Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals That Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet

by Christy Morgan

Cooking in a way that’s good for you and for the environment—not to mention delicious—doesn’t have to be a pain; in fact, it can be sheer bliss. In Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals That Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet, Christy Morgan shows readers how to make healthy, delicious, animal-product free meals without a lot of effort. It’s been long-accepted that giving up animal products also means giving up easy and enjoyable cooking, but that’s just not true. Blissful Bites is a refreshing introduction to the idea that switching to a plant-based diet that uses locally grown and organic products can be easy and rewarding—for both body and mind.

Blissful Bites includes more than 150 recipes that make eating every meal healthier and exciting. Morgan, known to her online audience as "The Blissful Chef,” also delivers recipes that are easy for the typical home cook to follow, making a plant-based diet seem simpler and more delicious to implement than ever before.

Blissful Bites is filled with unique recipes and plenty of tips on how to live a healthier, more environmentally friendly life, without sacrificing an ounce of taste.

Genres: Cookbooks, Vegan, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Vegetarian

280 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2011

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that while I am giving this book 3 ½ stars, I did find many 5 star worthy recipes in the book. I found many recipes enticing and might borrow this book again, and try several/many of them. And as I wrote and reviewed the book, I felt compelled to up my original official rating from 3 stars to 4 stars because of the information and some recipes, and then back to 3 stars because of the absence of onions and especially garlic. They’re not in these recipes. Of course, I’d usually add them. With tweaking, I’d like these recipes more, though some I’d make as they’re presented.

The bliss word drove me a bit nuts. Bliss this and blissful that. Some will like this. I could have done without it.

Once again, for my tastes, there is included too much vinegar, coconut, and sea veggies. This is a macrobiotic vegan cookbook and while I’ve enjoyed plenty of macrobiotic meals, and sometimes seek them out, I don’t follow a macrobiotic diet. So I saw tomatoes and some other verboten foods improving some of the recipes, once again just my opinion. But plenty of the recipes looked delicious to me as is.

Aside from the bliss/blissful words issue, there is some wonderful information in this book. The text at the beginning of the sections and the recipes and elsewhere, well all of it is helpful, especially the instructions & tips. There are some entertaining quotes throughout the book.

Not every recipe has an accompanying photograph, but many of them do, and the photos are wonderful.

The recipes are divided by the four seasons and a fifth anytime section; this is for each recipe section. Each recipe has these applicable icons: raw, gluten-free, soy-free, low or no oil, less than 45 minutes, and then chef favorite and fan favorite. I love the various suggested menus, the daily meals ones and the special occasion and specific eaters ones too.

Everything is in printed in lower case letters.

table of contents:

foreword by Kim Barnouin

first things first

finding your bliss
how to read this cookbook
the icons
creating the ideal kitchen space and pantry
pantry basics
the tools
tips for getting started
basic cooking and cutting techniques
prepping station

the recipes

breakfast and brunch for champions
appetizers and soups for every occasion
not-your-average fresh salads and dressings
delectable vegetable sides
whole grains and carbs do a body good
sea vegetables, huh?
compassionate proteins
healthier desserts you crave

more

sample menus
resources
acknowledgments
index
metric conversions

Here are the recipes I most want to make. The ones with an * in front of them are the ones most likely to inspire me to borrow this book at least one more time.

from breakfast & brunch of champions: *kamut crêpes and *lemon crème sauce; pineapple cornbread muffins; mixed berry couscous surprise; orange-pumpkin ginger french toast; *pumpkin spice pancakes; *roasted sweet and yukon potatoes; southwest tofu scramble

from appetizers and soups for every occasion: *hearty lentil soup; sweet carrot-ginger bisque; easy guacamole; chilled corn bisque; curried sweet potato and carrot soup; citrus herb cashew crudités; *azuki bean and japanese pumpkin soup

from not-your-average fresh salads and dressings: sweet pumpkin dressing

from delectable vegetable sides: african collard stir-fry; lemon-roasted asparagus; pumpkin with apricot-ginger glaze; *root fries; lemon-roasted beets, brussels, and yams

from whole grains and carbs do a body good: *simple lemon-scented basmati rice; *millet mashed “potatoes”; macro “mac and cheeze”; *sage-infused polenta fries; wild harvest pilaf

from sea vegetables, huh?: NONE of them. I’m a huge vegetable lover. When I was a child I loved all but three vegetables and as a young adult I grew to enjoy and/or love them too. But I never tried sea veggies until I was well into adulthood, and I simply don’t like them. I can tolerate a small amount of kombu in certain soups, but that’s about it, so this (short) section is not my personal cup of tea.

from compassionate proteins: ***millet black bean burgers; laotian tofu larb; * baked oil-free falafel with tzatziki sauce; *blissful two-bean harvest chili; macro mole enchiladas; * pan-fried tofu with carrot-ginger sauce

from healthier desserts you crave: heavenly raw chocolate mousse; *pumpkin hot chocolate; chewy trail mix bars; velvety chocolate mousse with berry sauce and toasted walnuts

I do think this is an excellent cookbook and I think that most who are interested in vegan and/or macrobiotic recipes are likely to enjoy it. Back to 4 stars?! Oh, I need ½ stars!

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The highest praise I can give a library-loan cookbook: I decided to buy myself a copy. It is just THAT good that I don't want to live without my own copy!

Morgan has a great sense - she has a macrobiotic vegan training, and her recipes reflect this with hig-quality ingredients. I made three recipes (usually my quota in order to rate a book) and all turned out great. The real people pleaser was her cole slaw recipe - and I plan to make more this summer for cookouts.

One thing that impressed me and really set this book apart was her WHOLE section devoted to sea vegetables. I was smitten. I love seaweed like nobody's business, and she provided some great recipes for the wakame, arame, kombu, dulse, and nori in my stash. Can't wait to try more!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yum, yum, yum. If you're looking to make your vegan diet even healthier, then make sure you check out Christy Morgan's Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals that Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet. Divided into chapters by the type of food or time of day and further divided by the seasons, this book is a colourful and positively appetizing look at vegan food, which won't leave you feeling unsatisfied. While you can always take a bite of one recipes either out of season, or by slightly modifying the recipe to feature seasonal veggies, I love Christy's approach, which is vegan macrobiotic, and was thrilled to find not only a selection of recipes that include sea veggies, like nori, arame, wakame, dulse, and kombe, but also an entire chapter on various seaweed-rich recipes that can be enjoyed any time of year.

So far, everything I've tried has been truly delicious, and I can't wait to try even more of the recipes.

[Sps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone needs to write The Cynical Snob's Macrobiotic Cookbook. Until then I'll have to keep reading books that use the word 'bliss' too much.

--Greens with basil pecan sauce were bright and flavorful.

--Blissed Caesar dressing didn't taste anything like its namesake but did taste good on salad greens with pistachios, oranges, and garden arugula. (Left out the vinegar, though, since the lemon added plenty of acid.)

--Blackened Caesar tempeh wraps with sprouts, shaved carrot, arugula, and avocado tasted good and felt nourishing. The dressing flavor dominates, so really you can't taste the tempeh, but that's just fine.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great recipes in this book. I liked the following:
- Millet Mashed Potatoes
- Mac 'n Kale Salad - yummy!
- Lentil Coconut Curry - so good!
- Simple Lemon-Scented Basmati Rice
- Fiesta Quinoa Salad
- Easy Cheezy Broccoli Soup
- Lemony-Lime Hummus
- Mixed Berry Couscous Surprise - delicious!
- African Collard Stir-Fry - yummy!

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly creative easy homecooked vegan food. A nifty combo of some macrobiotic and raw plant-based principles and other tasty bits and pieces... Fresh food with flair! Food in each chapter is sorted seasonally, which is brilliant and needs to be a feature of ALL recipe books.

[Dandelion Wish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspirational.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

macrobiotic cookbook

I like a lot of the recipes in this book, though most of them are fairly low in protein. I could do that when I was younger, but, now that I’m older, I find I need a little more protein. If you, like me are on the low FODMAP diet, you can’t eat a lot of beans. This means there are few vegan/macrobiotic protein options.
That said, it’s easy to incorporate a little more protein into some of these recipes. Many of them are very appealing, creative, and healthy.

[Jessica Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of healthy and natural recipes, which are convenient to make in the right kitchen. The author approaches recipes with common sense by creating menus based upon what ingredients are in season. In this way, I am guided with practical advice to make my food more affordable in the long run. My food has less of a carbon footprint and thusly, is oftentimes cheaper to purchase. The book also explains the best kitchen appliances and tools to own for blissful culinary experiences.

[Angie Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well it got me to try recipes with miso and kabocha squash otherwise meh.

[Genine Franklin-Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the recipes in the book sounded great...if I had a personal cook and access to a really good health food store. To me it was similiar toThe Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet, in that many of the recipes had too many ingredients, too many difficult-to-find ingredients, or would take too long to make. Not to mention that my family wouldn't eat them.

[Ashley]

I like how the sections are subdivided by season. A lot of too-fancy-for-me recipes, but also a number of ideas that look good. I should check this out again when I have a bit more cooking time.

[Nenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same old book about vegan cooking

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the ingredients are unique and not ones I typically use which made it less likely for me to make a lot of these recipes. I am also not vegan.

[Deyara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pictures and interesting recipes. I loved the easy cheezy broccoli soup, and it even satisfied the two decidedly non-vegan guests. Would like to try some of the sea vegetable recipes too.

[Bonnie LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome! Can't wait to try the Pumpkin Spice Pancakes, Pumpkin Hot Chocolate and Pineapple Cornbread Muffins! :)

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with lovely, mostly easy to make, healthy dishes.