The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook: Over 125 Delicious, Life-Changing, Plant-Based Recipes Paperback – Illustrated, September 2, 2014

I am a very picky eater, I tried to go on vegan diet twice. First time it lasted one and a half year, second time nine months. One of reasons - I didn't like food (I am not big fan of beans and vegan cheeses any kind), and also I think I can't tolerate vegan meat substitute made out of soy.Second time I went off vegan diet, because I started to feel sick, my digestion was completely out of whack, and I was week all the time.I did health DNA test, and it showed that my body has problem absorbing vitamin B.I decided to still eat 90% vegan and add once or twice a week eggs, fish, or meat. Now I had to find vegan recipes which I would like.Finally vegan cookbook with recipes, which I like. I've made two recipes from this book. First one was Eat Loaf, I did add a little bit Himalayan pink salt, and even it had beans, it was really good. I've made some changes: I added some sauce directly to mixture, also I added 2 tbsp of ground flex seeds to hold it together and I pulsated all in food processor. I baked it in large 10x13 pan (instead of bread pan), and I really recommend to do this way - you will get more flavor.Today I've made Savory Smoky Oars and it is good too. As always I've made some changes: added a little bit of salt, I didn't have and don't like can tomatoes, I used tomato paste instead (one mistake not adding a little bit more water for this substitute), I also didn't have liquid smoke, I added smoked paprika and a little bit chipotle pepper (I omitted hot sauce).

Also bought the women warrior cookbook next. After using many cookbooks, these are the 2 I refer touch more often.

We had to purchase this cookbook, and we are not disappointed. Going from years on Keto and CABG surgery to now plant base only, this book is literally a life saver. So far have made quite a few recipes, and I don't miss the old diet! Great investment!!!!!!

This book is full of useful information. The recipes are SO delicious. I highly recommend anything written by the Esselstyn family

I've been trying to adhere to a Prevent and Reversal diet, and appreciate the concept. In practice, it's a fairly difficult program to adhere to, mostly because of the prohibitions against fat, salt and sugar. Though my tastes have changed somewhat, there's no way that many of these bland offerings satisfy. Maybe with more time under my belt, that too will change. We'll see.I do appreciate the recap of the major components of the diet, but wonder about things like:Tahini must not be in hummus, yet sesame seeds are permitted in other dishes in the cookbook. Tahini is nothing more than ground up sesame seeds. So, why exclude the tablespoon or two that might be used to add flavor to hummus?Other dishes call for a tablespoon of more of either chia or flax seeds. Last time I checked, all three, sesame, chia and flax, were roughly 60 calories per tablespoon, mostly from fat. If fat is to be avoided at all cost, why are the seed variations permitted? (and again, if the seeds are okay, why does processing sesame seeds into tahini pull them from the list?)Use rolled oats a lot, but not instant or quick cook versions? Really? It's hard enough to get down Essy's Breakfast Bowl with uncooked quick cook oats. (Ironically, this has been an eye opener for me. I never tried dry oats for breakfast, and found I truly prefer it to cooked oatmeal. I go one step further, I actually bake the oats to get a bit of a brown on them. This renders a subtle nutty undertone to the breakfast bowl.)As noted by other reviewers, a number of these recipes are for sauces and condiments, digging into the number of real recipes for meals. You're not really getting 125 recipes.Missing from this cookbook is the DeBoom Cherry Chili published elsewhere by one of the authors. A sad omission, as this is in my top 5 heart health vegan recipe list.I do love the spiral bound format for the cookbook and wish more authors would offer that as an option. Were it not for that, I'd only rate the recipes at 3 star.One question to Essy, how many calories a day do you consume? I did some quick math on Essy's Breakfast bowl. That dish, with chia seeds, banana, raisins, 1/2 to one cup of additional berries, and the 1/4 cup of second cereal (listed as an optional add on) pushes the caloric content to at least 600 calories. That's a third of my allotted calories, and I'm a 6' 182 pound male.

To preface my review, I have already read several books such as "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease", "Forks Over Knives", "The Spectrum", etc. The point is that I was looking for a good cookbook to go with the knowledge I had already learned that plant based low oil eating was the way I wanted to go for my health and the health of my family. We are somewhat picky eaters and really do not care for overly fancy or fussy food. This cookbook fulfilled our needs very well.The beginning of the book has a 12-step program for plant perfect eating. It pretty much sums up, in 3 pages, most of the books I have read on plant based eating without all of the scientific explanations.The next section of the book covers some basics, such as how to use tortillas to make taco shells, how to cook kale, how to roast red peppers, and more. Some people may find that useful, others have already mastered that. Either way it's worth a look.Next there is a Q&A with Dr. Esselstyn Jr. It is about 6 pages long. It answers what I would assume are the common questions asked by people with heart disease looking into a plant based diet.The rest of the book is comprised of the recipes. They are organized in the following chapters:BreakfastsLunchesSoupsHummus, Sauces, Spreads, Gravy and SalsasAppetizers and SidesHearty SaladsSalad DressingsDinnersDessertsWe have tried several recipes and they have all been winners. Our favorites are probably the smoky little devils (like a potato based deviled egg), sweet corn sauce, and the sweet pancake puffs.I have used this cookbook more than the other plant based cookbooks I have.