THERE WAS TO MUCH SWEARING, I'M NOT A PRUDE BUT THIS KIND OF LANGUAGE WAS UNCALLED FOR TO GET THEIR POINT ACROSS. I WON'T BUY ANYMORE OF THEIR BOOKS. THEY HAVE A NEGATIVE APPROACH, I WASN'T IMPRESSED AT ALL!

I got this book from the library and while I am not a vegan, still managed to make and enjoy a few of these recipes. I am a cookbook whore (as you can probably tell, I don't mind their f*@&ing language) and this is a small, basic cookbook that serves well for those times when you are uninspired and are tired of meat, but can't think of what to make. I made the Club Sandwich with vegan turkey, vegan bacon, vegan mayo, etc. and was pretty impressed at how close it is to the real thing but without the heavy greasy feeling afterwards. No, this will not teach you how to cook or give you super exotic haute cuisine, but expand your library of basics if you're looking for a meat-free alternative.

First let me say that some of the other reviewers aren't exactly fair. This is a vegan cookbook. It's not fair to use this review space to share opinions about the entire vegan lifestyle. You knew it was a vegan cookbook, so don't complain that none of the recipes call for meat or that you think not eating meat is unhealthy.

That being said, I think this is a great cookbook for vegans and non-vegans. There is a consistent use of faux meats and cheeses, so if you are not comfortable with that, this is not the cookbook for you. Yes, some of the recipes are simple, but it seems like the book is also about inspiring vegan cooking ideas rather than just recipes for complicated dishes. This is really great for new vegans or new cooks. It's also great for non-vegans who want healthier alternatives to their favorite meat and cheese meals, but are not sure where to start. However, the recipes are not lost on more advanced cooks or vegans because some of the dishes (most of the soups and appetizers) can become very complicated.

Some of my favorite recipes are:

Cream of Broccoli Soup
Macaroni and Cheese
Meatloaf
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Corn Bread Muffins
Basic Fruit and Nut Muffins
Fruit Crisp
Stuffed Mushrooms
Potato Skins

I can basically survive very happily on these meals and I feel as if they are decadent. I am a vegan who has struggled to give up dairy products and these recipes don't make me feel like I'm giving up anything. My parents, whom have high cholesterol, also greatly enjoy the recipes and my mother's cholesterol has gone down 30 points. Finally, my fiancé, who REFUSES to even look at a meal without meat, loves everything I make from this book and now says I'm the best cook he knows. He especially likes the casseroles and the mashed potatoes.

Cute book. Not a LOT of recipes, but enough for some little things. Cute gift to give.

As awesome as it's counter part. Needed to cmplete the idea and give you ideas for your own healthful, mindful living with a good kick in the pants to boot!

Loved this book! It's truly actionable and inspiring. I paired it with Saundra Pelletier's "Saddle Up Your Own White Horse" and am ready to go conquer the world!Saddle Up Your Own White Horse: 5 Principles Every Woman Needs to Know

It is ok, a lot of the recipes are for things I don't really care for (tofu, etc)

I hate the title. One i have lost 20 pounds in 6 months by eating a balanced diet. We are omnivores for a reason. Being vegan is a life style choice. Not a diet fad choice.
Boooo to the book and recipe cook book.
Oh and i am mostly dairy free due to an intolerance.
There is better vegan books out there than this one.

Being a male vegetarian, I was unsure what to think about a cookbook for "Hungry Girls who want to stop cooking crap (and start looking hot!)" However, after checking it out from the library, my wife and I were amazed at the great quality (both in terms of health and taste) of these recipes. They are generally easy to follow, quick and provide great tasting meals. If I could have only 5 cookbooks, this would definitely be one of them.

Not having read this book at all, I am not commmenting on the contents. I am commenting on the title. I find it disappointing that the author's find it necessary to sell books by the use of such derogatory terms for women. We complain about rap music lyrics that are misogynistic, but then we turn around and find no problem with this title and it's continued use throughout the cookbook.

And no, I am not an old lady or some ancient fossil. I celebrate the beauty of women as we have been given by God, and I find the title, and the need to use it so pathetically in this venue, a sad statement of what we claim to value in this country.

We can't have it both ways, people. Double standards don't work. Peace!

After reading the recipes in this book, I've come to realize that not only are they blatantly obvious, but there is no nutritional information to back up any of these recipes. Consult a good Vietnamese or Chinese cookbook to find true vegan recipes. This is silly.

If you think you need a recipe book just to tell you to substitute vegan cheese, vegan meat, vegan dairy, etc to all the food you make all the time anyway, this book would be good. But if you don't need a cookbook to tell you putting a vegan "hamburger" paddy between slices of vegan bread with vegan cheese to make vegan cheeseburger, then get a different book. I'm so glad I got this one from the library before spending $10 for them to tell me that I can make vegan mac and cheese by using vegan macaroni and vegan cheese. Seriously? I like a bit more creativity in my vegan cookbooks. And for the authors to give their readers credit for being able to realize that they don't need to be instructed on how to make a vegan grilled cheese sandwich.

I gave this book as a gift. The Title brought waves of laughter at the birthday party. I don't know from my own experience, if the recipes
are any good. I am not a Vegan.

For anyone "learning to be a Vegan" this book is a great starting place. The flavours are great and I love how quick and easy the recipes are - but like other reviewers I was disappointed by the lack of nutritional information. They are REALLY heavy-handed with the salt and I've learnt to cut it in half or leave it out. There is a very heavy reliance on manufactured goods like fake meat and non-cheese (the later is very difficult to come by in Australia). I wonder how many recipes made it to the test kitchens? I keep finding errors - it lists ingredients that don't get used, or simply leaves steps out, which is frustrating. However I've given it a high rating because it was a terrific point for leaping off: now let's hit the real food!

This book is full of yummy recipies. When eaten in recommended quantities, these foods will not add any inches to your waist-line, but still manage to be tasty and fill you up.

I bought this book to try to loose weight. I see no indication in the book or in any of these reviews that it has actually helped anyone loose a pound. The recipes don't look any lower fat than the foods they are substituting for. If this has helped anyone loose weight and keep it off, I would love to know.

If you want to start questioning what the nation's advertisers are trying to feed you, then please check this out. Our TVs are saturated with ads for unhealthy foods - hamburgers, soda, fries, you name it, and there's a billion dollars going into trying to fool you into eating that stuff. The consequences? Record high rates of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. The chapters about the vegan lifetsyle are great- and it's exactly what the country needs to hear. All of the current major public health issues, from heart disease to diabetes, find their source in an unhealthy, meat-and-sugar-centered diet. By giving up meat alone, you already cut down your risk of heart disease by 15% - just imagine the number of lives that we could save, of humans and other animals too, by making that simple and easy transition. For vegans, heart disease is virtually nonexistant compared to the nonvegetarian statistics. I knew of this before I read the book and took a look at it after I became vegan, while wandering around in the medical campus bookstore. That in itself should testify to the accuracy of this book's reccomendations, and how badly we need to hear it.

For the sake of your health, check it out :)

After I read the first book, Skinny Bitch, I knew I had to run out and get this one as well. The recipes in this book are delicious (the first thing I made was the carrot cake - omg, yum!). I recommend this book for people that just want to eat healthier, or are new vegetarians or vegans.

. This is a vegetarian cook book plain and simple, so if you are looking for meat go else ware. I am a vegetarian, so I truly enjoy the recipes. Some are a little basic but others are for things I would have never tried on my own. So far I have made 4-5 dishes and I have not been disappointed yet. If you are looking for veg./vegan recipes this is the book for you. Although it is fun, and candid which I love, I do wish that it had the nutritional information to accompany each recipe. I am very satisfied with my purchase.

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places. Some of the more gourmet offerings include:

Pecan-crusted French Toast
Crabby Cakes with Remoulade Sauce
Potato and Pumpkin Curry with Brown Basmatic Rice
Penne with Butternut Squash, Sage Pesto, and Almonds
Roasted Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Garlic over Soft Polenta
Balsamic Portobello Mushrooms over Grilled Vegetable Couscous


Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vanilla Cake with Frosting
Caesar Dressing (made with tofu)
Hummus, Tempeh, and Cucumber Wrap
Summer Garden Pasta

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

P.S. The Recipe Testing continues...

4/29/2008 - The "Quesadillas" are delicious and so easy to make. I think you will love the recipe.

4/30/2008 - The "Bitchtastic Brownies" are more like a dark chocolate pudding cake. Perhaps the recipe would work better if you just added more chocolate in place of the oil.

5/1/2008 - The "Apple Muffins (a variation of fruit and nut muffins)" are good straight out of the oven with some honey. The recipe calls for sucanat which doesn't seem to be as sweet as sugar.

5/2/2008 - Today I tried the Chocolate Pancakes, a variation on Basic Pancakes. They were so good I ate three. They are made with whole wheat flour but you would never know it. I would buy this book just for this one recipe.

The "Chicken" Salad Sandwich is easy to make because you are using meatless chicken...therefore, no cooking! The Worthington Meatless Chicken Vegetarian Protein Slices worked well in this recipe.

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places.

Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
Chocolate Pancakes
Fruit Muffins
Quesadillas
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

P.S. The Recipe Testing continues...

4/29/2008 - The "Quesadillas" are delicious and so easy to make. I think you will love the recipe.

4/30/2008 - The "Bitchtastic Brownies" are a real bitch. They taste oily and are more like a dark chocolate pudding cake. My husband and I both ate a piece and then threw the rest away. Why waste your Sucanat and tofu on a recipe that hasn't been thourally tested. The addition of 6 T of safflower oil probably wasn't a good idea. Perhaps the recipe would work better if you just added more chocolate in place of the oil.

5/1/2008 - The "Apple Muffins (a variation of fruit and nut muffins)" are good straight out of the oven with some honey. They need something to make them moist and sweet. You may even want to try adding 1/4 cup (or more) honey to the batter. The recipe calls for sucanat which doesn't seem
to be as sweet as sugar.

P.S. 2 - If you would like a recipe for Vegetable Curry or Vegetable Lasagna, please write me from my site.

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places.

Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
Chocolate Pancakes
Fruit Muffins
Quesadillas
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

P.S. The Recipe Testing continues...

4/29/2008 - The "Quesadillas" are delicious and so easy to make. I think you will love the recipe.

4/30/2008 - The "Bitchtastic Brownies" are a real bitch. They taste oily and are more like a dark chocolate pudding cake. My husband and I both ate a piece and then threw the rest away. Why waste your Sucanat and tofu on a recipe that hasn't been thourally tested. The addition of 6 T of safflower oil probably wasn't a good idea. Perhaps the recipe would work better if you just added more chocolate in place of the oil.

P.S. 2 - If you would like a recipe for Vegetable Curry or Vegetable Lasagna, please write me from my site.

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places.

Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
Chocolate Pancakes
Fruit Muffins
Quesadillas
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

P.S. The Recipe Testing continues...

4/29/2008 - The "Quesadillas" are delicious and so easy to make. I think you will love the recipe.

4/30/2008 - The "Bitchtastic Brownies" are a real bitch. They taste oily and are more like a dark chocolate pudding cake. My husband and I both ate a piece and then threw the rest away. Why waste your Sucanat and tofu on a recipe that hasn't been thourally tested. The addition of 6 T of safflower oil probably wasn't a good idea. Perhaps the recipe would work better if you just added more chocolate in place of the oil.

This book has great recepies for going vegan in a fun & delicious manner! My Husband's fav dish, Mac & Cheese, passed his high standards as being as good as the original, and, he said if I wasn't there watching him, he would have gone for thirds! Go vegan, it's good for your body, good for the planet, and for the critters too! Laurel

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places.

Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
Chocolate Pancakes
Fruit Muffins
Quesadillas
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.

You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil, which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.

The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places.

Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make five of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."

While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.

Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.

To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a lacto-ovo vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.

The recipes I still want to try include:

French Scramble
Granola
Chocolate Pancakes
Fruit Muffins
Quesadillas
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.

~The Rebecca Review

Ok. First of all you really need to read "skinny bitch" in addition to buying this recipe book so you can understand what is happening in the world of food meets politics meets major health problems. That way you can infect the people you love with your knowledge and bring to light many important reasons why to become a vegetarian.
This recipe book is great because after you decide not to eat Ms. Piggy anymore you can learn how to cook with veggies and other organic meatless foods. This cookbook is easy to follow and has easy find to ingredients, and won't keep you slaving over a hot stove for hours.

I cannot cook to save my life so knowing what to substitute (or what to buy for a substitute) isn't common sense for me. I bought the book because I LOVED skinny bitch and I really wanted some good ideas on what vegan foods I could make so I didn't starve to death.
Although all the recipes are vegan twists to regular, every day foods, I find it very cool that I can cook them and my significant other won't look at them in disgust. Him being the person who said, "So you can't eat anything that comes from the dirt?," when I said that I was going vegan.
So if you live with a hungry, meat eating hippo, this book could be a good thing for the both of you.

This book changed my life after reading it and I have recommended it to several people since.

This cookbook is only okay. Lots of the ingredients are hard to find or very unusual. My biggest complaint is no nutrition information - fat, calories, etc. I will probably never use the book because of that fact. The Skinny Bitch regular book was hilarious, engaging and very enlightening. I really enjoyed that book. The cookbook was a dud. Maybe the authors will read this review and add nutritional stats to a website, or pdf file that could be downloaded by cookbook owners?

I definitely enjoyed this book. It's fast paced, witty, and refreshing with the acerbic sense of humor in which it was written and the honesty as well. It was a shocking read, I was expecting a "love yourself and starve" diet book but the fact is that itpresents the realities of what we are putting into our body and what kind of damage we do to ourselves. It was both entertaining and startling to read honestly. I haven't looked at food the same way since and my family is slowly starting to switch over to vegan diet after both my husband and I reading the book and thinking long and hard about it. I like that the authors don't emphasize perfection but rather conscientiousness about our bodies and eating habits. It was a worthwhile read! I bought the cookbook too!

This book is eye catching because of its title but it also has substance. The recipes are simple and a great way to eat right while replacing your frozen dinners, junk food etc. Delicious and also healthy
Also try Finger Licking Different.

I'm so glad they did a cookbook! For someone that's eaten meat and crap all her life its nice to have a beginners guide on changing my eating habits. When I read the other book I thought there would be no way I'd give up mac and cheese and steak and lobster and BUTTER. I had no idea there were so many substitutes. I just had no idea on where to even begin. I always thought being a vegitarian/vegan meant barley, sprouts and wheatgrass. HA so not true!! The cookbook is really helpful!! It shows that you really can have foods you like by changing the ingredients. I dont even notice the change in taste either. The morning farm sausage patties are awesome. I actually prefer it to the real sausage. I actually went from a size 9 to size 7 in one month by following the skinny bitch plan. I for sure will be ready for beach season. This is not a book for people who have been vegans/vegitarians all their life and think its easy to make the switch.

Very basic recipes. Good and easy to follow. Mostly though, in line with their first book, I liked their approach to becoming more healthy. Pretty much, do whatever you want to your body, but you could put in good stuff and turn out better. Wholesome grains nourish you, as do greens. Learned a lot about milk products, until then I thought that milk was better for me than it actually is. Asian diet also prefers soy milk. Love food. Love life.

Nothing new here and full of unnecessary gutter language. I wouldn't recommend this. There are many good books to recommend such as "Eat to Live", by Joel Fuhrman, MD, which is full of scienticif references to back up everything he recommends.

If you are hostile to vegetarian philosophy, don't bother. Don't bother with the book, and you can save your ranting time for something more pleasant. Maybe get a massage? Shop for shoes? Help out in a soup kitchen? The list is endless.

I was working in a bookstore shelving the nutrition section when I came across Skinny Bitches. I thought it was another martini diet/how the rich stay emaciated gimmick book. I was pleasantly surprised to find instead that it is a vegan primer, with attitude.

That tickled me, because most vegan books either speak to the converted, or adopt a peacenik/I-spend-all-my-time-in-yoga-class-or-mediating persona. That's not bad in itself. I just like seeing something different, something that will speak to a new audience.

As for me, I've been a vegetarian for more than twenty years, a vegan for a third of that. I'm middle aged but often mistaken for a college student. My doctor is all smiles at my check-up, and I have the vitals of a twenty-five year old. I have good genes, yes, but I give my diet great credit for my excellent health. My siblings who are not vegetarians have not fared so well. I really doubt someone eating a low-carb/high protein diet after twenty years would be in such good shape. Most of the low-carb people I know have dull, aging skin. Why is that? But that's another topic.

As for this book as a cookbook, it has become my daily workhorse cookbook. That's pretty amazing, since I have over 200 vegetarian cookbooks in my house. No, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch isn't that innovative. But I have innovative cookbooks I use twice a year because I'm too busy to make big productions of meals. I'm a single mom with two kids, and food has to be fast, healthy, delicious and not too weird. These are comfortingly familiar kinds of meals, which appeal to me, even after years of experimenting with some very strange ingredients. The use of meat substitutes makes these recipes less strange to my kids, and presumably, to a new audience of vegan cooks.

Moreover, the quality of the recipes are excellent. The seasoning and preparation make them special. For example, I've made mashed potatoes a zillion times, but my kids liked the mashed potatoes even better than my other recipes.

The inclusion of coconut oil is a question mark for me. Even if you see coconut oil touted everywhere on the net as a 'miracle oil', and often promoted by the arch-enemies of vegetarianism who believe you need a lot of animal fat to be healthy, i.e. Nourishing Traditions, as a skeptic I will withhold opinion until the data is conclusive. If you "buy" the coconut oil sales pitch, we vegans needn't worry so much about the amount of saturated fat there, which is considerable, because we're not eating meat and dairy and getting it other places. Nonetheless, it did make the cooked greens taste fabulous--the sweetness of the coconut oil cuts down on the bitterness of the greens, and I'm sure I'll make them this way forever. Coconut oil is also a very satisfactory shortening for vegan cooking. So regardless if it is a 'miracle oil' or not, I tend to think it will have its uses in the vegan kitchen.

Bottom line: I liked this book, liked its unpretentiousness toward food, and liked its message about veganism. But again, if you are hostile towards vegetarian philosophy, don't bother.

Mighty ya ya. Tho in the vegan right direction. I recommend the less ya-ya For Today and For The Original Overeaters Anonymous Very Low Carbohydrate Food Plan: Greysheet Recipes. They are beautiful. I bought "For the Original OA..." because I'm on the very low carb food plan. It has great recipes. I really like the protein and vegetable recipes. I can never think of enough things to do with vegetables. Now I know what other people are cooking. I'm glad to learn more about phone and in person meetings. I never knew where the term "greysheet" came from. I have wanted to learn more about it for a long time.

I recommend For Today and For The Original Overeaters Anonymous Very Low Carbohydrate Food Plan: Greysheet Recipes. They are beautiful. I bought "For the Original OA..." because I'm on the very low carb food plan. It has great recipes. I really like the protein and vegetable recipes. I can never think of enough things to do with vegetables. Now I know what other people are cooking. I'm glad to learn more about phone and in person meetings. I never knew where the term "greysheet" came from. I have wanted to learn more about it for a long time.

This is a decent vegan starter book for those who are unsure of how to switch from regular eating to vegan eating. It takes very basic recipes and incorporates the staples of vegan cooking, like Bragg Aminos, nutritional yeast and tofu and shows us that eating vegan is all about replacing what we're used to eating with vegan substitutes. And if you don't agree with an ingredient (coconut oil), just replace it with your oil of choice. Granted, we don't need recipes telling us to put a patty on a bun and add lettuce, tomato, then eat...but it does show us that going vegan isn't as difficult or bland as people may think. A bit of nutritional information would have been nice (calories, protein, fat, carbs) at the end of each recipe. If you're looking for a "skimming-the-surface" kind of vegan cookbook, then start with this one and branch out from there; so many options, it's overwhelming! Better yet...go to the bookstore or library FIRST and peruse the vegan cookbook aisles before purchasing a book online so you don't leave reviews about regretting ordering something without first seeing it. Don't blame the authors for that. That's what bookstores and libraries are for! Overall, an adequate, unintimidating place to start, but there are better cookbooks out there...

Skinny Bitch in the kitchen is a great book for anyone wanting to get healthy while eating great food without all the crap in it. Loved the book. A must get for skinny bitches.

This book is just as pathetic as their first book, Skinny Bitch. It's amazing how these two uneducated women procured a book deal in the first place! The bottom line: this is a load of crap. One reviewer mentioned that the nutritional values aren't listed for the recipes. Well, I'm sure the authors don't know the nutritional value and didn't bother to find out either. And using coconut oil? Tons of saturated fat there. Both their books are so unbalanced and no doubt would actually do harm if you followed their "plan". You may become a skinny bitch, but a totally unhealthy one.

Pretty simple ideas. Not totally bad =:0)
The title fits me perfectly so I like that.
For less the $8.00...You can't go wrong getting this.

I received this as a present. Let me start off by saying that I myself like to cook complex, creative, and innovative vegan meals. I've been vegetarian for a while, and vegan for a few months now.
I have two takes on this book:
1) It's not what I expected. In a bad way. It just uses old recipes and veganizes them in a way that's easy, lazy, and uncreative. Instead of real cheese, they use soy cheese (most of which tastes crappy). Instead of real meat, they use "fake turkey/chicken/etc". Yes, that would be great and all, but the point of turning someone vegan is trying to get them to see that vegan food can taste just as good, if not better, as omni food. They don't tell you that you cannot easily obtain soy cheeses and meats that don't taste like crap.
2) It's great, in a way, for stumped new vegans. It makes them realize that everything can be veganized, and that there are alternatives out there for regular omni recipes. It sort of gives them a message of being able to have what they had when they were omni, except with a vegan twist.

All in all, I did not like this book. Maybe it's because I'm more advanced in the kitchen. It's too "fast food" -ish.

But for very basic beginning vegans, it might be a different place to start.

There's a full range of books I would still recommend over this one.

I bought this book expecting a decent vegan cookbook. The writers seem to be really into eating healthy, natural food, but many of the recipes in this book rely on at least one (sometimes more!) meat or cheese substitute. I guess that maybe this is a book trying to ease meat-eaters into a vegan diet, but even then a lot of the recipes are just common sense and shouldn't be in a cookbook. Do you really have to be told that if you want a vegan burger, you need to use a vegan burger patty instead of a meat one or that you need to use vegan cheese to make a vegan quesadilla? There are a couple of recipes in here that I do plan to try out, but I am probably going to get rid of it and just keep on using the cookbooks that I already had.

I have made several of the recipes from the book and they tasted awful. I did not like one thing, nor did I make use of a new ingredient. I do not reccomend this book for cooking. The original Skinny Bitch, was very good and had some great new tips to add to your diet, but those bitches can't cook!

First, I thought this book was going to be about eating healthy and still living a normal life; What I actually found the authors of Skinny Bitch & Skinny Bitch in the Kitch want, is for me to become almost vegan, which is fine if you don't like meat, cheese or any sort of dairy. Second, I feel that this is just as much a "trend diet" as any of the other diets out there. Last, the recipes are fine, however, not something I could eat every day. Both books have a very creative and enjoyable writing style, and I enjoyed reading about dieting and health for the first time ever! I just didn't expect to be told not to eat meat or drink milk.

At first, I picked up this book and thought it was too basic. A recipe for how to make a salad? I can do that on my own. But, as someone who's been a vegetarian for 20 years, I hadn't really ventured into some of the ingredients used here. Fake meat products made from soy? Yeah, I've had veggie burgers and soy sausages for breakfast, but veggie bacon? steak strips? chicken? Now I'm happily venturing into a new direction. The beef stew is to die for. My husband thought he was eating meat and asked why I prepared it. The mac 'n cheese is no substitute for the real thing, but satisfied my urge for it, with a lot fewer fat grams. The sage pesto with butternut squash is good enough for 5 star dining and entertaining. I was getting bored with salad, pasta and grains, now I have new things to try. For the price, you can't go wrong, even if you only find one recipie you like and use it regularly. I have already found several to add to my repertoire.

I love this book, and the first book that goes with it. It has changed my whole perspective of food and the food industry. I highly recommend to anyone who is sick of feeling like crap and wants to look hot!!! Great receipes!

The recipes are impractical and unappetizing and the tone of the writing is indeed bitchy and unpleasant.

I like this cookbook. its straight forward and easy to make things. Some include ingredients that you may have to buy (coconut oil etc) but all in all, its god a lot of good ideas.
One thing that i didnt like was that there is no nutritional information for the recipes, which i really pay attention to.