More-With-Less Cookbook

When I was in my teens, this book caused a revolution in our home. Mom started cooking from it, creating casseroles and other dishes inspired by the cooking of other parts of the world. Instead of meat, potatoes, and two veg, we were introduced to Pakistani keema, chow mein, pasta dishes, vegetarian meals, and other exotic and down-home dishes.

The major premise of this cookbook is that we need to eat less meat and protein, waste less food, and use our food resources wisely. The recipes are designed to appeal to middle-America, I think, so you will find the use of canned soups and the recipes look underspiced to my modern eye. But for non-gourmet cooks feeding families on good, honest, and varied food, this cookbook does the trick. It is also filled with tips and mini-recipes for using leftovers.

My copy is stained, creased and beginning to fall apart from heavy use in my student and early years. I don't use it anymore, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

I think my mother, who became a Quaker at around the time this book was published, and who was in deep sympathy with the message of this Mennonite cookbook, eventually became a vegetarian under its influence.