The Fiber for Life Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Good Health [Paperback]

Bryanna Clark Grogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002

Gourmet cuisine can also be fiber-rich thanks to the innovative recipes of Bryanna Clark Grogan. A comprehensive section on the role fiber plays in aiding digestive health and protecting against cancer and heart disease will give new direction to the food choices you make.

Meet the fiber superstars of plant-based foods and learn how to incorporate them in your daily life. Although vegetarian, meat eaters will not feel deprived with these delicious, satisfying meals. From Indian Potato and Pea Curry, Florentine Stuffed Baked Potatoes, or Zucchini Bisque to Italian Style Apple Tart or French Strawberry Pie, benefiting your health has never tasted so good!

Editorial Reviews

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, 20 Minutes to Dinner, The Almost No Fat Cookbook, and The Almost No Fat Holiday Cookbook. She lives with her husband Brian on idyllic Denman Island, off the coast of Vancouver.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Book Publishing Company (TN) (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570671346
• ISBN-13: 978-1570671340
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 7.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,547 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

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roughage Reigns, February 26, 2003

By 

Mimi G. Clark (Vegan Cooking Instructor, Fairfax Station, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fiber for Life Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Good Health (Paperback)

In The Fiber For Life Cookbook, acclaimed natural foods author
Bryanna Clark Grogan's challenge is to make us believe that "fiber" and "gourmet" can be used in the same sentence. With all of the attention focused on protein, fats, and carbohydrates today, fiber has been virtually ignored (except for Weight Watcher's, which made the connection between fiberous foods and weight loss many years ago). Simply put, when the outside layer of seeds, fruits, legumes, etc., is stripped away in a refining process, dietary fiber is also discarded. Grogran explains that dietary fiber is responsible for balancing alkalinity and acidity, and for detoxifying chemicals in the gastrointestinal system that can cause diseases such as cancer. Without fiber in our diet, cancer-producing toxins are produced in the gut by bacteria that flourish in a fiber-deficient system. When this occurs, Grogan points out that constipation may be a precursor to such life-threatening diseases as diverticulitis, large bowel cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, gallstones, hiatus hernia, varicose veins, obesity, diabetes, and hemorrhoids, many of which do not occur in those consuming a high fiber diet. A chart of "Fiber Superstars" lists 50 foods containing at least 4.5 grams of fiber per serving (a cup of kidney beans contains a whopping 19.4 grams of fiber!). This informative chart is now on my fridge. Another chart lists the fiber and calorie content of over 100 name-brand foods. Sample menus, with suggestions for increasing fiber, are listed for meals and snacks. Over 150 pages are devoted to recipes for breakfast, breads, appetizer/snacks, salads/dressings/sauces, soups, beans, vegetables, grains, and desserts. With a flair for international cuisine, Grogan circles the globe with her inventive Yemiser Wat (Ethiopian Spicy Lentils), Eggless Crepes, Pizza Dough with flax seeds, Pasta Alla Primavera, Vegetarian Feijoada (Brazilian Black Beans), Chiles Rellenos Casserole, Red Lentil Dal, French Strawberry Pie, and Italian-Style Apple Tart, to name but a few of the mouth-watering, high-fiber, vegan dishes. I highly recommend this book to anyone who doubts that the words "fiber" and "gourmet" can indeed be used in the same sentence.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gourmet fiber treats ..., November 17, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: The Fiber for Life Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Good Health (Paperback)

The benefits of fiber can hardly be argued - and Bryanna's new cookbook tells you how to incorporate fiber in your diet AND make it taste delicious too. In this book she focuses more on vegetables, beans and grains, to a larger extend than in her previous books which focused more on tofu, seitan, and other (low-fiber) meat subs - Bryanna gets inspired from cuisines from all over the world. The Italian dishes - taken from her fabulous "Nonna's Italian Kitchen" - are outstanding (such as her Pasta alla Primavera), even a humble-looking recipe like Irish mashed potatoes with kale is a gourmet meal. There are Chinese-style, Latin-American, Indian, and Middle-East-style dishes, ranging from soups (The Lentin Soup is so good!), salads and dinner entrees, even several cake recipes! This may not be as ground-breaking an effort as her truly outstanding vegan masterpieces "Nonna's Italian Kitchen" and "Authentic Chinese Cuisine" - but less can do! This is a completely respectable vegan cookbook that you will definitely enjoy for everyday use. Me, I'm already starting to look forward to Bryanna's next book ...

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good addition to your vegetarian cookbook library, January 10, 2007

By 

Marge (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fiber for Life Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for Good Health (Paperback)

This book is set up to be used - nicely laid out with recipes on one page only so you don't have to flip pages while you are cooking. I haven't tried all the recipes yet but the ones I have tried have been great. I especially liked the 30-Minute Vegetarian Chili and loved the Red Lentil Dal. I'm looking forward to trying the Beer Bread along with some of the soup recipes. The fact that the recipes in this book contain extra fiber is definitely a plus but I bought it because they taste so good!