Plant-Powered Families (nutritious recipes you’ll love)
Ok, so if you’re new to vegan cooking (or don’t live in Canada), let’s introduce you to Dreena Burton. She first wrote a cookbook about 20 years ago, and each one has been a bestseller.
Plant-Powered Families is a few years old, but doesn’t date. This is her book for young families (she and her husband raised three vegan daughters). Living just above the border in Canada, there is a fair bit of maple syrup in these recipes. So great for a sweet tooth, her baked goods are legendary!
Read info by dietitians on food allergens (they say the top 8 allergens of milk, eggs, soy, shellfish, fish, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat account for around 90% of all allergens, the others being mustard or sesame seeds). Read up on choking hazards to avoid.
- Always supervise younger children to avoid choking (read more on food safety for people and pets.
- Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then step on upper cans to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
- Unless you have a food waste bin, bin pepper and allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures.
The great thing about Dreena’s books are:
- All the ingredients are natural (you won’t find fake meats and cheese here).
- Everything tastes good! If you think you don’t like lentils, you soon will once you’re making her pasta sauces or lentil meatloaf. And she manages to turn sweet potatoes into cake and bananas into ice cream!
- The recipes work! A bit like Delia Smith, Dreena’s recipes are popular because they are tested over and over, for trustworthy results.
- Truthfully with this book, you could be raising your family on home-cooked food that tastes better than anything in stores, and at half the price. And of course this book is especially developed for picky appetites – from tantrum toddlers to sulky teens!
Unlike says some Californian vegan cookbooks, you won’t find recipes here to feed your child a Caesar salad or clear noodle dishes.
This is real ‘comfort food’ in line likely with English appetites – fruit crumbles, homemade gravy and vegan omelettes. And everything is checked with a nutritionist, to ensure good nutrition.
A few of the recipes in this book
This book is really nice (it’s also Dreena’s best-selling book to date). The design is super-pretty with coloured headings, sure to entice older children to get involved in cooking with you.
Here are some of the recipes to inspire you to buy the book!
Healthy mornings
- Creamy breakfast rice pudding
- Sunday morning pancakes
- Savoury chickpea ‘omelette’
- Cinnamon French toast
- Apple pie smoothie
- Best banana bread (or muffins)
- Apple spice hemp muffins
Lunch fixes
- Southwest quinoa salad
- White bean guacamole
- Red lentil hummus
- Artichoke spinach dip
- Ultimate cashew cheese
- Cheesy Caesar dressing
Dinnertime
- Pumpkin lentil soup
- Smoky bean chilli
- Cream of cauliflower soup
- Hummus tortilla pizzas
- Sneaky chickpea burgers
- Home fries
- Autumn dinner loaf
Sweet treats
- Sticky almond blondies
- Vanilla bean chocolate chip cookies
- Banana butter ice cream
- Chocolate sweet potato cake
- Dreamy baked bananas
The book finishes with lunch box ideas, children party menus and plant-powered meal plans.
About Dreena Burton
Dreena Burton grew up as one of six sisters just over the border from the USA in Canada. A former marketing executive, her first cookbook was so successful, she has published several more since.
Her recipes are not just delicious but healthy. For this reason, they have appeared in many ‘books written by vegan doctors!’
She always uses natural ingredients. And has earned the enviable title of ‘the vegan cookie queen!
