Customer Reviews

Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way: Healthy Menus, Recipes, and Shopping Lists to Keep Everyone Happy at the Table

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been VERY pleased with the recipes I've tried from this book. The results have been delicious. Tasty is the most important thing but there are three other things I really like--the first is that the recipes are quick to prepare; the second is that the recipes do not rely on those expensive (and to my taste-awful) fake meats from the freezer section; and the third was a pleasant surprise in that these are downright CHEAP to prepare. Always a good thing.

I got this book to help prepare more meals with a vegetable and bean empahsis. I'm not a vegetarian but I do prepare a few meatless meals a week both for budget and health reasons (add to that I'm pregnant so I'm trying to add more vegetables into my diet). After going through the book I found quite a few recipes that sounded delicious and as an added bonus they are mostly quite simple to make.

Many of the recipes do call for using Tofu or other meat substitutes. That makes sense for the vegetarians as they do need to get protein from somewhere however those recipes didn't really appeal to me. It's not a big deal as I'm not using the meal plan I'm just trying to supplement our diet with some new recipes. There are also some recipes using beans that I don't particularly enjoy (such as lentils and lima beans) but I will either substitute other beans or use a different recipe.

Having grown up with three vegetarians I appreciate how easy this book is to use. It can be difficult cooking for vegetarians and this is a simple yet healthy meal plan that I think will really benefit vegetarian families. I also recommend it for the non-vegetarian trying to branch out in their eating habits. Beside the health benefits these recipes offer it can really help out your budget to cut out meat for a few meals!

I was a little apprehensive before seeing this book, since it is easy to buy cookbooks but hard to actually use them. Well, this one is easy to use!
Recipes organized by season made it easy to find something warm for a cold night or something light after a long hot day. The shopping lists for each week are well organized and the ingredients pretty easy to find in a mainstream grocery store. My family enjoyed all but one recipe of the first week, and that one was just because my husband doesn't like green peppers (not the books fault!)
It's so nice to find a vegetarian cookbook that works well for meal planning. We eat no meat or fish and were so pleasantly suprised by this great book.

I really like Leanne Ely and I had hoped "Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way" would be wonderful. Unfortunately I can't say that it is. We have cooked three weeks of meals now. Most of the recipes are just all right and two or three a week are awful. Leanne seems to have grabbed recipes at random, replaced the meat with tofu or black beans, and then called it vegetarian. Many of the recipes are basically flavorless while a few are overly spicy or sour. Some of the ingredients lists are off, too.

I do like cooking in season and I appreciate that Leanne includes seasonal vegetables. I also like that she uses a wide variety of vegetables that most Americans aren't exposed to.

Unfortunately I will not be using this book anymore. I can't afford to keep ordering pizza when yet another recipe fails.

Let me first say I have the original Saving Dinner and like it. It is very family friendly and doesn't spring haut cousine on kids who just want something 'normal.' My only complaint with it is it tends to be a little meat/protein-heavy for my taste. I thought this book would be great in combination with the original to get more veggies into our meals. The veggies are there, but are surprisingly bland. She can do italian spices or southwestern, but after that her spice cupboard is bare. The recipes have some odd combinations of foods, especially for a family. A beet, blue cheese and baby greens salad is not a natural fit for a 6 year old and neither is lima loaf. The recipes are overworked, with little harmony either texturally or between flavors, and they seem poorly adapted to vegetarianism. Swapping limas or lentils for the beef that used to be in the recipe with no further alteration just doeesn't cut it for me, no matter how much I like both beans in their place. I also don't believe the myth that vegetarians are starving for protein, or that protein has to be the center of most meals. Ms Ely seems to have a need to add protein to everything, even including the addition of tofu to tomato soup! The food guide pyramid and the science that backs it up recommended 2 to 3- servings of protein and 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies daily. I would have preferred more meals where veggies were in the starring role they deserve. There are some good recipes, but the menu plans which make the original book great just don't work here. There are too many oddballs to take on faith that the meals will be eaten and this ruins the time saving aspect of pre-written shopping lists and meal plans. Katzen's 'The Enchanted Broccoli Forest' is a far superior book for those who want more veggies or are living meat-free.

I'll start by saying I REALLY NEEDED this book to be good. Being a stressed out and over worked stay at home mom, meal planning is a way to make dinner easier. I became tired of staring into the cupboards and trying to figure out what to feed the family, and I also wanted to introduce more homemade meals and less pre-packaged and over processed foods.
Meal planning is a great concept because you get daily dinner menu's with recipes and weekly shopping lists for the grocery store. It takes the guess work out of what to cook. It's a no brainer, which I definitely find helpful for my hectic life. Meal planning books are a dime a dozen, but this is the only vegetarian one I can find.
Problem is the author is obviously NOT a vegetarian (I base that on the choices used as "meat substitutes" and their flavors), and VERY FAR from a CHEF. These recipes are gross. They have no seasonings, use of spices is absent. That leads to tasteless food. I got a lot of "Mom this is gross." and a sense of wasting money on my ingredients. Other recipes are stupid-ly easy, like cook pasta, add sauce, then add frozen veggies and bake. Or another one, make burritos. Like honestly, we don't need a book to make spaghetti or "taco night".

Skip this book, make a list with family favorite recipes, then compile your own weekly shopping lists. I have found an awesome Vegan cookbook, the Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and this time I checked it out from the library BEFORE buying it. I sat down, picked 7 recipes and wrote out the shopping list. Took me about half an hour to figure out but it's a real time saver in the long run.

Yes,its a big time investment, but if you're burnt out in the kitchen, meal planning is a sanity saver.

I have wanted for a long time to receive instruction on vegetarian cooking. I have been vegetarian since 1989. The food I would make for myself wouldn't always be so pleasing or appetizing to serve to others, and the diet revolved around the same few family friendly options. I have read other vegetarian cookbooks, however, I was daunted by the long lists of ingredients with items that I wouldn't normally buy (because we couldn't use them up before they spoil, or are too expensive), or couldn't find. I first heard about Leanne Ely from the book by the FlyLady, Martha Cilley (whose "Sink Reflections" I really enjoy). I am excited again about lunch and supper, new tastes to try. It is refreshing to be able to produce good food, pretty and bright and nutritious. I used to shop for whatever we were in the mood for and come home, and it would still seem like we really didn't have much to eat. Now, I have picked a week's worth of recipes, made a list of ingredients, and it is so refreshing to know that everything in the cart will add up to something: a good meal. The pleasure of preparing a colorful meal is dampening the urge to snack before meals, and the dishes are fulfilling. Junk food also pales when compared to fresh, healthy food on the plate, hand made.

This is the third of Leanne's books I've bought. While I haven't had time to try very many of the recipes in this particular book, this version of "Saving Dinner" follows the formula of the other two I have, "Saving Dinner" and "Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way." My family eats at home almost every night, but I'm not a very adventurous cook. So having someone tell me what to cook, what to buy, how to cook it, and what to serve with it, suits me great. On the whole, the recipes are easy and made with easily-found ingredients. Some are really wonderful, some we don't care for much, but most are good, satisfying meals. We just became vegetarians about 6 months ago, and so had to re-think our whole way of planning meals. This has been a God-send!

For a book targeted to busy moms, I was very disappointed by how complicated many of recipes were. When I get home from work, we need dinner on the table NOW. Furthermore, it appears that I would have to adjust the seasonings in many of the recipes in order to make the food more palatable. It is a good concept but quite a disappointment given how much better Ely's MenuMailer meals are.

I love these books. They are the most convenient, easy to use cookbooks I have ever run across. Each week, they give you a varying menu of dinners for 6 days. The first page for each week's section is a shopping list (YEAH - EASY). I take the book with me to the store, buy what I don't have and cook an easy to prepare meal each evening. My picky son usually likes the recipes, too. I own 3 of these cookbooks. Most of the recipes have been really good, although a very few just don't work. Anyway, these are great cookbooks. I recommend them to everyone.