Customer Reviews

Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian: Easy Meatless Main Dishes Your Family Will Love! (Betty Crocker Books)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This review covers both "Betty Crocker Easy Everyday Vegetarian: Meatless Main Dishes You'll Love" (2006) and the older "Betty Crocker's Vegetarian Cooking: Easy Meatless Main Dishes Your Family Will Love" (1998)

I like the Betty Crocker vegetarian recipes because they use readily-available ingredients and are generally simple to make, yet are still creative and tasty. They're also great for households with both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, since many can be modified to accommodate both. The recipes are also likely to appeal to non-vegetarians.

Some people complain about the use of a lot of canned and frozen ingredients, but it's not that hard to substitute the equivalent from scratch if you want - cooking dried beans instead of using canned beans, fresh vegetables instead of frozen, etc. However, the point is for the recipes to be easy and approachable. It's not Moosewood or Vegetarian Times, but it doesn't try to be. I don't mind making my own tomato sauce or cooking dried beans - but sometimes I just want quick and easy.

The reason for mentioning both books in this review is that it isn't really clear from the titles or descriptions whether they're different books or different editions of the same book, so hopefully if you already have one of the books or are wondering about the difference, this information will be useful.

There's a large amount of overlap in recipes between the two books - about 35%, especially in the soups, sandwiches, pizzas, and casseroles. The older book has more salad and side-dish recipes, plus some muffin/scone recipes. The newer book has more appetizers, and a lot of recipes that use soy protein nuggets/patties/crumbles as meat substitutes--in fact, there's a whole section on soy. If you like to use that sort of product, the newer book might be more appealing, but since I don't, I find the older book has many more recipes in it that I'd use, and I give it a slight edge over the updated version.

1998 book chapters:
1. Hearty Soups, Stews and Chilies
2. Satisfying Sandwiches and Pizza
3. Meal-Sized Salads
4. Easy Skillet Meals
5. One-Dish Oven Meals
6. Simple Side Dishes and Breads

2006 book chapters:
1. snacks bites & nibbles
2. grains, risotto & pasta
3. gratins, casseroles & pot pies
4. burgers, wraps & pizzas
5. slow cooker
6. soups, stews & chilies
7. unbelievable! it's soy

I have bought a LOT of cookbooks over time and this is by far my favorite. The recipes are easy to follow, the ingredients can be found at any grocery store, the flavors are amazing, and although it is a vegetarian cookbook the recipes easily convert to meat entrees for your meat-loving guests. I have tried about 5 or 6 of the recipes (some twice!) and my husband and I have loved every one of them. I am thoroughly looking forward to trying the rest.

After reading The China Study by Colin Campbell, my husband and I decided to try a vegetarian diet. I have lost 60 pounds through Weight Watchers and eating mainly whole grains, fruit, vegetables, and legumes. I was thrilled to find this recipe book. It contains complete nutrition information at the end of each recipe. Some of the recipes have too many calories for my diet, but at least I know that and can modify or omit those recipes. Thanks Betty!

some of the recipes in this book are hit and miss. most tend to not have very many spices which makes the dishes quite plain. i stared this 5 stars by accident, and can't seem to change it. i would probably give it 3 stars now. i don't cook from this cookbook anymore since i've found much better cookbooks. most of the dishes turn out extremely plain.
i do like that it doesn't strictly focus on tofu like some vegetarin cookbooks tend to do.

Not the healthiest recipes but perhaps it's a beginning if you want to change your lifestyle and your families as well. I'm sure they are tasty recipes. These are also easy to fix. Once your family is used to these, introduce healthy recipes from other cookbooks.

I love Betty Crocker but I know there are better and healthier recipes out there.

I ordered this book because many of my vegetarian cookbooks were mostly appetizer or "light lunch" based and this one seemed to contain more "hearty" meals. I was right, it's wonderful! The recipes (though I haven't tried all that many yet) are varied and provide an actual meal as opposed to a "snack". My only complaint is that there aren't photos for every recipe (something I generally appreciate in a cookbook) but there are still several photos and descriptions of each recipe at the top of the page.

I purchased this cookbook because of the name "Betty Crocker" and was somewhat disappointed. It didn't offer as many "simple soup" receipes as I had hoped and there are many receipes that have a tad too many ingredients.In many of the receips I had to cut the portions in half. I wanted easier receipes. Beautiful pictures, but again, not enough simpler receipes.

I have made four recipes from this book so far and my sister, husband and I loved it all! Particularly the "Veggie Joes." This recipe is so simple and tasty. My sister is always asking, "Are you sure there's no meat in this?" That's right no meat! The recipes that are lower in fat are marked and nutritional info is provided for all of the recipes. Although there's no meat here, there is a lot of cheese, which I love, but it's not helpful if one is transitioning to veganism or a low fat diet.

This is the book on my extensive vegetarian cookbook shelf that is constantly pulled out and sitting in my kitchen. Easy, everyday ingredients- no searching for some weird ingredient in a specialized grocery store. Extremely tasty food! There is even a section for the slow cooker. My kids are always happy with the dinners I make from this book. If someone wanted a recommendation for a cookbook to help lessen or eliminate meat from their diet, this would be the first book I'd suggest. Totally worth the money!

Great book! Definitely a must buy for those of us that are not big on tofu or meat flavored replacements. You still get a handful of those recipes to try out but there are plenty without. I have been searching for a worth-while vegetarian cookbook for a long time. I am SO glad that I came across this one.