Happy Monday! This week I want to talk about one of my favorite new cookbooks, Peas and Thank You.

Peas and Thank You was the brainchild of Sarah Matheny. I started following Sarah (aka Mama Pea) when she and her blog (Peas and Thank You) were featured in an article from Vegetarian Times that featured her recipe for Zucchini and Quinoa Lasagna.  These were two of my favorite summer ingredients so I had to check out her blog.

Then I was addicted. It’s one of those blogs I check everyday because everyday this woman makes me laugh, think, and sometimes get a little misty-eyed. When she started talking about a cookbook and how her goal was to make the New York Times Best Seller List, I ordered my copy.

I love her recipes, she’s funny, and her recipes are healthy.

What’s not to like?

I received her book in the mail and I sat down to thumb through it.

Pretty soon I was reading every page. Laughing at her stories, relating to her desire to erase chemicals from her diet, and drooling over her recipes.

I read the whole book in one sitting. 

I love this book.

It’s the cookbook I am always trying to recommend to people, especially people who are new to healthy and vegan cooking.

Before I go any further, I should mention that I am not receiving any money or gifts for this recommendation. (Not that I wouldn’t mind them, Mama Pea. You have a new book coming out, right? 😉 )

I just really think this is a great book and great addition to a healthy cooking library. After telling everyone I meet in person why they should buy this book (and I get more adamant depending on how much wine I have had), I decided that this book club series would be a good way to go public and stop harassing friends and acquaintances in person.

Unless I have some wine and then, all bets are off.

Book Layout and Summary

Sarah introduces the book and her vegan lifestyle by recounting how she told her daughter that she couldn’t have Diet Coke or junk food but then realized that her daughter was watching her drink Diet Coke and eat Sweet and Salty Chex Mix. Oops. She then took steps to eliminate chemicals and animal products from her life.

Her sections are pretty typical: breakfasts, lunches, snacks and sides, dinners, and desserts.

Each section and recipe is prefaced with stories and pictures from the Pea household. Sarah’s voice is humble, self-deprecating, and hilarious. She is fervent in her beliefs but does not come across as preachy.

Recipes I Recommend

I was really obsessed with this book at first and it seemed we ate nothing but recipes from the book. Then I realized that I should probably take a break and you know, develop some of my own recipes. So I set it aside and came back to it for some of my favorites (namely, BBQ sauce and and chocolate chip cookies).

We have made:

  • Whole Wheat Ginger Pear Waffles
  • Crack wrap
  • La Hacienda de Peas Tortillas
  • Butternut Squash Fries
  • Everything’s Better with Barbeque Sauce (which I try to use whenever I make my BBQ Buffalo Wing Hummus)
  • Spicy African Peanut Slow Cooker Soup
  • Better Than Ever Black Bean Burgers
  • Green and Red Lentil Enchiladas
  • Terriyaki Tofu
  • Curry in a Hurry
  • Vegetarian Pad Thai
  • Double Chocolate/Single Chin Brownies
  • Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt (this recipe alone is worth buying the book!)
  • Chewy Energy Bars

Point of Contention

My only point of contention is that I find many recipes include fake meat or dairy products (tempeh, seitan, veggie crumbles, meatless sausages, Daiya cheese, tofu sour cream) and I struggle with that in terms of clean eating. I am just not sure where that falls. Is it clean? Is it a whole food? Would I, the non-vegan, be better of substituting grass-fed, organic meat?

But here’s the thing: I am not vegan and I do not have children. Sarah really converted her family and to do that, I suspect you need to make allowances. So though I am not sure if I would use those recipes or follow them to a tee, I understand why she does it and I support that.

In Conclusion

If you don’t have this book, you should buy it.

I don’t care if you are vegan, single, have 2 kids, don’t give a hoot about your health, you should buy this book.

I also have Sarah to thank for reuniting me with my lost love.

Tofu.

Manatee has fallen hard for this meat substitute. We try to buy organic, no pesticide, sprouted soybean brands like Wild Wood.

What is your must-have cookbook? Where do you think about meat and dairy substitutes, yay or nay? 


 

 

 


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