This is a great book with a lot of recipes that I'll definitely be trying! ( )

I wasn’t sure I’d read this book. I don’t often feel enthusiastic about celebrity cookbooks. It wasn’t a priority for me, but when I went to pick up a book at the library it was right on a featured shelf so I decided to borrow it. I’m thinking though that I might be burned out for now on reading vegan cookbooks.

This is a really great cookbook though. Most of the recipes look delicious, there are color photos for all of the recipes, most of the recipes have a reasonable number of ingredients and use regular easy to find/make ingredients. Most seem easy to make. It’s a beautiful book and gift worthy book.

The author’s approach is not to tell people how to eat and she is not vegan herself, but all these recipes are vegan and I think most of them will appeal not only to vegans but also to lacto-ovo vegetarians and omnivores. I agree with the author that this is particularly true for the desserts and the pasta dishes. There are short essays that appear throughout the book. In addition to the photos of the recipes/foods there are some of photos of the author and one of her cats on the table with the food. Ha!

I usually list recipes from each section that are ones I’d like to make. Here there were too many to list. There were some ingredients I don’t like including vinegar and coconut in a few recipes but unlike most vegan cookbooks I wouldn’t HAVE to tweak the vast majority of the recipes. Many of them look tasty so I wouldn’t have to change them, even though I usually do play with recipes and rarely make them as they are written.

Most (not all) of the breakfast recipes are sweet and quite a few could be in the desserts section. I tend to like savory breakfasts, at least most days, so I noticed this.

I usually read cookbooks cover to cover but in this case I did not read the index or most of the directions for the recipes (I did read all the ingredients) and I only skimmed the sample menus two page section in the back.

Contents: Introduction, Pantry, A Dried Beans How-To, Chapter One: Breakfast, Chapter Two: Mealtime, Chapter Three: Quick Fixes, Chapter 4: Dessert, Chapter Five: Essential Sauces, Dressings, Etc., Sample Menus, Acknowledgments, Index

This would be a good book for someone not vegan but interested in vegan eating, for themselves or for guests, but because the food does look great it’s a fine cookbook for vegans too and for anyone wanting to try some recipes that happen to be vegan. ( )

Every once in a while one gets a wonderful surprise, and such is the case with Vegan at Times, which I won in a Goodreads Giveaway. It is a lovely coffee-table size book with over ten dozen recipes. Now, please excuse me while I decide which to try first. ( )