Book Review

Munchie Madness
by Bobbie Hinman, Robert Oser, Suzanne Havala, and Dorothy R. Bates
Review by Jenni Billings

I love to cook. I love to eat. I was given a handful of vegetarian cookbooks to review, and one of the first I grabbed was Munchie Maddness. Although the recipes are vegetarian, not vegan, there are helpful alternatives for making the recipes vegan.

We were planning a day out with the family (for us that includes two kids under the age of 6) and a day out always means bringing munchies! This was the perfect time to try one of the 120 "quick and easy recipes" that this book boasts. The first recipe I tried was a muffin recipe; it was good, nothing spectacular, but good.

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My husband was thumbing through this book, and said, "Any book with a recipe for ‘melty cheese sauce’ is worth trying!" There is a company that makes a cheese sauce very similar to this. It is a different taste, not like the cheese I remember. Though my husband and our three year old liked it and said they’d want me to make it again. Jacob, our almost six year old said it was too cheesy, and he’d pass on that one. I thought it was an interesting alternative to cheese, not bad on chips, good with beans and salsa, and loaded with b-12.

There are some yummy recipes for smoothies, some delicious recipes for desserts, and easy entrees too, but what I found most helpful about this book was the first thirty or so pages about vegetarian nutrition. While I was a little disappointed that they used the vegetarian, rather than vegan food pyramid, there were some great lists of foods rich in key nutrients; such as iron, b-12, protein and calcium. Also, there was advice for living in a non-vegetarian world, eating out, and answering questions new vegetarians are often asked. If that were not enough, it has a page of additional resources for getting educated! Although this is not my favorite veg cookbook, it contains a lot of information that I think new vegetarians would appreciate having. It would also be a good quick reference to share with, and educate, non-vegetarians who are worried about your diet.

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