Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Inspired by the wonderful film, Julie & Julia, I decided that as part of my 25 Before 25, I want to cook my way through at least one of my cook books. Now, I don't exactly have a plethora of cook books, but I do have a handful of them and I'm always fighting the need to buy more when I haven't even made anywhere near all of the recipes in the ones I already have! So, here we go!

1.  Real Girls Eat - Anthea Paul : This book totally changed my life. No joke. This is the book that taught this girl who had never made anything but brownies out of a box how to chop, juice, fry, bake, and a whole bunch of other fun things! While this isn't exclusively a cookbook, it's about learning how to eat and the importance of cooking and understanding nutrition. The first section talks all about eating healthy (in a very, realistic, hey-it's-ok-to-eat-chocolate-and-have-dessert-kind-of-way), the second section features real girls in different parts of the world (Australia, Spain, Hawaii, etc.) and their favorite cultural recipes. The third section offers recipes that are divided by times of the day: 6-9am, 9-11am, 12-3pm, 3-6pm, 6-9pm and 9-11pm. Since the first time I picked up this book, I've pretty diligently switched from eating 3 meals a day, to eating in this manner and that was 5 years ago! I also became a pescatarian (or vegaquarian, as Ms. Paul calls it) because of this book. This is not a vegetarian OR pescatarian cookbook. There are just as many recipes for chicken, fish and lamb as there are vegetarian recipes - which is one thing I love about it because it offers great recipes for entertaining guests of all dietary tastes! I've cooked a lot of the recipes in this book and can't wait to cook all of them and share my favorites with you!

2. Vegan with a Vengeance - Isa Chandra Moskowitz: My sister bought me this book several years ago and  my initial reaction was: WTF?! I am NOT a vegan! Tofu? Tempeh? GROSS! I'm not eating any of this stuff OR cooking it!  And then I realized that a vegan batch of brownies can be made with bananas and soy sauce instead of eggs and milk. Easy enough and totally not scary! So, I started cooking some of the recipes in this book and have yet to be disappointed. This book has been called the "vegan Joy of Cooking" which is probably true. The book is divided into Brunch, Muffins & Scones, Soups, Little Meals, Sammiches &Finger Foods, Sides, Pizzas & Pastas, Cookies & Bars and Desserts. The desserts in this book are truly incredible and being Brooklyn born and raised, she incorporates a lot of ethnic food: Indian, Thai, you name it, and it is all fantastic! I promise you will love Isa and her recipes.

*Important Note: I will not reproduce every single recipe in these books. To do so would probably fall under definition of some sort of copyright infringement and would probably make my two favorite cook book authors very angry. I will, however, do the following:
-Post pictures of all of these dishes attributing them to the proper author.
-Post my absolute favorite recipes that I feel must be shared.
-Post any recipes that I have, in any way, made changes to.

I made my dinner last night from one of these books and it was delicious! Check back later today for an update with pictures! I can't wait to get cookin'!