Is adopting a vegan life style a daunting task? Ask Lindsay Nixon, author of "The Happy Herbivore" cookbook and a seasoned New Yorker and I am sure she is bound to disagree! In fact, her cookbook emphasizes on how delicious fat-free/low-fat vegan recipes can be and how easily you can whip up tasty meals at home using the minimal number of ingredients! Her philosophy behind the book, "Not only are vegan dishes beneficial to a person's health, but it's also good for the wallet, the environment, humanity and animals."

What I liked most about the book was that Lindsay did not jump straight to the recipes assuming that everyone knows their way around the kitchen. She carefully thought out that her cookbook might just land on the hands of a newbie! Hence, keeping in mind her early days in the kitchen, she starts by laying out a cheat sheet of terms such as "blend", "chop" and "whiz" that you will encounter as you go through the recipes in the book. She also explains the benefits of a no-added-fat/fat free vegan diet and how it helped her and her husband regain stamina and improve their overall health. Did you know that most "cooking oils" such as canola, olive, peanut etc. have very low boiling points and when they are heated to a temperature above their boiling point, all the nutrients in the oil are lost leaving it to be a high-calorie, high-fat food without any nutrients? 

After learning about the numerous benefits of a vegan lifestyle (yes, you can also lose weight!) I cannot wait to try out some of her tasty "no-meat" alternatives! What do I have in my mind? Hmmm....or should I say, yummm....the Nomelet for breakfast, the African Kale and Yam soup for lunch and Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki for dinner. Still thinking?.... Get your hands on a copy of the cookbook today and I am sure the glossy, delicious pictures will make all your thoughts disappear in an instant! You will surely ask, "Is this really vegan??". 

Visit her blog to learn more!