I was at Chapters yesterday. I wanted to pick up Veganomicon. It’s a cookbook that is highly praised in Vegan circles. It was more expensive there than on Amazon and so I decided to leave it behind. As I was leaving I stopped by the clearance section (always one of my favorites) and found a few veg*n cookbooks there. There was one of the ever famous Moosewood collection but I am not that big of a fan. Their recipes are rarely vegan and they even include fish in some of their vegetarian recipes (a MAJOR pet peeve of mine). If it has a heart or eyes it doesn’t count as a vegetable! Apologies to artichoke hearts and potato eyes of course.

But for $5.99 I did find a diamond in the rough. It’s called The Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook. I like the Low GI diet as a whole because it focuses on bringing whole foods back into your diet and cutting out the refined crap. It’s not so much a diet, as in you’re restricting yourself of calories, as it is an education book (by the way, The Thrive Diet (mentioned below) is also not a “diet” book). It’s a very balanced way of eating.

The Glycemic Index is a measure of how quickly your body turns the food you eat into sugar. The quicker it does this the more quickly you get hungry again and therefore eat more calories. Foods that have a high Glycemic Index are for the most part foods that have been processed or denatured in some way.

For example: Quick oats, cookies, crackers, Minute Rice, white bread, sugary foods like cereals, doughnuts, candies etc. Did you know that Minute Rice has a GI that is almost as high as a pure glucose? Something to think about if you are wanting to be healthier and slimmer.

When you feed your body whole foods your body takes a lot longer to break them down, or process them, and your body spends that extended period of time withdrawing nutrients from the food and feeding your body. You feel fuller, longer.

Now, I didn’t really need re-education in this topic; the reason I got this book was that all the recipes (50% of which are vegan) were specially formulated to include a good serving of protein. Not only that but they are well balanced to give your carbohydrates and fibre as well. The recipes ideas are fresh and they look delicious. And all the recipes include whole, natural foods. What an ode!

My biggest problems with other books was finding protein in the recipes and finding recipes that looked delicious and healthy. Deep fried tofu? Not so healthy.

Skinny Bitch in the Kitch is a decent book but so many of their recipes use ingredients like vegan bacon, cheese and other fake substitutes. That’s just not how we roll at my house. I find I can’t use half of their recipes because I never have fake veggie luncheon meat or soy cheese. Eww! It’s like they think we’ll feel deprived without hot dogs! I certainly don’t.

The Thrive Dietis truly excellent in content but the recipes don’t work well for a family. Pizza crust made out of chickpeas? Spaghetti made out of zucchini? Sounds interesting enough but I can’t sell my hubby on that. One of these days I’ll just make it and surprise him. LOL.

I have a few others as well, Like a Moosewood one, that I am not that thrilled with. This book, however, seems rather promising. I will have to buy some new ingredients since their recipes tend to have more of an Asian theme (salads and stir-fries with bok choi and bean sprouts). Ingredients that haven’t been a staple in my kitchen for about a year.

One last note: For non-veggies there is another book by those same authors. I think it’s just called The Low GI Diet. My mother-in-law has it for her diabetes. Eating foods that are lower in GI has proven to help regulate blood sugar levels and maintain a healthier weight.