What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fiber for Life Cookbook
Learn how to reap the health-benefits of a fiber-rich diet with this collection of gourmet dishes that you'll enjoy serving to your family and friends because they taste good and are satisfying. The fact that they are high-fiber is an added bonus. More health experts are recommending that we eat a few plant-based meals a week and fit more vegetables and whole grains into our diet. A lack of fiber can cause many common complaints and life-threatening conditions whereas including more fiber in your diet can aid digestion and help protect against heart disease and cancer. Renowned cookbook author Bryanna Clark Grogan offers a variety of delicious recipes from satisfying fare to please your family to gourmet recipes for any party. A few of the dishes to enjoy include Chickpea and Walnut Salad, Thai Cabbage Salad, Maple Baked Beans, Savory Mushroom Patties, Velvet Turkish Red Lentil Soup and Fudgey Light Brownies and Pear Upside-Down Cake.
- GenresCookbooks
Paperback
First published August 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 11, 2011
11/11/11 UPDATE: You guys, I'm gonna keep updating this Fiber For Life book...FOR LIFE! No, not really, just til I've cooked the entire thing maybe.
Last night I made the Habitant Pea Soup. I couldn't find whole dried yellow peas in the store, so I used all split yellow peas, with a little less than called for. It worked great, because it didn't need to cook nearly as long, maybe 45 minutes? I was doubtful until right at the end, when I stirred in the sesame oil and blended it (more than the recommended 3 cups, because I like creamy soup). Oh, wow, was it awesome! I don't understand the nutritional info given, how a soup that has all vegetables and only 1 TBSP of sesame oil could have 11 grams of fat per serving, but whatever. Tons of fiber, and super filling. I served it with...
Creamy Corn Muffins: Pretty good! Again, I was skeptical at first, when I tasted the batter (don't judge me!) and it wasn't as sweet as my usual corn bread/muffin recipe. But it baked up quite tastily. I substituted 1/2 TBSP of flaxmeal for the powdered egg replacer, put in the blender with the rest of the wet ingredients. Next time I think I'm going to try beating by hand, because I don't really see the benefit of using a blender and our blender is kind of busted right now. I love Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipes, and generally trust them, but I think sometimes she makes extra work for herself. Like, why does she have you blend a flaxmeal + water egg replacement when you can actually just mix it in a bowl & let it sit for 2 minutes and it's the same thing? Or even boiling it for a few minutes brings out the egg-like qualities, although makes it a little gummier. Whatever. Just a personal preference. Muffins were good. I'd make 'em again, definitely.
Excellent collection of recipes that do, in fact, increase the fiber in one's diet. Not to be all TMI, but I had a noticeable (positive) difference in my digestive health during the week or two when I was using this cookbook a lot. There were definitely a good collection of recipes that I plan to use & reuse, and still a lot more interesting-looking recipes to try out. Some were unexpected failures, but I still feel good enough about the book to keep cooking my way through it.
Mattar Tofu recipe: I blended half of it & mixed it back in, and that really improved the texture. I just couldn't stand the thought of a non-"creamy" mattar dish. I think next time I'd add more tomatoes, but other than that, spices were right-on.
Oatmeal-Apple-Walnut pancakes: Didn't used apple upon David's request; bad move. Not very sweet, but do-able w/syrup. Sort of how you'd expect fiber-laden food to taste. Cardboardy, and egg replacer didn't do very well on the leavening end of things.
Fiber-Rich Choc. Chip cookies: Batter looks unspeakable but baked up pretty well. Trying icebox method too; will update when I bake those! Update: Icebox method works fine, and prevents me from having 4 dozen cookies around all at once. Instead, the two of us ate 48 cookies over a 6 day period. Heh.
Oil Pie Crust: Pretty much a flop...I followed the instructions exactly, and after less than 24 hours in the fridge, it was very dry. Maybe I "overmixed", but I didn't understand how to avoid that. I ended up having to wet them down & use them in muffin tins as tarts, and then they were not thin enough & still cracked & tasted okay but not great. Hmph.
Oat Bran-Coconut Crumb Cake: Okay, very moist---VERY moist. I even baked it an extra 10 minutes or so, and still. My applesauce was homemade, and that might have been the cause of the feeling that it was too dense & overbaked. Also, the crumb topping melted into more of a crust, which was tasty but not expected, although I should have with the high amount of brown sugar. I don't know what I *thought* was going to happen.
Not Your Mom's Meatloaf: It was pretty good! Maybe a bit too moist, but a nice, tomatoey taste (helped on by soaking TVP in ketchup), and so good to have another vegan protein staple in my cooking toolbox. On my second time, I had to use oat bran in place of the wheat bran, which made a drier meatloaf. Maybe I'll try replacing only half the wheat bran with oat bran for something in the middle.
Ready-Bake Bran Muffins: Very moist; I used the soymilk + applesauce option instead of using entirely soymilk. It's amazing there's no additional fat. I thirded the recipe, which originally made 36. It said I should fill the tins 3/4 full, but there was too much batter for that. So I filled them up right to the top, got some delicious spillage, and was stupidly surprised that they took longer than the baking time listed in the book. In retrospect, that should have been completely obvious. Tasty, anyway, although I am eating them with applesauce for breakfast. On their own, they might be a bit "health-food-y". UPDATE: Made another batch, this time with raisins. I made a 2/3 recipe this time, and filled the muffin tins up 3/4 of the way this time (as directed), and the baking time was correct, but I ended up with 3 dozen! I really can't imagine how many muffins you would get if you followed the directions exactly.
Oatmeal Drop Scones/Biscuits: Made way too loose of a batter. I needed to add much more flour, and they still ended up more like flopped rolls. Certainly not the "crumb" of scones. Tasty, but I didn't like the end result enough to repeat.
Last night I made the Habitant Pea Soup. I couldn't find whole dried yellow peas in the store, so I used all split yellow peas, with a little less than called for. It worked great, because it didn't need to cook nearly as long, maybe 45 minutes? I was doubtful until right at the end, when I stirred in the sesame oil and blended it (more than the recommended 3 cups, because I like creamy soup). Oh, wow, was it awesome! I don't understand the nutritional info given, how a soup that has all vegetables and only 1 TBSP of sesame oil could have 11 grams of fat per serving, but whatever. Tons of fiber, and super filling. I served it with...
Creamy Corn Muffins: Pretty good! Again, I was skeptical at first, when I tasted the batter (don't judge me!) and it wasn't as sweet as my usual corn bread/muffin recipe. But it baked up quite tastily. I substituted 1/2 TBSP of flaxmeal for the powdered egg replacer, put in the blender with the rest of the wet ingredients. Next time I think I'm going to try beating by hand, because I don't really see the benefit of using a blender and our blender is kind of busted right now. I love Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipes, and generally trust them, but I think sometimes she makes extra work for herself. Like, why does she have you blend a flaxmeal + water egg replacement when you can actually just mix it in a bowl & let it sit for 2 minutes and it's the same thing? Or even boiling it for a few minutes brings out the egg-like qualities, although makes it a little gummier. Whatever. Just a personal preference. Muffins were good. I'd make 'em again, definitely.
Excellent collection of recipes that do, in fact, increase the fiber in one's diet. Not to be all TMI, but I had a noticeable (positive) difference in my digestive health during the week or two when I was using this cookbook a lot. There were definitely a good collection of recipes that I plan to use & reuse, and still a lot more interesting-looking recipes to try out. Some were unexpected failures, but I still feel good enough about the book to keep cooking my way through it.
Mattar Tofu recipe: I blended half of it & mixed it back in, and that really improved the texture. I just couldn't stand the thought of a non-"creamy" mattar dish. I think next time I'd add more tomatoes, but other than that, spices were right-on.
Oatmeal-Apple-Walnut pancakes: Didn't used apple upon David's request; bad move. Not very sweet, but do-able w/syrup. Sort of how you'd expect fiber-laden food to taste. Cardboardy, and egg replacer didn't do very well on the leavening end of things.
Fiber-Rich Choc. Chip cookies: Batter looks unspeakable but baked up pretty well. Trying icebox method too; will update when I bake those! Update: Icebox method works fine, and prevents me from having 4 dozen cookies around all at once. Instead, the two of us ate 48 cookies over a 6 day period. Heh.
Oil Pie Crust: Pretty much a flop...I followed the instructions exactly, and after less than 24 hours in the fridge, it was very dry. Maybe I "overmixed", but I didn't understand how to avoid that. I ended up having to wet them down & use them in muffin tins as tarts, and then they were not thin enough & still cracked & tasted okay but not great. Hmph.
Oat Bran-Coconut Crumb Cake: Okay, very moist---VERY moist. I even baked it an extra 10 minutes or so, and still. My applesauce was homemade, and that might have been the cause of the feeling that it was too dense & overbaked. Also, the crumb topping melted into more of a crust, which was tasty but not expected, although I should have with the high amount of brown sugar. I don't know what I *thought* was going to happen.
Not Your Mom's Meatloaf: It was pretty good! Maybe a bit too moist, but a nice, tomatoey taste (helped on by soaking TVP in ketchup), and so good to have another vegan protein staple in my cooking toolbox. On my second time, I had to use oat bran in place of the wheat bran, which made a drier meatloaf. Maybe I'll try replacing only half the wheat bran with oat bran for something in the middle.
Ready-Bake Bran Muffins: Very moist; I used the soymilk + applesauce option instead of using entirely soymilk. It's amazing there's no additional fat. I thirded the recipe, which originally made 36. It said I should fill the tins 3/4 full, but there was too much batter for that. So I filled them up right to the top, got some delicious spillage, and was stupidly surprised that they took longer than the baking time listed in the book. In retrospect, that should have been completely obvious. Tasty, anyway, although I am eating them with applesauce for breakfast. On their own, they might be a bit "health-food-y". UPDATE: Made another batch, this time with raisins. I made a 2/3 recipe this time, and filled the muffin tins up 3/4 of the way this time (as directed), and the baking time was correct, but I ended up with 3 dozen! I really can't imagine how many muffins you would get if you followed the directions exactly.
Oatmeal Drop Scones/Biscuits: Made way too loose of a batter. I needed to add much more flour, and they still ended up more like flopped rolls. Certainly not the "crumb" of scones. Tasty, but I didn't like the end result enough to repeat.
April 16, 2021
Oldie, yet goodie. Excellent information on dietary fiber as essential to well being, & how it contributed to disease prevention. Tips for naturally increasing dietary fiber intake on daily basis with menu suggestions, charts of fiber and calorie counts of common foods. Delicious collection of 100% vegan recipes, with mostly easily sourced ingredients; fiber & calorie counts included per serving for the recipes.
Recipe categories are Breakfast, Breads, Appetizers & Snacks, Salads Dressings & Sauces, Soups, Mainly Beans (with bean cooking chart), Mainly Vegetables, Mainly Grains, and Desserts.
Tips on using flaxseed as high fiber egg replacement. Also sources for ingredients that were less available when this book was published (2002), but are more readily available now. Reminds me of how vegan eating is more mainstream than ever.
Favorites: Spicy southern-style greens, Okra gumbo, Eggless crepes, Peach Melba muffins.
Highly recommend.
Recipe categories are Breakfast, Breads, Appetizers & Snacks, Salads Dressings & Sauces, Soups, Mainly Beans (with bean cooking chart), Mainly Vegetables, Mainly Grains, and Desserts.
Tips on using flaxseed as high fiber egg replacement. Also sources for ingredients that were less available when this book was published (2002), but are more readily available now. Reminds me of how vegan eating is more mainstream than ever.
Favorites: Spicy southern-style greens, Okra gumbo, Eggless crepes, Peach Melba muffins.
Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews