Cookbooks

One of the great things about not working is having the time to cook real meals. Meaning something more complicated then spaghetti and Prego (although I have to admit, the boy really likes his spaghetti and Prego). Also meaning that I don't have to cook Tuesday and Wednesday's meal on Monday night after the kid is in bed.

I'm rediscovering my love of cooking, and love of eating well, which really we haven't been doing that much of lately.

About I month before leaving official work, I convinced my husband to let me try cooking mostly vegetarian meals during the week. Let's get this straight, We are not vegetarians. I like a good medium rare steak as much as the next gal, and a good hamburger too. My reasons for the switch is that it forces us to eat more vegetables. The challenge is in trying to come up with good combinations and different ones.

I will also mention that having a nice repertoire of vegetarian soups or other one pot meals in your cooking regime is nice, because often you have your basic ingredients just lying around. Dry lentils have a nice long shelf life, chicken on the other hand does not. I can cobble together a good red lentil soup any day from things I have lying around my pantry and your basic carrot and onion which I always have anyway. Some vegetarian cooking is very pantry friendly, whereas meat based meal always require shopping and forethought. Also the kid, loves lentil soup with rice!!!!!

Back to the point of this post: I love me a nice hardcover cookbook. (Hint: if ever need a gift for me and can't figure out what to get me consider that last sentence) I bought two new ones yesterday, and I am positively excited about cooking from them. I'm a little bummed that I've already done my cooking for the week!

The new cookbooks made me think of my collection, and sharing with you, my one reader, my favorites. My shelf contains both some great conventional cookbooks and some vegetarian ones, but here goes:

Betty Crocker Cookbook This is just hands down the most friendly, easy to use classic cookbook, with all the roasting tables and stuff you need. My favorite recipe is the White Chili (which is a chicken chili/ soup with white beans and corn. Also very useful baking section

The Gourmet Cookbook My sister gave this to me one year, and it is a great cookbook, not at all intimidating as the name would imply, most of the recipes are pretty straightforward. Favorites include Goulash, Oatmeal cookies, Glazed carrots, Spanish style Fritatta. I often use this one to get ideas, or figure out how to do something if I'm not exactly following their recipes

The New Moosewood Cookbook This one ain't so new anymore, but it's the classic vegetarian cookbook, many great recipes. The soups are some of my favorites. Brazilian Black Bean Soup, Cold Cucumber Yogurt Soup, Gazpacho, and the recipe for Falfel (although not traditional and puffy) and Tahini-Lemon Sauce

125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes Everybody should own this book! It is excellent. And the marvel of being able to prep everything the night before, put it in the fridge, and plug in in the morning. You couldn't do that with meat, because of the food safety issues, but with vegetables it works. Fav recipes: Red lentil and Carrot Soup w Coconut, Tortilla Soup with Corn and Chilies, Smoky White Chili with Potatoes,any number of the other Chilis, and what I cooked this week, Tamale Pie with Chili Cornmeal Crust . An excellent, excellent cookbook, and many of the dishes are surprisingly hearty for being vegetarian.

So there you have it, my favorite go-to cookbooks. The ones I just bought are Jamie's Food Revolution (the photography is absolutely stunning, and he had a whole chapter on curries, which sold the book for me), and How to cook everything Vegetarian which I wanted after ready an article about Mr. Bittman's food philosophy, which I find very akin to my own. Both books have a philosophical slant, and as I haven't cooked from either I can't really say whether I would recommend them. Perhaps more on this later. In the meantime Bon Apetite!