Low Calorie Vegetarian Recipe Books--Two Reviews

Some of you have asked me why I promote two vegetarian cookbooks on my site for people who are interested in low calorie vegetarian recipes.

Is one not enough? Is one better than the other? Which one should you choose?

Well, I cannot give you categorical answers because each of you has different reasons for inquiring into the benefits of low calorie vegetarian recipes. What I can do is to discuss both books and then for you to make up your mind.

OK?

So, here goes…

The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet by the people from Vegetarian-Diet.Info and Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy by Jennifer Scott are two books that I am happy to promote. Together they represent a true treasure-trove of low calorie vegetarian recipes…and much more!

First The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet. It is a 97 page book crammed with low calorie vegetarian recipes. The core of the book is a detailed week-by-week plan, over four weeks, to achieve weight loss—weight loss of course being its main theme. It also tells you how to design your own weight-loss plan. The book shows you the calorie content alongside each recipe and each of its components. Sensibly it also includes advice on some enjoyable forms of ‘exercise’, including walking, cycling and dancing to complement your weight-loss vegetarian diet.

It even tells you how many calories you might lose with each type of exercise. Very thorough indeed.

Thorough yes, but these low calorie recipes for weight loss are not boring! For instance having Scrambled Egg and Tomato on Rye (230 calories) for breakfast, Cream Cheese Dip, Vegetables, Fruit and Yogurt (340-360 calories) for lunch and a Simple Tomato & Mushroom Pasta (312) for dinner on day three of the book’s weight-loss plan simply represent mouth-watering ideas to lose weight. I know, I tried some recipes even though I don’t think I need to lose weight (umm…)!

Does the weight-loss plan promoted here work? According to the book’s testimonials: yes. Ultimately the proof of this particular pudding is, as ever, going to be in you eating it.

The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet is a straight-up-and-down and easy to follow book with everything you need to use a vegetarian diet for weight-loss. At only US$11,97 you cannot go wrong. Get it here!.

Oh, yes and with that price come your unlimited access rights to Vegetarian-Diet.Info’s website where you can find answers to your questions, and detailed background knowledge. New recipes and tips are added here year-round.

Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy (86 pages) is a great companion book to The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet or one that stands on its own. It’s focus is not weight-loss although it covers the subject to some extent. The book includes excellent information on what vegetarianism and veganism is, vegetarian diets for pregnancy, babies, children and teenagers, and discusses, in easy-to-understand language, the roles of protein, calcium, fats, vitamins and iron.

Importantly, it also has a chapter on reasons for becoming vegetarian or vegan.

Why is this important?

Well, if you know why you are doing something and you personally believe in those reasons you’ll succeed at it. No different here. Ecological, health, ethical, financial (yes) and spiritual reasons are covered.

And of course! Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy contains many recipes, which by their nature have low calorie content. No, they are not all easy, despite the book’s title, but most are. Unlike The Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet, calorie content is not featured with each recipe. But cooking time is! That can be very useful information indeed.

When you purchase this book there are an incredible 14 bonus downloads, containing countless recipes for vegetarian entrees, side dishes, desserts, dips, salads, soups, beverages and even Christmas meals. The book on beverages alone is 123 pages long!!! The book on breakfast recipes 63 pages!

I don’t know about you but I get a little wary when bonuses are offered with any product. Is the product not good enough on its own? In this case I don’t see why Jennifer just did not produce each of these ‘bonuses’ as another book and sells them separately.

Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy certainly is great value in itself, I believe. However, there it is, with ‘bonuses’, while they last perhaps. She must be a generous lady.

Cranberry and herb-stuffed onions anyone? Mushroom stuffed filo parcels? Or perhaps a little butternut and ginger soup? Washed down with a Berry blast smoothie or a Lime and honeydew punch?

Why wait!

The price of Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy is US$24,97 and 10% of the proceeds go to charity. Get it here.

There, does that help? I’m off to do some cooking now…and eating!

Oh, by the way, here’s a great little printing software program that will let you print 2 or 4 pages to a single 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. Ideal for you as an environment-conscious vegetarian when you print out your e-cook-books--saving you paper, space, and money.
http://www.fineprint.com/. Trial version is free!

Cheers

The Vegetarian Bloke.

Low Calorie Vegetarian Recipes

Eating out? Low calorie vegetarian?

Delicious! But low calorie vegetarian recipes?

We went out to dinner last Sunday night to the Red Turban, an Indian restaurant in Joondalup, a northern suburb of Perth (Western Australia). My wife, my daughter and I.

The Red Turban had won a Gold Plate award. It boasted no less than five internationally, highly trained chefs and also invited any diner to proclaim that the meal they just had was not "the most authentic" Indian meal they had ever had. If any diner felt that this fit their meal the Red Turban promised that the bill would be torn up in front of them. A psychologically daunting prospect!

Not only that, if you brought the newspaper page containing their advertisement they'd reduce your bill by 25%!

As my daughter threatened to only have a "fizzy drink" because she "did not like Indian food",I saw an opportunity and invited her to say the magic mantra afterwards: "Sorry, I have not had the most authentic Indian meal I've ever had." Only joking! Of course she did not oblige, in part because she did find some enjoyable things to eat.

Well, armed with that page and empty stomachs we went in on this hot Indian-like night. Perth is having a hot start to autumn with temperatures hovering between low to high thirties (degrees centigrade).

A good start for me was the easy wheelchair entry. We were seated at the back of this small restaurant (I'd say capacity to seat no more than 30)and were immediately served with papadams and filtered water. With it came two sauces, one a mint and yoghurt sauce, the other savoury. Delicious.

The menu contains no less than eight vegetarian main courses, including three rice dishes,various vegetarian starters, and of course sweets like gulab jamon, kulfi, cream caramel and so on.

If you are an orthodox vegetarian, you may not like the fact that meat is very much part of the menu too. This does not bother us unduly. After all, we vegetarians are (still)a minority and we compromise rather than be greatly restricted to a few all-vegetarian places. You gotta live on this planet.

Of course you can always find your own information on cooking vegetarian food yourself, easily finding easy vegetarian recipes if you are not a compromiser.

We ordered garlic naan and stuffed naan and we all, including daughter, enjoyed those. We shared vegetarian baji with our main courses of Palak Paneer and Madras Potato (no cream). Palak Paneer of course involved home-made cheese, cooked English spinach and a spiced sauce.

Any requests for no cream could be easily met in any dish, we were told. Good for our vegan 'cousins.'

The Madras Potato was the Red Turban's favorite: diced potatoes in a light sauce of turmeric, gram dahl and curry leaf.

With it we had Jeera Pullao: Dheraduni Basmati rice cooked with cumin seed. We also ordered some raita to cool things down should there be a need for that.

I had learned that lesson years ago! I once had a curry in a New Delhi hotel which I had ordered to be very mild and which took my breath away only leaving me able to hoarsely whisper to the waiter that he could take it away and eat it him self--which did gratefully. Or was that gleefully? Mmmm, we all have to find our daily curry somehow don't we?

Anyway, back to the Red Turban. Sweet- and mango lassis saw us fully equipped to dig in. My wife and I agreed that it would not be (ethically) possible to have our bill torn up. The deep-fried baji was thinly cut and subtly flavoured.

The Palak Paneer--my favourite Indian dish--was the best I'd ever had. Everything and especially the Madras Potato had a rich taste, suggesting that the Red Turban's claim to only be buying the best of spices was not an empty one.

Even though the food was rich we did not noticed any ill-effects, something we easily feel. Maybe this is in part an indication of a low calorie meal. I confess I do not know, and did not care on this occasion. We left with a warm inner stomach glow and slept well!

Our only regret was that our stomachs were not quite big enough to eat it all. Our minimalist, nine-year old daughter even,had enjoyed her naan,rice, fizzy drink and lassi.

Oh, one observation. It was indeed thoughtful for the Red Turban to have ensured wheelchair accessible toilets. Much appreciated. However, when putting wheelchair access signs to the truly accessible toilets, please do not render the corridor that leads to them into an inaccessible storage room!

All in all, a great Indian food experience at the Red Turban in Joondalup. Recommended!... but find another storage room, ...please.

The Vegetarian Bloke

low calorie vegetarian recipes

Low calorie vegetarian diet and weight loss. Does it work?

Yes vegetarians do maintain a healthy weight.

The Australian recently (14th March, 2006) published results of a scientific study that supports the notion that vegetarian and vegan diets help you lose weight.

It said that "researchers who studied the eating habits of 22,000 people over five years, including meat eaters and vegetarians, found they all put on a few kilos but meat eaters who changed to a vegetarian or vegan diet gained the least.

Professor Tim Keys who ran the research project, said: "Contrary to current popular views that a diet low in carbohydrates and high in protein keeps weight down, we found that the lowest weight gain came in people with high intake of carbohydrates and low intake of protein".

Vegetarians generally do not eat meat, fish or poultry. Nor do they eat meat by-products such as gelatin or animal fats—if they can avoid them (discovering those by-products is an art in itself!). They do eat plant-based foods, including grains, pulses, vegetables, seeds, fruit and nuts.

Lacto-ovo vegetarians also eat eggs and milk products such as cheese (yes you can buy cheese made without rennet).

Vegans avoid all animal-based products. Just reducing your meat consumption will have benefits.

But for the best health and weight-lodss results go vegetarian.

So, does a vegetarian weight loss diet work? Yes, some studies show that it can. The choice is yours. It will involve changing your lifestyle. Do not let that overwhelm you. Start somewhere simple today! start somewhere simple today!. You will find another great resource on low calorie vegetarian recipes here.

The Vegetarian Bloke

Low calorie and vegetarian recipes

low calorie and vegetarian recipes

Book review

"Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy"

"Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy" by Jennifer Scott is a great resource for easy vegetarian recipes, whether you are a vegetarian starter or a veteran. Jennifer has been a vegetarian for ten years and has researched her passion thoroughly.

Not only does "Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy" have hundreds of mouth-watering recipes, it contains many nutritional facts and figures. It is a thorough and thoughtful book. It includes discussion on six different types of vegetarians and which might be right for you. It talks about vegetarianism for children of all ages; eating vegetarian food during pregnancy; and how to move from a meat-eater to a vegetarian diet. You will discover the health benefits of vegetarian food and why vegetarianism is good for our planet. Besides Jennifer claims being vegetarian is also easier on your household budget. In fact she says it will save you a ton of money. Hhmmm... I don't know about that one. All depends on how carried away you will be with your (new) vegetarian diet, doesn't it. Generally, we tend to use our food money to buy some extras: pawpaws, mangos and other foods that the meat-eaters cannot afford or just do not think about! But maybe 28 years away from meat leaves me ill-equipped to make such comparisons and I should just trust Jennifer's judgment.

Jennifer explodes some myths about protein and iron deficiencies for vegetarians and shows you how to build in variety for a healthy vegetarian lifestyle.

Jennifer makes three claims with her book:

That you'll learn how to get the nutrients you need while eating meals you enjoy!
That you'll soon be looking and feeling better than you ever have before!
That you'll love the hundreds of free great-tasting vegetarian recipes that she will put in front of you!

Click here to buy the book and I think you will not look back from there.

Oh yes, 10% of Jennifer's profits go to charities and she has a money-back guarantee.

Looking forward to your comments. Talk to you soon.

The Vegetarian Bloke

Low calorie and vegetarian recipes

Everything you wanted to know about low calorie and vegetarian recipes

Hi vegetarians and vegetarians-to-be

You are here for any possible reason: You may want to check out low calorie and vegetarian recipes because you want to lose weight. Or you are aware of multiple health benefits of vegetarian food. Or you need to entertain people that are vegetarian and you do not have clue where to start! Maybe you are a vegetarian already and you want to expand your
vegetarian recipe repertoire.

I was raised on meat and loved it as a boy. I can still see my grandfather cut a large chicken, or a turkey, at the family Christmas dinner, depending how finances stood. At age 22 I changed to eating "white meat" only: fish and chicken. This had nothing to do with the influence of a newly- met girlfriend of course, who happened to eat like this. I then drifted away from meat altogether as I discovered how delicious vegetarian food could be.

Being vegetarian fit in with my beliefs too. Why kill and eat animals if there is no need to do so? And how to justify eating meat when you know raising grazing animals takes much more energy than the production of vegetables, fruit and nuts in a world where energy consumption is now outstripping the carrying capacity of our home: planet Earth?

I discovered about the health benefits of a good, balanced vegetarian diet. As with any diet, you can do it wrong or right. But it does not have to be complicated either. My great-aunt ate very simply: most often the same things at regular times. She lived to age 102 and was physically and mentally healthy almost up to her final week. OK, she was not a vegetarian but she hardly ate red meat, and more fish. She demonstrated the benefits of eating in moderation AND of exercise. She still did as much as she could do herself in her small flat in Amsterdam. She truly was a great great-aunt.

Of course just eating some things that have no meat in them will not reap you the benefits of healthy vegetarian eating. And eating healthy vegetarian food by itself will still be inferior to eating well AND exercise. Commonsense isn't it.


Click here for a great site with easy vegetarian recipes and (almost) everything you want to know about being vegetarian. The free recipes for "fluffy garlic mashed potatoes" and "banana muffins" are worth the visit in their own right!

I look forward to your comments. What are your favourite vegetarian recipes? If they are low calorie and vegetarian recipes so much the better of course. Have any recommendations of great vegetarian restaurants or eating places? Does not matter where they are.

In future posts I want to explore some of the reasons for becoming vegetarian and share some of my own recipes. Till then.

low calorie and vegetarian recipes

vegetarian recipes

Welcome all to my new blog. My knowledge of vegetarian food comes from about 30 years of eating that way! Yes I live in an all-vegetarian family: my children, 20 and 9 years old have been raised vegetarian. My wife and I chose vegetarianism later in life. Are we healthy?, I hear some of you ask. You bet we are. And slim. All four of us-- even though I have been getting around in a wheelchair for about 28 years.

Are we "vegetarian fundamentalists"? Well, you can comment on that yourself down the track. But how's this for fundamentalism: my son used to work in a fast-food place preparing chickens for some years. The only vegetarian in the place!

There are many good reasons to become a vegetarian. It's good for us and you could say you're eating to save the planet. I will point you to an endless variety of delicious recipes and will post articles regularly.

I look forward to your comments and stories. Please keep coming back. Talk to you soon.