Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I seldom write cookbook reviews since I find that most cookbooks have a few good recipes and the rest are either so-so or are not very good at all. I waited some time to review this one because I wanted to try most of the recipes before reviewing it and wanted to try them several times to make sure that they consistently turned out well. I have been a vegan for many years and am an experienced vegan cook. Part of my reason for becoming a vegan was to provide healthy food for my family and that includes not only eating plant-based foods, but also avoiding processed foods when possible. This cookbook helps me do both by providing delicious and, for almost all recipes, quick results. It is the only cookbook I have, and I have over a hundred of them, that never leaves my kitchen counter. Some of the recipes that I have made include Sqeeze Bottle Yellow Mustard, Dijon Mustard, Ale and Brown Sugar Mustard, Oil Free Eggless Mayo, Classic Eggless Mayonnaise, Basic Ketchup, Teriyaki Sauce, Zippy Barbecue Sauce, No-anchovy Worcestershire Sauce and That Bottle of Italian Dressing. All of them are easy and very quick to make with the exception of the Dijon Mustard which is easy to make but has to ferment for about a month--well worth the wait. The Oil Free Eggless Mayo is much better than anything you can buy in the store and the Classic Eggless Mayonnaise is so good that we like it better than any "real mayonnaise" that we have had. The Basic Ketchup takes no time at all to make and leaves store brands, vegan or not, in the dust. This is just a sampling of the condiments section. Once you have made the Almond Milk and coffee creamer, you will never be able to buy those products again. They are so good. I liked the soy milk just fine but still think Silk soy milk is better. I mix the two to at least dilute the bad stuff in the store-bought soy milk. The two butters, Glorious Butterless Butter and the cultured butter, are both wonderful and so much cheaper than the vegan brands in the supermarket. We like the cultured butter better and I always make this if I have the almond milk yogurt on hand. Both are easy and quick to make. The almond yogurt mentioned earlier is very very good. I find that if I add a little more agar powder and arrowroot powder and cook it a little longer in the yogurt maker, I get the consistency and flavor of Greek yogurt. I make it both ways and the family loves them. We love the Oil Free Melty 'Pepper Jack' " Cheese, the Oil-free Melty Mozarella, and the Oil-Free Melty Cheddar "Cheeses". The Vegan Parmesan "Cheese" is very good but a pain in the neck to make. The Not Nog is so so good and we were thrilled to be able to have what tasted like eggnog during the holidays (I like this made with almond milk rather than soy and made the almond milk base a little thicker for this). If you are like me, you have probably thrown up your hands thinking that you would never find good vegan broths. The vegan Chicken(less), Got No Beef and Mushroom broths are wonderful. The hot dogs made with the vegetables left over from the beef broth are better than the real thing and far better than the analog ones in the stores. They take a little time but are well worth it. The curry soup made with the leftover vegetables used to make the no-chicken broth is out of this world. The "Un-ribs" are well worth the time it takes to make them. We just stuff ourselves when I make them--we have no self control when it comes to these things. I have missed seafood a lot since becoming vegan; this cookbook has recipes for fish, fish sticks, crab cakes and seafood chowder...that are very very good. I will mention just a few more wonderful things offered in this book and then call it a day. The cake mixes and baking mixes are real time savers and come together so quickly; the recipes for biscuits, pancakes, brownies and cakes made using these mixes are decadent; you won't miss the lack of animal products at all. The only recipe that I could not make no matter what I tried was the sour cream. If anyone has made this successfully, I would love to hear from you. If I had to give up all but one cookbook, this is the one I would keep.