CookBook Review: The Kind Diet - A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.
Author: Alicia Silverstone
The Kind Diet is a lot of things. Broken down into three parts, part one goes though "Nasty foods" like meat, dairy and white sugar and breaks down, why they are nasty. In part two Alicia talks about how to become what she calls a "flirt", someone who is just flirting with the idea of veganism, about how to transition into becoming an actual vegan and also how to become what she calls a "superhero" or how to follow a macrobiotic diet. Part three is Recipes!
The Kind Diet uses personal stories, easy to read bullet points and is written in a gentle and quite fittingly, kind voice. Alicia really gets her point across that she really, just wants you to feel as good as she does. She encourages everyone to try out a vegan lifestyle in any way they are comfortable and see if it works for them.
It of course helps that I really love Alicia to begin with, Cher Horowitz lives in a lot of my generations hearts, but I genuinely felt her love and joy in this book at having found some of the answers to her own happiness. I am a foodie after all, always looking for something new and wanting to try things out and experiment. That maybe we should all just calm down about labels and stigma. And I have felt the desire, through her encouragement, to try harder, to strive further and to relax and enjoy the transition towards a more plant based lifestyle. It helps that trying new foods and ways of cooking and finding alternatives to my usual products is actually fun!
The Kind Diet uses personal stories, easy to read bullet points and is written in a gentle and quite fittingly, kind voice. Alicia really gets her point across that she really, just wants you to feel as good as she does. She encourages everyone to try out a vegan lifestyle in any way they are comfortable and see if it works for them.
It of course helps that I really love Alicia to begin with, Cher Horowitz lives in a lot of my generations hearts, but I genuinely felt her love and joy in this book at having found some of the answers to her own happiness. I am a foodie after all, always looking for something new and wanting to try things out and experiment. That maybe we should all just calm down about labels and stigma. And I have felt the desire, through her encouragement, to try harder, to strive further and to relax and enjoy the transition towards a more plant based lifestyle. It helps that trying new foods and ways of cooking and finding alternatives to my usual products is actually fun!
On to the food! I do have to say, a lot of the recipes in this book that I was excited to try i did not attempt as i could not get or afford some of the ingredients. Things like umeboshi plums and vinegar, mochi, burdock, and kombucha squash. But I did find quite a few that I could make with ingredients at my local store, and found the new foods intriguing enough to research further and try and source online.
Christopher's Cauliflower steaks were a surprise, its great when something as simple as roasted cauliflower can get a new life by just being sliced in a different way. And the roasted fennel alongside it was a real treat.
Alicia's favorite cupcakes I made for a special occasion, being both free of dairy, eggs and white sugar made the consistency of the cake not unpleasant but just, different. Heavier and denser than the usual, and the frosting much less sweet, made with Earth Balance butter spread and agave syrup along with cocoa of course.
The Chocolate Apricot Coins I made the independent decision to sprinkle with roasted salted peanuts, I really thought they needed something to balance them out. It was a nice experiment, and I had a great time flattening and dipping the apricots into the chocolate with my daughter, I have to admit though, we didn't end up eating the whole batch.
The Rustic Pasta was really good, I did not use all the cabbage the recipe called for....it was quite a lot. We were pleased by how well it blended into the dish and really bulked up the pasta, making us fuller while eating less actual noodles. I added hot pepper flakes, but then I add hot pepper flakes to a lot of things...
My husband Alex really enjoyed the Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew, especially once we figured out the best way to enjoy it. By crumbling the cornbread into the hot stew and eating them mixed together! It added a wonderful texture to the soft lentils and the sweetness really heightened the seasonings. My daughter loved the cornbread, and ate quite a lot of it warm with Earth Balance spread!
I was very excited to try the Traditional English Breakfast, more of a guideline for how to pull a breakfast together than a full recipe, it lays out alternative options to the usual bacon and eggs. I was skeptical to how much we would enjoy kale for breakfast, and assumed I would miss eggs most of all. I am quite partial to a pile of toast and a soft egg or two. We were actually beyond satisfied with all the options we had, and liked having the kale with our meal so much, I have incorporated greens into our regular Sunday breakfast. Sometimes kale, sometimes spinach, whatever we may have in the fridge. It adds a really great dimension to a usually very heavy meal and makes you feel good too!
I got to make the Caesar Salad for guests and we were all very impressed with how close the flavor was to a regular Caesar Salad, I thought it was quite clever to use the seaweed (nori) sheets as a topping, it did a great job of imparting that slightly fishy undertone that a traditional Caesar Salad made with anchovies. Plus you can never go wrong by making your own croutons, its always worth the trouble.
The Hot Rice with Cold Lemon and Tomato was better in theory than in practice, I found it quite flavorless and the use of arborio rice not the wisest. I had to heavily season the dish and use over double the amount of fresh lemon juice to give it some zing. I love the idea though, as I really enjoy rice bowl type dishes. I may look into doing something similar but with brown rice and maybe lime instead of lemon in the future. There will probably be an avocado involved.....I'm like that.
What a real treat the Crispy Tofu Slices and Orange Dipping sauce was! I have been trying out every which way to make tofu and have finally found one that is just perfect. I used a medium firm tofu with this one, which gave it a crispy fried outside a nice soft centre. The dipping sauce is just equal parts orange juice and maple syrup and is crazy addictive. Together. Perfection. I have made this at least 3 or 4 times since.
The Moroccan Couscous With Saffron was easy to make and it made a ton! We were eating this for the better part of a week. On the plus side is was equally good warm or cold. I was a bit heavy handed with the saffron, which I might ease up on next time (I got too excited) and it gave it a little kick I quite liked but my husband found overpowering. It was kind of nice to have it with us for so long though, like a friend in the fridge...if all else fails, there was the Moroccan Couscous. I think it would be a great potluck salad for the future.....i'm open to being invited to a potluck guys...come on.
The Kind Life is a great start for anyone wanting to know more about what it mean to be vegan, how they can incorporate more vegan friendly foods into their diet, and educate themselves on a few things about the meat and dairy industry as a whole. Plus its actually a really nice read. : )
The Kind Life is also a website run by Alicia, you can check it out and find a community of Vegans, Superheros and Vegan Flirts. http://thekindlife.com/ It also has more recipes!
Be seeing you,
Julia
You can follow Bad Hunter on everything there is to follow, links for the Facebook and Twitter sites are up along with a Pinterest page full of Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes. There is also a Google + page and always feel free to send an email to: [email protected]
If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!
Christopher's Cauliflower steaks were a surprise, its great when something as simple as roasted cauliflower can get a new life by just being sliced in a different way. And the roasted fennel alongside it was a real treat.
Alicia's favorite cupcakes I made for a special occasion, being both free of dairy, eggs and white sugar made the consistency of the cake not unpleasant but just, different. Heavier and denser than the usual, and the frosting much less sweet, made with Earth Balance butter spread and agave syrup along with cocoa of course.
The Chocolate Apricot Coins I made the independent decision to sprinkle with roasted salted peanuts, I really thought they needed something to balance them out. It was a nice experiment, and I had a great time flattening and dipping the apricots into the chocolate with my daughter, I have to admit though, we didn't end up eating the whole batch.
The Rustic Pasta was really good, I did not use all the cabbage the recipe called for....it was quite a lot. We were pleased by how well it blended into the dish and really bulked up the pasta, making us fuller while eating less actual noodles. I added hot pepper flakes, but then I add hot pepper flakes to a lot of things...
My husband Alex really enjoyed the Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew, especially once we figured out the best way to enjoy it. By crumbling the cornbread into the hot stew and eating them mixed together! It added a wonderful texture to the soft lentils and the sweetness really heightened the seasonings. My daughter loved the cornbread, and ate quite a lot of it warm with Earth Balance spread!
I was very excited to try the Traditional English Breakfast, more of a guideline for how to pull a breakfast together than a full recipe, it lays out alternative options to the usual bacon and eggs. I was skeptical to how much we would enjoy kale for breakfast, and assumed I would miss eggs most of all. I am quite partial to a pile of toast and a soft egg or two. We were actually beyond satisfied with all the options we had, and liked having the kale with our meal so much, I have incorporated greens into our regular Sunday breakfast. Sometimes kale, sometimes spinach, whatever we may have in the fridge. It adds a really great dimension to a usually very heavy meal and makes you feel good too!
I got to make the Caesar Salad for guests and we were all very impressed with how close the flavor was to a regular Caesar Salad, I thought it was quite clever to use the seaweed (nori) sheets as a topping, it did a great job of imparting that slightly fishy undertone that a traditional Caesar Salad made with anchovies. Plus you can never go wrong by making your own croutons, its always worth the trouble.
The Hot Rice with Cold Lemon and Tomato was better in theory than in practice, I found it quite flavorless and the use of arborio rice not the wisest. I had to heavily season the dish and use over double the amount of fresh lemon juice to give it some zing. I love the idea though, as I really enjoy rice bowl type dishes. I may look into doing something similar but with brown rice and maybe lime instead of lemon in the future. There will probably be an avocado involved.....I'm like that.
What a real treat the Crispy Tofu Slices and Orange Dipping sauce was! I have been trying out every which way to make tofu and have finally found one that is just perfect. I used a medium firm tofu with this one, which gave it a crispy fried outside a nice soft centre. The dipping sauce is just equal parts orange juice and maple syrup and is crazy addictive. Together. Perfection. I have made this at least 3 or 4 times since.
The Moroccan Couscous With Saffron was easy to make and it made a ton! We were eating this for the better part of a week. On the plus side is was equally good warm or cold. I was a bit heavy handed with the saffron, which I might ease up on next time (I got too excited) and it gave it a little kick I quite liked but my husband found overpowering. It was kind of nice to have it with us for so long though, like a friend in the fridge...if all else fails, there was the Moroccan Couscous. I think it would be a great potluck salad for the future.....i'm open to being invited to a potluck guys...come on.
The Kind Life is a great start for anyone wanting to know more about what it mean to be vegan, how they can incorporate more vegan friendly foods into their diet, and educate themselves on a few things about the meat and dairy industry as a whole. Plus its actually a really nice read. : )
The Kind Life is also a website run by Alicia, you can check it out and find a community of Vegans, Superheros and Vegan Flirts. http://thekindlife.com/ It also has more recipes!
Be seeing you,
Julia
You can follow Bad Hunter on everything there is to follow, links for the Facebook and Twitter sites are up along with a Pinterest page full of Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes. There is also a Google + page and always feel free to send an email to: [email protected]
If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you!