When Lauren Butts became a vegetarian, she had a hard time finding recipes and information to suit her needs. Sure, there were plenty of vegetarian cookbooks on the market, but they just weren't for her. Why? Because, like many new vegetarians, she was a teenager and didn't have the cooking skills, patience, or inclination to prepare fancy vegetarian meals for herself. What Butts really craved was quite simple: vegetarian versions of her standby favorites--burgers, lasagna, tacos, and stir-fries. While still in high school, she started researching her nutritional needs and how to meet them without meat. In
OK, So Now You're a Vegetarian, she provides 100 recipes for simple, satisfying, and nourishing food that any teenager would love, rescuing teenage vegetarians everywhere from night after night of steamed veggies and rice. Meals such as Veggie Quesadillas, Vegetarian Potpie, and Tasty Flatbread Pizza with Olives and Artichoke Hearts should appeal to teenage vegetarians everywhere. Most of the dishes are made with ingredients easily found in any supermarket, and many rely on standard ingredients normally found in most family kitchens.
Perhaps most importantly, Butts helps teenage vegetarians navigate the sometimes bumpy road from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. She provides definitions of the different types of vegetarians (ovo-lacto vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, vegan, etc.), a food-guide pyramid for vegetarians, and a glossary of ingredients. Best of all, each recipe includes a complete nutritional analysis that lists quantities of such important nutrients as protein, iron, calcium, vitamin B-12, and zinc. While there aren't a whole lot of recipes in the book for vegans (those who eschew all meat and animal products, including eggs and milk products), people who are semivegetarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, or lacto-vegetarian are sure to find plenty here to keep them as happy and well-nourished as a growing teenager ought to be. --Robin Donovan
