Vegan Barbecue: More Than 100 Recipes for Smoky and Satisfying Plant-Based BBQ by Terry Sargent

Coming soon from the publisher: 

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review. 

Ok, so you don't eat meat but it's summer and you're craving it anyway. Here's the book for you, with a lot of recipes that will satisfy your barbecue tastebuds. Get your picnic basket and your grill ready.

It's not just main dish "meat"-ish offerings, either. There are sides, desserts, and everything between. This is one to add to your library. I'm going to try the "meat"loaf this week. For vegans and those puzzled by their vegan friends ... this book's for you.

High-Protein Plant-Based Diet for Beginners by Maya A. Howard

 Coming soon from the publisher:

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review. 
So you want to try a vegetarian diet but you're worried about getting enough protein? This should give you a place to start! 

Grab your kitchen tools, some basic foods, and off you go. You'll find familiar tastes as well as some fresh takes and information on hitting your target nutrition. 

This is a new one for your vegan and vegetarian bookshelf.

15-minute breakfast potatoes

Ok, you're hungry, you want something filling and satisfying ... but what?! How about 250 calories of deliciousness? You can customize this with various herbs or flavors. Portions below are per person:

1. On medium-high heat, melt 1 tbsp vegan butter or olive oil in a big saucepan.

2. Chop 1/2 - 1 potato into 1 cm pieces. Dice a wedge of onion (or 2 shallot or garlic bulbs). Fry them in the oil/butter for 2-3 min. until the onion is translucent, stirring once or twice.

2. Season with 1/2 tsp. dried herbs or peppers. (Options: Italian or French herbs, Korean red pepper, chili powder, a splash of smoke flavor, etc.) Cover and fry about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Top the potatoes with sprouts, chopped lettuce, or other young greens plus 2 tbsp liquid (your choice: tea, water, almond milk, etc.) Cover and steam for 2-3 minutes until the greens are slightly wilted.

4. Take off the heat. Stir. Optional: if you have it, top with fresh chopped dill or parsley. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt and a pinch of black pepper to taste. For added flavor and color, sprinkle with powdered turmeric (yellow) or smoked paprika (red).

On the dinner plate, I surround mine with a cut tomato for pretty color. 

Mom's noodles - my recipe

You have my heart(s)

We ate organ meats as kids. What can I say? My husband also grew up with weird European food, but different ones. (Tongue, anyone? Hurts my mouth just to think of it.) We're moving to Asia in July, so we'll probably encounter those foods again. We'll update with SE Asian food after we arrive!

I bought chicken hearts at Ranch 99 in Tukwilla a few days ago and put them in the fridge. Since W's not home for supper, I'm indulging myself.

We always start hearty European meat dishes by frying bacon and onions, don't we? Of course. 

Then I added the hearts. They looked pale and unhappy until they warmed up.

I chopped cabbage, carrots, a few chiles, adding the vegetables when the meat had browned.

After a few minutes, I added a cup of water and spices, covering the pot with a lid. 

When the mixture came to a boil, I turned the heat down to simmer for a few hours.

The drippings made a fragrant gravy, best salted to taste (1/2-1 tsp) 5-15 minutes before serving. 

On top of homemade noodles, I ate a feast, with memories of growing up in a German immigrant community.

Servings: 4 @ 250 calories each, plus noodles or Spätzle (recipe coming soon).

Taste: 4/5 Savory. Old-fashioned stew.

Time to prepare: 10 minutes assembly. 2 hours cooking.

Beauty: Looks wholesome, colorful, hearty. Plain-Jane fare.

Tea: A robust Irish breakfast.

African-style curry

What do you get when you mix leftovers with curry and coconut milk? An African-style curry.

I had a 5" piece of smoked farmer sausage and leftover cooked chicken, plus some rice, frozen after Sunday dinner. What a great start! No time as usual, so I headed for the pantry. I grabbed 3 cans that sounded good:

• Coconut milk
• Sliced mushrooms
• Mandarin oranges

I browned 2 tbsp. curry in 1/3 can of coconut milk. Added another 1/3 can along with 1 tbsp. minced onion and 1 tbsp. minced garlic, the drained mushrooms and orange pieces. It cooked until it was reduced to almost-dry. Then I added the rest of the coconut milk, the chicken, and sausage, cut into pieces.

Stirred. It stewed for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I microwaved the rice with a bit of water until steamy hot. We used a salad packet (cranberries, coleslaw, kale, and pine nuts) for a nice change in texture.

Optional: add orange marmalade and soy sauce to adjust sweet and salty tastes. (The sausage was salty so I didn't add salt.)

Servings: 4

Taste: 4/5 Sweet, creamy, bit salty. Texture could be improved with crisp, salted peanuts and banana slices.

Time to prepare: 5 minutes assembly. 15 minutes cooking.

Beauty: Looked inviting. Went well with the green salad.

Tea: Peppermint - it was getting late.

Advantium chicken

I decided to try our new Advantium oven. It works! In 8 minutes, it baked breaded chicken to a crisp skin and moist interior.

First, I made the breading from what I could find in the pantry: 1/3 c. each of unsweetened coconut, cornmeal, and flour plus 1 tbsp. of Aromat, a flavored salt from Germany.

I coated the chicken in egg

and the breading

and then put it on the metal oven tray.

The oven auto-adjusts for what we're cooking, in this case 4-5 pieces of bone-in chicken, breaded.

At four minutes, the oven beeped to turn over the chicken, which was crisped on one side. After 4 more minutes, the other side was done. With raw snap peas and leftover pasta from yesterday, delicious!

Taste: 4/5 Crispy skin, great flavor
Time to prepare: 5 minutes. Cooks in 8 minutes.
Calories: 170 calories per thigh
Beauty: looks like a regularly grilled chicken leg.
Tea: Indonesian green