Small Planet Part 2: This Time, It's Supposed to Taste Better

Not long ago, we checked out Frances Moore Lappé's Diet for a Small Planet, and we saw that it made vegetarianism into a never-ending and complicated math problem to be solved with mostly boring/ borderline unappealing dishes. Even Frances Moore Lappé seemed to see the problem, as her forward to the follow-up book Recipes for a Small Planet (Ellen Buchman Ewald, 1973, though mine is from a 1976 12th printing) notes that when the author was confronted by skeptics who doubted "the appeal of a diet based on plant food," she "wished that [she] could introduce them to Ellen." Lappé seemed to know her recipes were not quite cutting it.

So do the recipes in this follow-up book sound infinitely more appealing? I'm making you lunch from this book, so you can decide what you think.

First, you'll need a sandwich. I'm making the bread from scratch!

I'm so glad this is Unusual Pickle or Olive Juice Bread, as I am sick of the usual pickle or olive juice bread. (And if you're wondering, I made Olive Juice Bread, partly so it will go with the sandwich filling and partly so I can mouth the words "olive juice" at the bread and it will think I'm saying "I love you" and I can laugh at how stupidly naïve the bread is.)

So what goes with Olive Juice Bread? Pizza Spread, of course!

Full disclosure: Pizza Spread contains no tomato products, but three hard-boiled eggs instead. Apparently the olives, onions, and cheddar with chili powder and oregano are supposed to somehow overcome the boiled egg flavor to evoke the idea of pizza. Or maybe they'll just taste so weird you'll forget what this was supposed to be anyway.

Now we need a light, refreshing salad to go with the pizza-adjacent (or maybe, more accurately, a couple blocks away from a so-so pizzeria, but you can still kind of get a whiff of pizza from here if the wind is right) sandwiches. How about some Cool Slaw?

You get veggies in the form of carrots and cabbage plus fruit in the raisins, apples, and banana-based dressing! That means that rather than giving you a boring old box of raisins or red "delicious" apple for dessert, I can make you some brownies!

Hope you like Carob Nut Brownies made with whole wheat flour and surprise sunflower seeds! Are these recipes any better than the ones in Diet for a Small Planet? Your call. I can say that these recipes haven't convinced me that my usual packed lunch of peanut butter sandwich, carrot and pepper sticks,  sugar snap peas, and bowlful of berries needs an update.