This past September, I had the opportunity to spend a Saturday morning leafing through my ‘Oh She Glows‘  and ‘Oh She Glows Everyday‘ cookbooks by Angela Liddon. I hadn’t spend a Saturday morning leafing through cookbooks in a VERY long time.  I was so excited about having this special time that I even spoke about it that week on my LIVE for 5. This used to be one of my favourite ways to relax on Saturday mornings. Truth be told, I often use cookbook recipes as an inspiration or as a guide rather than following them completely.

As you know, I also develop a lot of my own recipes.  What you may not know is that when I finally share my own recipes on the blog, it often involves extensive testing as things often start out as something I just ‘threw together’ with no measurements, etc. and when it turns out great, I have to test it to make it shareable ( i.e. with appropriate measurements, etc.).

That said, leafing through Angela Liddon’s two books inspired me to try out some of her recipes. In fact I wanted to try out a whole LOT of her recipes! I started with soups.  That Sunday night, I made two different kinds : Soul-Soothing African Peanut Stew – O.M.G. and Indian Lentil Cauliflower.  Good thing I made double batches of each!  I was OBSESSED with the Peanut Stew (I ate it for lunch almost everyday for the week LOL), and let’s just say that upon first trial, my son helped himself to thirds of the Indian Cauliflower.

The following weekend, I made double batches of On The Mend Spiced Red Lentil-Kale Soup and Golden French Lentil Stew (I may have accidentally doubled the amount of canned tomatoes which may be why it turned out a little more orange than golden 🙂 ) . I also converted some leftover canned chickpeas into  Perfect Roasted chickpeas– a recipe similar to ones that I have tried from other books before but never had  it come out this well.  Maybe it was the fact that I took the time to dry them first, I’m not sure. Truth be told, I should have been patient and let them stay in the oven so that they ALL got crunchy, but I was  so excited to eat them, I just couldn’t wait anymore!

That Monday night, I prepared Immunity Boosting Tomato Sauce with Mushrooms which I reheated and served over ‘zoodles’ (spiralized zucchini ‘noodles’) for dinner.  What a hit this was with the entire family!

Each recipe has incredible flavour and leaves you with the “I just did something healthy for my body” feeling. If you’ve ever had that feeling, then you know exactly what I am talking about. The only time I felt like I may have gone a little overboard was with those roasted chickpeas…but they were SO good, and honestly a better choice satisfy the “I need something crunchy and carb-y” craving 🙂 …and if you’ve ever had one, then you know exactly what I mean as well 😉 Interestingly enough, although I was terrified to check how many Weight Watchers Smartpoints I had just consumed, I was pleasantly surprised…It was only 5 Smartpoints worth – WAY less than I thought it would have been!

Now, I need to say something: These cookbooks are filled with VEGAN recipes.

I AM NOT A VEGAN.

It doesn’t matter. These recipes spectacular! That Immunity Boosting Tomato Sauce With Mushrooms was as thick, hearty and as delicious as a meat sauce. It also passed the  kid test…with flying colours…My youngest took three helpings!

I need to add something-I don’t tend to like the idea of following vegan recipes because quite frankly, they are often filled with foreign-to-me ingredients that need to be picked up at specialty stores.  I also find that vegan recipes can sometimes be filled with ‘substitutes’ for non-vegan ingredients. The substitutes are not always healthy. I have to say that part of what appealed to me in the Oh She Glows books was the fact that the recipes tend to include healthy ingredients and not many (or ANY) such substitutes.  As for ‘strange’ ingredients: I bought only one (and it wasn’t called for in any of the recipes that I mentioned, but I have my eye on one…  That ingredient is called Nutritional Yeast and I found it in the health food section at Provigo.  My hubby also found some at Bulk Barn.  I happened to have Chia Seeds on hand. I think these are less ‘foreign’ nowadays.  I had picked them up in the ‘Joe’s Tasty Travels’ section where you can find all the nuts, etc. at Walmart a while back.   Those are pretty much the only ‘strange’ ingredients that I encountered.

Now, last but not least, I needed to see whether or not these recipes would satisfy me at reasonable Smartpoint values (Weight Watchers) , because let’s face it- if they are delicious but ‘cost’ too many points, then that would present a problem for my Weight Watchers lifestyle. Well, I input all of the ingredients into the WW Recipe Builder on the WW App, and got Smartpoints values of about 2 to 3 Smartpoints per serving (assuming 1 cup servings). My meal often consisted of 2-3 cups of soup…No problem!  9 Smartpoints makes sense for a healthy meal that satisfies 🙂 I should add that for some of the recipes, I did put slightly less olive oil, but there is so little to begin with and divided over so many portions- I am not sure if it even makes a difference to the per-serving Smartpoints count 🙂

I am officially OBSESSED with these cookbooks. I have since made Eat Your Green Detox Soup – I don’t find the name makes it sound very appetizing, but my family went WILD over it!  I have also made the Shepherd’s Pie ( no leftovers, so you can do the math on how that went!).  I told my husband that I may have a “Julia Julia” thing going on, being the blogger and working my way through Angela Liddon’s cookbooks (as opposed to Julia Child’s).  I will keep you posted via social on more recipes that I try…and if I feel the need to share again on the blog…I will!

Thinking about buying one or both of these books for yourself?  Click below to can find them at Amazon.ca! Can’t wait to try them? Order them using Amazon Prime and you can benefit from FREE 2-day delivery!

Also- Just putting it out there that either one of these ( or both!) would make a PHENOMENAL gift for the holidays or hostess gift anytime!

Click here or on either of the images below to buy on Amazon.ca !

Wishing you all a wonderful #WellnessWednesday 😉

Tanya

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