Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook: Really Easy Meals for Really Busy Cooks

Rating:
Summary: This one is a lifesaver!
Review: I am a vegetarian & a working mom & this is by far the most valuable cookbook I own. I can honestly say I use it almost daily - the recipes make it so easy to fix a quick, healthy, tasty meal after a hard day working. The only (minor) quibble I have is that a lot of the recipes call for more fat or cheese than I like to use. The Creamy Chickpea Soup with Garlic & Lemon was the first vegetarian food my husband ever requested that I fix again! And I've served Lucky Beans & Rice to everyone & everyone likes it - even the bean haters. I honestly can't reccommend this book too highly.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: I am a vegetarian & a working mom & this is by far the most valuable cookbook I own. I can honestly say I use it almost daily - the recipes make it so easy to fix a quick, healthy, tasty meal after a hard day working. The only (minor) quibble I have is that a lot of the recipes call for more fat or cheese than I like to use. The Creamy Chickpea Soup with Garlic & Lemon was the first vegetarian food my husband ever requested that I fix again! And I've served Lucky Beans & Rice to everyone & everyone likes it - even the bean haters. I honestly can't reccommend this book too highly.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: The recipes in this book are delicious, and most importantly, the ingredients are simple and inexpensive. I've seen a lot of books that have terrific recipes, but the cost of ingredients ends up being prohibitive. This is great vegetarian eating on a budget!

Rating:
Summary: It's fantastic because it's simple
Review: These are extremely well engineered recipes. In many cases, Ms. Fritschner has taken recipes that are sometimes made with meat (e.g., split pea soup) and removed the meat, simplified the preparation, and---according to my meat-eating spouse---greatly improved on the original. To add meat to her recipes would be like adding mayonaise to grapenuts. One could say that Ms. Fritschner finds the right set of ingredients and just gives them a little nudge in the right direction.

A perfect example is the garlic and chick-pea soup, which is essentially just two cans of garbanzo beans run through a blender, with some spices and simmering. Hands down, best soup I've ever had. No chef at an elegant restaurant could have conceived of something so simple. Rather than relying on the natural creaminess and flavor of chickpeas, they make a butter, flour, and cream base that needs to be flavored with something tangy like clams or bacon (and cheese!), with potatoes for added texture. The difference is between fresh-off-the-stalk corn to canned spinach: one is naturally perfect, while the other has to try hard not to suck.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for people learning how to cook!
Review: This is the book that taught me how to cook. I was intimidated by other cookbooks with their long ingredient lists and complicated preparations. Recipes from this cookbook are easy to make and absolutely delicious. I would recommend this book for people who want to begin to cook more meals at home, even if they aren't vegetarian -- the recipes are so good that even meat-eaters would appreciate them.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for people learning how to cook!
Review: This is the book that taught me how to cook. I was intimidated by other cookbooks with their long ingredient lists and complicated preparations. Recipes from this cookbook are easy to make and absolutely delicious. I would recommend this book for people who want to begin to cook more meals at home, even if they aren't vegetarian -- the recipes are so good that even meat-eaters would appreciate them.