Cookbook Challenge: Color Me Vegan

The past couple weeks I have been trying to get through all the recipes I picked to make from Color Me Vegan by Coleen Patrick-Goudreau... I was over zealous as usual and picked out way too many recipes and it ended up taking me 2 weeks to get through a supposedly 1 week challenge. This is a challenge I do within a private facebook group comprised of many of my LT vegan homies that I have known since the day I went vegan and googled "Vegan Recipes" and found an amazing vegan community online, we have since moved from that public community to a private FB group :)

Anyways, the book seems like it would appeal to people who desire healthy-whole-foods-plant-based recipes as the book is divided into basically colors of the rainbow so that you learn to cook and eat a wide variety of foods. I quickly picked out and shopped for recipes that sounded delicious. Here is what I ended up making labeled by color:

Quick Curried Swiss Chard (Red) with Coconut Rice (White/Tan) and Eggplant with Sweet Miso Sauce (Purple)

Verdict: The chard was so delicious and so so easy and would be good with even plain rice. As you can see, I mixed the Curried Chard with the Coconut Rice. This was because I accidentally dumped too much salt in the chard so I mixed it in with the rice to balance it out and it turned out perfect. The Eggplant with Sweet Miso Sauce was ummmm FUCKING SICK... I chucked that shit out... Too salty, too seedy, almost like that chia-seed hippie goop that everyone has been eating (Chia pudding and chia kombucha come to mind though I have never tried either, I think the texture alone would make me spew).

South African Yellow Rice (Yellow) with Southern Style Succotash (Rainbow)... Apparently I never got a shot of the rice, must have chucked it too quick, pictured instead, is just a Mexican Themed-Tofu-Garbanzo Bean-Bell Pepper-Onion-Taco Seasoning-Slop-Stirfry ;)

Verdict: Rice was way too liquidy, had to cook it longer and even bake it. After all that hassle the shit was too sweet, if I want desert I will eat ice cream or some shit I don't want sweet rice with my dinner BLECH, NO THANKS... it made a bunch and I choked down a few servings and threw the rest out. Succotash, was just MEH, almost like a pathetic "slop stirfry"... this recipe made TONS so I would halve this... I probably ate through half of it and chucked the rest later in the week. It was just a bunch of frozen and canned veggies barely seasoned, I don't know why I expected something magical.

Salt & Pepper Tofu (White/Tan)

Verdict: Very easy and pretty darn good, will be adding this to my collection of go-to recipes! All it consists of is green onions, garlic, olive oil, turmeric, smoked paprika, and s&p I believe.

 

Blackberry Breakfast Bars (Purple)

Verdict: DELICIOUS AND EASY... My friends were raving about them all throughout the challenge week, I made a double batch and subbed a frozen mix of blue/ras/ and blackberries and rolled oats in place of quick (Googled the difference and they are basically the same thing). Also tried this recipe on an omni who loved it and asked for a copy of the recipe :)

Overall, these recipes seem like a hit or miss, healthy and simple but sometimes lacking taste. Glad I made use of this cookbook though, which is exactly why I got this challenge going.

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy