(Part 3) Top products from r/PlantBasedDiet

Good luck. We're here if you need it. In the meanwhile, here are some good vegan cooking starters:

Chloe's Vegan Italian Cookbook
Some are simple, some less so. All so far have been fantastic.

The Lotus and the Artichoke
Lots of restaurant favorites and a good way to get your feet wet on things like tofu, seitan and tempeh.

Joy of Vegan Baking
Hands down the best vegan cookbook I've ever had.

If you like to just wing it, I highly recommend The Vegetarian Flavor Bible. I use it all the time when I want to be creative in the kitchen. They recommend flavors which work well together, broad ways to prepare a dish, a few recommendations from the chefs they worked with to put the flavors together and more.

I hate that there isn't a vegan flavor bible, but the vegetarian is already loads better than the original Flavor Bible (I gave that copy to my omni sister). There's still a lot of eggs, cheeses and dairy products, but at least all the meat is out.

But I also highly recommend you look into a few cusine-specific books. Most cusines have vegan books, or at least vegan bloggers who share a lot of recipes in their own flavor worlds. Try looking up: Greek (thegreekvegan), Indian (Harshdeep on YouTube), Persian / Iranian, Ethiopian, Thai, Mexican, etc.

These are some of my favorite cusines to dive into. Once you understand the spices, how the flavors are built up, and then how they prepar various plants, you can leave the recipes behind and make your own foods. I never look up Thai, Mexican or Indian recipes anymore since I am so confident in how the flavors and textures work together. If you want cookbook recommendations for these cusines let me know.

• How Not To Die Cookbook is a phenomenal cookbook that accompanies the How Not To Die book (a recommended read, IMO).
  
• Forks Over Knives cookbook is also a good one, as is their website
  
• Engine 2 Cookbook is the last cookbook I'll recommend.
  
• If you're on Facebook, check out the groups Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Recipes & Tips, Dr. Michael Greger fans - How Not To Die, and Whole-Food-Plant-Based-Diet.com
  
• Happy Healthy Vegan has a nice and entertaining selection of videos on YouTube. They're primarily WFPB, but not exclusively. Also very informative videos on why and such.
  
• Simnett Nutrition has quite a few What I Eat videos where he shows you what he makes and eats throughout the day. He is fitness oriented, so eats a lot, and you'll see workout montages and such, as well as quite a bit of rambling, but his rambling is either relevant and helpful info, or just entertaining and silly at times.
  
• NutritionFacts.org YouTube is all of the science and studies broken down and analyzed to get you a good grasp of what and why WFPB is the way to go.

For serious plant based fitness tips, check out Brendan Brazier. He's an ultra marathoner and is purely plant based. He's got a couple of books, one (Thrive Fitness) specifically deals with fitness (what foods, timing of foods, fuel needs etc) Great resource. Also check out Rich Roll for extreme vegan fitness training.

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https://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Fitness-second-Strength%C2%97Fueled-Plant-based/dp/0738218537/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

My sister really enjoys the Vegan Before 6 program. If that's too much right away, you can try doing a couple of meals a week at first, and work on finding meals you really enjoy, that you can come back to again. And as /u/MapleSyrupisLife points out, Mexican food is easy to veggie-up, and any time "boatloads of guacamole" get involved life is good. :)

Brostoff and Gamlin's book Food Allergies and Food Intolerance has elimination diets of different amounts of strictness at the end, which is useful, because it's crucial for success to do the elimination diet right.

It's easy to get an elimination diet wrong. Back in 1999 an allergist told me I might have food issues, and that I should find a book with an elimination diet / food challenges in the library and do it.

So I did. But the book I found included gluten in the elimination diet, and I'm virulently gluten-sensitive. So after their elimination diet, I had no reaction to food challenges.

Years later, I did a better elimination diet that was gluten-free, and I had severe reactions after food challenges.

Brostoff and Gamlin also have good info on cross-reactions as I remember.

Maybe you would like this cookbook by Bryanna Grogan:

https://www.amazon.com/World-Vegan-Feast-Fabulous-Countries/dp/0988949296

I have her Italian cookbook and I absolutely adore it! All her recipes are vegan and low fat and most can be adapted to be oil free.

Would one that is largely plant based and easy to modify when it isn’t work for you?

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups: A Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767901800/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_90BCDb58WTAT9

This soup cookbook, written by a French monk, is designed around the months of the year based on what is in season or what you might have in your pantry at that time of year.

As an example, we have the Tomato Florentine soup almost every week. As an example of a modification, we just leave the Spanish sausage out of the Caldo Gallego and it’s a great soup regardless.

The 21 Day Kickstart by Neal Barnard - Just finished it. It's a relatively short, very straightforward guide to transition to WFPB and is really approachable. He baby-steps people into into in the WFPB diet, gives them shortcuts they can use (canned beans, how to veganise and reduce fat on common restaurant items) and makes it less daunting. It's not super-strict so it's not overwhelming, and it's about 90% WFPB compliant. (He mentions that you can use small amounts of vegan, low fat ready-to-eat things found in supermarkets like condiments, even if they have a bit of sugar. But not a tonne.) Anyway, I think this is what I'll start recommending to people who have just started looking into the diet as a way to not completely overwhelm them by saying 'NEVER EAT A DROP OF OIL OR A GRAM OF SUGAR AGAIN!'

He also spoonfeeds some of the science behind the diet in small sections that are easier to read and understand if you're not super into delving deep into the trenches of research.

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EDIT: There's also a free website around this approach. https://kickstart.pcrm.org/

I know you said you weren't really into dehydrated meals, but have you tried making your own? I have a dehydrator and have made some great recipes for a recent canoe trip from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Another-Fork-Trail-Vegetarian-Backcountry/dp/0899975062

It's all vegan and vegetarian recipes. In many of them you add the oil after rehydrating the meal at camp, so it would be easy to avoid added oils if that's a concern.

The hummus and bean dips have turned out really well. They can be rehydrated with cold water, so you don't have to light a stove to have some tasty hummus and pita for lunch.

We also soak, then pressure cook all of our beans. My wife uses this book to get the cook times for various beans, as well as lots of other great vegan instant pot recipes!

I bought the best book called ‘Recipes for Adventure’ with dehydrated recipes, and have tried quite a few and they’re awesome. And lots of veggie options. We only have a jet boil but have found that these don’t really need to be boiled to eat, you can just pour boiling water into your dish (best if using an insulated mug or bowl), cover and wait for 15 minutes and it rehydrates everything.

https://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Adventure-Healthy-Homemade-Backpacking/dp/1484861345

There's a lot of edible plants people have just forgotten about in favour of the sweeter, less healthy versions we eat now. Here's a book about it. Or just Google edible plants in your area http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1402767153?pc_redir=1409138159&robot_redir=1

Vegan Soul Kitchen - soul food made vegan and healthy (and tasty!)

Plant-based Diet Guide for Beginners : this book includes many recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, etc.

I'd start with Esselstyn's book.

Then take a look at Engine 2 Diet. He actually has a new book out too: My Beef with Beef - though I haven't read this one yet.

Lastly, check out Colin Cambell's China Study.

Also anything by Neal Barnard & John MacDougall. All these and other related books are available at libraries!

Vegan For Life by Messina and Norris

You can adapt for increased usage of fat and this is a normal adaptation to endurance training. It's explained in this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450401619.

Ketosis should be avoided as much as possible.

Eat WFPB (no oil, no sugar, no protein powder, no processed foods, no animal foods). Limit overt fats (nuts, seeds, avocado). Eat at least 1/3 of the bulk of your food as low calorie vegetables. Don't decrease your calorie intake too much and cause binges or slip-ups to unhealthy foods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1udAyTEtT8k

https://www.amazon.com/McDougall-Program-Maximum-Weight-Loss/dp/0452273803