Cookbook Review: Green Kitchen at Home—Quick and healthy vegetarian food for every day

Cookbook Review: Green Kitchen at Home—Quick and healthy vegetarian food for every day

The premise of Green Kitchen at Home is that recipes should be simple enough to make, deeply focused on vegetables and (usually) kid friendly. And, with stunning photography (and great taste) they will make you consider being vegetarian! The recipes are healthy, made with whole ingredients. Our favorites so far: Fridge Favorite Crepes, Turmeric Blueberry Muffins, Banana and Spinach Pancakes, Herby Green Breakfast Bowls, Shakshuka. Flatbread made great pizza dough substitutes (photo attached)—we are totally wheat-eaters, but have switched to this for Friday Pizza nights, as it get our kids extra hidden vegetables!

Shopping for Green Kitchen at Home Cookbook which uses mostly whole foods.

Pros:

    1. Gorgeous photography with pictures for every recipe.
    2. Versatile Meals—they understand the changing opinions of kids, and give ideas on how to adapt recipes for preferences or seasons.
    3. Recipes separate wet and dry ingredients—so much easier to follow!
    4. Vegan alternatives.
    5. “Fridge Favorites” section is simple, covers easy recipes needed to keep as staples in your fridge. These favorites are then combined later for different recipes. Many of the favorites are also available at the grocery store (think tomato sauce, pesto, hummus, flatbread…), but homemade is always better, right?
    6. “At the Weekend” section includes the harder, more complicated recipes. I appreciated this separation, as a mother of two kids…this is the section I’ll use the least often, lol.
    7. No refined sugar!
    8. Tools section—I love seeing what people use in their kitchen. David says every vegetarian kitchen needs: spiralizer, mandolin, steaming basket, blender, scale, food processor or immersion blender, muffin tin.
    9. Shakshuka! Haven’t tried it? You should + add the homemade za’atar.

    Turmeric Blueberry muffin recipe review from Green Kitchen at Home cookbook.

    Cons:

    1. Some recipes call for unconventional ingredients—we live in rural Maine, I’d probably have to drive 70 miles to find halloumi, puffed quinoa, za’atar, nigella (our online shop sells the hard to find spices, so hit us up if you can’t find them near you).
    2. Recipe times do not include the time it takes to make the “Fridge Favorites,” so you really do need to plan ahead.

    Tip: Read the Fridge Favorites section first, before jumping around.

    Spices: To make all the recipes in this book, you will need the following spices:

    • Arrowroot
    • Bay Leaves
    • Basil
    • Cardamom
    • Cayenne
    • Chili (powder)
    • Chili (flakes)
    • Cinnamon
    • Coriander (ground)
    • Coriander (seed)
    • Cumin (ground)
    • Cumin (seed)
    • Curry (leaves)
    • Curry (powder)
    • Dukkah (they give you the recipe to make it)
    • Fennel (seed)
    • Ginger
    • Mustard (black seeds)
    • Nigella (seed)
    • Nutmeg
    • Oregano
    • Paprika (smoked)
    • Pepper (fresh ground)
    • Sea Salt
    • Sesame (seed)
    • Sumac
    • Thyme
    • Turmeric
    • Za’atar (they give you the recipe to make it)

    We've tried about two dozen recipes, and I look forward to more. I review cookbooks for the blog portion of our Gneiss Spice online shop. We started posting them on Amazon, as we thought it might be helpful to shoppers! Thanks for reading. Please let me know what questions you have. ~Beth

    To cook these vegetarian recipes, you'll need:

    Simple Chef Vegetable Spiralizer (Just got one to try out these recipes. It's super fun and the kids love it!)

    Mandoline Slicer (Be careful of your fingers!)

    Vegetable Steaming Basket (What an easy way to cook!)

    Blender, but really a Vitamin (I finally splurged and use it everyday!!)

    Kitchen Scale (Recently bought this cheap one and it's working great. No need to splurge on an expensive scale)

    Food Processor or Immersion Blender (I recommend both, and use them for different jobs). 

    These gluten-free rice flour crepes are awesome! Make a batch of batter and keep in your fridge for a few days. 

    July 08, 2017 — Beth Weisberger

    Cookbook Review: Whole30 by Melissa Hartwig

    Whole30 Cookbook Review Spice Cooking List Purchase Paleo Clean Eating Repair Your Gut Eat Healthy

    Inventive and generous use of spices! 

    This book was a surprise hit for me! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, and only bought it because I was actually doing a Whole30 in January 2017. We’ve been vegetarian for about 7 years, so eating and cooking all this meat, well, let’s just say I needed some help. The first thing I was impressed with? The recipes are very creative! They are easy to follow, don’t take a lot of time. As you know, I have a baby and a toddler and work from home, so I particularly loved the slow-cooker recipes that make extra meat that is then used for different recipes later in the week. Genius!  

    Melissa make liberal use of spices, and as a spice blender myself, nothing could make me happier. And when I say liberal…I mean, this book uses 50 different spices, herbs and seasonings. Some other reviews mentioned the recipes call for some hard to find ingredients. I did not find this to be the case. Besides the occasional call for capers or fennel bulb, most everything can be found at your local store. Spices on the other hand, there are a few that you might need to source online if you don’t have a gourmet foods market near you. If you were to make all the recipes in the Whole30 Cookbook, you’d need:

    • allspice (ground)
    • ancho chili
    • arrowroot
    • basil
    • bay leaves
    • cajun*
    • caraway
    • cayenne
    • cinnamon (ground)
    • chia seeds
    • chili (seasoning blend)*
    • chipotle
    • cloves (ground)
    • coriander (ground)
    • coriander (seeds)
    • cream of tartar
    • cumin (ground)
    • cumin (seeds)
    • curry (powder)
    • dill
    • dukkah*
    • fennel (seeds)
    • garam masala*
    • garlic (granules)
    • garlic salt
    • ginger (ground)
    • harissa
    • herbes de provence
    • italian seasoning*
    • jerk (seasoning / no sugar)*
    • lemon peel (ground)
    • mustard (ground)
    • nutmeg (ground)
    • nutritional yeast
    • onion (granules)
    • oregano
    • paprika (sweet)
    • paprika (smoked)
    • pepper (ground black)
    • peppercorns (whole black)
    • parsley
    • ras el hanout*
    • red pepper flakes
    • rosemary
    • sage
    • sesame seeds
    • tarragon
    • thyme
    • turmeric
    • sea salt (coarse)

    *Some of the seasonings (cajun, chili seasoning, dukkah, garam masala, Italian, jerk, ras el hanout,) you can blend yourself if you already own the other spices on the list.

    Moroccan Chicken Whole30 Cookbook Review From Pasta to PaleoOf these 50 spices, the essential, most often used ones are coarse sea salt, cracked pepper, smoked paprika, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, cayenne, onion granules, garlic granules and ground cumin. However, you better have ras el hanout (or the spices to blend it) because it was hands-down the best chicken I’ve ever made (Moroccan Chicken with Carrot-Pistachio Slaw, page 143). Here is a photo of this fabulous Moroccan Chicken by From Pasta to Paleo. She also made the dish multiple times! Click here for her review of the Whole30 Cookbook. Other highlight recipes for me: Beef and Sweet Potato Chili (pg. 33)—we ate that all week for lunch, Slow-Cooker Italian Beef Roast (pg 43), Mediterranean Bison Burger (pg. 53), Slow-Cooked Moroccan Spices Shredded Beef (pg. 61), Thai Beef Curry with Green Beans (pg. 77), Pork Posole with Tostones (pg. 87), Chipotle BBQ Chicken Thighs (pg. 128), Grilled Jamaican Jerk Salmon (pg. 192), Mexican Salmon Cakes (pg 198), Dukkah-Crusted Brussel Sprouts (pg. 224)...should I go on?

    The first thing you should make from this book? Red Curry Roasted Cauliflower (pg. 242). If you follow Gneiss Spice on instagram, you’ll see tons of posts from this book in January and February. If you're debating a Whole30, don't hesitate to buy this book! Nothing is harder than trying to follow the strict rules, and have no inspiration for what to cook for dinner. With most cookbooks, I usually feel the urge to change the recipes. With this book, I was content and confident to make them just as is. My only complaint about the book would be no mention of portion sizes. I had to head over to their website to find suggestions (they have a cool graphic using your hand to measure portions—not sure why they didn’t include it in the book). Here is it:

     

    Whole30 Portion Sizes Diagram