"Under 15 Minutes" Vegetarian Cookbook Review

I received this book (Under 15 Minutes: Vegetarian Quick & Easy Recipes by Jonathan Vine) for review, since as a vegetarian, I am always looking for something to try. I especially like quick and easy recipes. After I received it, though, Crafty mentioned she wanted to try tofu in a recipe so I passed it along to her to borrow to see what she thought. She found it so useful she bought her own copy!

We discussed picking a recipe and both trying it to see how it went, but it's always hard to plan meals for yourself, never mind for someone else. Crafty's schedule means that she isn't home as much in the evenings as she would like and I have been ordering from Plated so often that we haven't really had the opportunity to do that. However, it's great that there are so many recipe choices in this cookbook that we easily could - and none of them are very complicated.

Here are my thoughts and then Crafty is going to jump in to share hers. 

I liked the variety of recipes included in this cookbook, which range from snacks for a party to desserts and include everything in between. I love that most include ingredients I already have or minimal shopping trips to stock up, and of course, I like that everything is quick. On the other hand, I don't think it's fully accurate to say they're all under 15 minutes, as many call for tofu. Draining and drying tofu takes about 15 minutes by itself to be effective for most meals, so that's something that should probably be noted. The prep in the majority of these meals is easy, but I know when I started out with tofu, I made a lot of mistakes and I think that's a big detail that should be addressed.

I also have to admit that I'm finally at a point where I can make most of these meals without a recipe. With that said, though, there are enough that are great to have. I wish this book was provided in epub, as I use my iPad a lot for recipe apps or cookbooks, but not my Kindle. However, I can download the Kindle app. It's just something to consider for future reference, since I generally prefer getting ebooks on Apple.

On to Crafty now:

As a mom, I am always looking for ways to help my kids eat better. I am not a vegetarian but I honestly do not need to have meat in a meal like some people do. I guess I am lucky because my kids really have no desire to eat meat with most of their meals, either. They, of course, like the childhood favorites like chicken nuggets, but will complain about eating grilled chicken. So why not try out a few of these easy vegetarian meals on them?

I have a long list of items I want to try, but I have been struggling with follow through because I want to try them all!

I am really excited about the warm peanut butter and banana sandwich. Not for myself but because my daughter eats a cold one every day, I would love to see how she likes it warmed up a bit. I also can't wait to try the colorful quinoa and Nutella popsicles from the kids' section of the book. For grown up meals, the top of my list consists of Tofu Piccata, Caprese Salad, and the Italian Grilled Cheese. 

The beauty of this recipe book is that the meals are under 15 minutes and there is an entire section on meals for busy moms. Let's face it, though. In the world today, any woman - whether a mom or not - is busy, and these meal recipes are great for just about anyone!