Vegan Junk Food: 225 Sinful Snacks That Are Good for the Soul by Gold Lane (Adams/F+W Media, $16.95)
Lane Gold, a Los Angeles-based personal chef and caterer, specializes in preparing home-style vegan food. She claims that being vegan doesn’t mean austerity and adds that some of the most popular junk foods such as Oreos, Fritos, and Baked Lays are free of meat and dairy.
Needless-to-say, this isn’t the healthiest cookbook available but some of the dishes will satisfy that occasional craving for sugary, salty, fried goodies. The secret is, of course, moderation.
The recipes in this collection are divided into ten chapters: Breakfast of Champions – Something Savory, Lots of Sweets; Deli Favorites – Sandwiches, Wraps, Burgers and Sliders; Comfort Food Meets Takeout – Temping No Meat Entrees; Crust and Carbs – Pizza Pies and Badass Breads; Festive Grub – Vegan Party Essentials; Dips for All Seasons…and All Reasons; Savory Treats – With A Touch of Sugar and Spice; Cakewalk (Pies, too) – Who needs Butter; Candy and Cookie Fix – For the Ultimate Sweet Tooth; and Grab ‘n’ Go Sweets – Sinful Bars, Brownies and More.
As Gold points out, her favorite vegan junk food is anything that can be eaten with a chip, or peanut butter and chocolate in any form. Some of her featured recipes include a rather tasty Garlic-Onion Cheese Bread Loaf, a quick-and-easy Tortilla Chip Soup, and several delectable cheesecakes such as a tropical-inspired Pina Colada Cheesecake made with pineapple juice, tofu, coconut rum, and pina colada mixer.
I tested two recipes from this collection, a zesty Chicken Salad with Walnuts, Apples, and Celery which interestingly did not contain actual chicken but textured veggie protein, broth, and vegan chicken base. It was tastier than you might think. The second recipe was a delicious Baked Onion Dip which I served with baked tortilla chips.
The thing to watch when using this cookbook is to pay close attention to both salt and sugar content. Be careful. I must confess that I occasionally go off the rails with my diet but I try and not make it a habit.
BAKED ONION DIP
Serves 4-6
1 large sweet onion, cut in half and sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt (I used sea salt)
1 Tbs olive oil
½ c vegan mayonnaise
1 8-oz container vegan cream cheese, softened
1 Tbs dried parsley
1 c vegan mozzarella shreds
Sliced baguette or crackers
Preheat oven to 350F. Have ready 1-quart baking dish.
In a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, sauté onions, garlic, and salt in oil until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
In a medium bowl, cream mayonnaise and cream cheese, then add parsley and half of the mozzarella cheese. Add onion mixture and stir to combine.
Spoon into baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Serve with bread or crackers

Rush-Hour Recipes: More Than 230 Quick-to-Fix Dinner Recipes Your Family Will Love…Even Slow-Cooker Meals and Potluck Dishes by the editors of Gooseberry Patch Books (Gooseberry Patch Books, $16.95)
The main thrust of this cookbook is to serve up delicious recipes for satisfying family weeknight meals. Most of the recipes in this collection can be prepared in 30 minutes or less and use ingredients that are familiar and can be found in most of our pantries.
This user-friendly cookbook is divided into six basic chapters: 5-Ingredient Favorites; One-Dish Dinners; Slow Cookers to the Rescue; Soup’s On; Make-A-Meal Sides; and Speedy Potluck & Party Foods. The recipes were submitted by family cooks from throughout the country. For example, the Crumbled Honey Mustard Pork Chops is the creation of Sarina Skidmore of Urbana, Missouri. Tiffany Jones of Locust Grove, Arkansas, submitted a Zesty Mexican Noodle Soup and Sharon Gutierrez of Escondido, California, a Five-Ingredient Favorite, Chicken Chilaquiles.
Potlucks are extremely popular and some of the standouts in that chapter in this collection are Mexican Pasta Bake, Darlene’s German Potato Salad, 22-Second Salad; and Italian Bowtie Pasta Salad. I love my slow cooker and there are dozens of meal ideas such as Savory Red Cabbage and Apples, Easy Sauerbraten Beef, and an easy Tortellini Broccoli Alfredo. One of the soups is a tempting Hearty Healthy Minestrone.
I tested three recipes from this cookbook: a tasty Melinda’s Mexican Manicotti that required just five ingredients, a Hearty Chicken Soup which filled my kitchen with the wonderful aroma of simmering chicken and vegetables and spices, and the Very Best Texas Caviar, an incredible appetizer. There are numerous variations of this recipe but this is one of the easiest I have found.
This fun cookbook features a wide-variety of recipes for almost every taste and every occasion. This Gooseberry Patch collection is delicious, in every sense of the word.
VERY BEST TEXAS CAVIAR
16-oz can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
16-oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
15-oz can shoepeg corn, drained+++(see below)
2-oz jar sliced pimentos, dsrained
1 c celery, chopped
1 c green pepper, chopped
1-1/2 tsp jalapeno peppers, chopped (I used two)
Optional: ½ c onion, chopped
Tortilla chips
+++shoepeg corn is a sweet corn
Combine all ingredients except tortilla chips in a large serving bowl; toss to mix. Pour cooled vinegar sauce over the vegetable mixture. For best flavor, cover and chill overnight. Use a slotted spoon to serve with tortilla chips. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
VINEGAR SAUCE
½ c oil
¾ c cider vinegar
1 T water
1 c sugar (I used agave nectar instead)
1 t salt (I used sea salt)
½ t pepper
________________
Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 2 minutes. Cool.

Paula Deen made her announcement last week that after years of eating unhealthy foods laced with butter, sugar, and preservatives, she has developed Type 2 diabetes. She added that she had been diagnosed a full three years ago. Despite this, she continued to feature toxie foods in both her cookbooks and on her network TV broadcasts. After her announcement came the sound of crickets. Not a single one of her foodie pals stepped forward to support her. As one explained, waiting to make her announcement before “locking in a paid spokesperson deal for a non-insulin medication is just too toxic to deal with.” Another pointed out that it would have been even bigger news if Deen had said she had NOT contracted diabetes.
I wrote in this blog several days ago that at about about the time she was diagnosed, she published “My First Cookbook,” a collection of recipes for children. The pages of that cookbook dripped with butter and unhealthy amounts of sugar. Keep in mind, Deen wrote this cookbook for children near the time of her diagnosis..
Again, I repeat, shame on Paula Deen. She will hear no words of support from me. It is her type of cooking that has triggered a diabetic epidemic in our country. Each morning and each evening when I inject myself with insulin I wonder how I acquired this condition but I don’t feel sorry for myself. I maintain. I help others — if I can — who are facing the same situation. We should take more care in choosing the foods we eat. I am consuming less red meat and more vegetables and daily exercise (riding my bicycle and walking) have become part of my daily routine. I occasionally have a dessert but I use portion control and do not eat sweets often.
Through this blog, I hope we are learning healthier cooking. I am featuring better cookbooks that focus on healthier ingredients. Your suggestions and comments are always welcomed. As for Paula Deen, perhaps walking the fat checks she will recieve from the pharma company to her bank might help her get more exercise but as I’ve said before, don’t count on it, y’all.