Liv B's Vegan on a Budget: Book Review

One of the things that makes me reluctant to go all in with my own food company is that the wellness/nutrition industry is incredibly elitist. Whether you choose products for health, nutrition or for environmental awareness, you are going to have to pay a premium. That's why there is such a strong relationship between health and socioeconomic status!

So I was thrilled to be offered the chance to review Liv B's Vegan on a Budget cookbook.

Who is Liv B? Honestly, I had never heard of her (aka Olivia Biermann) before now. Perhaps that is because I am not vegan, though I suspect it has more to do with the fact that she is a Youtube star and I don't watch Youtube. In any case, turns out she is a 24-year-old (a baby!) with a huge following already.

I have written before about how to eat healthy on a budget, but I was curious to see what Liv's take on it is for eating vegan.

The book is packed with 112 recipes divided into chapters including:

Staples & Sauces
Breakfast & Brunch
Snacks & Small Bites
Soups & Sides
Sandwiches, Wraps & Salads
Mains
Sweets

The book has 2 pages at the beginning with tips on how to be vegan on a budget:

Cook at home
Buy in bulk
Make recipes that use similar ingredients
Use leftovers

It also provides a list of things to stock your kitchen with in terms of tools and pantry staples, etc.

Unfortunately, these tips can be said to be useful for eating ANY way on a budget. In addition, there is no other mention of cost or budgeting anywhere in the book.

Each recipe has a beautiful photo included, along with tips. number of servings and cooking/prep time.

Honestly, I found the book extremely disappointing. Liv doesn't say how each recipe is cost-effective and I didn't find a single recipe to be particularly unique. I've seen many variations of each one a hundred times. In the Sweets section, she has a recipe that requires fresh strawberries and not a single mention of how to buy them on a budget (only when in season!).

Also, many are far from healthy. Remember vegan doesn't mean healthy! She uses white flour and sugar (organic cane sugar is just friggin' sugar) in many recipes when there are far more nutritious alternatives. Really, not a single recipe particularly caught my interest.

So do I recommend this book? Only if you are looking for fairly simple vegan recipes with pretty pictures.

Disclosure: I was sent the book to review but all opinions on this blog are my own.

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