Vegan Diner: Classic Comfort Food for the Body and Soul Paperback – March 8, 2011

I am absolutely loving "Vegan Diner," not only is this cookbook full of beautiful and enticing photos but its filled with great recipes too! i like how there isn't a million recipes in this book but rather what looks like tried and true favorites of the author (who seems like such a sweet and awesome person)! What I've made so far includes:

BREAKFAST:
Spelt Chai Pancakes - These pancakes were so yummy! They were perfectly spiced, light, and fluffy, just what a pancake should be! The recipe as is was great for two people as it made only 4 average sized pancakes rather than the stated 7, make a double batch if there's more people eating!
My Big Fat Greek Scramble - YUM! Exactly what I would expect if I was ordering this at a diner! I loved everything about this delicious scramble all of the herbs and spices and the wonderful olives.
Blueberry Loaf Cake with Lemon Glaze - This was great. It makes a moist and fluffy not to sweet cake, I skipped out on the glaze and subbed half the ap flour with ww and it was just fine.
Breakfast Potatoes with Peppers and Onions - Your basic home fries that are comforting for a nice weekend breakfast!
Creamy Sage Gravy - Hell yes! This is an excellent basic white gravy that is delicious! I used it to make the Breakfast Potato and Sausage skillet and it was heaven! I cut back on the pepper significantly though and am glad i did cuz 1 tsp seems excessive to me.
Herbed Breakfast Sausage Patties - So easy and so tasty! I knew these would be great as I've made her Italian Sausages many times before and loved them! I think I would add a bit more salt because sausages are salty in my mind but altogether these are awesome and so easy to prepare!
Crispy Banana-Cinnamon Waffles - Exactly what the title says, so yummy!

BREADS:
Sweet Cornbread - This cornbread rocked my socks off! The ingredients are so simple but turned out a tasty and perfect cornbread (even with subbing half the ap flour with ww). This is the first vegan cornbread to rival the cornbread of my childhood!
Chipotle Scallion Double Corn Bread - This is a tasty bread but I like the sweet one even more.
Garlic Dill Bread - This turned out great but had to much of a beer aftertaste for my palate, my partner who loves beer loved this bread.

SOUPS, SALADS, AND SIDES:
Quick and Hearty Chili - This is my new go-to chili! What can I say, this chili is super flavorful, hearty, and what I crave when I crave chili. Its also super simple and comes together quick, bonus!
Old Fashioned Tomato Soup - This was so delicious and creamy and so so easy.
Home-Style Veggie Noodle Soup - This is a great comforting noodle soup!
Sandwich Slaw - Basic and delicious on the Q Sandwiches.
Smokey Curls - AMAZING and addictive!
Sweetheart Fries - yum!

MAIN COURSES:
Very Sloppy Joes - These weren't my thing, maybe a bit too smokey? My partner really liked them though:)
Quinoa Burgers - My new favorite veggie burgers! These are so freaking good!
Cheesy Mac - Loved this creamy sauce!
Jambalaya - Spicy and comforting!
Veggies and Dumplings - So easy and so comforting!
Smokey Seitan Roast - Fantastic in the Q sandwiches!
Home Style Loaf - Love this recipe, again a new favorite! Great the next day for sandwiches.
Chicken Style Seitan Loaf - This is so delicious! Great in sandwiches or just sliced with some mashed potatoes and greens.

DESSERTS:
Soft and Chewy Choc Chip Cookies - Great easy recipe with less oil than other recipes.
Double Chocolate Strawberry Pie - Not my thing but I made it for my neighbors and they raved about it!
Chocolate Mint Truffle Pie - OMG so rich and amazing, not to mention easy!
Easy Blackberry Skillet Pie - I've only made this with a combo of frozen blueberry and raspberries and it was excellent especially with ice cream!
Lemon Diner Cheesecake - Out of this world good! It's so rich and is an excellent non-dairy replica of the original!
PB Chunk Ice Cream - So great! I love this recipe because you don't have to cook the ice cream mixture, it goes from the blender to the ice cream maker!

SAUCES AND INCIDENTALS:
Great Smokey Mountain Cheeze - Wow just wow! This is an amazing vegan cheese, so much better than any you can buy and easy to make too! Its creamy, smokey, rich, and sliceable making it such a great multipurpose cheese. Make this cheese and see for yourself, you won't be disappointed!
Creamy Sage and Pepper Gravy - I want to this on everything every time I make it!
Rich Brown Gravy - Oil free gravy?!!! So freaking good, another smoother absolutely everything with it gravy!
Two-Pepper Golden Gravy - This wasn't my favorite, I prefer the brown one I guess.
Rough Rider BBQ Sauce - Super sweet and thick, excellent on the Q sandwiches.

I can't wait to make more from this book, I have had nothing but delicious meals outta here!

I ordered and received this cookbook recently. My first impression is that the cover picture and other pictures in the book are beautiful. This book also has a good quality. Great publisher!

Now, I believe this is the first vegan cookbook by Julie Hasson. Good for you Julie! I tried several recipes already and everything I tried was delicious. Here are the list I tried:

THE BLUE PLATE SPECIAL (under Main Courses, pg 107) - With a name of a dish like that who doesn't want to try it? I know you have to make 3 things to make a blue plate special: Savory Cornbread Waffle, Smoky Potato Scramble, and Creamy Sage and Pepper Gravy but they are all delicious by itself and combined together. I actually made them on a Sunday night and pack them for lunch the next day. I gave my husband an instruction how to eat them: crispy waffle on the bottom, top with scramble and gravy. My husband called me from work after consuming this lunch and said that it was the best lunch that he had lately. We had the leftover for dinner, too! Yummy!

BREAKFAST BENEDICTS FLORENTINE (under Breakfast, pg. 48) - we had breakfast food for dinner or lunch. It was great and all the same. I didn't really make my own English Muffin or the veg sausage, shame on me (I used gimme lean, but the I made the Hollandaise sauce from this book. It is a wonderful meal!

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SWIRL BREAD (under Breads, pg. 57) - Now, this is a WINNER. Hazelnuts, chocolate, and cinnamon? Boy, the combinations will make your mouth water. It turned out to be a huge bread (pictured) and I gave half to my neighbor (now they owe me for the rest of their life) and they loved it. I just microwave for 30 seconds when eating the leftover bread and the chocolate will melt in the bread and in my mouth. It was best when it just came out of the oven. If you love bread, you got to try this! We had this bread for the whole week in the morning with coffee. Oooooooh, so good!

QUICK AND HEARTY CHILI (under Soups, Salads, and Sides, pg. 70) - yummy and quick! This is the kind of chili that is not chunky and will be good to put on a veggie dog or french fries (as chili fries). It can win a chili cook off. Really!

NOT YOUR MAMA'S POT ROAST WITH ROASTED VEGETABLES (under Main Courses, pg. 117) - It was a great seitan dish and was very easy. I use my crockpot and just left it to do it's own thing while I watch TV. How cool is that? Just be careful of the salt content, especially, if you use a salty vegetable stock. Or the dish will become too salty. I had to reduce the soy sauce and the marmite yeast paste.

BARBEQUED RIBZ (under Main Courses, pg. 112) - I know it is not summer yet and it's too cold to bbq outside but I just can't wait. This is my favorite. I used oven's broiler. It's not the same as grilling it but the taste is still great. I am loving it!

CHIPOTLE SCALLION DOUBLE CORNBREAD (under Breads, pg. 55) - I like the idea of Chipotle powder and scallions in this corn bread. It tastes good but the texture is a bit odd and gummy. I don't know what I did wrong or maybe I didn't bake it enough. Or maybe the kernel corns were not thawed enough. Really don't know. I may try it again. We had this with Quick and Hearty Chili.

We didn't try the desserts yet since I am trying to cut down on sugar but they look good. Julie is always creating great desserts so I don't doubt that they are all delicious.

I will try more recipes later and they all look so good. It was a great investment and I will use this cookbook as often as I can.