The lovely veggie blog
We Don't Eat Anything With a Face has started a blog hop where you write a post about your first, your latest and your favourite 'something'. You can pick whatever 'thing' you want to share...Lisa has chosen cookbooks and I was very pleased to see that she is a fan of Rose Elliot. I love my Rose Elliot cook books. Her no nonsense style results in excellent wholesome vegetarian meals. All too often veggie cook books are so faffy and use ingredients that are just not found on the everyday shopping list of a busy mother on a budget. Elliot's love of beans and pulses results in hearty fayre a long way from Alfalfa Salad and Chicory with Orange Sauce (why do people assume veggies don't want pie and chips??? It's just the meat I don't want...not the comforting, homely, substantial elements of proper grub!!) Anyway, I digress....
Although Lisa generously opened up the theme, I'm continuing with her theme...Cookery Books!
My very first cook book that I bought myself was the Children's Party Cookbook. I'd just had my first born and wanted inspiration for his birthday. I still use it for the gingerbread man recipe and it's got some nice ideas for kiddies' parties in it. I got quite good at making cakes. Here is a pic of Joe's 2nd birthday cake...I'm still quite proud of this one!
My latest acquisition to the recipe book shelf is the Quorn Kitchen that I sent off for. For just two Quorn labels and P&P, I received this lovely paperback book through the post.
It contains some nice simple recipes which all incorporate a Quorn product. I was most pleased to see some proper good food like this Quorn and Leek Pie. It's user friendly, well illustrated and a fabulous freebie. I love Quorn products...they have made feeding my family so much easier and they are versatile, low in fat and low in calories.
My favourite cookery book is actually the first completely vegetarian book I bought myself. It's a big, fully illustrated book simply called Vegetarian which has over 300 recipes. It has a reference section at the front and I remember pouring over the facts and figures to be sure I wasn't in some way going to starve my family by deciding to go completely vegetarian. It has had such a positive influence on my vegetarianism. It made everything look so easy and so full of flavour. It gave me a lot of confidence at a time when being a veggie was not so mainstream. I love books that have photos and I can sit and flick through the pages for ages just looking at the pictures of the food. (There's no calories in looking!)
My most used recipes are for the Veggie Hot Pot with Cheese Triangles (a version of which I made for Valentine's Day with heart shaped cobbler on top...yum!)...
...and the Spicy Bean and Lentil Loaf, which is fabulous and so easy my daughter has made it on her own. It's nice to find good, simple, hearty veggie recipes, so beautifully illustrated and so easy to follow.
