Eat Vegan on $4.00 a Day: A Game Plan for the Budget Conscious Cook Paperback – June 7, 2011

After recently reading The China Study and seeing the documentary Forks Over Knives, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there was a cookbook that is based on a plant-based diet. Not only does it contain recipes to create wonderfully delicious and nutritious meals, it shows us how to do this on a very modest budget! Also, many of the recipes have only a few ingredients - these are actually doable (unlike some of the recipes I have seen where the mountain of ingredients is so extensive it turns me off before I could even think about attempting to prepare it). She also includes a very nice table indicating the grain:water ratio in cooking different types of grains. Now I don't have to go to the internet everytime to find out what the ratio is for preparing couscous, quinoa, bulgar . . . so on and so forth. Information to save our health and our money at the same time - sounds like a WIN/WIN in my book! Thanks Ellen for sharing your creativity and wisdom.

This is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to eat clean, healthy, and filling food on a very small budget. Many people think they can't afford to become vegan, and this book will definitely change your mind on that if you are really considering a lifestyle change. As for everyone else, these recipes are a great foundation to work with in any lifestyle. The first chapters are a good introduction to how grocery budgeting and meal planning works, so this is also a good gift for young people learning how to shop and cook on their own.

I love this book but it is only viewable on the Kindle and not the Cloud reader. The headings are formatted very small and would be more easily viewed with a screen you can zoom in on. So far I am loving the recipes and have had great success with everything I have attempted. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Ellen Jaffe Jones and she is very well versed on vegan nutrition. My favorite recipe so far is for muffins. I loved making a big batch and then storing some in the freezer for later use. They make an excellent breakfast on work days when I have no time to prepare anything. Everyone says that being healthy or being vegan is expensive and this book proves that it does not have to be the case. With meat and dairy prices soaring, this book is a great way for anyone, vegan or not, to save some money and stretch their budgets while still enjoying delicious and nutritious foods. The author is helpful and informative without preaching to the audience about being vegan. She provides a shopping list of inexpensive, easy to find vegan ingredients and a week long meal plan to help get into the swing of things. A word of warning though, the portion sizes per recipe are pretty small and some of the recipes are very simple. I used this book as a guideline and also to remind myself of the cheaper option for vegan foods instead of always buying vegan meat substitutes which are rather pricey at times.

I gave this book 5 stars because it deserved it first of all. Secondly I love how this woman really breaks down the whole pricing of healthy living she really stresses that being healthy does not have to be expensive and you don't always need a personal trainer or personal chef to make everything for you in order to be healthy and fit. I've been recently studying veganism and the results can be a little confusing but thank God Jaffee breaks down everything and even gives you recipes and sources that are very filling and very informative of where to get these recipes and where to shop. This book was incredibly helpful. buy it you won't regret it promise

There were things I really liked about this book and things I didn't like about it. I am a vegetarian who is striving to move to a totally vegan diet and I really liked the premise of this book. I thought it would really help me make the transition and do it inexpensively.In a way, it did help me. The first 29 pages of the book are very helpful - packed with info on shopping inexpensively for vegan food. The rest of the book contains a 7 day menu [3 meals per day] and recipes. The author is clear and concise without being preachy. I found her writing easy & enjoyable to read.But, in another way, I felt kind of ripped off. The first 29 pages were full of info and were great reading, but they weren't worth the price of the book by a long shot. The recipes were OK - some of them are extremely simplistic [like the one for oatmeal: water, oats, salt. Put it in a pot and cook it]. I did not find many recipes that I found appealing - in fact, I doubt I'll try any recipes in the book [other than oatmeal, which I already eat on a regular basis....]. So, it was kind of frustrating - it took me less than 45 minutes [literally] to read this entire book [it is a slim volume, even padded with simple recipes]. I really did not feel I got my money's worth out of the book - I could have done better spending one hour on the internet googling vegan meals and tips.I also felt that the claim that you can eat vegan for $4 a day was a bit exaggerated. For one thing, the portion sizes she gives are extremely small - for example, on day one you are supposed to eat half a cup of oatmeal for breakfast [and that is it.] For most people, one half a cup of plain oatmeal would not be enough to get them through till lunch. Can you imagine a 180 lb guy trying to get by on that? I can't. The lunches and dinners seemed very slim on serving size too - I think most people would probably end up having to increase what she counts as a full meal just to get enough calories. She does not include calorie counts in her menu plan, but looking at them, I'd guess the menu plans have 1,000-1,200 calories planned per day, which isn't enough for most healthy, active adults. [that is "famine level" caloric intake according to the World Health Organization].I also felt the prices she said she was getting on the items she includes were awfully low - I am a long time frugal shopper and I have never seen prices as low as the ones she was quoting on some of the products she recommends. I'm a bit skeptical that anyone could really eat what she's recommending for $4 a day. [She also assumes a well stocked pantry in that calculation - such as spices on hand that aren't counted in the cost].Now, that said, I DO believe that eating the way she recommends is FAR less expensive than eating the average American diet, even if she has exaggerated the inexpensiveness of it. This is still a far superior way of eating - both health wise and financially.So, I truly felt conflicted by this book - 29 pages of good info and some recipes that were somewhat helpful, but not worth the price of an entire book IMO. I wish there had been MORE to this.In summary, this book was helpful, but it could have been so much more helpful!