Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes Hardcover – April 26, 2016

I've been reading Dana's blog for a year now, and I absolutely love how easy and simple her recipes are. This book does not disappoint! The pictures are amazing and it is filled with delicious-sounding recipes. It does contain a substantial number of drinks/smoothies (about 10% of the recipes), which I don't really care for- especially in the breakfast section. That being said, I'm sure others will enjoy them and the rest of the recipes more than make up for it. One other criticism is I have is that the picture of the food sometimes appears after the recipe and sometimes before, which can be off-putting if you're a*** about things like that. I will update this review with pictures as I cook recipes from the book.

Also, if you order the book and send a copy of the receipt to this email address: bundle@minimalistbaker.com
You get an additional 5 recipes in your inbox.

ETA: Made the Thai quinoa meatballs today. Yum!

I love this cookbook for so many reasons....
1. The recipes are delicious. I've never tried a recipe from minimalist baker that wasn't good and the recipes in this cookbook are no exception!
2. The meals are simple to make and the author Dana provides all the instruction you need to cook with confidence even if you are not very experienced in the kitchen.
3. Most of the recipes are very nutritious but at the same time do not sacrifice flavor. The few recipes that are not "healthy" is just because they are treats meant to be enjoyed every once in a while. The jumbo chocolate chip cookies come to mind :D (and you would never guess they were vegan)
4. Everything in this book is vegan and cruelty free! Every recipe is free of meat, dairy and eggs and most of the recipes are gluten free or can be extremely easily made gluten free. I think just about anyone could eat food out of this cookbook and be more than satisfied.
5. The photography of the food is beautiful! It's so fun to just flip through it. Even if i'm not going to choose a recipe to make, it's still fun to just go through the book and look at the pictures and think "wow that looks great"

All around this is a great cookbook and I am looking forward to the next one minimalist baker puts out!

I've been making recipes off of the MB blog for a few months, but held off on ordering this book since the price seemed a bit high. I finally caved since I have loved so many of the MB recipes I've made and wanted to support the blog -- and am glad I did!

So far, I've made the Butternut Squash, Kale, and Quinoa Bake; the Masala Chickpea Curry; the Banana Chocolate Pecan Muffins; and a few small other things. Everything has been amazing! I'm including a photo of the Banana muffins; they were so good that my husband (who is not a huge muffin fan) asked to have them sent along with him for breakfast each day.

As a chronically time-crunched person, I also appreciate that most of the recipes are simple and quick to make. A few take longer, but even though aren't too bad.

I also love that this book has a lot of entrees and that almost every recipe has a gorgeous, full-color photo. Photos always inspire me to cook and try out new things, and this book doesn't disappoint in that area. It's also a lovely hardback book.

I've already made quite a bit from this, and know that I will continue to get good use out of it in the years to come. That being said, I'm already anxious for a second volume. :-)

All of the recipes I've made so far have been excellent and as I paged through the book I found just about every recipe appealing. The one thing I have learned is that I prefer quite a bit more spice, so going forward will add at least 50% more to all recipes I make from the get go. I borrowed the book from my public library but have now purchased it - my only cookbook purchase of 2017 (so far)! This author (I love her website too) is now up there with Angela Liddon, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and Dreena Burton for me. I try to eat a mostly plant based diet and I prefer recipes that use reasonable amounts of oil like this author (as opposed to none!). I personally love gluten (!) so although the author offers ways to make certain recipes gluten free (and marks the ones that are at the top of the recipe, along with whether it is 1 bowl or pot, 10 ingredients or less, or 30 minutes or less), I just used regular oats, etc.

Although I've successfully made several dishes from her website, which brought me to this book, here's what I've made so far from this cookbook (it's been a bit too hot to cook so have been making a lot of smoothies and overnight oats lately):
- Ginger Colada Green Smoothie (I can't believe I've never added a piece of peeled ginger to a smoothie before - awesome! I did add the optional flax seeds and hemp hearts but sweetener wasn't needed. Great tip on keeping prewashed bags of spinach/kale in the freezer!)
- Mango Coconut Lassi (because I used frozen mango this was almost like soft serve - and a gorgeous yellow. I researched and found out you can freeze coconut milk in ice trays and then move the cubes to a freezer bag for a month because I really wanted to make this one but didn't have a plan on what to do with the rest of that can of coconut milk! The frozen cubes should be thawed and blended before using. (per America's Test Kitchen).
- Spiced Buckwheat Pancakes (Used buckwheat, spelt, and rolled oats. Excellent but will add more spices next time. Made exactly 8 pancakes like the recipe said it would. Good tip to freeze any extra pancakes.)
- Hearty Cocoa Black Bean Burgers (I used olive oil instead of the called for grape seed or avocado oil. The recipe makes 4 but those would have been too big so I made 8 and froze the extra per her instructions. I decided to follow her optional baking instructions after browning them "to dry/crisp them up a bit" - yum! Good easy sauce recommendation. Will add more spices next time - could hardly taste the chili powder.)
- Peanut Butter Pad Thai (This is the best Pad Thai I have ever made - because of her sauce. I didn't have "chili garlic sauce" so used Sriracha hot chili sauce instead and didn't change any of the other spices and it was absolutely delicious. I happened to have tamarind concentrate - Swad brand I found at a Tony's Finer Foods for another recipe that didn't make it into my regular dinner rotation- so was especially happy to find a new recipe that uses it that WILL make it into my regular dinner rotation!)

Absolutely gorgeous photographs accompany all of the recipes and the book is nicely bound with a hard cover. Truly a beautiful cookbook. Nutritional information is included in the back - a nice addition.