Food and Flowers

Over the past few months I have been really craving a lighter diet.  I don’t mean calorie wise.  I’m not talking fat-free.  I can’t really explain it, but I guess I’m really talking mostly about vegetables.  I think this is a natural feeling as we head into spring and will soon begin to have more available from the garden and farmer’s market.

I’ve been trying to find ways to cut back on our grocery budget and also looking for recipes to make and take along to baseball tournaments.  My friend Elizabeth recommended a vegan cookbook to me called The Oh She Glows Cookbook from the author of the Oh She Glows Blog.  (I am new to it, but it sure seems to be full of great recipes.) She told me that the cookbook is full of whole foods based recipes that aren’t too complicated, and that most importantly are highly edible.  She wasn’t lying.  I typically only find a couple of recipes in any given cookbook that I will actually come back to, but I have been preparing foods from this cookbook regularly now for weeks.  Some of our favorites are  a crazy dip made from cashews that my kids absolutely love and is appropriately named “life affirming warm nacho dip,” potato salad that relies on avocado rather than mayo for the dressing, a chickpea salad similar to chicken salad, orange-maple miso soba noodle bowl, and my latest obsession, “metabolism boosting green citrus tea.”  I haven’t been able to get into the raw buckwheat breakfast porridge, but the apple pie oatmeal is great.  It makes sense that a vegan cookbook would be full of great ways to eat vegetables.  Most of the recipes are gluten free as well which is a bonus.  This is the best cookbook I’ve come across in years.

A second cookbook that I have been enjoying is the The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  It’s so full of recipes that I have barely had time to look at them all.  I made a really amazing frittata recipe the other day for breakfast and it was loved by everyone in the house.  I checked this one out at the library, but I may end up buying it too.  I think it’s time to purge my cookbook shelf to make room for new ideas!  Do you have any current favorite cookbooks?  I know so many people use Pinterest to find new recipes to try, but I don’t have a handheld electronic device (can’t find the right word?) to view the internet on, so it’s kind of a pain for me.  I just prefer real cookbooks.