Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm prepping for the new baby and I want some new ideas for fast, easy, meals for our crazy weeknights.

What are your favorite cookbooks that offer a nice collection of quick, easy, healthy meals? I really need meal ideas that can come together in under 30 minutes...

So far I am considering Vegan Express by Nava Atlas...Any other suggestions? Anyone try Vegan Express?

I'm in the same boat, and I'm super hopeful that Appetite for Reduction fulfills these requirements.

I got Vegan Express from the library once. I got a few ideas from it, but I think a lot of what made the meals fast was that she used storebought, faux products rather often. I get how that makes meal prep faster, but I'm too lazy to hunt down those kind of products.

I have Vegan Express. But I got it recently, so I've only made a few things. I don't remember there being lots of store bought products. Nothing like gardein. A couple recipes have optional vegan cheese. I think some recipes might call for converted brown rice, which isn't super easy to find. But what is easy to find these days is precooked brown rice. But there are whole chapters on beans and quick cooking grains like bulgur. And of course a pasta chapter.

Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food is pretty popular. I like it a lot. I think it relies a bit more on convenience products than Vegan Express, but there are still lots of recipes that use whole foods ingredients. I really like the red beans and quinoa, for instance. I also like that there are breakfast and lunch foods, which Vegan Express doesn't have.

They're both pretty cheap. I would get both!

yeah, it's been a while since i had the book. i could be completely remembering it wrong.

Go to your library and check out a number of books before you buy one. Nava Atlas also has 5-ingredient cookbooks that have some good ideas. You can always adjust recipes if you don't think they are healthy enough.

Yellow Rose Recipes.

Thanks for the suggestions...I don't mind using faux meats occasionally, but unless I can find it super cheap I won't buy it for a family of soon to be 6. Gardein would probably save my butt on busy weekends, but sheesh that stuff is expensive for the portion sizes. If I bought that for our family we couldn't afford vegetables;)

I think today will be my library day and I will try to get my hands on Vegan Express, YRR and anything else that looks promising. I need to get my butt in gear and come up with a big collect of super easy, super healthy, go to recipes--I have some good ones, but I'm starting to rely too heavily on them and thus we are in a bit of a rut...

I too hope Appetite for Reduction offers some easy recipes. I will need some "reduction" recipes after this baby. This book is coming out at the perfect time!

If you want super healthy, there's always the McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook (15 minutes or less),
http://www.amazon.com/Mcdougall-Quick-E ... 0452276969
(You can look inside the book)

and take a look at the SNAP - Simple, Nutritious & Affordable Plan recipes by nutritionist Jeff Novick on his FaceBook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=260255&id=177550385124

Click each photo, sometimes in the comments for the photo, for each recipe. He even has a dvd out of him and Sabrina Nelson's girls (She of VegSource.com) making up a bunch of those recipes.

http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Fast_Food.html

I have been using Vegan on the Cheap a lot during the week as most of the recipes (that I have made anyway) are both healthy and come together quickly. I use this book almost as much as I used vcon or vwav

Supermarket Vegan's recipes are really quick.

When I'm busy, I often turn to Sarah Kramer's books for speedy weeknight cooking: How it All Vegan, Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan. I find there are plenty of quick recipes in there. I have a lot of recipes I pick and choose that are speedy from other books but too numerous to mention.

Quick fix vegetarian. Really good, easy and quick recipes! It saves my life often as 4-5 times a week I work 14 hours/day...

Yes, how could I forget about this one. Robin Robertson, right. Awesome book! My nephew got it for me last Christmas and it's a really good one.

Another vote for The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook and Quick Fix Vegetarian. :-)

yes, Vegan on the Cheap! Staple in our house lately. Quick and cheap AND really tasty.

Definitely Quick Fix Vegetarian by Robin Robertson!
Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia Simpson &
Low Fat & Fast Pasta by Vegetarian Times

for fast and easy, I like the Students Go Vegan Cookbook

Vegan Vittles! Or any of Joanne Stepaniak's books.

30-Minute Vegan is pretty good. I make the pasta florentine all the time!

I like all of Donna Klein's cookbooks (especially Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen and Vegan Italiano) and probably use them more for weeknight meals than any others.

Supermarket Vegan or Vegan on the Cheap. All easy to find stuff, and they come together quick.

Appetite for Reduction's recipes are fast!

But also, this thread reminded me that I really dug Vegan Express when I was on a time crunch working on my portfolio. There's some good stuff in there!

This is the way to go if you want REALLY fast easy meals. We ordered Jeff Novick's Fast Food dvd from Veg Source and watched it over the weekend. The next night, my husband made a meal inspired by the dvd and it was good.

AFR's working for us to fill this niche!

I also think Eat Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton is particularly good for simple, fast meals.

Re: cheap fake meat, we have found soy curls to be a really good option. You can buy them in a huge package (they're dried, you rehydrate them yourself but it takes like 5 minutes) for not a whole heck of a lot of money and then just throw them in here and there for basically anything.

i LOVE the 30 minute vegan's taste of the east, it's by the same people who did 30 minute vegan. the only negative is that since it's an ethnic cookbook there are some ingredients that are specialty but most i already have on hand.

also how it all vegan by sara kramer and vegan a go go (which i always keep in my purse in case i need inspiration at the grocery store for things to buy)

the best thing i can do to make meals quick is pre-prep veggies during my weekend. basically i just chop and dice a bunch of veggies and try to find places to toss them in during my week day meal prep.