Lindsay Nixon, author of The Happy Herbivore, will be making cookies and signing books in the ‘burgh at 2pm on Sunday, February 13 at Right by Nature.  

The Happy Herbivore is a cookbook and website that focuses on healthy vegan meals that are easy to prepare–including treats that sneak in healthy foods, like Black Bean Brownies.  Lindsay has a great blog on her site, tackling topics such as how to eat healthy while traveling and fat-free Superbowl snacks.

We chatted with Lindsay about her book, her cooking, and her upcoming event in Pittsburgh:

Q.  What kind of cookies will you be making at your Pittsburgh event at Right by Nature?  How did you come up with that recipe?

A.  They are called “No Bake Choco-Oat Cookies” and all you do is mix the ingredients together, shape it into a cookie and then let it “firm” a bit and you have a cookie! Without using your oven!  I’ve been mixing the ingredients – oats, peanut butter, cocoa and maple syrup, together for years as a quick and relatively healthy snack when the sweet tooth hits.

I’d first heard about the ingredient combo when I was on a raw detox and it was one of the desserts (only the detox used carob, agave, groats and raw nut butter in a slightly different proportion to make a “cookie dough” you ate with a spoon). After the detox I used more common ingredients, changing the ratios a bit, and then shared it with some friends. It was my friend Heather that realized if you let the “dough” sit out, it will turn into an actual cookie!

A.  I wanted to show vegan food can be easy, affordable, healthy & above all — approachable for everyone, even non-vegans. I think a lot of vegan cookbooks can be intimidating to new comers because they use specialty ingredients, which are often hard to find or expensive. I also wanted there to be a vegan cookbook out there that is low in fat and uses wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour. I think there is a stereotype that vegan food is healthy, and it certainly can be, but most vegan cookbooks use a lot of oil and margarine, refined sugars, white flours —  and so it’s a more ethical alternative, but not necessarily a healthier one. My mission is to show food can be just as nutritious as it delicious

Lindsay Nixon

Q.  What is your favorite recipe from the new cookbook?

A.  Right now I’m really obsessed with the Quick Queso. I think I need an intervention.

A.  I do have a great recipe for baked fries (that I bet would be yum in a sandwich) and I also have a lot of recipes for foods that are traditionally unhealthy — like meatball subs, chimichangas, guacamole, bacon bits, fettuccine alfredo and cupcakes.

A.  It took 10 different tries to get the spicy sausages “just right.”  Most recipes didn’t need more than 1 or 2 attempts, but those sausages (they taste like pepperoni) were brutal. The recipe itself is really easy to make. One of the nice things about the book is how easy they are to make, but there are a couple, like the baked onion rings, that you’ll get better with over time.

A.  I do! I’m supposed to meet up with my publisher shortly after my signing in Pittsburgh to talk about another book So hopefully I’ll be back in Pittsburgh with my new book next year.

If you’re interested in meeting Lindsay, you can RSVP to her event at Meetup or on Facebook.

Photo via boringpittsburgh.com

A few quick updates.  Sadly, the South Side Joseph-Beth is closing.  We have some wonderful bookshops in the area such as Mystery Lovers and Caliban Books, but this was a great place for events, general book-buying, and a spacious and bright store.  It will be missed.  Near this time last year, the Squirrel Hill B&N closed.

On a brighter note–Pittsburgher  and Post-Gazette reporter Len Barcousky is doing an event for his new book, Remembering Pittsburgh, today at the Fire Escape CoffeeHouse.   Find out more in the Post-Gazette article.   They’ll be donating $2 to the Allegheny County Library Association’s Bookmobile Center for each copy sold.

On December 3, the Gist Street reading series has a great lineup: Holly Goddard Jones, author of Girl Trouble, and poet Jericho Brown.  If you haven’t been to Gist Street yet, please go.  Author John McNally says, “If you want your art without the pretension, your surroundings cozy without being claustrophobic, your hosts friendly rather than brooding, I urge you to check out the fiction and poetry readings at Gist Street.”

And Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures has two events coming up worth checking out: Andrew Ross Sorkin, the author of Too Big to Fail, on November 15, and Lee Child, author of 61 Hours on December 6.

Happy Fall!  There’s a spooky book event coming up this weekend, to get you ready for Halloween.  But first, check out Small Press Pittsburgh’s handy-dandy list of Pittsburgh bookstores organized by neighborhood and by type.  They’ve also made up a list of libraries including bus route info!

Today Pittsburgh author Heather Frazier will be reading at the Paranormal Pittsburgh Event at Barnes & Noble – South Hills Village, from her book Pittsburgh Ghosts: Steel City Supernatural between 12 and 3pm.  Her website is pretty awesome.  She’ll be joined by Jim Titus, author of Supernatural Pittsburgh and Its Suburbs.

Check in tomorrow for a Q&A with the author of Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever!

Some quick updates on the what’s going on in the Pittsburgh book world this month:

The New Yinzer has a great lineup on October 20th for their TNY Presents series.

There’s a book event for kids on October 8, with a reading and signing of Numbers Elementary by local author Mick Shuck (via Glitzburgh)

Check out Poetz.com– there’s an amazing calendar of literary events filling almost every day in October.

Mark Kurlansky, author of bestselling books such as Salt, will be speaking on October 5 at Pitt.

Author Brad Herzog is coming to Pittsburgh on tour for his quirky, modern-day homage to The Odyssey.   He’s speaking and signing books tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on the South Side at 7pm, and tomorrow he’ll be at the Butler Public Library at 6pm.

Brad’s book, Turn Left at the Trojan Horse, is a cross-country excursion in the spirit of the ancient journey of the first road trip in history–The Odyssey.

But instead of a voyage home to Ithaka following the Trojan War, Herzog made his way toward his alma mater in Ithaca, New York. With middle age bearing down on him and a college reunion on his agenda, he asked himself: How has he measured up to his youthful aspirations? What constitutes a life well-lived? In this day and age, what makes a hero?

To answer those classic questions, Brad crafted an itinerary taking him through classically-named places.  He says, “I went to places like Troy, Oregon (population 50), not far from Hell’s Canyon. And Iliad, Montana, which can only be reached by traveling about 40 miles down a dirt-and-gravel road. And Siren, Wisconsin, which was almost completely destroyed by a tornado a few years ago. And other tiny towns with names like Athena and Apollo and Atlas.”

Read more…

For Mystery Lovers (via Mystery Lovers Bookshop): 

• Tess Gerritsen & Lisa Gardner–together for a Summertime Thriller Chiller at MLB (with popsicles!) July 16 at 7pm
• MLB’s “Coffee & Crime” author breakfast series with Harry Dolan, July 24 at 10am.  Click here for $5 tickets.

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Summertime Romance (via Booktour.com):

• Pittsburgh-based romance author Gwyn Cready at the Carnegie Museum of Art July 8 at 6:30 pm.

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Wanderlust:

Author Brad Herzog is coming to the Pittsburgh area for two events on his book tour–at the Joseph-Beth on the South Side, July 12 at 7pm, and at the Butler Area Public Library on July 1 at 6pm.  Here’s the book trailer for his new book, Turn Left at the Trojan Horse.  Skip ahead to the 1-minute mark where the video gets good.

The New Yinzer –what can I say?  I love the cheeky title, the blend of Pittsburgh attitude and the tip of the hat to the mag that I both love (Shouts & Murmurs) and hate (the elitism).  For those who don’t know, The New Yinzer is a literary magazine based in Pittsburgh, which started out online in 2002—and their website is a must-visit, with fresh new poetry, fiction, criticism, and interviews, but also, the visual art is amazing.  I particularly liked the photo essay on the G20 summit.

The New Yinzer also has a reading series—you can find out more on their blog The New Yinzer Presents.  They’ve published 3 anthologies: Dirt, Pittsburgh Love Stories, and For A Time We Wanted Something New, and I hope to have reviews on Books N’at soon.