The Weekday Vegetarians

I could not be more excited to show you the cover of The Weekday Vegetarians, which will officially be out in the world on August 31. Can you believe how happy and gorgeous she is?

Before I started writing this book, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a piece of animal protein anchored our dinner plates at least five out of seven nights a week. Back then, when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, I’d think to myself, We have chicken, lets make some breaded cutlets or We have ground turkey, let’s make turkey chili. Even though I had known for a while that reducing our meat intake was one of the most impactful ways we could personally combat climate change, I suddenly found the conversation was getting too loud to ignore anymore, especially at my own dinner table, with my own children. Plus, I was getting older! I wanted to eat better, I wanted to do better, I wanted to feel better — about my health and about my choices.

This book is about how I challenged my family to flip the formula. What if we limited our meat intake to the weekends? What if we became Weekday Vegetarians? Honestly, when I pitched the book, I wasn’t 100% sure I could do it. So somany of the iconic recipes at my table (not to mention in my books and on my blog) were meat-based. But I’m convinced that the it was the forgiving formula — five nights on, two nights off — that helped my family stay committed. In fact, it was so successful that plant-based eating started creeping into weekend meals and restaurant orders, eventually, so much so that we could legit call it a Lifestyle. Do we have a long way to go? Of course we do. But it feels good to have taken one very large step in the right direction.

I’m not going to lie: The deliciousness of the dinners we discovered along the way helped a lot, too. There are of 100 of them in the book including an entire section devoted to what I call “Hooks,” i.e. that one moment on the plate that gets everyone at the table genuinely excited about dinner. Think: A honey-crusted cornbread to serve with a three-bean chili; or spicy peanut sauce to drizzle over steamed kale or crispy tofu; or pickled onions to put on top of literally anything, especially the veggie burger which I am obsessed with and eat once a week. You will see!!

And do I even need to say it? The food is easy! Fast! Fresh! Healthy! All the things a weekday cook depends on not just to survive dinner, but to love it, too….

Trust me when I say you will be hearing SO much more about this, but for now I wanted to let you know that The Weekday Vegetarians is available for pre-order from all your favorite retailers. You can also subscribe to my newsletter and follow #theweekdayvegetarians on instagram for real-time updates.