My Beef With Meat Engine 2- Plant Strong Recipe Reviews

My daughter Katy and I have both been cooking up a storm out of the new Engine 2 My Beef With Meat book by Rip Esselstyn. I’ve been so pleased with the recipes from this book that I want to share with you the bounty of delicious, healthy, hearty food we have been enjoying at our house since moving to a whole foods plant based diet. Regardless of what food plan you follow you also might enjoy including some of these meals in your menu.

This book is available at your local book store or through Amazon. I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in some meatless meals or if you desire to read more about a plant based diet. I purchased a copy with my own money and I wasn’t asked to write a review nor am I being paid to do this post. I just love sharing good food. Here is a peek at some of what we have made and would make again.

 One Day our daughter Katy brought over these Village Potato Pockets that she made from scratch using the recipe on page 178 from the book. The filling is sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, garlic, tomatoes and chickpeas all seasoned generously with cumin, ginger and Gram Marsala. Fresh whole wheat bread dough is rolled out and stuffed with the tasty filling and then baked until steamy hot. So filling and satisfying. Hubby Tom is already requesting that I make them soon.

Real Flapjacks page 142. A really nice simple oat bar. See my version of the recipe here.

For Father’s Day Katy made these Starry Night Vertical Lasagna rolls page 200 with Fast and Fresh Marinara Sauce page 227. Bursting with flavor from fresh herbs it was so yummy I ate two rolls!  Katy said these were a lot of work since she also made the marinara sauce but it made a huge pan full so it’s like cooking ahead for a few meals.  Sorry for the cell phone photo but I didn’t have my camera with me.

I have made the Dr Seuss Stacked Polenta on page 183 twice already. We love these stackers that include polenta, sweet potatoes, tomatoes with a nutty sauce called OMG Walnut sauce on page 216 sandwiched in between the layers. A little basil lemon topping then drizzled with a balsamic reduction. Yum! I took them to a dinner at a friends house and they were a hit. Serve it as a side dish, an appetizer or have two of them with a salad for lunch. I might need to make this again today! The cost of the book was worth it for this recipe alone – yep – it’s really that good.

Handstand burgers page 203. Simple and easy but lots of flavor and super filling. Make a double batch, freeze the extras for easy and quick heat and eat meals when you are too busy to cook from scratch.

Adonis Chocolate Cake page 260. Worthy of a special occasion – I served it with some fresh raspberries. No one will know the frosting contains some tofu! It was delicious and such a treat. It would also make awesome cupcakes.

Raise The Barn Butternut Squash Vegetable Lasagna on page 199. A little bit of work but so worth it. My 9 x 13 pan wasn’t deep enough to include all the layers so this is a modified version but it was plenty filling. Reheats like a charm and you won’t miss the meat or cheese. We froze the leftovers and when hubby Tom reheated some, he said it tasted just as good a s it did fresh.

P.S. Chorizo Patties have a spicy kick and are a nice change from other bean veggie patties. See the recipe here.

 These A-2-Z Muffins on page 146 were not my favorite muffin but hubby Tom really liked them so I guess it’s just personal preference. They are a mixture of zucchini, carrots, apples, flax seed, applesauce, maple syrup, walnuts, cinnamon and whole wheat pastry flour. There were two options for baking them, one at a lower temperature for a longer time or a higher temperature for a shorter time. I chose the latter and I think it dried them out a bit so I will make them again and bake at the lower temperature. Hubby Tom gave them a two thumbs up!

Thai Slaw page 237, was also a hit at our house. You can see the recipe here. Cabbage, ginger, soy sauce or tamari, salsa, peanut butter, bell pepper, cilantro and peanuts. Yum, yum, yum!

Nutmeg Notes

New Blog Features

Thanks to my son David’s hard work I have a new recipe navigation page for Plant Strong Recipes!  If you click on the Recipes tab at the top of the page you get a drop down menu with Plant Strong or Standard Recipes just click on the one you want and you can browse the recipes. Since I don’t work as fast on the computer as David does, all of the plant strong recipes are not yet moved over to the new navigation page. It’s a work in a progress and I get a couple moved over each day. At this rate it will take me a few weeks to get it all done.In the mean time you can browse through the past few months of posts to see the plant strong recipes I have been trying.

You might also notice a new Cycling and Hiking tab at the top of the page. I am in the process of moving my hiking posts over and in the future I plan on posting about our bike rides as well.

I recently updated the Food Philosophy and my About page which both can be read by clicking on the respective tabs at the top of the page.

Many of you enjoy Pinterest as do I. At the bottom of posts you will find a Pinterest icon to click on so you can easily pin recipes from this blog. If you would like to follow my Nutmeg Notebook Pinterest page just click on the Pinterest icon located in the subscribe box located on the upper right side bar of the home page and it takes you to my Pinterest boards where you can click on follow if you wish.

Thank you David – I love the new changes.

Lots of busy work has been going on behind the scenes here at Nutmeg Notebook. And you wonder what I do with all my spare time! Ha ha!

Happy Healthy Trails

Tami

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.

What is one of your favorite meatless meal?

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