I was thrilled to win Helene of Tartlette’s recent give away for a copy of Heidi Swanson’s book, Super Natural Every Day
The book is simply amazing. Both the recipes and the food photography are just stellar.
The recipes focus on real food, natural food, and plant-based ingredients. Heidi shows us that you can make great meals, without being overly complicated or “fussy”. She allows plenty of room for substitutions and modifications in her recipes, which is precisely how I cook. Following a recipe to a T is not my strong suit.
Kale Salad. I’m a fan of those. As well as chocolate cococnut kale chips.
Even though there is simplicity in her recipes, by reading the ingredient lists, there is usually a unique ingredient in most dishes that provides a wow factor.
Pomegranate-Glazed Eggplant with Tempeh. That has some definite wow factor for me.
The recipes use an abundance of fruits and vegetables. It happens to be a vegetarian cookbook but I don’t think of it as a “vegetarian cookbook”. I think of it as a cookbook showcasing plant-based ingredients, whole grains, and making due with ingredients you have on hand without a lot of fuss.
Summer Squash Soup
I can’t wait to try Heidi’s Chickpeas
I make Carmelized Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chickpea “Peanuts”
And her Oatcakes look great.
I may need to step away from the microwave with my Microwave Banana Oat Cakes with nut butter on top…
…and fire up the oven one of these days.She has a recipe for Baked Oatmeal that looks wonderful
Again, I may need to put down my own Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cakes to try her baked blueberry oatmeal.
And here’s Heid’s recipe for Tutti-Frutti Crumble
I love crumbles, like Raw Vegan Apple Crumble so I’m sure I’ll love her crumble!
Both Helene and Heidi are amazing cooks, photographers, and both are authors.
Helene’s book, From Plate to Pixel, just came out, too. I can’t wait to buy that one!
So many books, so little time.
Need any other cookbook reviews?
So many books. Anyone have a sumo wrestling team that needs to be fed?
I can’t wait to dig into Heidi’s book and start making things.
From my last post about Nicer Days and What to Make Next, hopefully you all get some nicer weather soon!
Thanks for sharing whether you have things on your radar screen that you’re wanting to make next and I also enjoyed reading whether you’re a creature of habit with your food and meals or whether you’re a try new things person. As I explained, I am both. Heidi’s book is perfect for the way I like to eat, as I discussed.
Time for dessert and a No Bake Vanilla Cake Batter Chocolate Truffle
They don’t use super or natural ingredients. But there is chocolate invovled which I think is super.
Questions:
1. Do you have any cookbooks that are on your wish list or any go-to cookbooks you can’t live without?
I have talked cookbooks many times and have a massive post about them with links to reviews on dozens and dozens of cookbooks I own. Check that out if you’re in the market but in a nutshell my cookbook must haves:
simple recipes that don’t take hours and hours to prepare
ingredient lists that aren’t a mile long or with hard to source/exotic/expensive ingredients
a focus on fresh, real food
beautiful photography (so many cookbooks have either no photos or poor quality. Not Heidi’s book, though. Plentiful and gorgeous images!)
2. Do you ever want to write a cookbook or a book?
I know, not firsthand but from what I’ve read and been told, that it is so much work to write a book!
Not just the actual writing of the book, but the proposals, finding an agent, editors, revisions, photographing it all. Oh you have to actually write the book, too. And if it’s a cookbook, knowing how to cook and create original recipes is a good thing.
It all sort of scares me off! Sort of.
Some days I dream and say maybe one day I will…but who knows.
For now, I write my blog posts twice a day and work full time and am a full time parent (often, a single parent while Scott travels). I don’t know how I’d write a book right now. But I never say never.
Anyone bitten by the writer’s bug out there? And if you are and want to share how you got started, fill me in! I’m all ears!
P.S. If you’re just catching up on posts from the weekend, here are mine since Friday:
- Nicer Days & What To Make Next
- White Chocolate Blondies with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
- Spring Fever & Summer Excitement
- Bests & Winner
- Lovely Food
- At Home Workouts: DVDs & Podcasts
Hope your Monday is off to a good start!
i cannot live without thomas keller’s ad hoc at home. not a bad recipe in the whole thing! no desire to reinvent the wheel, i do just fine reading blogs/recipe apps on my phone! girl on the run!
I could stare at beautiful food photography forever! That eggplant and tempeh really does sound amazing. One of my favorite cookbooks is Eat Drink & Be Vegan! Even though I’m not vegan I’m just in love with all the recipes.
i have ALWAYS dreamed of making a cookbook with some exercise tips thrown in there. It would be more sports nutrition based…healthy foods for the active onefitfoodie! hehe
I love those recipes you pointed out from that book…the pom glazed tempeh sounds amazing!
OMG averie, the bikini was perfect for my photoshoot! LOOOOVED IT!
glad the bikini was perfect and you looked amazing in your post! Can’t wait to see more pics! And hear if you think you’re going to do more shows, what the short/long term future holds for workouts, etc.
Growing up, I wanted to be an author, so a little part of me still wants to write a book one day…though all the work is definitely daunting!! There are so many challenges surrounding it- writing it, finding a publisher, publicizing it, hoping people enjoy it. If I’m ever at a stage in my life where I feel like I have something book-worthy to say, I might pursue it, but that’s nowhere near happening right now!
I’ve posted before about how much I love Eat, Drink and Be Vegan- mostly because it’s where I found my favorite Super Charge Me cookies!!
It looks like a great book! I really like when cookbooks have glossy, color photos of EVERY recipe. That way I know for sure what the finished product is supposed to look like.
I don’t own a lot of cookbooks because I have to really want to make a majority of the recipes from it….otherwise, I just get it out of the library. ;-)
congrats on winning that wonderful book, averie! right up your alley, for sure, with the style and ingredient lists!
i have a couple bookshelves of cookbooks, but since i don’t like cooking, they don’t get used that much! :) when i do need a recipe, i very often turn to my mom’s tried-n-true.
if i ever did write a cookbook, it would be a compilation of family favourites from my mom and two grandmothers. i don’t think anyone would want a cookbook of my cooking!!!
yes, never say never. with your innovative recipe ideas + interest in photography, who knows what you may end up doing in a few years!
I love recipes that are simply but have a small zinger — like that eggplant.
My favorite vegan cookbook is anything by Ani Phyo. You really sense the love she has for simply-made but great-tasting eats. I also got the chance to interview her for a newspaper article I wrote and I was sooo happy to find she’s just as nice in person as she is in her books. She gave me some suggestions when I was planning a raw cake for my dad’s birthday, teehee.
I’d love to read the Averie cookbook!
When I know how to basically cook something, I definitely wing it. It’s only if I don’t know how to cook something that I hang onto a cookbook. Like my adventures in game meats– those needed a roadmap. But usually, cookbooks to me are foreplay. They get me all revved up and inspired for the real act!
Im with you on Ani’s books. Easy, no fuss, vegan, GF, flavorful but again…easy. A few things require dehydrating or more complicated prep but I improvise.
Thanks for “I’d love to read the Averie cookbook! “– thank you!!!!
Averie, you should totally write a cookbook someday! Your future cookbook is on my wish list :)
such high praise…I am flattered!!
I’ve heard great things about her! I love cookbooks, but I find I usually just use recipes for inspiration and then go from there.
i love 101 cookbooks! i want to buy it, i just have a million others :)
I am looking forward to the Peas and Thank you Cookbook!
I love, love, love Heidi Swanson!!! Can’t wait to pick up that book!
Wow those pictures do look amazing! I want that cookbook.
I love cookbooks and have so many, yet I never make anything from them… but I just bought my first raw foods cookbook and I’m so excited to try something from it! I would love to be able to create my own recipes, but honestly have no idea where to begin with it…
Some of those recipes look super delicious! And I have to agree with you that the pomegranate eggplant/tempeh dish sounds and looks amazing.
I have a couple of cookbooks but to be honest I don’t use them much. I’m more of a “throw these ingredients together on a plate” than an actual recipe user — so I find myself using cookbooks for baked goods (which I haven’t been making much of lately). I do like simple recipes, short ingredient lists, easy steps, etc. I don’t like when I need 1 tsp of an ingredient that I don’t normally have at home. It seems like a waste of money to me!
I have no desire to make a cookbook — I don’t have any recipes of my own, just spin offs of other recipes (from blogs or books). And I think it would take a crazy amount of time!
oh another cookbook I mudt check out! looks great. I’d love to write a GF cookbook for triathletes. Maybe some day….