But Jenn, your raw! Why yes, yes I am. Most of the time. The rest of the time, I try to eat, you know, healthy.

I picked this up from B&N today. I am a cookbook whore. I am actually really pleased with this one (I also got 30% off the hardcover new book price, so yay!).

It starts with info about stocking a vegan pantry. Eight pages or so of stuff you should have, why you should have it, and what it’s good for.

Then it moves onto kitchen equipment. That is everything from knives (and they give inexpensive tips for good knives!), a cutting board, peeler, to a food processor, mandoline, crepe pan, baking sheets, and back to basics like measuring cups. It’s a good summery of a well stocked kitchen.

They have a brief intro to proper cooking & prepping terminology. Terms like braise and roux and slurry along with grate.

Info about lower-fat cooking. How to cook a vegetable. How to cook a gain. How to cook a bean. It’s packed with something like 50 pages of (what I think should be) basic kitchen info, written for the masses in easy-to-understand-ese.

Then it moves onto the recipes. Oh. My. God. The recipes. There are about 220 pages of recipes.

It starts with snacks, appetizers, little meals, dips and spreads. Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls. Potato Latkes (um, that is what made me buy the book. Seriously. Any book that includes latkes and calls them latkes is a winner, hands down.). Curried Carrot Dip. Hummus. Guac.

Then it moves onto brunch. Brunch now includes home fries, chocolate chip brownie waffles and blueberry corn pancakes. Let’s not forget the crepes.

Moving on to salads and dressings. Ceasar, portobello, and macaroni salads. Dressings? Miso tahini, Sesame, Raspberry-Lime Vinegrette.

Sammiches. Yep, sammies. Thanks Rachel Ray. Really. Baja style grilled tempeh tacos. Black bear burgers (always a hit in my home). Snobby joes.

Mix N Match veggies, grains, beans, and tofu/tempeh/seitan. Tons of side dishes.

There are soups, casseroles (not your grandmas casseroles either) and one-pot meals (aren’t one-pot meals casseroles?). Pasta, noodles & risotto. Sauces & fillings. Breads, muffins & scones. Cookies & bars. Desserts. Who knew cookies & bars weren’t dessert?

Then, at the very end, are two pages of simple menus in case you need a theme and don’t feel like reading from cover to cover.

Loving this book. I needed to inject my meals with something, and a lot of these I already make, so it just involves changing the seasonings up.