Welcome to the vegan 'hood!!

You might want to check out Veganomicon

www.amazon.com/Veganomico...pd_bbs_sr_1

It has a lot of "simpler" recipes in addition to the lengthy masterpieces, and each recipe gives you a time estimate (which is very handy for a cook bad at time management like me) and many of them have ingredient lists that indicate if you can find everything at a local chain grocery store, so you don't have to worry about locating the nearest organic or health food store. The intro also gives a good overview of vegan cooking, and also what to stock your kitchen with.

I'm not the best cook, but the recipes I try by these authors not only come out awesome every time, but the recipes are pretty easy to follow.

Good luck

back in the day, when i first made the switch, this is the first book i picked up. less of a cook book. concerned more with the overall nutritional aspects and unique needs of sustaining a well-rounded vegan diet. i haven't flipped through it in a while but i recall it does give sample daily meal plans and grocery shopping lists. and i think recommends several cook books as well. i honestly found it quite useful.

"Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet"
www.amazon.com/Becoming-V.../ref=sr_1_1

p.s. - although it would be fine, i'd avoid buying used copy and picking up the most updated version. (or maybe that's just me being anal...?)

Hey Jake,

I posted the following reply to a similar post in the "Vegan Cooking" tribe:

When I first went vegan, I picked up a couple of great cookbooks that are not only very educational (ways to make things taste great, secret places food manufacturers hide animal products, etc) but very inspiring:

Firstly, pick up a copy of "Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and Vesanta Melina. It isn't a cookbook per say, but it will give you the 411 on how to eat healthy, get all the necessary vitamins, and additional benefits to being vegan beside saving some cows.

Next - the Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer cookbooks are indispensable - "How It All Began", "The Garden of Vegan", and "La Dolce Vegan". I use them all the time. After five years knocking about a vegan kitchen, I know my way around pretty well, but I do sometimes need a reminder on how to make cookies soft, pasta interesting, or salad something other than green.

Equally indispensable is a new cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero - "Veganomicon". If "How it All Began" is the cornerstone of your vegan house, "Veganomicon" is the flore de les. It has a whole section on how to prep a wide range of vegies, a list of necessities for a vegan pantry, and some pretty useful vegan kitchen skills. Not to mention that every recipe I have tried so far rocks ass. So unbelievably delicious! And easy! Some vegan cookbooks take fancy vegan cooking to an impossible Martha Stewartesque extreme ("The Voluptuous Vegan", I'm looking at you) that can be daunting and off-putting. "Veganomicon" is definitely for foodies and epicures, but the recipes are simple and easy to follow.

Moskowitx and Romero are also authors of "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" (aaaamazing) and "Vegan with a Vengeance - two more "must haves."