Rating: 
Summary: No splattered grease here!
Review: I love Robertson's Veggie Slow Cooker book. The main reason is that I am so busy but yet like hearty, full-bodied meals and these easy recipes provide just the kind of "stick-to-your-ribs" food that I enjoy. The second reason that Robertson's book appeals to me is that she has provided recipies for the slow cooker in every category from appetizers to components of the whole meal. The best part of all is that there is no splattered grease and the cleanup is quick and easy--perfect for today's busy person who loves good food.
Rating:
Summary: What an amazing cookbook
Review: I tend to feel awkward and intimidated when it comes to cookbooks, so it was pretty brave of me to order this book online without even looking inside of it first. Yet what an incredible surprise! This has got to be the epitome of cookbooks. The writing is concise, yet doesn't leave you guessing due to omissions or vagueness. And many of the recipes boast exotic flavors and international themes, yet the ingredients ARE THINGS WE HAVE ALL HEARD OF. In other words, you won't be discouraged from trying a recipe because you can't find a specialty store nearby in which to purchase the ingredients (this is true for over 90% of the 200 recipes). Also, there is an ample explanation of slow-cooker purchasing and use at the beginning of the book. In short, this book has enabled even little old me to produce scrumptious, complex-flavored dishes with only a slow cooker. Absolutely amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: Conquer every vegetable
Review: I use this cookbook more than any other, and I'm not even a vegetarian. What I love even more than the recipes, which themselves are uncomplicated to prepare and delicious to eat, is the educational aspect of this book. She teaches you much more than how to prepare her own recipes here -- by devoting a section to each vegetable you're likely to encounter in the heart of this book, she helps you overcome your unfamiliarity with the seasonal, fresh local produce you find at the farmer's market but might be too intimidated to approach.
I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy my new beverage of choice. Made from 100% organic soy, taste just like coffee and no caffeine. Finally, I got rid of that wired up feeling all day and feeling great. Look for it on the net by googling "s o yfee".
She describes what each vegetable looks like, what it tastes like, which flavors go well with it (you can look in the margin and find out which cheeses, herbs, and oils pair well with a vegetable), its most basic preparations and then a few more complicated ones. From there, you'll have the confidence to improvise with the palette she gives you and come up with something delicious. I've conquered several seasons worth of strange produce and am eating healthier, more delicious food thanks to this book.
Rating:
Summary: maybe 4 1/2 stars - nice vegie recipes
Review: I was excited to find a vegetarian slow-cooker cookbook. I read all the reviews and was a little concerned about "weird stuff" when I read about the vegetarian haggis but I figure there's at least one recipe in every cookbook I own that makes me think "eewwww!" so I bought it.I've made 4 or 5 things so far and my husband and I have enjoyed all of the dishes. We both agreed that most of them could use a little more flavor so I plan on just adding a little more of everything when it comes to the herbs and spices, but the flavor that was there was good. The other thing I've done is reduce the oil in all of the recipes by at least half! The amount of oil or fat she uses plus the fact that there's no nutrition information for the recipes are the reasons I can't give this 5 stars. (And, as another reviewer mentioned: most of the recipes, as directed, are NOT One-Pot since she calls for sauteeing things like onions before adding to the cooker. She does list alternatives for this step but I agree with her that it's usually worth the time and dirty skillet.)
Rating:
Summary: Good for branching out
Review: I'm a lone artist working at home and am not into cooking. I gave away my microwave because it was so noisy and also because I couldn't get the hang of the short times, and had to check all the time, or else forgot about it when engrossed in a project.
So most of my evening meals are cassarole type one dish things I do in a conventional oven. I eat little meat, because I can't keep it and don't like to shop more than once every week or two. I'm the type who figures out what to eat no more than an hour before it goes in the oven. I figured out how to do rice and pasta dishes in the oven as one shot, one dish operations, although they would probably dismay a "real cook". I use frozen soy meat subsitutes a lot because I don't have to worry about waste from spoilage.
Some relatives gave me a little 1.5 qt slow cooker for Christmas, and I thought it might work out because I remembered the bean pot and soup pot my mother had going all the time when I was a child (we had a wood stove for both cooking and heat.)
But when I read the book that came with the cooker and saw all the recipes need stove top preparations, I almost gave it away. But discovered two uses for it: baked potatoes and hot sandwiches. You wrap up a big potato in foil at breakfast time and its done for supper (top with plain yogurt and/or cream cheese); breakfast sandwiches are cream cheese and jam on brown bread wrapped in foil ready in an hour. Lunch sandwiches are brown bread and cheese with chopped stir fry veggies (snow peas, green beans, water chesnut, carrot etc. and wrapped in foil.
I got this cookbook in hopes of extending my recipes, and I probably will be able to; it explains better about beans than the one that came with my cooker. But I virtually live on rice and pasta dishes, and those all seem to need extra stove top steps.
As other reviews say, lots of slow cooker recipes are NOT one step "put all the ingredients in and plug it in" operations. This book repeats that old chesnut in the intro, but most of the recipes need stove top operations. That doesn't work for those going out to work, or else require foresight and preparation the night before. But some of the recipes I think I can work out for me in my lifestyle.
But I will probably have to get another cooker, as my little baby one has only one temperature level (no controls, you plug it in, period), and doesn't have a removable liner, so all my cooking so far (mostly potatoes) has been in foil. The best thing about slow cooker cooking is that if you're absent minded (or ignore timers when they go off when you're engrossed in something), an extra hour or two doesn't result in a ruined meal; maybe not optimal, but still edible, and usually even still fine and tasty.
Rating:
Summary: Easy vegetarian recipes
Review: I've made about a half a dozen of the recipes from this book now and I have to say they are quite yummy. I'm very fond of her other book "The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook", so was happy to see a new book out. I've also been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and it's about time someone came out with a good veg slow cooker book! It's seems like (until now) all I ever made with my slow cooker was nothing but beans. It's nice to finally use it for other things. My only real complaint with the recipes so far is that I keep finding that they are done sooner than anticipated even when left on the low setting. I'm starting to suspect that there must be some variation among heat settings with crock pots though. I noticed another reviewer mentioned that their slow cooker took longer (for lentils, which cook quite fast in my experience.) I've also noticed I usually have to stir things a few times, even though the author says it's not a good idea. I made the french onion soup recently and if I hadn't of stirred it would have burned. So maybe my cooker's low setting runs kind of hot or something. I just mark in my book that I need to stir, so I know in the future not to make that recipe when I'm gone all day, but at home puttering about. Other than that, I've been quite pleased with the ease and tastiness of the recipes. It's true some of the recipes ask that you sauté onions, etc., but I don't find that's a big deal. It doesn't take very long and it dramatically improves the flavor of a dish. Also I like that she uses normal ingrediants that are easy to find. Some of the recipes call for different size slow cookers, which could be fun if I ever decide to invest in a larger or smaller one. I think it would be usefull around the holidays, since it opens up oven space. Overall, I'm happy with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Easy vegetarian recipes
Review: I've made about a half a dozen of the recipes from this book now and I have to say they are quite yummy. I'm very fond of her other book "The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook", so was happy to see a new book out. I've also been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and it's about time someone came out with a good veg slow cooker book! It's seems like (until now) all I ever made with my slow cooker was nothing but beans. It's nice to finally use it for other things. My only real complaint with the recipes so far is that I keep finding that they are done sooner than anticipated even when left on the low setting. I'm starting to suspect that there must be some variation among heat settings with crock pots though. I noticed another reviewer mentioned that their slow cooker took longer (for lentils, which cook quite fast in my experience.) I've also noticed I usually have to stir things a few times, even though the author says it's not a good idea. I made the french onion soup recently and if I hadn't of stirred it would have burned. So maybe my cooker's low setting runs kind of hot or something. I just mark in my book that I need to stir, so I know in the future not to make that recipe when I'm gone all day, but at home puttering about. Other than that, I've been quite pleased with the ease and tastiness of the recipes. It's true some of the recipes ask that you sauté onions, etc., but I don't find that's a big deal. It doesn't take very long and it dramatically improves the flavor of a dish. Also I like that she uses normal ingrediants that are easy to find. Some of the recipes call for different size slow cookers, which could be fun if I ever decide to invest in a larger or smaller one. I think it would be usefull around the holidays, since it opens up oven space. Overall, I'm happy with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Tasty Recipes That Need Adjusting
Review: I've made three of the chili recipes from this book and, while all were tasty, two had too large a measure of hot pepper ingedients and the third came out too "raw" without much longer cooking. A four-ounce canned of diced hot chiles tastes mild out of the can, but turns combustible after 8 hours in a slow cooker ("Spicy Black Bean Chili"). In the "Chipotle-Kissed Red Bean and Sweet Potato Chili," the canned chipotles in adobo sauce were way too intense unless you used a fraction of what the reciped called for. I'm not talking just chili-lovin' hot here, I'm talking noxiously hot. The "Sweet and Spicy Lentil Chili" recipe specified unsoaked lentils, but the lentils wouldn't soften adequately until the dish was cooked 16 hours or more (the recipe called for eight hours). Also, the Vegetarian Society not only recommends that dried beans and lentils be soaked, but that they be pre-boiled for 10 minutes before adding to the slow cooker, which was not mentioned in the recipes I used. Based on my experience with this book, I wonder if the recipes, many of them close variations of each other, were all adequately tested. I still liked the dishes, however, after adjusting for the problems I mentioned. Keep in mind that taste is subjective and what I think is too hot or too hard may not agree with your assessment. But I've never had this happen three out of three times with any other cookbook that I can remember.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!
Review: Just got this cookbook last week, and have already tried 3 recipes from it. They all turned out very well, and the preparation is very simple- easy to do in the morning before work.
I've been looking for a vegetarian slow cooker cookbook for a while, and am so glad I decided to get this one. While looking through it, I've seen several more recipes that look tempting. It's nice to have found a slow cooker cookbook that is not half filled with pot roast and beef stew recipes!!
Rating:
Summary: I am so glad I bought this book!
Review: Ok, I LOVE this book!
* Almost all of the recipes that use dairy products or cheese give alternate suggestions for a more vegan diet.
* The recipes are soooo easy to make. Most prep is no more than 20 minutes.
* The recipes actually taste awesome (I add more salt - shame on me) and I've never really been so healthy of an eater and am making changes in my diet.
* Not all the recipes are soups or stews. Some really neat recipes are included like stuffed acorn squash, appetizers, and even breads - all made in a crock pot. Crazy... I never knew you could do all that.
* There is even a small section on deserts that you can make in the crock pot and they are really good, too. I made the blue-berry cobbler and really liked it (blue berries are good for your brain and eyes)- the crust was more like cake though.
* There is some really cool basics for beginners like me. Like how to soak/cook fresh beans, 101 advice on crock pot cooking, or hints and tips for better flavors.
* New research (EAT TO LIVE, Dr. Mercola's Total Health, etc.) shows that a diet where you get most of your calories from fruits, vegatables, and beans is, by far, the most healthy. Ok, maybe this is common sense and doesn't take a book to figure out. lol At least this cook book makes that goal so much easier.
I only wish I bought the hard cover edition because the soft cover is starting to warp and stay open because I use it so darn much. lol
-- For those who get this book... I especially love the Sloppy Lentils except I added 2 garlic cloves. Even non-vegitarian friends ask me to make this. It is SO GOOD!
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