to make, say, broccoli with garlic sauce, I pull a bag of broccoli out of the freezer to go with my sauce ingredients. With a few bags of frozen veggies on hand, I can save on prep time and I wont be tempted to overspend on take out food or make extra trips to the store. Be sure to check out Stocking Your Pantry in the resources section . It will give you an idea of what nonfreezer items to have on hand. There is also a spice list you can use to build your collection spice by spice and still stay on your budget. Below I talk about freezing your own veggies, but I like to keep some store-bought frozen vegetables on hand, too.