Kitchen in the Clouds: The Essential Vegan Guidebook [Paperback]

Karen Alexander (Author), Suzanne Wood (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

A comprehensive guide to restoring your health. Learn how to overcome cancer, heart disease, obesity and more! Contains everything you need to know about the why's and how's of vegan living. Over 200 animal free recipes for the family table.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

From the Author This book was a direct result of my work with people who had received terrible diagnoses from their physicians. Others who came had been struggling with weight all of their lives. And some were just plain tired of being sick and tired. The people who came to me still managed to believe that they had the power within themselves to heal. Their courage continues to sustain my work and amaze my heart.

Kitchen in the Clouds contains everything you need to know to begin to heal yourself- no matter what you are suffering from. There is always hope. The capacity to heal can only be extinguished by the mistaken belief that a diagnosis has more power than all the wisdom naturally contained within the body.

May this book serve you, and give hope where there has been despair, love where there has been emptiness, and healing where it is most needed.

From the Inside Flap

Can you create the healthy, vibrant, energetic body you've always wanted? Of course you can! But can you do it while eating happily! Now you can! Just look at the choices included in Kitchen in the Clouds: The Essential Vegan Guidebook. This book is perfect for vegetarians or vegans. It contains over 200 recipes that are Ornish and McDougall "legal". You can even adapt the recipes (if you must!) to feed those in your family who aren't ready to give up animal products. Although I think you'll find that they'll soon be very happy eating their way through Kitchen in the Clouds.

The recipes are very easy to follow and contain ingredients that are familiar and easy to find. Also included is a complete index that explains each ingredient and how to use it. The appendix alone is worth the price of the book, containing abundant information about how to cook the healthy way (even if you barely know what a stove is), where to find bulk buying opportunities, cooking times, sample menu plans, an amazing glossary, equivalents, fast food ideas, books, newsletters, websites and organizations that support a healthy body and healthy planet.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Windover Press (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885733348
• ISBN-13: 978-1885733344
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,783,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspirational cookbook & "how to" guide for eating vegan., October 22, 2001

By 

Jim Acee (Boise, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kitchen in the Clouds: The Essential Vegan Guidebook (Paperback)

I wish I had "Kitchen in the Clouds" five years ago when my wife was near death with ovarian cancer and on hospice. It was then that we started a vegan (no animal products) diet. We credit her continuing survival to switching to a holistic lifestyle, including vegan eating. But that was quite difficult. Being meat and potatoes eaters all of our lives, we were hopelessly confused as to how to select and prepare vegan foods. Over time, we found some folks to help us...even hiring some to teach us vegan cooking. Given our experience, I'd say that "Kitchen in the Clouds" is the perfect book for those needing guidance for creating a healthy diet. The book is easy to read and beautifully written...almost spiritual in its sensitivity to personal health, the environment, and the ethics of eating vegan. And, it is packed with 300 pages of helpful and interesting information, including over 200 practical and easy to prepare recipes for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and dessert. The narrative portion of the book includes chapters on the rationale of eating vegan, using diet to detoxify and heal, cooking with herbs, the misconceptions of fat, protein and calcium, the politics of agribusiness, nutritional information and much more. I think the 50 page appendix alone is worth the price of the book. Here you'll find menu plans, shopping checklists, a glossary of ingredients and how to use them, food safety and storage ideas, internet, mail order, and newsletter contacts, and cooking tips, times, spice use and equivalents explained. I give this book my highest recommendation for those venturing into the, sometimes perplexing, world of vegan cooking.

jaacee@mindspring

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, and I don't know why, May 3, 2002

By 

CompassRose (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kitchen in the Clouds: The Essential Vegan Guidebook (Paperback)

This is vegan food in the classic tradition: overly earnest, ascetically spiced, and aggressively promoting regularity.

If your problem with food has always been that it's just too interesting, I recommend living out of this cookbook for a while. A health-promoting, high-fibre diet of lentil stews and loaves, varied by stewed chickpeas and perhaps the odd chickpea burger, will quickly cure you. The height of culinary adventure, to Ms Alexander, means a portobello mushroom, or "including the turnip" in one of her many almost indistinguishable stewed things. And let's not even discuss her "treats," which include heavy wholegrain muffins and heavy wholegrain loaves, all of which seem to contain banana.

Healthy cooking is my thing; just about anything off my stove will be low-fat and high in fibre. And I like a banana as much as the next girl. However, there's no reason why "vegan" needs to mean this kind of earth-toned slop, interspersed, leave us not forget, with earnest essays about how improving one's diet improves one's soul. Granted, she's got rid of the high-fat truckloads of nuts and seeds and such that were typical of very early veg*n cooking, but other than that, we're still in the seventies here.

If you long to recapture the memory of barefoot days slaving over a hot stove amidst the scent of patchouli, this may be the cookbook for you. Otherwise, there are many, many better ones. Not a keeper.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If I had to own only one cookbook -- this would be it!, October 22, 2001

By 

Andi (Boise, ID USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kitchen in the Clouds: The Essential Vegan Guidebook (Paperback)

Kitchen in the Clouds is an exceptionally beautiful cookbook and informative resource guide on vegan living. Inviting to read, with beautiful artwork found throughout, it is simply a feast for the mind, body and soul. The author, Karen Alexander, not only provides over 200 delicious recipes full of flavor, but a new model for optimal health. It is a book that you will want to sit down and read, and re-read--her writing is eloquent and inspiring. It was a powerful reminder to me that I can consciously choose health through my every day eating choices.

Kitchen in the Clouds proves that vegan meals can be flavorful, appealing and satisfying--both my husband and six-year old son enjoy the recipes! Our family favorites include Perfect Pea Soup, Incredible Burritos, Pilgrim's Lentil Loaf, Baked Cauliflower and Chocolate Zucchini Brownies, to name a few. It's been great fun surprising our meat-eating friends with delicious meals they can't believe are vegan. It is quickly becoming the most used cookbook in my collection!

This book is a must have if you want to restore your personal health and experience a vitality you never thought possible--with a side benefit of healing the planet, too. I have many friends I have shared it with who have purchased their own personal copy. I highly recommend it!