Reddit mentions: The best quick & easy cooking books

I have some recipes (being pretty new myself) and a few cookbook recommendations..

A few tips: Vegan cheeses will never taste like the real thing. but some are good and some taste like rubber. being new to this I feel my pallet is still fairly descent still. (won't last much longer though I don't think) I like Violife brand vegan cheeses best for sliced and shredded, along with their cream cheese Best out there. for Parmesan I like Follow your heart brand. Coffee creamer (I used to use half and half in my coffee that is the flavor I like) so the closest one to that flavor I found is So Delicious coconut coffee creamer. The Original flavor.

Butters: I like best the Melt (say good bye to butter) and then I can't believe it's not butter Vegan.

My favorite meat replacers are:

Gardein Ultimate beefless ground, I use it in everything to replace ground meat.

Gardein Chick'n Scallopini, is a great replacement for boneless skinless chicken breast.

Gardein Porkless bites. Serve over rice

Gardein Turk'y Cutlets and gravy are Amazingly wonderful a little mashed

Gardein Italian Sau' Sages are Amazing. I use them in anything that calls for Sausage. Works GREAT! even just in a bowl of pasta with a little sauce and some vegan cheese.

Simple Truth has a lot of great stuff too. (they are kroger or fred meyer brand) they have a Great burger patty. Very tasty, a breaded chicken patty that is really good and their chick'n tenders are better than gardein's.

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I have taken my favorite recipes and revamped them to vegan/vegetarian. they can be made either way.

https://www.copymethat.com/r/fubAxjB/ms-vegetarian-dairy-free-sloppy-joes-sau/

these are pretty easy for those lazy days

https://www.copymethat.com/r/tA5HqQn/ms-easy-black-bean-and-corn-quesadillas/

this is pretty easy and a nice comforting soup

https://www.copymethat.com/r/0WKwq1w/ms-easy-white-bean-thyme-pot-pies/

this one has a Ton of seasoning because I added the seasonings that would be in Spicy Italian sausage and didn't add the meat. it is really good though.

https://www.copymethat.com/r/u1xQ5vk/ms-spicy-lentil-soup/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/7qob7LA/ms-quick-and-easy-veganvegetarian-black-/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/s7HBHBq/ms-pan-seared-cauliflower-and-gravy/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/JAqzkGs/ms-vegan-irish-shepherds-pie/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/oe3CAFm/ms-vegan-ranch-dressing/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/cArRtzU/ms-vegetarian-goulash/

this can be a bit dry I am still working on this one

https://www.copymethat.com/r/k5td3wN/ms-best-ever-meatless-dairy-free-meatloa/

Okay these are yummy! I used sweet baby rays hot wing or buffalo sauce.

https://www.copymethat.com/r/Erb0RD8/baked-buffalo-potato-wedges/

https://www.copymethat.com/r/3d3zNp0/cheesy-vegan-breakfast-potato-casserole/

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My cookbook recommendations are

I have these

https://www.amazon.com/Fuss-Free-Vegan-Everyday-Favorites-Veganized/dp/0147530350/

this is also a really good one

https://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Vegan-Dinners-Plant-Based-Meals/dp/1624147216/

Everyone raves about Isa's cookbooks but unfortunately I don't have one yet. but plan on getting one soon

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902/

sorry for the HUGE post. Hope the information helps you.

Aight girl-

Foreign Cuisine-
How to Eataly - Oscar Farinetti - We made the most AMAZING brisket meatballs and a super simple yet completely delicious red sauce out of this book
Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan - Where the Cornish hens and gougeres came from.
Real Korean Cooking - Maangchi - Korean Fried Chicken. We've made them twice now because they're so good and can't wait to do more.
Mexican Everyday - Rick Bayless - Learned how to make perfect guac from this book and so far we've made these v tasty chorizo/mushroom/potato tacos. The recipe is SO cheap and SO voluminous that we had it as a taco filling, a quesadilla filling, and we're making a hash with it for brunch this morning.
Every Grain of Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop - We haven't tried anything out of here yet but there are sooooo many good-looking recipes in here.
Entice with Spice - Shubhra Ramineni - Likewise, haven't made anything out of here yet but looking forward to trying it all out soon.
Jack's Wife Freda - Dean & Maya Jankelowitz - This is actually a book from a restaurant that my fiance and I LOVED when we last visited NYC. It's got a lot of fusion recipes. Mediterranean/Israeli/South African/etc. Really unique flavors and also v comfort-food based. We're making rosewater waffles out of this book tomorrow!


Baking-
Rose's Baking Basics - Rose Levy Barenbaum - This book is incredible. She has tons and tons of step-by-step photos which is SUPER helpful. We made the dark chocolate caramel tart out of this book, but pretty much everything in here looks amazing.
Modern Baking - Donna Hay - I mean... There is some INSANELY decadent looking stuff in here. We haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I can't wait to!


Misc-
Cook Like a Pro - Ina Garten - It was really hard to pick just one Ina book but I liked most of the recipes in this one. She has this ridic recipe for a dijon mustard chicken that is INCREDIBLE. Also, this bitch knows how to cook some veggies. Big fan of this one.
The Food Lab - /u/j_kenji_lopez-alt - I just love this guy, tbh. We've made a really fantastic beef tenderloin out of this book and an incredible red wine sauce to go with it and of course, his famous roasted potatoes which are now my holy grail recipe for roasted potatoes. This book is like a science textbook only instead of boring stuff it's FOOD science, which is my favorite kind.


Those were all the ones we purchased ourselves (though technically Eataly was a gift BUT we love it and plan to use it often.) We have other cookbooks in our stable that we've received as gifts, which is what resulted in my fiance and I deciding we wanted to embark on this journey. We kept being given cookbooks and never doing anything with them. But man, do people love it when you send them pics of stuff you cooked out of a book they gave you. If people give you cookbooks, use them!! It will make their day to see it's being used. Here's what else is on our cookbook shelf-


The Forest Feast Gatherings - Erin Gleeson - This is a vegetarian book my fiance's mom gave us a few years ago for Christmas. We have a bunch of veggie friends (and friends with a lot of different allergies) so we turn to this book to have a few things that are edible by all of them when we have them over, as we often do. This book has a really delicious salad that has pomegranate seeds, pear, and hazelnut that is out of this world good. I also got my HG salad dressing from this book.
The Salad Bowl - Nicola Graimes - Another gift from my fiance's mom. Is she trying to tell us something?? Honestly haven't looked much into this book yet but it sure is pretty.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz - This was a gift from the assistant in my office. Everyone in my office knows me as the Harry Potter girl because I have a lightning bolt tattoo, haha. We haven't made anything out of this yet, but we probably will have some sort of epic feast with recipes from this book when GoT starts back up later this year.
Talk About Good - Louisiana Lafayette Junior League - My boss gave this to my fiance and I as part of an engagement gift. My fiance went to school in New Orleans. It's primarily New Orleansian/Cajun food. Haven't made anything out of it yet, but we are looking forward to it.

And that's what's on our cookbook shelf for now.

edit also omg thanks for the gold!! <3

Good for you for making that connection! It's not an easy thing to accept, but once you do, you're kinda stuck this way.

1. A non-vegan can live happily in a vegan household. My SO is non-vegan but, I do all the cooking for us so we have a vegan kitchen. I would be uncomfortable cooking and paying for animal products at this point and he knows better than to ask that of me. I would bet that you're a fantastic chef and will have no problem keeping your husband full and satisfied.
   
   
2. If you're comfortable using it then do so. But I warn you that it may desensitize you to eating/preparing animal products again or it'll make you feel disgusted. If possible, I would donate it to a local food bank or a friend.
   
   
3. Clearly, you care about your son so I don't think you will harm him. Keep a watchful eye and maybe contact your pediatrician for advice, there are plenty that are veg-friendly. I would also recommend following some vegan parent blogs.
   
   
4. Like all other weightloss or weight maintenance, if you're keeping an eye on your calories then you should be fine. You can easily keep carbs under 50%, but you may find that the volume of food you're consuming will increase quite a bit. Most people lose weight when going vegan so don't be surprised if that happens (just maybe don't add tahini to every meal like I did).
   
   
5. My best friend has IBS and it improved drastically after severely cutting down on her meat intake. I imagine that there will be an adjustment period (I had like 4 BMs a day and was cramping due to bloat for a couple weeks), but cutting out animal products could really help your IBS as well.. Only time will tell.
   
   
6. Yes, you can! I haven't frozen seitan for quite that long but it would be interesting to see how it goes. I imagine it would be fine though. Also this recipe for tofu nuggets looks really, really good. Cultured vegan cheeses will last quite a while and continually age in the fridge, Miyoko Schinner says they typically last about 100 days. But yes, you can freeze them if you don't use it in time.
   
   
7. Yess this is my jam right here. I read cookbooks like people read novels. It sounds like you would enjoy Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I absolutely love her book Isa Does It and I recommend it to everyone. Her other stuff is also wonderful (I'm sure amazon will show you the rest of her books in their recommendations)! Another one that I think you would enjoy is Miyoko Schinner's The Homemade Vegan Pantry and Artisan Vegan Cheese. After hearing her speak at VegFest it sounds like she has similar style: doing a lot of prep work beforehand so that doing the everyday meal making is simple. Lastly, I will recommend Plum Bistro's Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes. The restaurant is absolutely fantastic and while I haven't made anything in this book since I got it (because I am a little intimidated tbh), I have no doubt that you could get a lot of use from this with your culinary skills.
   
   I hope this was at least a tiny bit helpful! Good luck! :)

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

For starters: If husband's goal is getting the kids to become vegan, then forcing them to becoming vegan is the absolute wrong way to do it. I didn't like being forced to eat meat as a kid, so I can't imagine your kids are too pleased with this forced diet either. It's one thing to raise your children to eat what you eat--but if you radically change that mid-stream, that's pretty unfair to them. Also, vegan diets can be perfectly healthy for kids, but only if kids will actually eat the right variety of food. Kids who aren't, probably won't be getting the nutrition they need. Again, I'm a reverse case of this--had an iron deficiency as a kid, but I don't as an adult, and I think it's mostly because I eat a better diet as a vegetarian than as a kid who avoided meat in a meat-centric diet. Your kids may run into issues if they're avoiding key parts of a good vegan diet.

Anyway, on to the actual food advice:

Here's the book I recommended as the vegan starter cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/000-Vegan-Recipes/dp/0470085029 is the first vegan cookbook that my husband started out with. I'd absolutely recommend it as a place to start! Aside from the three main proteins that most Americans aren't too familiar eating (tofu, tempeh, and seitan) there aren't many unfamiliar ingredients. And there are TONS of recipes in the book without any of those three--it's got 1000, after all. There are tons of rice and noodle based recipes that non-vegan wouldn't bat an eye at.

This blog (http://ohsheglows.com) has some pretty great stuff, and she also has a cookbook out that we use pretty often. Our favorite cookbook at the moment is https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902 Both of these will get you into some more off-beat ingredients, though nothing too crazy. (The latter, for example, uses cashew creme--basically, cashews and water in a blender--in a number of recipes.)

Some foods are really easy to switch to vegan; some are not. Butter and milk are two relatively easy ones, unless you're a butter or milk lover. If you're just someone who bakes/cooks with butter (and not someone who relishes butter on bread), then it's easy to swap for vegan versions. Similarly, if milk is mostly for cereal or for eating with cookies (and not something you enjoy in and of itself), it's easy to switch to soy/almond/rice/etc. I'd suggest having both in the house for a while, and cutting down to just the vegan one as people adjust. And experiment with different milks--I prefer almond to soy, but maybe your kids would prefer soy to almond.

I'm not big on vegan yogurt yet, but others may not really mind the switch. What I'm going to recommend is that you stay FAR away from vegan cheese. There is no faster way, in my mind, to turn someone off to veganism than to give them vegan cheese. It is absolutely impossible to substitute cheese the way you can butter, milk, even ice cream. (And I used to LOVE dairy ice cream. Like, I was majorly snobby about ice cream. But I am perfectly happy with cashew-nut or coconut-based alternatives. Definitely recommend those over the soy based ones--the higher fat content makes a difference.)

Anyway, back to cheese--if your husband wants to get the fake cheese, that's fine, but it will send your kids screaming from the dinner table. The worst way to go vegan is to try to replicate standard favorites with non-animal products (i.e. pizza, mac n cheese, cheeseburgers). Meat and cheese replacements are okay for someone who's been vegan, but they are terrible tools for conversion. ;)

It sounds like you're into stir-fries--have you experimented with curries at all? They don't have to be spicy if that's a concern for you or for the kiddos. Chilis can also be a good meal that appeals to the (formerly)-omnivorous, and you can change up the ingredients so they don't get too boring. Sweet potato and black bean one week, tempeh and kidney beans the next. Frozen veggie burgers are "for emergencies only" vegan food, but homemade ones can be fantastic. (They don't stay together super well without eggs, but the look doesn't affect the taste. If the kids don't like food that "breaks," stick the patties in wraps instead of buns.) Lately, I'm really into using soaked walnuts in taco bowls (not the tortilla kind, more like rice and beans and salsa and guac)--basically you soak roughly chopped walnuts for a while, drain them, and toss with chili powder and cumin. No one's crazy enough to think it tastes like chicken, but it tastes good.

In the summer, I'd barely eat real meals if I wasn't living with my husband, who for some reason thinks that it's appropriate to have an actual dinner even when it's 90 degrees. What a weirdo ;) If your kids eat tofu and mixed veggies, it sounds like they're good eaters, so pump them full of fresh fruits and veggies while you can! A big salad along with corn on the cob can be a great summer meal. Pasta salads work well in summer also--just check the dressing's ingredients if using store-bought. (And, usually they're not vegan, so you're better off just using oil and vinegar + seasoning).

Where I can see having a harder time is when school starts. We bring leftovers to work, which isn't really possible for your kids unless they like their leftovers cold. I've noticed that bento-box style lunches seem all the rage (or is that so 2016?)...if you pack them some carrot sticks or pepper slices orbroccoli crowns, maybe with some hummus dip, a fruit or two, some nuts, some Triscuits--that seems like a perfectly fine lunch to me. Vegan sandwiches--at least, the kind you'd pack in a lunchbox--are harder to do, aside from peanut butter, but a hummus-lettuce-tomato slice-sprouts sandwich would work.

You obviously have more than enough individual suggestions already, so I'll just recommend three books instead in case you're a cookbook collector like me!

I'm also an omnivorous meat-eater but I'm happy to endorse these excellent, full-on vegan cookbooks by Isa Chandra Moskowitz:

Veganomicon. This is one of those comprehensive, encyclopedic things that could be—if you were a vegan—the only cookbook you own. It just covers everything, and I've never made anything from it that wasn't great. It's a manageable 336 pages, but they're dense; it's a book where every page has two or three recipes, not one where every dish gets a photo. Highly recommended.

Isa Does It. So this is like the sandwich-shop version of Veganomicon. Isa Does It (get it?) is vegan on easy-mode: here are sloppy joes and mac and cheese and, generally, all the casual vegan meals you could ever eat. Vegans over at /r/mealprepsundays should mass-produce burger patties from it. Not recommended quite as highly, but highly recommended for what it is.

Isa is just a really good cook, so her flavors and vegetable & grain choices have always been on point for me. My favorite thing about her writing, and what keeps me coming back to her as a meat-eater, is that she's never interested in creating meat substitutes. The vegetables are the point, after all, so she's making dishes where the vegetables are the showstopper. When she makes a burger it always feels just a little halfhearted compared to her rock-star vegetable dishes, which is why "Isa Does It" falls just short of "Veganomicon" for me. But it's still great.

For a really great chef who does somersaults to simulate meat dishes—burgers and chili and Thanksgiving turkey—it is well worth your while to pick up The Chicago Diner Cookbook by Jo Kaucher. I could tell stories about some large-scale orphan Thanksgivings I've helped to host, where we served a hundred people over two days with meat and vegan options flying everywhere. We practically scripted the vegetarian (vegan) half of these meals from the Diner cookbook. Here is what I know: a ton of starving Chicago artists of varying omnivore, vegetarian and vegan status absolutely destroyed Jo Kaucher's tofurkey year after year after year, while my SO's actual-turkey, which is damned fucking good, always took second place and became leftovers. Shit, I prefer Jo's tofurkey to real turkey and I'm the kind of guy who makes laap from scratch at home, which means I'll spend an hour mincing intestines on a cutting board that you wet with pig blood while you chop. That is, I don't go out of my way for tofu and still I adore Jo's tofurkey.

Anyway, I hope those are fun suggestions that might be useful. :)

I've found the biggest reasons people quit veganism after deciding that it's the right thing to do is:

1. Not knowing what to eat or how to prepare it
   
2. Losing motivation
   
   I think that #1 is most important to nail down, because if you're already convinced that veganism is the right thing to do, you shouldn't have much problem sticking with it unless you run into food-related problems. This video covers just about everything you need to know about vegan food. Basically:
   
   

• Eat enough calories
  
• Have a few go-to recipes for each meal
  
• Use happycow.net to find vegan-friendly restaurants (virtually everything at Asian restaurants can easily be veganized)
  
• B12!
  
  Eating vegan won't feel hard or restricting at all if you know how, and what to cook. Just like non-vegan food, vegan food can taste disgusting or flat-out amazing. Don't be discouraged if the first vegan food you make turns out terribly, because it probably will. Figure out what you didn't like about what you made, and try to improve it for next time. Vegan cooking can be very different, and it will probably take getting used to.
  
  If you're willing to buy a cookbook, But I Could Never Go Vegan! should be perfect. It's recipes are split up based on common excuses or worries people have when it comes to vegan cooking ("But I love sea food!", "What about cheese?", "Why does vegan food need to be so healthy!", etc). Thug Kitchen also has a lot of great, and healthy, recipes. They have a trailer if you're interested in seeing the, uh, "tone" of the book. Lastly, there's Isa Does It. I'd say her recipes are a bit fancier and take a little more effort to prepare, but if you're willing to learn she'll teach you everything from what to stock your pantry with to how to the different ways to chop tempeh. There shouldn't be any problem following anything in any of these books if you're willing to read the directions.
  
  I don't personally watch a lot of vegan cooking channels on youtube, but it might be worth checking out TheVeganZombie, Peaceful Cuisine for asian food, and the channels here.
  
  On staying motivated, I think it's pretty much required to constantly be reminded by why you want to be vegan in the first place. Regularly visit vegan communities like here, watch vegan, environmental, or animal rights-related documentaries like cowspiracy, earthlings, or Forks Over Knives, subscribe to vegan youtube channels like Bite Size Vegan or The Vegan Activist. It takes a lot more willpower than most people have to stay vegan in a community where everyone around you hasn't given the ethics or environmental aspects of meat production much thought. Worst of all, they might even view you as... weird... for even bothering. Just try to keep in mind the reasons other people get defensive, or even hostile when bringing up veganism, stay calm, and all will be well.
  
  I wish you the best of luck, hopefully you found some of this wall of text useful :)
  
  
  

I've only seen one part (which I thought was sort of bullshit) but I've heard it's for the most part a good advocate for a plant-based diet. Have you seen either Cowspiracy or Earthlings? The former covers the environmental impacts of the livestock industry, and the latter covers the ethics. I would whole-heartedly recommend both, with a warning attached to Earthlings because it can be genuinely shocking and/or traumatizing to watch. Cowspiracy can be found on Netflix, and Earthlings is free to watch here. If you want some ideas for how to execute the actual transition, I found this page to be a useful resource. IMO a whole foods diet is the way to go, it's made me feel so much better physically. But always remember there's plenty of junk food like chips, frozen veggie nuggets, and ice cream you can buy at the store if you want to have an unhealthy day. If you want a crap-ton of fancier, more complex recipes and good guides on substitutes and such, try a cookbook like this one or this one. Both are great resources, and if you want to make the switch I would definitely recommend getting one of them. Lastly, check out www.happycow.net! You can find what restaurants in your area are either fully vegan or have vegan options. Makes it a lot easier to eat out with friends and such. Anyway, hope I haven't rambled on too long or overwhelmed you with information! Hopefully some of that helps you come to a decision on this. It really is up to you, but like I said, make sure to watch those documentaries! And don't shy away from researching them afterwards to learn more about how destructive the livestock industry is.

There are plenty of good things you could make that aren't hard. Think of something he would like, find a highly rated recipe that you can read through and understand. If you can understand it, (know what the words are and have the tools listed) you can make it.

Practice the recipe at least once. Maybe it will go well and you won't have a problem. For example, it is really easy to make pasta. You put it in boiling water and set a timer. Crock pot/slow cooker recipes are usually really easy but can be really tasty.

If it doesn't come out well, practice again. If you really can't do it, order something for take out at a nice restaurant.

I would recommend America's Test Kitchen or Cook's Illustrated recipes. They are tested to be fool-proof. If you can find a book of "easy", "quick" or "simple" recipes from either of these, you should be all set.

Other signs of easy, successful recipes or meal plans is to use good, in-season vegetables. For example, you could make fajitas. If you can cook the meat well (maybe in a crock pot) all you need to add is a sauce from the store, and a bunch of good vegetables, cheese, that sort of thing. Not a lot of cooking involved but one of my favorite meals.

Just make it ahead of time (secretly) to make sure it will come out ok. Cooking is not hard.

Edit: Lobster is easy to overcook. That might be something for takeout if you specifically/only want lobster.

I frequent NoMeatAthlete.com the most probably. Matt has great running tips, recipes, etc. This simple recipe makes almonds x1000 times better. I tend to get tired of things pretty quickly too though, so I change up snacks often. And lazily, I also stack up on Clif bars whenever they go on sale and always have one in a desk drawer, glove box, back pocket.

I suck at cooking, so another favorite site is The Vegan Stoner. I'm not a stoner myself, but these recipes are generally very easy, although not always the healthiest. I have their cookbook and it is awesome.

And because I now feel a little guilty about suggesting couch food, two of the best resources that really inspired me were Rich Roll's podcast and book, and Brendan Brazier's Thrive Forward video series. The book really kickstarted everything for me, the podcast kept me interested, and the video series kept me informed while I trained. My only suggestion if you've never listened to Rich's podcast before is to check the show notes and check out episodes that you'll find interesting. As of late he's also gotten into a lot of spiritual and entrepreneurial guests, and those don't keep my interest as much as the veg athletes and physicians.

Best of luck! I went from couch slob to my April marathon in 10 months and am about to start training for a 50mi trail race. It's crazy what we're capable of with plants!

When I became vegan, I frequented the frozen a bit too much.

I love to cook but found myself in completely new territory when I went vegan; home coooking was intimidating (thus making frozen an easy transition choice).

I got a freq books and learned some of the pantry and meal prep basics and I've been on a food journey since! Here are two of my favorites (easy, healthy, delish, and all meals covered):

• Isa Does It - Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week
  
• Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking
  
  
  Edit: awesome choice and welcome! 🙃😊

I love cookbooks, and have probably fifty in my collection.

The ones I keep going back to are:

• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi - He's an Israeli-born chef in London, and his recipes are a great combination of creative, relatively easy, and unique. He has a knack for combining unusual flavors, and I've never disliked anything I've cooked from him. If you're relatively green, don't get Nopi (too advanced). His other three or four books are all great.
  
  
• Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless. Bayless has a PBS show and owns several restaurants in Chicago. He's a great chef and his recipes are accessible and fun.
  
  
• The Food Lab by u/J_Kenji_Lopez-Alt. I was skeptical at first, since Lopez-Alt's website is so comprehensive, but the book is absolutely beautiful and contains both recipes and explanations of technique and science.
  
  
• Modernist Cooking at Home - It's expensive and many of the recipes are challenging and/or require special equipment, but the book is truly groundbreaking and never fails to stoke my creativity. It's the home version of his 6-volume tome which many think is one of the most innovative cookbooks in the last 20 years.

Oh yeah, I used to be vegan...I am into it.

Taste: It is very bland by itself, but no one that I know eats it straight. It can be made into many tasty things. It is in a lot of faux meats. It is a lot like tofu in that it takes up the flavor of things around it. I think that Isa Chandra is like... the wheat gluten goddess. All of her recipes involving wheat gluten that I've made I've been a fan of. I'm a big fan of her "Chickpea Cutlet" recipe ([recipe here] (http://www.theppk.com/2010/11/doublebatch-chickpea-cutlets/)).

Check out [Veganomicon] (http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-The-Ultimate-Vegan-Cookbook/dp/156924264X) and [Isa Does It!] (http://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427495938&sr=1-1&keywords=isa+does+it). Both of those books have winning recipes that use wheat gluten as an ingredient.

Expense: Varies wildly. If you find it at a hippie woo-woo place in an individually sealed package (e.g., Bob's Red Mill), the markup can be insane. On the other hand, you can get it cheaply per pound if you can find it in a bulk bin at a place like Whole Foods.

You can get it at an extra "discount" if you find it in a bulk bin but label it as some kind of flour. ;)

My Experience: I made some dang tasty recipes with the stuff, but eventually, I stopped eating it because I personally find that I don't tolerate it as well (it just made me gassy). But more importantly, the recipes I like it best in have a higher protein to carb ratio than I'd prefer during a cut...and when I'm bulking, I'm too busy filling my face with all the things so I usually forget about wheat gluten.

Hope this helps!

I am in a unique-ish spot. I race pretty competitively, but also don't get to race all that much.

1. I don't do much off bike. I am an endurance racer, so weight training is less important than sprinters. And I hate working weights. I do my strength training with hill repeats and over geared jumps.
   
   
2. Eating prior is just general try to eat good. I stick to my regular meal plans. I plan my long hard work outs at least an hour after a meal. Having general good eating is essential. Also on the ride, anything lasting more than ~45 minutes you need on bike food. Some classics are bananas, clif bars, peanut butter crackers, etc. This book is really awesome, if you like to cook. http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-On-Go/dp/1937715000 Post ride its all about quick protein, and then more good sustainable food. I go with a big spoonful of peanut butter. Then shower, then a protein heavy meal. Timing is pretty important. You need that shower, and first shot of protein pretty quick after the workout
   
   
3. Really hard to give advice without knowing your goals. What are you trying to get out of your on bike work outs?

Hey! Here are some tips i wished somebody told me when i started cooking for myself:

• prepare all your ingredients before you start cooking (chop veggies, measure rice, keep seasoning nearby). This way, your food won't burn while you're cutting vegetables.
  
  
• begin with oil and chopped onion, cook on medium heat until translucent. Add chopped garlic when the onion is ready (seriously, these two ingredients will add so much flavour). Don't cook both simultaneously, the garlic will burn.
  
  
• Add whatever vegetables you like (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, ...). Keep in mind that some of those veggies need to cook longer than others - you want to add the carrots first and the spinach last :)
  
  
• Season! Add curry or any other spices you like and add a can of coconut milk. Or you can add soy sauce, sesame oil, veggie broth and peanut butter. Or a can of diced tomatoes and broth.
  
  
• let simmer until it has the thickness you like, add more water/broth if it's too thick.
  
  
• eat with rice, pasta, pita bread or whatever you want
  
  Additional tips:
  
  
• you can add chickpeas, beans and lentils (if you're not buying canned stuff, check carefully how long you have to soak and cook them)
  
  
• for cooking times, check the packaging or the internet
  
  
• maybe invest in a nice book? There are many vegan cook books for peolpe who want easy, fast dinners. Example
  
  
• there's lots of resources out there - blogs, youtube channels, subreddits, books, all dedicated to easy vegan food. I'm sure if you browse the web you'll find some you like.
  
  
  Hope this helps :)

I think she and I might be related haha. Here's a few things I found that I would like seeing how I am quite interested in much of the things you've listed, and I just had a baby.

• Map of the Heavens
  
  
• Forget to the moon and back. Try this.
  
  
• If this is her type of humor, this cookbook.
  
  
• The Art of Blending spice kit and book looks fun and interesting.
  
  
• Here is a onesie that passes down her love of scientific minds.
  
  
• A galaxy diaper bag that I now officially want haha.
  
  
• This neat looking travel journal.
  
  
• Baby galaxy leggings!
  
  
• kind of like a family tree, but this is a personalized family constellation art piece.
  
  Well, I think I should stop. Our interests are so similar, I have to restrain myself from spending money o these things I've found. Good luck, and congratulations on the upcoming addition!

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak is a great book with tonnes of clever ideas and substitution advice, all of her books are pretty great. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen would be a great one as well, same with Bryant Terry's Afro Vegan. If you are looking for something easy and cutesy, the vegan stoner cookbook is a good bet too.

I saw Pizza Dough in B&N and it looks interesting. Shows how to make different pizzas from a few different dough recipes. Lots of pictures of pizza. Plays directly toward his desire for pizza. Also, even mediocre homemade pizza with Prego branded sauce is better than Pizza Hut, let alone Papa John's.

I find Rachel Ray terribly boring, but her Week in a Day book has a enormous quantity of recipes that can be pushed and modified in different directions and it's filled with a ton of pictures. I think her books are best for getting ideas on other recipes. I wouldn't make too many of her recipes straight, because she tends to add a ton of calories to her meals and I just couldn't eat that much.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz has a bunch of Vegan books. She has an irreverent style I like that doesn't resort to the multitudes of F-bombs that Thug Kitchen has to throw out there. It's vegan, so you'll have to be OK with that, but otherwise, she has plenty of good looking recipes. Her latest, Isa Does It looks like a good place to start.

1. I got this cookbook as a gift for xmas and I'm obsessed. You don't need fancy ingredients and everything is delicious. You could get him this, or another cookbook if you wish, and the ingredients to whatever recipe catches your eye & have a romantic night in cooking it together!
   
2. I don't have dogs but I've heard this toy is awesome
   
3. cast iron is always a good gift for people that like to cook. He'll have it forever.
   
   Hope this helps, thanks for the contest!
   

There are several cookbooks/websites that break recipes down into what to do, how to do it, and why it works. 'Cooks Illustrated - The Best 30-minute recipe' covers a lot of ground and is a simple place to start: You can't get too fussy if you're only cooking for a half hour. They've got piles of other specific books too - best international, slow cooker, light, vegetarian, etc.

'The Food Lab - Better Home Cooking through Science' and the 'Serious Eats' website by Kenji Alt-Lopez are a lot of fun. He'll take a dish and make it the way you've always heard it should be made, then break down what works, what doesn't, why it doesn't, and what's the best way to make whatever it is. The bottom line recipe is there if you want to skip the process.

The Food Wishes series on YouTube, by Chef John, is really excellent at walking you through a recipe in a light, relaxed way. He captures his mistakes and leaves them in the videos too, to remind you that some mistakes don't matter, and some can be worked around.

Anyways, it's a process. Find a few recipes, make them, expand your repertoire at your own pace. You're going to be eating for a long time, and you don't need to know how to do everything at once. Experiment with what intrigues you, and if it doesn't work out, there's always pizza!

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+food+lab&sprefix=The+foo%2Cstripbooks%2C148&crid=6UCYFX6JO2PX


https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981

https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes

• How are the knives she's using now? New nice sharp knives are always good, or even just a nice big chef's knife. Go to a kitchen stuff store and ask for advice.
  
• I <3 my immersion blender. Soups and sauces for everyone!
  
• a slow-cooker (aka crockpot) can open up new possibilities
  
• take a look at what cookbooks she has and look online for popular ones she doesn't have already. I'm a big fan of this one
  
  Branching out, while ago my Dad started making "coupons" for my Mom for Christmas that said "good for one fancy romantic dinner at [fancy restaurant X]". Also he made coupons that basically said he'd take care of the vacuuming once a week, so if there's a chore she hates doing that you're aware of maybe you could consider taking it over for her?
  
  Best wishes :)

Some avocados, some minced garlic (I often like to roast it first to mellow it out a bit), lime juice (usually just one), salt to taste, cilantro (if everyone eating it is a fan), and occasionally some chopped onions and tomatoes, but I'll usually leave them out.

But yeah, traditionally I think it's really just avocado, garlic, salt, lime juice, and cilantro (coriander in NZ?).

And also, I didn't mean to say anything bad about your guac, I'm sure it's tasty - I merely just wanted to point out that it's not authentic. :)

edit: also, if you really are interested in pretty authentic Mexican food, Rick Bayless has a couple of really good cook books. I have both of these and they are great. The Mexican Everyday book is especially awesome for tasty, quick, weekday-friendly options. Although I don't know how easy/hard it might be to obtain some of the weirder ingredients in NZ...

Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen Cookbook: 100 + Great Recipes with Foolproof Instructions https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618711759/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_gQ8rDbP9ER0QA

Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517577003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XR8rDbBSNYVP2

Home Management: Plain and Simple https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998610100/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qT8rDb6FDZZQA

Home-Ec 101: Skills for Everyday Living https://www.amazon.com/dp/1440308535/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4V8rDb7GT21TK

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition-Revised and Updated: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized https://www.amazon.com/dp/1592335128/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_6W8rDb6ZKRW49


Don’t be afraid to shop! (Within reason) It will contribute so much to your comfort and relaxation/mental health to have a nice space set up for you both.

I recommend Ikea for most things, Target, and Ross has a good “home stuff” section.

Try Woks of Life, maybe.

They have an ingredients glossary which should help you work out what's in all the mysterious jars and what unfamiliar vegetables are.

I also highly recommend Fuchsia Dunlop's book Every Grain of Rice. I'm British and picked it up out of curiosity knowing next-to-nothing about traditional Chinese cooking, and that book has pretty much become my bible. It's great at explaining unfamiliar ingredients and tools, gives advice on how to treat everything, and of course the recipes are great. My girlfriend's parents are from Hong Kong, and were very impressed with the food I cooked for them from it. Major brownie points there. :)

I'm a huge proponent of intensity and variation. So, how can we do that with what you have?

The dumbbells certainly have some application. The first thing that comes to mind is dumbbell burpees.

Medicine balls can be used for wall-ball, situp throws, or throwing the ball for distance with a standing thrust (couldn't find video). You can also do pushups with your toes on the medicine ball for a little more difficulty.

Pullup bar: pullups/chinups, toes-to-bar (or knees to elbows if you can't do that), or burpee pullups.

Also include gymnastics- pushups, handstands, L-sits, etc. Since you have no barbells or heavy dumbbells, gymnastics are how you're going to get strong. Beast Skills is a great site for gymnastics.

Running- intervals and sprints are great. 50m will train that initial explosion, but lacks in sustaining that speed. I'm a fan of 800m and 400m repeats- because no one has ever called them "easy". If you're stuck with 50m, include suicides, backwards/forwards drills, and long jumps/lunges for 50m.

You can program these as circuits (3 rounds of 10 dumbbell burpees, 10 situp throws, 10 pullups) or as volume work (50 dumbbell burpees, 50 situp throws, 50 pullups). You goal should be intensity, and you should be truly wiped out at every workout (3-4 days a week).

Now, the swiss ball....I don't have anything for that. You're not really going to get much out of it.

Main goal of cutting fat? You have to do that in the kitchen, not the gym. The gym is for your muscles, the kitchen is where you'll lose the fat. At 5'9", I wouldn't consider you fat at 145lbs at all, unless you see yourself as "skinny fat". Heavy weights (squat/deadlift/press) are really the way to fix that, but gymnastics will have a great impact as well. For the kitchen: reduce the breads/grains you're eating, cut as much sugar as you can stand, and increase the amount of green vegetables, fruits, and fresh lean meats in your fridge. Chicken/turkey/fish should be mainstays. Snacks should include some fruit and unsalted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans). Drink a TON of water, until you're peeing nearly clear every time. Eat a balanced meal: a fist-sized portion of meat, fill the rest of the plate with vegetables, some fats (avocado, nuts) and water. I like milk for recovery from workouts. If you want more good info on diet, check out the Paleo Diet for Athletes or the Zone Diet.

Most people don't have the willpower to sustain intense workouts and strict diets. Prove the majority wrong and you'll be extremely happy with your results.

Hit it!

Our starter meal was shredded chicken, it got us hooked on the instant pot. It makes 6-8 meals worth of shredded meat in mayyyyybe an hour total. It refrigerates really well, can be used for tacos or plates, and tastes delicious.

• 2-3lbs chicken thighs or breasts. I think thighs taste best (and are definitely cheapest), but some people don't like the texture
  
• 1 16oz jar salsa verde (aka "green salsa")
  
• Salt, pepper
  
• 25 minutes on high
  
• Natural release
  
  When it's done, use two forks to pull the meat apart and shred it. If you don't have taco shells handy, it pairs well with a can of black beans, lentils, or any green vegetable.
  
  For books, I would recommend Instant Pot Obsesssion to start, and Dinner in an Instant once you're a little used to it. The Garlicky Pork Shoulder recipe in Dinner in an Instant is amazing and very easy.

>Tofu is gross

Yes, it is. It is an acquired taste, and even then you have to do it right. It is still probably my least favorite protein as a vegetarian. What is less gross are the latest fake meats like http://beyondmeat.com/, but if you do eat meat, I'm not sure there is a compelling reason for those. For that reason, I'd suggest going with

http://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-It-Amazingly-Delicious/dp/0316221902/

Everything in that will be good. Add meat to the ones you want to, but they're all pretty good in their original vegan state. It is cheap and healthy, but you must have the "well-stocked pantry". So if you do get the book, pop the bucks for Mirin, peanut oil, olive oil, sesame oil, tamari, etc.

If you have a slow cooker and want to do Indian, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572841303/ has a lot of great recipes too. It also has non slow-cooker recipes, but if I recall correctly they were more often ones involving a slow cooker.

I'm adding your item to my wishlist, that's brilliant!

I would love this. It looks like it has some really great recipes, but I have so many other things to buy I just can't justify it.

Show this gift some love.

Thanks for the contest! :)

Lol! WELL! I don't have a book, but there's a blog I like to read from time to time when I need good Lent options! And I think it's adorable and hilarious.

http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/


OH!!
He has a cookbook ! lol

what colors are they?

reddish brown? bright red? bright orange? bright green? dark green? you can also ask the proprietors. as long as you don't come off as a spy, i'm sure they'd be happy to tell you what's in it.

also, i highly recommend this cookbook for its salsa section, and everything else too. great beginner/intro cookbook!!!

If you don't want to read much, skip below to #7 and the helpful resources.

Food ("nutrition") sets your performance ("fitness") ceiling. It will define what you can achieve in the gym. If you want better performance, you'll have to eat better first. Period.

1. Forget calories. They're a giant red herring. In response to your question, others have brought up "calories in, calories out." This is such an oversimplification that's it's basically wrong. 500 doughnut calories =\= 500 sweet potato calories, NOT EVEN CLOSE. The sugar and other refined carbohydrates in a doughnut will break down to glucose very quickly, then spike your blood sugar. Next, insulin response rushes in and causes a few things, the blood sugar gets pulled into cells for use but also gets pulled into fat stores. Insulin promotes development of fat tissue. To simplify: some of the 500 doughnut calories end up used for energy very quickly after you eat it, the rest ends up stored as fat, but you'll absorb all 500 one way or another. Sweet potatoes don't spike your blood sugar because they're digested very slowly. You get a slow steady stream of carbohydrates (blood sugar) to use all day, especially during that workout. So long, in fact that you'll likely end up flushing some of the carbs 500 carbs in that sweet potato down the toilet because it won't stay in your body long enough to fully digest it (thank you dietary fiber.) To simplify, you'll absorb some and what you do absorb, you'll use to your benefit to crush WODs.
   
   
2. Focus instead on macronutrients (protein, carbs, fats). Which brings me to my next point...
   
   
3. You're going to have to "track." That means you're going to have to get a scale and weigh your food as you plate it for your meal.
   
   
4. Meal prep. Get a plan together. Then cook up some food and weigh off into containers. This will help stay on track. This is important because:
   
   
5. It takes about 2 weeks for all the hormonal changes to happen to your body when your start to eat better. That means no cheat meals. Cheat meals are for when you've reached your goals. They bog down your progress. Stay away as long as possible.
   
   
6. Regarding food, you should be buying groceries (veggies and fruit), meat, fish and some dairy. If it comes in packaging, you should probably avoid it (except obvious things like milk has to come in a gallon, duh). MOST IMPORTANTLY: NO REFINED CARBOHYDRATES. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. If it's made with bleached, white flour (often labeled "enriched"), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, agave nectar, rice syrup, and all the other misleading terms, then you simply don't eat it.
   
   
7. If you don't believe me about the above, don't take my word for it, go on YouTube and watch videos with the elite CrossFit athletes and watch what they eat and what their coaches (Ben Bergeron, coach to Katrin davidsdottir and a few other big names) has a bunch of nutrition related videos) tell them to eat. Mimic what they do. They don't eat that way because they're elite, they're elite because they eat that way (and train according obviously).
   
   Helpful resources:
   http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/03/nutrition.tpl
   
   In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143114964/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_q7qAH63DLB7ov
   
   Enter The Zone: A Dietary Road map https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060391502/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_GVpEDeq7jqJIA
   
   The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143038583/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jYyDDbGSYE54S
   
   Edit: spelling typos

If he likes cooking you could get him a week of meals delivered! I use home chef and hello fresh. They can be kind of pricey but if you just do one week you get a discount for your first order (just be sure to cancel it after the first week because they charge weekly after that).

This game also looks super fun!

this cookbook could be awesome too!

and I mean, who wouldn't want to cook with coolio?

Serious eats and good eats are great web and video resources respectively.

For a book, I learned to cook from help my apartment has a kitchen. It's a great book. Really explains everything in detail, has little notes and tips that helped me a lot when I was just starting, and the recipes are pretty good. I still make the sweet and sour pork chops and asian pork spaghetti out of this book with some regularity, 10 years later.

• I want this cookbook pretty badly as it sounds hilarious and I'm trying to make more meals at home instead of eat out all of the time! It is a must have.
  
• Well, first off I love unicorns. Secondly, I was listening to Glassjaw a lot at the time and really liked their song "Dance Party Plus". Therefore that bred unicorndanceparty :)
  
• Thanks for holding the contest!
  
  
  

It's relative. If 200w is low for you but high for the skinny person, then yes. If 200w is about equal for both, then no. I base food intake on time and effort. I normally don't take anything unless I'm out for longer than 2 hours. Hard effort will shorten that time all the way up until an hour or so.
If you want to drop fat, focus on your diet. It will be way more effective than trying to burn it off by cycling. If you want to use cycling to speed up the process (provided you have a good diet), go on long slow rides. You'll adapt to using more energy from fat that way. This book has some handy info on bike nutrition in the first section of it. Don't just try to emulate the pros. They get pros like nutritionists to help them with that kind of stuff and they are at a much higher fitness level than most of us.

Check out some recipe books and see if you can make any meals you like and then ease yourself into it. That's how I started. I started with this one and it has a lot of good recipes.

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316221902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8VnRAbS5569YV

Or this one is aimed at doing meals so that you won't miss meat

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FXnRAbJJ6N7BP

Check them out at your library and just pick a few to test. I've also found a few fake meat products that I never thought I would have liked. Quorn makes some good meatless alternatives like chikn nuggets. There's also Beyond Burger which is shockingly meaty.

I'd recommend she get Isa Moskowitz's vegan cook book "Isa Does It." She teaches people everything they need to know in that book, and she makes it SO easy. Like how to make things seem creamy, or cheesy using cashews... Plus, she emphasizes meals being easy and affordable. I've never had any meal from that book that wasn't delicious!

She has other cookbooks that require more time, but Isa Does It is a full on education for vegan dummies.

Oh, and her desserts are great too! Best homemade chocolate pudding pie, scones, etc. and all vegan.

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

I highly recommend the approach of, "Oh hey guys, so I'm going to try out vegetarianism for a while. I've looked around online and I've found some really interesting looking recipes that I thought we could try out as a group. Sound good?"

Easy. Don't make it a negative. You don't need anyone's approval!

Also, I highly recommend checking out The Vegan Stoner Cookbook (and also the related blog), The Minimalist Baker (her macaroni and cheese recipe is one of my all-time favorite things ever), and The Edgy Veg youtube channel.

Hope that helps!

My SO and I have gone from eating out at least one meal a day every day of the week to eating out once a week or less in under a year, and when we started this journey I felt like I was in the same place as you. I always thought there was no possible way we would have time to make food at home instead of getting it from a drive-thru.

One thing that helped us a lot was setting aside a time each night to prep for the next day. Each night before bed we go to the kitchen together and pack our lunches and prepare whatever we can for the next day's supper (take meat out to thaw, chop veggies, prep a crock pot, etc.). It doesn't matter how tired we are - we will set aside that half hour and do the prep so that we can make the next day work.

Also going to plug my favorite delicious and speedy cookbook - Thug Kitchen 101 (https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-101-Fast-LLC/dp/1623366348 - sorry for the ugly link). This thing is fun to read, easy to follow, and you will have time to make and enjoy the recipes! Having foods you enjoy cooking makes finding the time a lot easier too.

1. Decide what you want to be good at. Unless you are a professional chef (and even they tend to specialize) you're probably not goign to be good at everything. But, you can be good at something. Me? I barbecue. Can't cook inside to save my life. Always burn, under cook, or otherwise get it wrong.
   
   
2. Go simple to start. A cookbook I got for myself "way back whgen" (because I stumbled across it at a thrift store I think) was "Help! My apartment has a kitchen!" Actual good recipes, well organized, with pretty much foolproof instructions and advice

Never made gels, but every monday I make various rice cakes and other portables and eat them throughout the week. I used the book The Feed Zone Portables to get started and branched out to my own tastes from there. I can't do gels. I find them extremely off putting. Liquids like Perpetuem supplemented with something more real is much better for me.

Even if you never make any of the recipes the book has some really great information on nutrition for endurance sports. Basically the first half of the book is about the hows and whys of fueling and nutrition strategies. It's worth a read for sure.

Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.


Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!

Thanks for doing this Kyle! I think it was advertised as "for beginners" but there's a lot to learn for anyone (well, for me. I'm not a beginner but I still don't know much.)

1. I use gu as fuel. I don't run far enough to require that many--with the exception of my marathon, I think I've maxed out at 2 per long run. So I don't typically run into digestion issues. To be honest, the reason I picked gu is because it has the smallest packaging and I started using these things before I ever heard of a spiebelt (or similar) so I wanted something that would actually fit in my pocket! What I dislike most about them is the packaging. But I'm not sure I'd get around that by using something homemade either; I'd have to wrap it...?
   
   
2. I have not tried "real food" during running. I use real food while cycling, in particular during cycle touring, which is long but easy-paced. In that case I just have a bunch of normal food (I'm particularly fond of croissants with cheese, and mixed nuts) in my pockets or in my "snack box" that's strapped to my bike. Also, when I'm riding my road bike, a lot of my cycling friends will show up with a banana in their jersey pocket.
   
   
3. I'm not super-concerned with eating "natural" but part of that is probably because my gel consumption is relatively low. I guess this may change. Have you seen this book, Feed Zone Portables?
   
   Edit: I have a question regarding timing. Let's say I'm doing a long run or marathon (I'm pretty much never doing to do an ultra). Let's say I want to eat a gel every 30 min. Do I really need one 30 minutes into the run? Or can I go for the first hour without anything, and then eat every 20-30 minutes after that? That's what I always want to do based on how I feel, but I'm not sure if it's right. Often I force myself to have one after 45 minutes.

From cookbook linked, which I highly recommend!

Shiitake mushrooms make a great substitute for clams in this dish, the perfect texture.

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316221902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_p6rHzbPV4TDS4

I've not used any recipes yet, but the books by Thug Kitchen look awesome. Really good design and high quality photos. I think even omnis would appreciate the recipes (and humour) in there.

• [Eat Like you give a fuck][1]
  
• [Party grub for social motherfuckers][2]
  
• Fast as fuck
  
  [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586
  [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Party-Grub-Motherf/dp/1623366321
  

Shalane Flanagan & Elyse Kopecky's cookbooks have some pretty great race day meal ideas (these and Thug Kitchen are probably some of my favorite cookbooks as far as having interesting recipes you can actually easily cook). Regardless of what you pick, the important thing is to give whatever your race day meal is a couple trial-runs so you know it sits well.

​

Cookbooks:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1635651913/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/162336681X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Hey! I just wanted to say, if you do decide to eat veg, it's completely okay if it doesn't happen all at once. I know I had this idea of "going vegetarian" that meant I would just pick a day, and suddenly stop eating meat.

But if you've eaten meat products your entire life, that's really hard, and you'll probably be healthier and happier if you gradually find plant-based foods you like and incorporate them into your diet over time. I did the "all at once" approach, and spent way too much time eating junk/heavily processed food and pizza because that was the only meatless stuff I was familiar with.

Changing habits and lifestyle takes a while, but small, consistent changes will get you there. You don't have to be perfect. Here's my favorite cookbook! :)

The Best Recipe books are great. The 30 minute recipe one would be a good starting point. The meals are easy and quick to make, and really, really good.

http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409228625&sr=8-3&keywords=test+kitchen+30

It's not too hard to eat for gaining... I think the intimidating part is figuring out the right habits and making it a regular part of your life. Between cooking, cleaning, and eating, it can take a pretty tiny amount of time. The trick, is to make a fuck ton of food all at once and keep it in the fridge. Make a big ass crock pot full of indian food, or meat or something. Make a big ass thing of rice. Put the crock pot slop on the rice, heat it up (if you're feeling fancy) and eat. Want some extra veggies? Get a big ass bag of greens from cosco and put that shit on the bottom of the bowl. Bam. Breakfast? Oatmeal with peanut butter and banana. Every lunch and dinner forever? Crock pot and rice. Feeling fancy? Wrap that shit in a tortilla and call it a burrito. You get the idea.

The main thing that's tricky with this... you'll need to plan it out so you don't need to go to the store more than once a week, less even if you can get away with it. Costco's awesome if you have one nearby, 4lbs of beef and 20lb bags of oatmeal all lasts a long time.

The big thing that was hard for me when I was having to figure it out... is putting in the time investment the first few weeks to get it all figured out. I like this book a lot, try a few recipes. See what you like. But yeah, it'll take a little experimenting before you can really get it down to a quick and easy routine. It's really worth figuring out though... if you're eating decently, you'll save a lot of money from not eating out, and you'll have a lot more in the tank to give to classes and working out.

Not sure what kind of friends you have, but cooking with friends can work too, especially if you've got a friend that's trying to figure their shit out too. Plus... ladies (and men?) like guys who cook, and it's really not that hard to figure out the basics. Course, my partner's got some professional chef experience, so she can bust out a fucking quiche or shepherd's pie starting from raw ingredients in like 15 minutes... but you don't need to be at that level to eat well in a small amount of time, and she still appreciates my contributions, amateurish as they may be.

I would avoid getting her a new Garmin - though it's an incredibly thoughtful idea, she may have a different one in mind! Instead, perhaps a gift card to a running store or a card with an "IOU a running watch of your choice" message. I say this only because I did an incredible amount of research before buying my watch and was pretty set on that choice.

Otherwise, I'd recommend a FlipBelt (I just bought one for myself and I LOVE it.)

Or a runner's cookbook? ONE and TWO

Ha! Well since you asked...

• Run Fast, Eat Slow and Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky
  
• Dining In by Alison Roman; also her column at the NY Times
  
• The First Mess blog and cookbook
  
• 101cookbooks blog and cookbooks
  
• Six Seasons, by Joshua McFadden
  
• Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady
  
• Any of Nigel Slater's books - especially Tender
  
  Truly truly, I could go on. But those are some good places to start :)

I went on vacation by myself! It was amazing and not at all scary. Time to end boredom and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Oh, and this is awesome because I'm learning to cook for the first time and it really isn't that hard when you have good recipes!

These are my three favorites. All three have pretty foolproof recipes and everything I've made from them has been totally delicious. Some of the recipes are more complicated than others, but generally they're mostly all made in just one pot and have a nice variety to choose from.


Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark
Comfort in an Instant by Melissa Clark
Multicooker Perfection by America's Test Kitchen

Great tool, hadn't seen that before.

And yep, OP your answer is right here. You can fuel yourself with pretty a mix of many "normal" foods while out riding if you're going gentle enough (all day endurance riding) but for any kind of hard efforts at least you're going to want to focus on carbs primarily, which are consumed by your body in the key metabolic reactions that give you energy.

Carbs range from things like fruits, candy/sweets, cans of coke, bread, rice, oats, starchy vegetables like potatoes, milk, honey, pasta, jam.

If you don't like energy bars or granola bars, consider some bananas, some dates or raisins.

Or if you're willing to put a bit more effort in, make your own bars based on your own preferences - see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feed-Zone-Portables-Cookbook–Go/dp/1937715000 for some great ideas

11mi. [2E, 2x(1T, 1min rest), 30min E, 2x(1T, 1min rest), 2E]

The run was gloriously cool. Like 43° cool. Like "glad I grabbed my running shell on the way out" cool. We haven't seen temps like that this season yet.

I'm continuing my experimentation with fueling for long workouts. I ate a Cinnamon Apple Rice Cake from "Feed Zone Portables" (150cal, 35g simple carb) ~15mins before this morning's run. Felt good until mile 9. Then couldn't hold my easy pace. No GI issues. Think I'm going to try 100cal/hr next >2hr workout.

I'm wondering if there's a way that I can lock my Kindle's browser when my husband gives it to my son to play Spark Art.

(I was out yesterday and came back to my son trying to purchase over $300 worth of stuff on Amazon. Daddy was nowhere to be found!)

Eyebrows can most certainly have sympathy pains. Much like guys can have sympathy pains for their pregnant SOs.

LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!. (because my MiL thinks we should have more cookbooks in our home, ha!)

Thank you for the contest! :)

Since we are all a little lazy... Here are links to all of the books in my stack:
Betty Goes Vegan (my mom got this one for my boyfriend - so not strictly mine - in hopes that he would cook for me. I am pressing the tofu right now at his request, so far so good)

Vegan Eats World

Eat Drink & Be Vegan

The 30 Minute Vegan

Thug Kitchen

The Lusty Vegan (my sister bought this one for me)

One-Dish Vegan

Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker

Vegan Brunch (second most used, the muffin recipes in here are crazy easy to customize)

Vegan Yum Yum

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups (not blatantly vegan, but almost entirely so)

The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (My most used, and longest owned, the best of all. All super simple ingredients, only non-vegan ingredient mentioned is honey on occasion)

I eat vegan 75% of the time. I have about 15 vegan cook books (we all have hobbies) but I recently bought Isa Does It and am in love. I highly recommend it. She's all about dinners you can put together on a weeknight and goes into detail on how to create proteins that you can keep coming back to... As in make a batch of seitan and freeze some. I have made many things from her book as well because she is good about using repeat ingredients. If all else fails beans always work.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316221902?pc_redir=1397730096&robot_redir=1

Hopefully i can give you a few pointers. To answer your question "How can I learn to cook chinese food" first you need to know what type you're looking for, sichuan is much different from shanghai and both are different from cantonese cuisine for example. Sichuan tends to favor spicy food, while shanghai food tends to be more on the sweet side and then you have your classic cantonese flavors. That being said, these are some of my recent favorite books, I'd startoff with "Land of Plenty" by Fuchsia Dunlop which has authentic Sichuan recipes and which are quite tasty. Another good book is "The Chinese Take-Out Cookbook" by diana kuan, it has a bunch of different recipes that you would usually find in america. The cool part is that with stir frying which alot of recipes use, generally speaking since there's not alot of oil, it is not too high in fat.

The Best 30 Minute Recipe by America's Test Kitchen has great easy, fast weeknight meals that are also consistently delicious. Check it out!:
http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322981024&sr=8-2

If you're interested in learning about how glucose can affect everything from your weight, mood, energy, heart disease, etc. you should check out 'Enter the Zone' by Barry Sears. It's an excellent book on nutrition and a fairly easy read.

When I was in college I was just starting to come in to my own as a cook and I found this book really helpful. The curry dish in here has become a staple of mine that I love to cook and all my friends love to eat.

When I was a kid one of my parents got me the book Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen!

I was way too young to have my own apartment but it's easy to read and the recipes are pretty simple and good starting places.

http://www.amazon.com/Help-Apartment-Has-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/0618711759

Oh I love Indian too! Mostly just having to measure the amount of rice I take to keep it reasonable, but otherwise it's pretty high protein and if you make it yourself can be moderate in fat and carbs. And super filling! Check out this book if you have a slow cooker!

I've recently started making my own food. So far it's great. Easy enough to make and, most importantly, working very well for me out on rides.

I highly recommend this book, which is full of recipes for this exact thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-On-Go/dp/1937715000

I make a chicken and polenta bowl that takes 45 minutes from start to finish.

I use this recipe for the polenta (except I stir in an ounce of crumbled bleu cheese at the very end).

Ingredients for the sauce

• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
  
• 1 whole onion
  
• 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes (because I cheat)
  
• 4 Tbsp. capers
  
• generous handful of fresh basil
  
• Salt & pepper to taste
  
  Step 1: Put water for your polenta into a pot and set it over high heat. While you wait for it to boil, cut up boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Set a large frying pan over medium heat. You'll want to be sure it's deep enough to accommodate the sauce, so nothing too small.
  
  Step 2: Whisk the polenta & salt into the boiling water, cover with a splatter guard, and reduce heat to med-low. Set a timer for 30 minutes. Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into your frying pan and add the chicken, salt, & pepper. Slice your onion into long strips like this. Stir your chicken thoroughly and add the onion. Remember to whisk your polenta fairly often.
  
  Step 3: Once your chicken looks like it's not pink any more, add the canned tomatoes and stir thoroughly. If you happen to have some wine open, you might toss in a cup or so, but it's not strictly necessary. Keep stirring your polenta. Roll up your basil leaves and cut them into thin strips as shown in this super-easy tutorial.
  
  Step 4: Just before the timer goes off, stir your basil and capers into the chicken and tomato sauce, then turn off the heat. When the timer goes off, remove your polenta from heat and stir in the butter (and cheese) as shown in the recipe. Dish the polenta into bowls and ladle the chicken sauce over the top. That's it.
  
  You might be interested in The Best 30-Minute Recipe cookbook.

Since I'm a college student and recently cooking more for myself, my favourite cookbook current is Starting Out I love it cause it explain what to look for when buying meats and veggies, what to do with left overs and how to change recipes. I found it very inspiring to go out into the kitchen.

As for a staple food, past tossed with bacon and chopped spinach. I just portion off the bacon and frozen chapped spinach when I pick them up. Cook all three and then mix together. I pretty much always have pasta, bacon, and spinach on hand. It might be less of a staple meal and more of a "Oh wasn't I suppose to go to the grocery store on the way home" meal.

Ferran Adria (some say the world's greatest/most innovative chef) just came out with a new cookbook called The Family Meal, it's a cookbook that has 31, 3 course meals (appetizer, entree, dessert), which can be made cheaply and are very unique.

For example: Potatoes & Green Beans with Chantilly, Quail with Couscous, and Caramelized Pears

Amazon has the book for only $16.50 and it's this beautiful 380 page hardcover book. I just got it a few days ago and it's a pretty amazing book that's well worth the price

I don't own it, but my buddy has The Best Simple Recipes from America's Test Kitchen and I love reading through it.

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Recipes-Editors-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615591/

I used MyFitnessPal when I was counting. FitBit is also a good one.

Gaining weight is about eating enough calories, not cooking anything specific.

I started with this and this when I first moved out. Again though, you can get free recipes online. Start with learning 3-5 and then slowly increase what you can do. Eventually you will have 10-15 meals you can make from memory and can get a nice diversity of food.

I really like this book of Indian slow cooker recipes

The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572841117/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_9lxKwbGTE9HSA

I hope that helps!

I saw a recipe once for pocket burritos that was really good...I don't remember the exact portions, but it was cooked white rice, bacon, olive oil, a bit of scrambled egg, and salt to taste wrapped into a square in a tortilla. Perfect size for a jersey pocket, easy to eat on the bike, and the right combo of carbs and protein for the ride.

I'd also recommend the book "Feed Zone Portables" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937715000/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1464819807&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=feed+zone+portables&dpPl=1&dpID=61Q18Q80c1L&ref=plSrch)

This is our favorite cookbook. All the meals are easy to make, delicious, and take only about 30 minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Simple-Recipes-Americas-Kitchen/dp/1933615591/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395023440&sr=8-2&keywords=Americas+test+kitchen+30+minute

I also like the recipes on the womens day website. Every month they put out a whole month's worth of recipes.
http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/month-of-menus/

Please avoid requests for recipes for specific ingredients or dishes (unless it's obscure and Google has failed you) and prompts for general discussion or advice. As a general rule, if you are looking for a variety of good answers, go to /r/Cooking. For the one right answer, come to /r/AskCulinary.

This being said, generally speaking taco's and nacho's are both made from Masa flatbread which are called tortillas. Burritos and quesadillas are going to be made from a wheat flour based flat bread.

Though you will find Taco's south of the border, it looks like the cuisine you are actually interested in would be Tex-Mex or Southwestern US cuisine. Nacho's, Quesadillas, and Burrito culture is largely Americanized even though some of them still have roots in Northern mexico.

Additionally, Mexican cuisine is both diverse and very regional. The essential cuisines of Mexico is supposed to be a very good cookbook if English is your first language. It is by Diana Kennedy. I would not expect that it is really going to show you the kind of cuisine you are actually looking for though. Oaxaca Al Gusto was also highly recommended by Kenji of serious eats as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cuisines-Mexico-throughout-recipes/dp/0609603558/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Rick Bayless is another go to. Mexican Every day is another very highly rated cookbook for mexican cuisine.

https://www.amazon.com/Mexican-Everyday-Recipes-Featured-Season/dp/039306154X/?tag=serieats-20

I believe something like this though will be closer to what you are actually wanting.

https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299551913&sr=8-1

There's this vegan cook book I know called "The Vegan Stoner" with quick, easily recipes. And I'm sure that they'd be pretty healthy things, like broccoli and carrots. It's a little bit pricey but it might help you on cutting cals when it comes to munchies :)

You should consider buying this fantastic cookbook which contains staff meal recipes from El Bulli, The famous, now closed, restaurant in Spain.

There are around 30 complete meals, with appetizer, main entree, and dessert, with beautiful photograph illustrations, and quantities for 2, 6, 20, or 75 people.

I love this book.

There is definitely something to say about "real food" on the bike. I have not personally tried any of these recipes, but I know people who have said good things about the Feed Zone Portables Cookbook.


Its written by Dr. Allen Lim and Biju Thomas, the same guys behind Skratch, and I love me some Skratch.

The Indian Slow Cooker. I picked it up a few weeks ago and it has been perfect. It makes excellent food and perfect if your
busy!

There is no better cookbook to get than The Family Meal. Recipes are simple, illustrated with step-by-step photos, and is based around preparing healthy and delicious three-course meals on a budget.

Perhaps its best feature is there is a timeline for each meal; for instance, it tells you when to start soaking dried mushrooms, when to start the meat, etc. in relation to when you expect to eat. This one cookbook has almost supplanted every other cookbook I use.

• Beans are cheap and healthy. Many of the packages have recipes.
  
  
• Get you a box of S&B (or Vermont) Curry and make the recipe on the back. Add more veggies than they call for.
  
  
• Vegan Stoner Cookbook is a good easy healthy place to start as well. Someone bought me a copy years ago and I still use it often for ideas & quick meals.
  
  I started cooking at your age using boxed dinners (adding extra ingredients) and looking on the back of packages. .

Anupy Singla has an Indian slow cooker vegan cookbook with some outstanding recipes. The garlic-ginger toor dal and methi carrots are personal faves.

Edit: There are some non-vegan recipes in there as well, but the subs are pretty easy for the most part and they are mostly vegan in any case.

http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Slow-Cooker-Healthy-Authentic/dp/1572841117/ref=la_B003GBJD58_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393952131&sr=1-1

I recently read Feed Zone Portables. It's "a cookbook of on-the-go foods for athletes". I can recommend it just for the first few chapters, which discuss fueling and hydration needs and how to go about thinking about these things in a very practical, scientific way. The rest of the book consists of something like fifty recipes: things like rice cakes, little rolls, and "two-bite pies". Anyway, it's all good "real" stuff. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to experiment with a few of them myself.

I don't have allergies but I do have sensitive digestion and am the queen of the trailside hurl from the wrong sort of snacks. My go to is potatoes -- a baked potato, cut into pieces and sprinkled with salt. Easy to digest carbs and it always stays down. I've been known to pack roasted potatoes, hash browns, etc., as well.

Another good portable "real food" snack is rice -- I cook sushi rice (the sticky kind), press it into a pan, then you can add whatever you want in the middle (fruit, Sun butter, bacon, bananas, whatever) and press more rice on top. Wrap in individual foil packets -- another easy-to-digest carby snack. I got the recipe from the Feed Zone Portables book (it has a lot of good "real food" trail snacks):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937715000/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook, and The Gift of Southern Cooking are both AMAZING. I am especially fond of The Southern Foodways book.

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

Isa Does It. She's one of my favorite vegan chefs and this book has a good mix of recipes that span multiple cuisines. Good food takes time so there are some recipes that will take awhile, but not all of them. And she has a lot of great tips too.

If you're just looking to get out and enjoy a longer ride with some people definitely stay in the category you're in. I think even as you progress you'll be fine up until the low B area. After that it starts to get more intense, as you were told.

As for the push/pull thing. This is essentially form and pedal stroke. As you're on the bike for longer times you'll be able to tell and feel when your legs are not moving right. A good exercise for this is to put your bike on a trainer and pedal with one foot.

Food and hydration is a fickle beast because we're all different. Some of us like gels, some of us hate them. Some of us like thick energy bars, some of us can't stand them. You're going to need to trial and error some things to see what works on your stomach and how fast it takes to break down. Feed Zone Portables is a book I use for all my food prep stuff (allan lim issues asisde) if you're looking for a good way to make your own food. One thing to remember though is just because you burn 500+ calories over an hour does not mean you should consume 500+ calories while riding to replenish. Some people get into worse situations because they overeat while riding. The result is bloating, cramping and potentially gut rot if you love those sugar filled gels and shots.

My personal rule of thumb is water every 20 minutes and food every 90 minutes. But this isn't set in stone and can vary depending on weather and terrain. Hotter days I'll be taking in more water and hillier days I may be taking in food sooner. The rule I do keep true to though is anything under two hours is water only. No food, no electrolyte drinks. Just water.

Decolonize Your Diet - Vegan Mexican with an emphasis on pre-Columbian ingredients

Bought, Borrowed, and Stolen - Interesting recipes from the around world and a lot of talk about the most basic cooking tool, the knife. That + the broad style of cooking included might make it a good starter book.

The Family Meal - Actually useful recipes from super obnoxious-fancy chef Ferran Adria but with step-by-step pictures that are really helpful.

Moosewood Cookbook - Classic cookbook of vegetarian dishes.

No. She makes a living being herself. She's also a cook and has a published cookbook.

Honestly, if she wants to 'objectify' herself, then that's her choice, but I seriously doubt she's doing such. Pretty sure I've heard of her having some beefs with others as well, but that makes it all the more enjoyable.

This cook book is a staple in our house. It is vegan but if you want to add cheese or whatever it's easy to modify. Though I think the vegan recipes are fantastic in their own right.

https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

I feel you. It did take a while to relearn how to cook. For me, getting cookbooks helped immensely. I'm gonna link my favorite one for your situation. It's called Thug Kitchen 101. The goal of the cookbook was to have recipes that take less than 30 minutes, have minimal ingredient lists, and are healthy. It's also a hilarious read. I highly recommend it. I cook out of it regularly and the series of cookbooks as a whole really accelerated my learning to cook without animals.

Here are some websites that have relatively easy recipes that you can try.

http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianfamilies/qt/collegeveg.htm

http://www.collegiatevegan.com/recipes

http://www.foodandloathing.com/2012/10/the-easiest-beginners-vegan-recipes.html

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/

http://vegweb.com/

http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-recipes.asp

http://www.tryveg.com/

In general it's pretty straightforward to put together meals such as stir frys, rice and bean variations, pasta, and stews. They could be good go-to vegan meals.

If you're looking for books Isa Does It has been well received.

I second the Edna Lewis. Is is good stuff. I have the one with her and Scott Peacock and it is awesome The Gift of Southern Cooking

As a NY'er, I feel your pain. You might want to try searching for "NY Style", "Takeout" or "American", in addition to the specific dishes you'd like to recreate, for recipes.

Here's a slideshow of the most popular dishes, with recipe links. I also found this one for Beef and Broccoli. There's also this cookbook, as well as others, that feature American takeout-style Chinese food. Good luck!

I had a time when I was obsessssssed with their tofu corn salad and ate it basically every day for a while. So good!

thanks for the heads up!!

Edit: Here's the Amazon link to the cookbook. Seems like they're offering a Kindle edition too.

If you like making Asian takeout, you might be interested in the Chinese Takeout Cookbook. My flatmates and I have made several of the recipes from it and all of them have been really great.

Great cookbook: https://smile.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-Cookbook-Go/dp/1937715000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518626414&sr=8-1&keywords=feed+zone+portables

I bring fig bars, or if I’m going on a trail I pack a peanut butter sandwich. (I don’t generally eat them because they come in around 450 calories so I have to really feel it’s worthwhile.)

I also really love onigiri with pork floss inside the rice. https://www.amazon.com/Onigiri-Rice-Seaweed-Wrappers-Sushi/dp/B004O3LKEO

Lord, the assumptions/priviledge that is in your post/responses...

The cuisine you're describing isn't an "old food fad" or "old food phenomenon." It's a multi-generation adaptation of a people's (the immigrant Chinese) cuisine in response to the to conditions, available ingredients, and demands of the people around them; in North America. To say that it isn't authentic, or calling it "fake crap," is condescending (and shows a lack of understanding) to the thousands of Chinese immigrants who have lived/worked/adapted/died in the U.S. and Canada for the past 200 hundred years. To think that this cuisine doesn't exist anymore (outside of of old menus) shows how sheltered/closed off you truly are. It is no greater/worse, nor is it less "authentic," than all the [regional] Chinese cuisine from China/Taiwan. It is a food style unto it's own; with it's own influences, responses, techniques and made by people who [usually] identify as Chinese.

If you want to try and know what you're talk about:

Books:

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States by Andrew Coe

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee

Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants by John Jung

Wu: Globalization of Chinese Food by David Y.H. Wu and Sidney C.H. Cheung

China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West by J.A.G. Roberts

Ethnic Regional Foodways United States: Performance Of Group Identity by Linda Keller Brown

The Chinese Takeout Cookbook: Quick and Easy Dishes to Prepare at Home by Diana Kuan

American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods by Bonnie Tsui

Documentary:

Chinese Restaurants directed by Cheuk Kwan (IMDB Overview)

Interesting. I hadn't heard of this before. Have you tried bananas and other natural, easy-digesting foods instead?

This is a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-Cookbook-Go/dp/1937715000

I recently moved from NYC to the west coast, and have found the type takeaway of Chinese food that's generally available (not including going to Chinatown somewhere) is really disgusting. At the best, it's cut from a different cloth (Szechuan/Hunan vs. Cantonese?? I dunno...) and it's just not what I'm accustomed.

So, I invested in The Chinese Takeout Cookbook by Diana Kuan which has done the trick in a pinch. The General Tso's recipe she has is akin to the original General Tso's, and not the cloying, gloppy comfort food I love, but all the other recipes seem to be spot on. The mooshu and lo mein recipes are fantastic. I haven't tried her Kung Pao recipe yet.

Every recipe I have made from The Indian Slow Cooker. Especially "Dad's Rajmah." I won best vegetarian chili at a chili cookoff with 600+ attendees with that recipe.

25/M

He loves to cook so I was thinking about getting him themed recipe books. Since almost everyday he says he doesn't know what to make I was initially going to send him this cookbook. After searching I realized that some of the recipes require ingredients you wouldn't see on a day to day basis (and him not having the right ingredients to cook with is something complains about lol). So in the end I'll be sending him this cookbook instead since he loves bobs burgers and the recipes look reasonable :)

If you have a slow cooker this book makes the world of Indian food so much easier to understand. All the recipes are very easy, flavorful, and all are pretty darn cheap. I highly recommend it.

I love Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice for Szechuan cooking. Every dish I've made from it has been a winner.

Even though I'm not vegan (just vegetarian), I really love Isa Does It and Appetite for Reduction, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Every recipe I've tried from those books has turned out amazing, and most of them are cheap and easy to throw together.

I also second the Flavor Bible recommendation. It's useful for those times when you're looking for a creative way to use an ingredient, but you don't want to follow a whole recipe.

I've only made one recipe from it as I just got it last week, and it took me a while to eat through all that vindaloo, so I'm afraid I can't give you a detailed review. Give me another few weeks, though, I have a feeling I will be making a lot more Indian food...

The vindaloo recipe is actually visible if you go to Amazon and look inside to page 114, the alterations I made to it were just substituting peppers and accidentally adding far too little ginger. If you'd like me to type it up I can when I get home.

I'm curious, though, where have you seen uneven reviews for it? I only looked on Amazon, and it's got very positive reviews there.

I always recommend Isa Does It for beginners, because it has tons of recipes where you just use the recipe from that page, and none of it is too super weirdo or inaccessible. A recipe is an entire meal, so you don't have to look around for sides and stuff to pair it with or compose a plate. Minimalist Baker is also a great resource - it will have healthier stuff, and there's also a Minimalist Baker cookbook.

I'm obsessed with every recipe from The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. The recipes are easy, flavorful, healthy, and authentic. A lot are vegan or easily veganizable, as she's also the author of Vegan Indian Cooking, which also has some slow cooker recipes. Both cookbooks are highly recommended!

These are the ones on my wishlist:


The Vegonomicon


Everyday Happy Herbivore


Thug Kitchen


But I could never go vegan!


Oh She Glows Cookbook


I personally own The Vegan Stoner Cookbook and I like it a lot.

Go Ben

I think you should go with several things from your list.

Chopper You need one of these and they are fun to use.

Practical but cool

Less Practical but still very useful

What SHOULD you make for dinner? Buy this book so you don't have to ask that question.

And tea to enjoy while using all of the other things

There is an entire book of food snacks called feed zone portables which is designed for professional cyclists. As one, in reading your description I think some of these would be a big hit. You have savoury stuff like pizza bites to Denver omelette rice bars and a lot inbetween. Everything is packaged in wax tinfoil wraps. Seems like it’s ideal.

Almost everything in those photos comes from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice, which is a pretty awesome collection of authentic Chinese dishes that are reasonably simple to cook at home. I added descriptions to most of the images in the gallery here.

Got the Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow cookbook for Christmas and have been slowly working my way through the recipes. So far my favorite is the miso butter salmon (I omit the honey). I also put it on mushrooms and cook them with the salmon. My picky 4 year old ate it so quickly I thought she dropped it on the floor. The butter mix is also delicious on toasted sourdough English muffins

I can highly recommend Chrissy Teigen's cookbook called "Cravings."
I have made several recipes out of it since Christmas and I have loved them all!

Shout-out to the Honey-Chipotle Chicken, Split Pea Soup and Charred Fish Tacos.

When I moved out, my mother gave me this book. It's a really good place to start. Bonus, they teach you how to do laundry (symbols and all!).

Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.


Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking

High-five! I've been vegetarian for six years now, with occasional forays into veganism. I went from shitty cook to awesome cook, and learned that previously-weird things like beets and artichokes are fantastic. This book has been the basis for a lot of my weeknight meals lately.

I have Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday. It's hands-down my favorite cookbook. I would recommend it to anyone.

I've been thinking about getting some of his other books. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any of them.

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Grain-Rice-Chinese-Cooking/dp/0393089045/ref=sr_1_1

This book changed me and my wife's life. You'll need an Asian grocery store, and you'll have to get some common ingredients but it's made most grocery trips super simple, and most of the meals take about 15-20 minutes.

np. It took me a while to clue in that you were looking for a vegan solution. Now I feel like I need to make it up to you. I don't know if you or your s/o are into cooking vegan for yourselves, but we own the best vegan cookbook we have ever tried (we have over a hundred cookbooks). If you're interested, it's called [Isa does it] (http://www.amazon.ca/Isa-Does-It-Amazingly-Delicious/dp/0316221902).

If you like Indian food (much of it healthy), I recommend this book. (Not affiliated with it in any way, just like it): https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Slow-Cooker-Healthy-Authentic/dp/1572841117

Here are some of my more flavorful recipes. I recommend looking at some Indian or Middle Eastern cook books. There you will find flavorful and spicy dishes. I cook with the "Indian Slow Cooker" cookbook and I have to tone down the spiciness quite a bit!! I recommend hitting a Middle Eastern grocery store for cheap spices in bulk!

• Spicy Pasta Povencal
  
• Huevos Rancheros
  
• Aloo Phujia
  
• Three Pepper Pasta Salad
  
• Baked Eggs
  
• Spicy Black Bean and Rice Burrito
  
• Sweet Potato Burrito

http://www.amazon.com/The-Family-Meal-Cooking-Ferran/dp/0714862533

Ferran Adria's home cookbook. It's a great book, broken up into a series of meals. Each one is a starter, entrée and dessert around a theme, and the recipes range from the intense (that Mexican style pork...) to the downright derpy (potato chip omelet. Guess the 2 ingredients.)

It's a great cookbook, and hey, if you need the recipe for 2, 6 or 75, he includes the breakdown.

I get bored of standard energy bars, I like to create mini versions of regular foods to mix it up. Feed Zone Portables gives me a lot of ideas for my creations.

>You should be putting away about 300 calories per hour.

This reminded me of something, so I pulled out my handy-dandy Feed Zone Portables and found this:

>As a general rule of thumb, for activities lasting more than two hours, if you eat at least half the calories you burn each hour, you'll almost always be consuming an adequate number of calories to keep you going.

The book goes into far more detail than necessary. Anecdotally speaking, my brother-in-law and I made one of the rice cake recipes from the book for a casual 30-miler and were absolutely set... much better than having an entire jersey pocket full of GU.

Big fan of this book from America's Test Kitchen: http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981. As you prepare more and more of these meals, you'll also be developing techniques that will allow you to cook far more meals, efficiently.

Pretty easy read.

http://www.amazon.com/Enter-Zone-Dietary-Road-map/dp/0060391502

"But it was Chris Kimball, editor of Cook's Illustrated, who cut to the heart of it. "Utter bullshit," he said when I asked what he thought of cooking times. Kimball is no slacker; CI, as its devoted readers know, has a well-earned reputation for accuracy. They'll bake a chocolate torte 500 times before publishing the results. Yet Kimball doesn't include start-to-finish times in his recipes; he rejects outright the notion that they can be measured with precision. "Thirty-minute recipes are never 30 minutes," he says. "It's marketing."

WTF!?!?! http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981

And to think I trusted you, Chris Kimball... Hmph!!!!

Not personally, though I've been toying with the idea of cooking through Fuchsia Dunlop's "Every Grain of Rice", which is a nice collection of Chinese recipes.

I've browsed some blogs of people who attempted other books, mainly momofukufor2.com for Dave Chang's "Momofuku" and The Big Fat Undertaking, which goes through Heston Blumenthal's "The Fat Duck Cookbook" (a pretty ridiculous undertaking but interesting read)

For Christmas I got Isa Does It as a present, and for now it looks really good.

It's not preachy, and it does not have recipes (like I saw on many blogs) that are just like non-vegan ones with just vegan-dairy/-meat/egg-replacement in place of the dairy/eggs/meat.

I'm allergic to soy, nuts and uncooked fruits and veggies and I manage to be vegan. Mexican dishes are my go to most the time. Stir fries are easy just throw in rice and some veggies with your preffered stir fry sauce.

I suggest picking up thug kitchen it is full of fairly easy recipes. Thug kitchen also teaches you how to make your own recipes and talks about the staples of vegan cooking. https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586 https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-101-Fast-LLC/dp/1623366348

I mostly eat oatmeal for breakfast but if I have a day I'll make French toast, all you do is sub egg with flax seed, nutritional yeast and your favorite alternative milk.

Up vote for calvin

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607744643/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_0kRgzb61TXDFR

Enjoy ;^)

Crap, almost forgot about this. This book is your friend. My wife makes lots of these as well and when she does, they're way better than pre-packaged bars and what not.

Feed Zone Portables

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937715000/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mrtonka-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1937715000&linkId=030e101b9c299543c804c8224a6cf185

Melissa Clark from the NYT has a great one! https://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Instant-Recipes-Pressure-Multicooker/dp/1524762962

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

this book?

---

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

>I need to learn new recipes.

I recently went vegan (about 2 months) and have found the following resources super valuable for my moderately foodie tastebuds:

Minimalist Baker

Avant Garde Vegan

Isa Does It

*Formatting on mobile is hard :/

I have this book, and I love all the variations he presents on each dish: Mexican Everyday

This is your best bet
http://www.amazon.com/One-Dish-Vegan-Soul-Satisfying-Delicious-One-Plate/dp/1558328122/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HXZJ7EZXHKZHKNNVDZM

This book is fantastic. It isn't 100% vegetarian but I think only about 8 recipes have meat, which I just ignore. Everything I have made from it has been spectacular. Indian food loves slow cooking.

We cook a lot of beans in the crock pot. It's super easy to do - soak the beans in water overnight in the fridge and then turn the crockpot on in the morning on low with beans + veggies. When you get home 8 hours later voila! We cook some bacon when it's done and chop that to add sometimes. Mine has a timer that allows me to set it for 8 hours on low (or high). It then reverts to keep warm. I would suggest this cookbook for some tasty options. I checked it out from my local library before buying a copy. When I make beans I usually do 2 cups of beans and 6 cups of water. Black eyed peas are great because they require no soaking beforehand. DO NOT do this with kidney beans though. They have a poisonous ingredient that requires boiling on the stove.

http://www.amazon.com/One-Dish-Vegan-Soul-Satisfying-Delicious-One-Plate/dp/1558328122/ref=la_B000AP9F9W_1_2/185-8068821-9137566?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458869244&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Fix-Vegan-Healthy-Homestyle-Minutes/dp/1449407854/ref=la_B000AP9F9W_1_3/185-8068821-9137566?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458869244&sr=1-3

Anything by Robin Robertson. Her recipes are fantastic.

For all you slow cooker fans, you should get The Indian Slowcooker cookbook. The recipes are simple and just packed with amazing flavors.

The Feed Zone Portables

Really easy to make - sushi rice mixed with some soya and brown sugar. Press half of it into an 8x8 cake pan, layer in blueberries and chocolate chips, add the rest of the rice. I put a second pan on top with a couple of tins of beans to press it down and leave it in the fridge over night. Makes 10 bars, about 210 calories. Oh, line the pan with plastic wrap and fold it over while it sets up.

For Chinese cuisine, especially Sichuan & Hunanese, Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks are amazing. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite but would lean toward Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking.

I would suggest The Family Meal - by Ferran Adria. The book is split into about 30 three piece meals (entree, main, dessert) and the beginning of each meal has a 2 page spread showing all ingredients needed, a table scaling the recipe for 2-60 people, and what you'd find most helpful, a timeline for cooking. The following pages are step by step pictures so you know what things should actually look like. Even though this is Ferran Adria, all these can be made at home with things bought at your local store. No need for hydrocoloids or scientific equipment.

The last Isa book was full colored and delicious.

But you are mostly just going to have to tough it out.

Isa Does It

Get her the Vegan Stoner cookbook!

Also, if you do end up trying to make edibles, here's a good guide for making canna coconut oil. Once you've made the oil, you would then substitute it in any dessert recipe that calls for oil or butter.

Indian food is pretty much made for slow cookers, and there is a long history of vegetarian and vegan indian food too. I would start with Anupy Singla's "the Indian Slow Cooker": http://www.amazon.com/The-Indian-Slow-Cooker-Authentic/dp/1572841117 but be careful about quantities, her recipes are meant to make huge batches so you may need to size it down if you have a smaller slow cooker and no fridge to store leftovers.

$20 on Amazon Prime... I may consider it :)

Consider this cookbook

One bowl meals for 1 person. With an emphasis on quick & easy stuff.

The Vegan Stoner Cookbook and blog are good too.

With cookbooks there are a lot of crap out there. Either you get something with a billion recipes you are never going to use, one with glossy photos that your food will never resemble, or one with ingredients that you will never be able to find, if you would afford them.

Look at something simple like A Man, A Can, A Plan.

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072

Or.

Help! My Apartment has a kitchen

http://www.amazon.com/Help-Apartment-Has-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/0618711759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394027390&sr=1-1&keywords=my+apartment+has+a+kitchen

Check your local library for vegan cookbooks. That's where I get most of my recipes. My favorites are Isa Does It and Vegan Eats World.

I used recipes from Every Grain of Rice by Fuschia Dunlop for the pork, eggplant and tofu. I highly recommend the youtube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified though, they've covered red-braised pork and fish-fragrant eggplant.

These "rules" vary from culture to culture. Often you can pick up a cookbook that's focused on a specific culture's food and find that it includes a section about how to organize meals, plus sample meals made up of recipes from the cookbook. For example, this Chinese cookbook features a section of "menu ideas" with 8 menus for 2 people, 7 for 4 people, and 5 for 6 people, plus it has a section called "planning a Chinese meal" which explains how Chinese meals are served, how they are eaten, and so on. This Middle Eastern book has something similar, etc.

Check this recipe out

Credit to Zach Golden and his book

Both from Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice.

I'm not the biggest fan of diet foods/fads, I lost a whole bunch of weight just watching out portion sizes and cooking more. I like to follow Michael Pollan's nutritional plan which is, in order of importance, eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Since you guys are posting slow cooker recipes, I really recommend this book: The Indian Slow Cooker

One of my favorite things to make is chicken vindaloo in the slow cooker (recipe below. Warning! This feeds a LOT of people, so scale back as needed):

• 8 large yellow onions
  
  
• 6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  
  
• 8 inches ginger root
  
  
• 20 garlic cloves
  
  
• 6 to 10 serrano chilies (depending on your heat tolerance)
  
  
• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder (it's not Desi without some haldi)
  
  
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  
  
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
  
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
  
  
• 1 large tablespoon of coarse salt
  
  
• 1 tablespoon black mustard seed
  
  
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  
  
• 4 pounds chicken
  
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
  Peel and slice the onions. Warm 2 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until almost caramelized, then add the vinegar. Stir until the liquid evaporates, then puree and set aside.
  
  Puree the ginger, garlic, chilies, turmeric, coriander, garam masala and cinnamon and set aside for now.
  
  Grind the salt, mustard seeds and peppercorn and put into the slow cooker.
  
  Cut the chicken into bite sized chunks, and put it, along with all the things you set aside into the slow cooker. Add the water and let it sit on low for 6 hours.
  
  Serve with rice or naan.

Also, sounds like you're going to need to learn to cook w/o animals if you're transitioning. I'd check out Isa and any of her cookbooks

My white girlfriend cooks from this book. The meals taste like what I grew up eating in China.

Yeah!

I made baked eggs with some cheese in a muffin tin, wrapped each of them in foil, and brought them instead of Gu.

I found them in https://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-Cookbook-Go/dp/1937715000/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PS60KEEY7HCR6HA8XS6P

Chinese food! I pretty much completely adopted traditional Chinese home cooking after reading Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice and it's helped so much. Chinese cuisine is particularly adaptable to the low fodmap diet.

:-) ive been wanting this

Here are some I have saved:

• Pho (NY Times)
  
  
• Ribs
  
  
• Bone Broth, I do both chicken and beef
  
  
• Carnitas
  
  
• Pot Roast
  
  
• French Onion Soup (Slow Cooker setting)
  
  
• Duck Confit
  
  
• Short Ribs
  
  
• Chicken and Rice Burrito Bowl
  
  
• Baked Potato Soup
  
  Really I just think about of what I'm craving and Google that thing cooked in the InstantPot, some recipes are good, some are bad. It's just a matter if figuring out which blogs and sites know what they're doing. Also I'll adapt Slow Cooker or Dutch oven recipes
  
  I also suggest the following cook books for one pot cooking:
  
  
• One Pan Two Plates
  
  
• All-in-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two
  
  
• The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook
  
  
• Dinner in an Instant
  
  

Heck yeah! It's out of stock on their site, but amazon has it!

This comes in at $20.46!

Don't get it for me because I'm going to cook meals from it for my family and friends ALL THE TIME and I'm going to get FAT and die of butter overconsumption. Spare me from that fate, please!

You should look at The Family Meal by Ferran Adria. It's about all the staff meals prepared at El Bulli, and the recipes can be scaled for 2 to 75 people.

4.5 stars on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/What-Should-Make-Dinner-Everyday/dp/0762441771

Used to live in an apartment block where I was friends with my neighbour who all smoked. I got into triathlons and switched to edibles to avoid destroying my lung capacity.

I started making the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from this book with the herb oil recipe from this book. They were problematically delicious. One of the neighbours ate 2 because they were so good and we had to sit with him in the corner after it kicked in until he passed out.

If I ever have an edibles company (something I'd like to do after weed becomes legal in Canada), I'm going to package them in packets of 4; 1 THC cookie and 3 regulars. After a strong edible is when you need regular cookies the most.

When you said lazy I thought of the vegan stone cookbook.

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Stoner-Cookbook-Recipes-Munch/dp/1607744643/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2SQGLQ4TOFWCJ

The blog also has very easy recipes.
https://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/

For those who want a fucking copy:

What the F*@# Should I Make for Dinner?: The Answers to Life's Everyday Question (in 50 F*@#ing Recipes) by Zach Golden

I would check out Allen Lim's Feed Zone Portables (Amazon). The recipes are geared towards cyclists and long distance runners who want to replace the usual clif bars/gels with real food, but I think the recipes would work for your needs, too. I make up a big batch of a recipe for my weekly rides and end up snacking on most of them off the bike because they're so tasty.

This and this are my favourites I think!

Also...buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Isa-Does-Amazingly-Delicious-Recipes/dp/0316221902

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/034552912X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1398747043&sr=8-1

The Chinese takeout cookbook

This seems more your speed.

Have you checked out this book?