Product Description Skinny Bitches Can Bake Their Cake - And Eat it Too!
Quit your bitching--they've heard you already! You read Skinny Bitch and it totally rocked your world. Now you want to know, "What can I cook that's good for me, but doesn't taste like crap?" Well, lucky for you, the Bitches are on the case. Self-proclaimed pigs, Rory and Kim understand all too well: Life without lasagna isn't a life worth living; chocolate cake is vital to our survival; and no one can live without mac `n cheese--no one. So can you keep to your SB standards and eat like a whale? Shit yeah, bitches. To prove it, Rory and Kim came up with some kick-ass recipes for every craving there is:
-Bitchin' Breakfasts -PMS (Pissy Mood Snacks) -Sassy Soups and Stews -Grown-up Appetizers -Comfort Cookin' -Hearty Ass Sandwiches -Happy Endings (Desserts)
And a ton more! They are all so good (and easy to make) you're gonna freak out. Seriously. What are you waiting for? Get your skinny ass in the kitchen!
Old recipes with new twistsDecember 4, 2007 Paka Paka(Columbia, MO United States) 91 out of 105 found this review helpful
Well, I thought the recipes were fabulous, because I actually have *tried* the recipes. Yes, at first look at the titles, you'll think, 'oh jeez, I've made that a million times before as a vegetarian/vegan'. But they introduce lots of herbs and ingredients to regular vegetarian fare that makes you enjoy the flavor and want to continue to eat healthy, not just settling for vegan food for the vegan-ness of it. Last night I made the "beef" stew -- the one with the red wine and fresh rosemary. It was deeee-lish. I had to add a couple tablespoonds of dried thyme and you must cover while you simmer, but the recipe is very hearty and scrumptuous. I've also tried the caesar dressing, the one with the silken tofu, and it is very, very good. Enjoy!
An Introduction to Vegetarian CookingApril 29, 2008 Rebecca Johnson(Washington State) 26 out of 28 found this review helpful
The first book, "Skinny Bitch," shocked me into a new awareness of what I was eating. I decided to try the vegetarian lifestyle to see if it would work for me. I started by eating a few prepackaged meals (spring rolls with soy and a veggie pot pie) to jump-start my efforts. It took me about a week to gather the necessary ingredients. In the meantime I had veggie burritos at Taco Time and vegetable fajitas at a local Mexican restaurant.
You may find a health food store that stocks nutritional yeast flakes, Ener-G egg replacer and Bragg Liquid Aminos. In general this book uses safflower and olive oil. The truth of the matter is that many of the recipes call for coconut oil (a little expensive $10 for 414 ml), which may or may not work for you. I found it less appetizing in savory dishes and appropriate for sweet foods like cookies. It is easy to substitute olive oil for the coconut oil in some of the recipes like Hummus and Macaroni and Cheese. Why you would want coconut oil in those recipes is beyond my understanding.
The recipes are divided into interesting sections like Bitchin' Breakfast, PMS ( Pissy Mood Snacks), Grown-Up Appetizers, Sassy Soups and Stews, Skinny-Ass Salads, Hearty-Ass Sandwiches, International Bitch, Italian Bitch, Down Home Cookin', Skinny Bitch Staple Meals, Divine Dressings and Happy Endings. This book has a sassy style and is actually quite funny in places. Some of the more gourmet offerings include:
Pecan-crusted French Toast
Crabby Cakes with Remoulade Sauce
Potato and Pumpkin Curry with Brown Basmatic Rice
Penne with Butternut Squash, Sage Pesto, and Almonds
Roasted Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and Garlic over Soft Polenta
Balsamic Portobello Mushrooms over Grilled Vegetable Couscous
Since I was throwing myself into this vegetarian lifestyle with a sense of abandon I decided to try twelve recipes. I managed to make four of the recipes in one night without much trouble. The buttery shortbread cookies looked easy enough until I noticed the quantity of orange juice and knew it wouldn't work. So I decided to substitute 5 tablespoons soymilk for the 1 tablespoon orange juice. To get the crumb mixture to hold together you may need to add additional tablespoons of milk depending on where you live. The dough seemed to work best when the crumbed mixture was pressed together in small batches and then rolled out. Each time you just add some more crumbs to the top and proceed as normal. The recipe made 32 "Buttery Shortbread Cookies."
While the cookies were baking I made the "Marinated Tofu Feta" which was the easiest recipe in the book. I'd recommend only using half the tofu and using half the salt. It would have been helpful if the authors mentioned how long you could store the marinated tofu. Actually it tasted pretty good so you might eat it up fast in a few days.
Next I tackled a "Fruit Smoothie," which was easy enough. You may want to use orange juice with the "Very Berry" Smoothie. If you use soymilk be prepared to sweeten the drink. I blended in two tablespoons of rice syrup but you could also use a packet of stevia.
To end the night's testing spree I then made the "Green Goddess Pasta" for dinner. It was fairly easy to make except I have a few tips that will make it easier. To begin with, make sure the vegan butter you buy will actually melt. I tried using a Spectrum spread and it simply would not melt. So after tossing away the garlic and unmelted spread I ended up just using a stick of butter. You can do that if you are a Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian (you can then still eat eggs and dairy products if you choose - this book frowns on such behaviors and I totally understand why). I really tried to stay true to the recipes but haven't found a good vegan butter substitute. The pasta dish really allows for variation because you could technically use any type of pasta. I used an organic penne rigate and added the broccoli and zucchini a little ahead of the kale. I also didn't use any of the cooking water with the butter. That didn't sound like a good idea and the additional salt seemed too much since I was using salted butter.
The recipes I still want to try include:
French Scramble
Granola
"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (a substitute is easy to find in the frozen section of a health food store)
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vanilla Cake with Frosting
Caesar Dressing (made with tofu)
Hummus, Tempeh, and Cucumber Wrap
Summer Garden Pasta
Since cooking from a new cookbook is always a little risky I felt that the evening's recipe testing session went quite well. I was happy with all the dishes and was ready to try more. I'm still sipping on my fruit smoothie for dessert and I have three dinners (the pasta dish makes four servings) frozen and ready to go for nights when I don't want to cook.
~The Rebecca Review
P.S. The Recipe Testing continues...
4/29/2008 - The "Quesadillas" are delicious and so easy to make. I think you will love the recipe.
5/1/2008 - The "Apple Muffins (a variation of fruit and nut muffins)" are good straight out of the oven with some honey.
5/2/2008 - Today I tried the Chocolate Pancakes, a variation on Basic Pancakes. They were so good I ate three. They are made with whole wheat flour but you would never know it. I would buy this book just for this one recipe. The "Chicken" Salad Sandwich is easy to make because you are using meatless chicken...therefore, no cooking! The Worthington Meatless Chicken Vegetarian Protein Slices worked well in this recipe.
5/6/2008 - The Quick Tortilla Pizzas are so gourmet with a roasted red pepper sauce and Kalamata olives. The pizza sauce is easy to make in a blender, no food processor needed. If you are in the mood, add three tablespoons of tomato paste to the sauce.
5/8/2008 - Today I made the chocolate chip cookies and couldn't believe how good they were even without eggs and butter. The recipe calls for coconut oil which is perfect with the chocolate chips. My husband even asked for a second cookie.
My new workhorse everyday cookbookFebruary 29, 2008 Cat Assisted Typing 24 out of 27 found this review helpful
If you are hostile to vegetarian philosophy, don't bother. Don't bother with the book, and you can save your ranting time for something more pleasant. Maybe get a massage? Shop for shoes? Help out in a soup kitchen? The list is endless.
I was working in a bookstore shelving the nutrition section when I came across Skinny Bitches. I thought it was another martini diet/how the rich stay emaciated gimmick book. I was pleasantly surprised to find instead that it is a vegan primer, with attitude.
That tickled me, because most vegan books either speak to the converted, or adopt a peacenik/I-spend-all-my-time-in-yoga-class-or-mediating persona. That's not bad in itself. I just like seeing something different, something that will speak to a new audience.
As for me, I've been a vegetarian for more than twenty years, a vegan for a third of that. I'm middle aged but often mistaken for a college student. My doctor is all smiles at my check-up, and I have the vitals of a twenty-five year old. I have good genes, yes, but I give my diet great credit for my excellent health. My siblings who are not vegetarians have not fared so well. I really doubt someone eating a low-carb/high protein diet after twenty years would be in such good shape. Most of the low-carb people I know have dull, aging skin. Why is that? But that's another topic.
As for this book as a cookbook, it has become my daily workhorse cookbook. That's pretty amazing, since I have over 200 vegetarian cookbooks in my house. No, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch isn't that innovative. But I have innovative cookbooks I use twice a year because I'm too busy to make big productions of meals. I'm a single mom with two kids, and food has to be fast, healthy, delicious and not too weird. These are comfortingly familiar kinds of meals, which appeal to me, even after years of experimenting with some very strange ingredients. The use of meat substitutes makes these recipes less strange to my kids, and presumably, to a new audience of vegan cooks.
Moreover, the quality of the recipes are excellent. The seasoning and preparation make them special. For example, I've made mashed potatoes a zillion times, but my kids liked the mashed potatoes even better than my other recipes.
The inclusion of coconut oil is a question mark for me. Even if you see coconut oil touted everywhere on the net as a 'miracle oil', and often promoted by the arch-enemies of vegetarianism who believe you need a lot of animal fat to be healthy, i.e. Nourishing Traditions, as a skeptic I will withhold opinion until the data is conclusive. If you "buy" the coconut oil sales pitch, we vegans needn't worry so much about the amount of saturated fat there, which is considerable, because we're not eating meat and dairy and getting it other places. Nonetheless, it did make the cooked greens taste fabulous--the sweetness of the coconut oil cuts down on the bitterness of the greens, and I'm sure I'll make them this way forever. Coconut oil is also a very satisfactory shortening for vegan cooking. So regardless if it is a 'miracle oil' or not, I tend to think it will have its uses in the vegan kitchen.
Bottom line: I liked this book, liked its unpretentiousness toward food, and liked its message about veganism. But again, if you are hostile towards vegetarian philosophy, don't bother.
Fun, Sassy, and Educational!March 30, 2008 Sara Olson(Hell, SD) 8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I definitely enjoyed this book. It's fast paced, witty, and refreshing with the acerbic sense of humor in which it was written and the honesty as well. It was a shocking read, I was expecting a "love yourself and starve" diet book but the fact is that itpresents the realities of what we are putting into our body and what kind of damage we do to ourselves. It was both entertaining and startling to read honestly. I haven't looked at food the same way since and my family is slowly starting to switch over to vegan diet after both my husband and I reading the book and thinking long and hard about it. I like that the authors don't emphasize perfection but rather conscientiousness about our bodies and eating habits. It was a worthwhile read! I bought the cookbook too!
Skinny BitchApril 27, 2008 Mamamia(Plainfield, IL) 10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Ok. First of all you really need to read "skinny bitch" in addition to buying this recipe book so you can understand what is happening in the world of food meets politics meets major health problems. That way you can infect the people you love with your knowledge and bring to light many important reasons why to become a vegetarian.
This recipe book is great because after you decide not to eat Ms. Piggy anymore you can learn how to cook with veggies and other organic meatless foods. This cookbook is easy to follow and has easy find to ingredients, and won't keep you slaving over a hot stove for hours.
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