Mini Reviews [35]

Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook: 100 Mouth-Watering

Recipes for Time-Crunched Vegans by J.L. Fields

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Versatile vegan recipes for quick and easy meals.

Whether you’re a full-time vegan or just interested in eating more plant-based foods, variety will spice up your life. The Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook brings a new selection of fresh meals to your table, pronto! From one-pot to pressure cooker, choose your favorite cooking method—without being held hostage for hours in your kitchen.

This flavorfukitchen.

This flavorful vegan cookbook doesn’t require a long list of ingredients or a huge time commitment. The preparation techniques are simple—there’s even a chapter devoted to not cooking at all (Gazpacho, anyone?). Every recipe lists nutritional information, and most include tips for ingredient substitution, adding more protein, or other easy customizations.

The Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook includes:

100 tasty recipes—Whip up meals full of personality and variety like Artichoke Heart Salad, Spicy Pinto Bean Skillet, Mushroom Stroganoff Bake, and more. Fast, easy, or both—Choose from chapters on 30-minute recipes, sheet pan and casserole meals, 5-ingredient dishes—or even recipes with no cooking required! Dietary options—This vegan cookbook lets you adapt menus to your needs with handy labels for gluten-free, nut-free, oil-free, or soy-free diets. 

Eat easily, healthfully, and deliciously with the Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook.

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I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. 

It is so hard to find a cookbook that I'll use regularly, especially one that's 100% vegan. Typically, I'll end up using only a handful recipes, so keeping the entire book has always felt a little pointless. Does anyone else do that? Buy an entire cookbook just for a couple of recipes? Well, I am happy to report that there are quite a few recipes in the Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook that I'm looking forward to making. I've skimmed the entire book, marked the pages that snagged my attention, and successfully made Creamy Portobello Soup. 

My son had to leave school early on Friday because he had a fever, and soup is a pretty standard response when someone is sick. Me? I always want potato soup (the chunky kind my mom makes, but that I can never get exactly right). However, my son loves mushrooms. I remembered seeing a recipe in this book, so I stopped and grabbed some friendly fungus on our way home. 

There are a lot of cookbooks out there that claim their recipes are "fast and easy," but most of the time that's simply not true. Thankfully, Fast & Easy Vegan Cookbook is exactly what it claims to be. The recipe I followed was straightforward and required very little of my time. Bonus: I already had most of the ingredients (just not the main one, haha), and was able to prep this meal and have it ready in 15-20 minutes.

I also really liked the variety in this cookbook, and appreciated the inclusion of the recipe index and dietary labels at the end. Whether you're a vegan or not, this cookbook is definitely worth looking into. Side note: I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil instead of 1 teaspoon, waaay more salt that what was required, and 2 mushroom caps instead of one (in case anyone decides to give this recipe a whirl). 

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How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen

by Joanna Faber & Julie King

Synopsis (via Goodreads): A must-have resource for anyone who lives or works with young kids, with an introduction by Adele Faber, coauthor of How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, the international mega-bestseller The Boston Globe dubbed “The Parenting Bible.”

For over thirty-five years, parents have turned to How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk for its respectful and effective solutions to the unending challenges of raising children. Now, in response to growing demand, Adele’s daughter, Joanna Faber, along with Julie King, tailor How to Talk’s powerful communication skills to children ages two to seven.

Faber and King, each a parenting expert in her own right, share their wisdom accumulated over years of conducting How To Talk workshops with parents and a broad variety of professionals. With a lively combination of storytelling, cartoons, and fly-on-the-wall discussions from their workshops, they provide concrete tools and tips that will transform your relationship with the young kids in your life.

What do you do with a little kid who…won’t brush her teeth…screams in his car seat…pinches the baby...refuses to eat vegetables…throws books in the library...runs rampant in the supermarket? Organized according to common challenges and conflicts, this book is an essential emergency first-aid manual of communication strategies, including a chapter that addresses the special needs of children with sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.

This user-friendly guide will empower parents and caregivers of young children to forge rewarding, joyful relationships with terrible two-year-olds, truculent three-year-olds, ferocious four-year-olds, foolhardy five-year-olds, self-centered six-year-olds, and the occasional semi-civilized seven-year-old. And, it will help little kids grow into self-reliant big kids who are cooperative and connected to their parents, teachers, siblings, and peers.

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How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen was a phenomenal book! Parenting isn't easy, and I always wonder what I could be doing better. I don't like feeling frustrated with my children (but we all know it's unavoidable), and this book offered insights into their way of thinking, and how they might perceive a situation. Oftentimes, what I'm frustrated about can be easily resolved if I take the time to address their concerns in a way that makes them feel really listened to.

This book provides tools that have improved my understanding, bettered the communication between me and my children, and created a more positive environment for everyone. It's not always a quick fix, and it doesn't work every time, but there has been a noticeable difference in our day-to-day lives and how we respond to problems. The tools are effective more often than not, and I think that says a lot about the benefits of this book.

The girls will be three this month, and my son is five, so they've started fighting more often and using words like mine. The arguing, fussing, and crying were driving me crazy. This book helped me implement tools that made my children feel like they were being heard. It's amazing how many problems can be resolved just by acknowledging their feelings. They calm down and explain what's wrong without whining, and my ears are endlessly thankful.

I have highlighted this book to within an inch of its life (not an exaggeration), and have flipped back through the chapters whenever I'm struggling to communicate clearly with my kids, or when I think they're fighting more often and coming to me with this or that conflict. Sometimes just changing how I say or ask something can make a situation more positive and provide better results. If you're a parent, I cannot recommend this book enough!