20 Minutes to Dinner: Quick, Low-Fat, Low-Calorie, Vegetarian Meals [Paperback]

Bryanna Clark Grogan (Author), Otis Maly (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

Get in and out of the kitchen FAST with tempting and nutritious dishes from vegetarian innovator, Bryanna Clark Grogan. Most of the recipes are based on the Mediterranean/Asian model using lots of grains, fruits and vegetables. Nutritional analyses accompany each recipe.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I would like to clarify a couple of statements made by reviewers. First of all, a reviewer referred to a "fish" recipe, which has caused some concern among vegetarians. THERE IS NO FISH OR SEAFOOD IN ANY OF MY BOOKS! The recipe referred to was a "mock fish" cake made with rice and tofu.

Secondly, in regards to the time it takes to make a recipe, and complaints that I had misled readers, read my section on p. 18 entitled "About the Length of Time Needed to Make These Recipes", which I will quote in it's entirety below. Before I do that, however, I would like to say also that I believe that it's my responsibility, as a cook making someone else's recipe, to read the entire recipe through before embarking on it. If I don't do this, I can hardly blame the writer of the recipe if I don't have the right ingredients! It is also completely unreasonable to add time for shopping into the time it takes to make a recipe! There is a whole chapter in the book on tips for the "time-challenged" cook, covering shoppping, kitchen efficiency, and equipment, in which I urge cooks to make menus ahead of time and keep a running shopping list so they don't run out of things. I do this myself, because I live on a small island. If I had to add shopping time to a recipe, it might! seem that every dish takes me over 4 hours to make!

Also, if these foods are unfamiliar to you, it's going to take you a little longer than it takes me. When you are used to vegan food items and how to cook them, then, of course, it takes less time.

I use this book often myself, and I'd like to thank all the reviewers who wrote in with positive comments.

About the Author

Bryanna Clark Grogan has been a food writer and teacher for more than 30 years. Her interest in cooking began before she can remember and having her first child sparked a lifelong interest in nutrition. She is also the author of Authentic Chinese Cooking, Soyfoods Cooking for A Positive Menopause, Nonna's Italian Kitchen, The Almost No Fat Cookbook, Authentic Chinese Cuisine and The Almost No Fat Holiday Cookbook. She lives with her husband Brian on idyllic Denman Island, off the coast of Vancouver.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Book Publishing Company (TN); 1 edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570670277
• ISBN-13: 978-1570670275
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

To see more than 100 photos of recipes in "World Vegan Feast", go to: http://tinyurl.com/6vbksdn
Bryanna is the author of 8 popular vegan cookbooks, including the new release, World Vegan Feast, vegan bestseller "Nonna's Italian Kitchen", and is co-author of several others. She wrote and published the popular subscription newsletter, the Vegan Feast, for 5 years, and maintains a vegan cooking blog, veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com.

Bryanna has devoted over 40 years to the study of cooking and nutrition, the last 23 to vegan cooking. Eighteen of her (pre-vegetarian) recipes appeared in The Harrowsmith Cookbook, Vol. I and some in The Harrowsmith Pasta Cookbook, as well. She wrote newspaper cooking columns for over 20 years, wrote and edited a newsletter on bread and sourdough, and was a frequent contributor and reviewer for Vegetarian Times magazine for 5 years. In 2001 she became a "resident expert" and moderator of the Vegsource New Vegetarian discussion board.

She has conducted cooking workshops and classes in her local area and at numerous health and vegetarian conferences and gatherings in North America over the years (including several NAVS Summerfests). In February 2002 she was a guest speaker at the International Scientific Conference on Chinese Plant Based Nutrition and Cuisine in Philadelphia, hosted by the American Vegan Societyand the Institute for Plant Based Nutrition. Over several years, Bryanna has demonstrated some of her recipes and signed books at the Vegetarians of Washington 2-day "Vegfest" in Seattle, and has also appeared at the Portland, Oregon's VegFest. Some of her recipes appear in the Seattle VegFest cookbook, The Veg-Feasting Cookbook . In April of 2006 and 2007, Bryanna was the only Canadian presenting, alongside many reknowned vegan chefs and restauranteurs, at the Vegetarian Awakening vegan chefs' conference in Grand Rapids, MI. Bryanna has also presented at the McDougall Celebrity Chef Weekend in Santa Rosa, CA. She appeared as a panelist on 2 panels (Nutrition and Publishing) at the 1st vegan bloggers conference in Portland,OR. the VidaVeganCon in August 2011.

Her recipes also appear on Dr. Andrew Weil's website, and his new HealthyAging site, and in Howard Lyman's ("the Mad Cowboy", a former cattle rancher turned vegan activist) book, No More Bull!. Some of her recipes also appear in Cooking with PETA.

Clinical researcher Dr. Neal Barnard of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine asked Bryanna to develop recipes for his ground-breaking book on diabetes, "Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes Without Drugs". Bryanna appears in the new vegan cooking DVD "Everyday Dish" with authors Julie Hasson and Dreena Burton. She is currently working on recipes and research for an exciting new book with David Lee, founder of the Fieldroast company in Seattle, WA. She is also working on a book on making homemade seitan in a number of ways.

Bryanna was born in California, but has resided in British Columbia, Canada for many years. She raised a family of four children, two foster sons, and also has two stepsons, and 9 grandchildren. She was a La Leche League leader (mother-to-mother breastfeeding support) for several years and taught cooking and baking at LLL International conferences in Chicago, Kansas City, Washington, DC and Anaheim, as well as serving as an Associate Editor for the LLL official cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole Family, still in print (NAL Books). She was also instrumental in opening the first vegetarian restaurant in Courtenay, BC.

Bryanna loves experimenting and learning. The main focus of her cooking is low-fat vegan cooking, particularly ethnic cooking. She is considered an expert at making tofu appealing to die-hard "soyaphobes", but in her books World Vegan Feast, 20 Minutes to Dinner, Nonna's Italian Kitchen, she has addressed the needs of vegans allergic to soy by providing non-soy alternatives to most of the soy-based recipes. With each book she learns more about the processes of cooking--how and why things work. Her great joy is sharing what she's learned with others, and she delights in helping vegans keep true to their heritage through "veganizing" their family and national recipes.

Bryanna has run a small branch of the Vancouver Is. Regional Library for 30 years and hopes to write a mystery novel someday with a vegan detective, combining two of her life interests. She also loves dancing, particularly Middle Eastern and Latin, and danced with the Melissae Dance Company of Denman Island, BC for 6 years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bryanna Clark Grogan kicks butt in the kitchen!, April 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: 20 Minutes to Dinner: Quick, Low-Fat, Low-Calorie, Vegetarian Meals (Paperback)

EXCELLENT! A must have. I have been vegan for a little over 7 months now and this is the first book I've found that is consistently good, fast, healthy,economical,and so delicious that even my non-vegan husband didn't pull a face when I presented him with the carrot-oat patties and brown gravy. Recipes for substitutes for egg, meat, fish, cream, and cheese are found throughout the text (the Melty Pizza Cheeze is mild and not disgusting like a lot of the faux vegan subs)as well as quick meal suggestions. I own a few other vegan recipe books and, although they have beautiful recipes, I find that they are not fast or simple enough for the everday- gotta -get- the- meal- on-while-kids-are-screaming- life that I lead. Some say the recipes take 30 minutes-I don't think that matters. If it is under 45 minutes then it is a quick meal. Gourmet vegan menus can take hours sometimes. This book will be the one with gravy splatters and juice stains. I highly reccommend it.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is the book I'd wish I'd had 10 years ago ..., November 17, 2002

By 

Søren Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20 Minutes to Dinner: Quick, Low-Fat, Low-Calorie, Vegetarian Meals (Paperback)

... when I became a vegan. Perhaps this book ought to have been entitled "30 minutes to dinner" instead - yet this shouldn't put any people off, and as the previous comment rightly states, the negative critics given by some people is completely unjust! Bryanna is - in my opinion - one of the most innovative vegan cooks, and I can recommend any of her books (I have them all myself). Not only is the book about quick vegan meals, they are also extremely low-fat, yet all are rich-tasting delicious meals - AND as also mentioned below - the ingredients are easily available in health food stores (even in Denmark where I live!) If you do not have a food processor, get one now, as this is one equipment that Bryanna uses very frequently in her books. The opening chapter is about cooking & shopping tips, and this is very useful for planning your meals, as well as making a lot of your basics yourself - it's cheaper and you're sure not to get any weird extra-ingredients! There's a chapter on speedy dips and spreads, lovely soups and chowders (check out the sea vegetable chowder!), inventive salads (the oriental noodle salad is sooo delicious!), pasta dishes, quick pizzas, extensive sandwich and all kinda stuffed breads ideas, grilled alternatives to meat (tofu & seitan), stirfries, ... the book is simply jampacked with ideas and variations so that you can use what you have at hand. It is a superb cookbook, and it's definitely recommended!

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passes New Orleans food test!, November 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 20 Minutes to Dinner: Quick, Low-Fat, Low-Calorie, Vegetarian Meals (Paperback)

I own four cookbooks by Bryanna Clark Grogan, and plan on buying the rest. They are all EXCELLENT. I was born and raised in New Orleans, so I think I can claim to know what good food tastes like. The negative reviews of this book just blow my mind. The only people who might not like Bryanna's recipes are folks who think a McDonald's drive through is gourmet eating. And Bryanna's recipe ingredients are not hard to find at all; I don't know what that reviewer is talking about. I live in the country, two hours drive from a major city, and most of the ingredients can be found in my local, very rural grocery store. For those in an urban environment, ANY health food store will have nutritional yeast flakes and kelp. Hello! Don't you have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes? Switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet means opening your mind and having some new experiences, food-wise and shopping-wise. That is part of the fun. Grogan's Chinese cookbook exposed me to Chinese mock meats, and now I get to have a lot of fun shopping in Chinese markets when I go to town. Live a little! And the mock feta isn't going to taste *exactly* like feta...do you expect a vegetarian Boca burger to taste *exactly* like a Big Mac? As for the rice issue, I use Quick Brown rice, available in ANY grocery store...cooks in FIVE MINUTES! Some of you really need to expand your shopping and cooking horizons.