Cookbooks, love them

Well Christmas is almost upon us and I have been thinking about what I am going to do for Christmas dinner. I will have a turkey and all the trimmings for the family but for myself I haven't quite decided on that.

One thing to know about me is I LOVE COOKBOOKS! All kinds, I actually just yesterday took about 25 that I never used to Value Village and promptly went to Chapters to look for a few new vegetarian ones. I was in there for over an hour, just in the vegetarian section alone. There are so many to choose from, here are the ones that have been helpful to me so far. I do love my "1000 Vegetarian Recipes", I find the recipes easy to make, most have a good number of ingredients (not too many that it's overwhelming) and everything has turned out fantastic. My second favourite is Vegetarian Times "Vegetarian Beginner's Guide", it was very helpful in helping me stock my pantry, and good and quick recipe ideas.

I bought two new books and am super excited to try them out, the first one is "The Vegetarian Family Cookbook" by Nava Atlas. I love her cookbooks, I have taken a few out from the library and always find them easy to read, easy to make and delicious recipes. It has a great section on snacks, I think I mentioned how this family loves snacking, lunchbox ideas, easy breakfast ideas and great looking soups and entrees. I also liked the fact that she gave vegan options for the recipes.

The second one was "Refresh" by Ruth Tal, this cookbook is gorgeous, I am also a sucker for beautiful cookbooks, great pictures, the end product looks for yummy. I picked this cookbook as it has a section on rice bowls, noodle bowls and juicing. This is a vegan cookbook from a restaurant in Toronto called Fresh, from what I have read so far, she started out as a juice bar that had some food to three restaurants around Toronto. The first thing I am trying is the Buddha Rice Bowl, some of the ingredients are marinated tofu cubes, thai peanut sauce, cucumber, tomato and of course rice, yuuummmmmyyyyy.  This book also has a section on dressings, sauces and marinades, I am hoping to make big batches of sauces and marinades and freeze them for later use.

Here is what is on the menu for this week:

• Buddha Rice Bowl
• Seitan and broccoli stirfry
• Pizza night (I always throw one in each week for those lazy days you don't feel like cooking and we all have them) 
• Spicy tofu in coconut cream

Here are the links to the websites for the cookbooks I have mentioned above:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/product/11  (Vegetarian Times "Vegetarian Beginner's Guide)

http://vegbookshop.com/  ("The Vegetarian Family Cookbook)

http://www.freshrestaurants.ca/  ("Refresh")

I found this great looking rice bowl, fits in your hand and dishwasher and microwave safe.  http://flavourdesign.com/product.php?ProdNo=202

How I've done so far and what's coming up

Well a quick review of how yesterday's dinner went, my Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl didn't quite go as planned.  First, I couldn't find a ripe avocado for the life of me, second, I forgot to cook the rice for the dish and then I noticed I had no yoghurt.  So my dish ended up being a spicy tofu salad and it turned out pretty good.  For lunch yesterday, Leya and I had President's Choice Meatless Chicken Strips in a quesadilla. All in all, the meatless chicken strips were not bad, so far the best I have tasted.  And we had carrot sticks with Ranch dip, I am looking for a vegan Ranch dip if anyone has any suggestions, please pass along.  So today I am going to make some home made bread, and the polenta lasagna.  Might be a little more work then I would like, but I am anticipating that it will be pretty good. 

Nov. 19th, is pizza night, I make home made pizza dough and freeze it.  A whole bunch of veggies for me and the daughter and salami and cheese for the son.  Dad is at a meeting that night.

Nov. 20th is curry night, I LOVE CURRY!  This to me is a no brainer vegetarian dish.  You can add what ever you want.  We love Deep Fried Tofu, which I can only find at Superstore and some great rice.  Unfortunately my husband only likes white rice.  I am going to start making brown rice and freezing it for myself.

One of my favourite cookbooks for Asian cooking is Wok It.  It was a $4.99 discount special at Chapters and I use it all the time.  I constantly substitute deep fried tofu for the meat in most of the recipes.  It has a wonderful vegetarian spring roll recipe that I have tried and my husband (Chinese) says it's not too bad.  A great compliment coming from him. 

Well that's what I got for today, any comments would be great, any recipes as well.  Have a great day!