It's no secret that I'm a Southerner who loves to indulge in soul food. It's often thought of as fried, fatty deliciousness that's nowhere near being good for you. Most of the time this is true, but it doesn't have to be, and Chef Bryant Terry is here to help you enjoy the healthier side of soul food.

Last month, Terry released Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine, which features 150 recipes inspired by African-American and Southern cooking (aka "soul food"). Unlike many stereotypical soul-food dishes, the recipes in Vegan Soul Kitchen call for healthy ingredients and use healthy cooking techniques, and they're still loaded with flavor.

Now is your chance to win one of two free copies of this new cookbook! Just leave a short comment below telling me about your favorite soul-food dish, and please keep it vegan-friendly. Two winners will be chosen at random.

The contest ends on April 30, and we'll contact the winners by May 5. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!

Mexican, Japanese, Thai, and Indian are just a few cuisines of the world that are easy to veganize. But veganizing French cuisine? Not so easy. This weekend, after flipping through Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques, I decided to give it a go.

My experiment wasn't a straight veganization. Instead, I like to think that my sauce was simply inspired by Jacques' instructions for beurre blanc and béchamel sauces—but mine is a combination of white wine, onion, garlic, margarine, and flour. To balance out the very rich sauce that I had created, I added a few handfuls of steamed spinach and cooked pasta to create a complete meal.

White-Wine Cream Sauce With Spinach and Pasta

Creating a delicious French sauce wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, it was quite simple. The key is to be creative and not too strict about sticking to the traditional versions of recipes.

Enjoy!

For me, the days of eating a basket full of candy for breakfast have come and gone. On Easter morning, I'll have a piece or two of vegan candy, but after that, I'll indulge in a decadent, yet easy brunch to celebrate the holiday with family.

This may not sound as exciting as a sickening amount of chocolate and other candies, but it can be. Here are some Easter brunch menu suggestions to help you create a savory and sweet holiday meal that is anything but boring.

Savory:

•Garlic-Potato Crostini

•Italian Easter Pie

•'Bacon,' Potato, and Green-Onion Frittata

Sweet:

•Babka (Polish Easter Bread)

•Caramel-Apple French Toast

•Apple-Walnut Cake

Happy holidays!

Simple dishes are often the best dishes, and this one for broccoli and bowtie-pasta salad couldn't be much easier.

Broccoli and Bowties

All that you have to do is create a light lemon-olive oil sauce for the cooked pasta, broccoli, and pine nuts. The lemon and olive oil complement the broccoli, and the farfalle pasta is great at holding the sauce.

Couldn't be much easier or more delicious—enjoy!

Reading your entries for last week's cookbook contest has been making my mouth water! I can only read about soul food for so long before I have to make a dash for the kitchen to whip up some for myself. Since Vegan Soul Kitchen was the source of this sudden craving, it's only appropriate that I try out a recipe from Chef Bryant Terry's book.

After rummaging through my pantry, I found a can of black-eyed peas and decided to use them to make Terry's black-eyed pea fritters. I know, I know—his recipe calls for dried beans, and they are better for you and cheaper, but canned black-eyed peas still get the job done.

Black-Eyed Pea Fritters

The recipe is fairly straightforward but includes a couple of unusual items that aren't normally found in fritters. One of them is peanuts. Also, I must admit that I did not use coconut oil and instead opted for plain ol' vegetable oil. Regardless, the fritters were still delicious.

Check out the recipe, which is on Terry's Web site. It comes complete with cute music, art, and book recommendations! And you can enter to win your own copy of the book here.

A popular recipe in my house is for a coconut curry soup that is loaded with vegetables and "perfect tofu." I usually prepare this dish once a week during colder months because it's both easy and comforting.

Coconut Curry Soup

The list of ingredients might seem a little long, but don't be scared. You can leave out an ingredient or two, and the soup will still be delicious. The only required items on the list below are the coconut milk, a little salt, and some curry powder, if you ask me. The rest is up to you.

To make a more filling meal, try serving the soup over noodles—udon, soba, and even budget-friendly ramen work very well. And to spice up the dish, add a few drops of Sriracha to the broth after ladling it out.

Enjoy!

It's officially springtime, and that means sunny days, baseball, overgrown lawns, and lots of grilling. Eggplant is one food that makes it onto my grill often because it's delicious when prepared simply—with just oil, salt, and pepper—and can be used in more complex recipes.

Grilled Eggplant

FatFree Vegan Kitchen shares a recipe for Grilled Baby-Eggplants With Korean Barbecue Sauce that looks cute and delicious. On Chow.com, you can find a fantastic recipe for Roasted Elephant-Garlic Soup With Grilled Eggplant. Just be sure to use vegetable broth instead of the other options that are listed. And for a grilled eggplant recipe that is just screaming to be veganized, there is a Grilled Eggplant Panini.

What's your favorite food to grill?

Did you know that it takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce just 1 pound of meat? And that the meat industry produces more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined? To put it simply: Meat's not green.

Whipping up yummy vegan recipes instead of meat-based meals is one easy and delicious way that you can help fight climate change. Who knew that saving the Earth could be so much fun?

Here are my top five tips for making your diet a little more green. Try 'em out for "Meat's Not Green" Week (April 20-26), for Earth Day, and year-round!

1. Go Faux. Grab plant-based faux meats instead of real flesh. Did you know that producing 10 ounces of pork yields the same amount of greenhouse-gas emissions as driving a car 3 miles does?

2. Eat Green, Literally. Load up on Earth-friendly veggies—fresh and local is always better—instead of animal products.

3. Grow Your Own. Have about a foot of extra space on a windowsill or patio? Use it to grow your own herbs. You'll save money, eliminate Earth-polluting packaging, and prevent the greenhouse-gas emissions that would otherwise result from transport.

4. Make Your Own. Skip packaged basics, such as veggie stock, that you can make at home. This will prevent some cans and boxes from ending up in landfills.

5. Shop in Style. Bring your own bags to the store instead of using the plastic ones that are offered. You can even win a free tote here.

Happy "Meat's Not Green" Week!

Part of the appeal of a pineapple upside-down cake is that it's "upside-down," but what happens if you don't flip over this classic cake? It's just as good.

Pineapple Right Side-Up Cake

This weekend, I was craving pineapple and was desperate to use my new Bundt pan, so I decided to make a pineapple right side-up cake. I used a VegCooking.com recipe for the upside-down version but skipped putting pineapple slices and maraschino cherries in the bottom of the pan.

The moist cake was just as good without the extra fruit baked onto the bottom and equally as cute coming out of a Bundt pan. Enjoy!

The most common dip made with chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) has to be hummus, but that doesn't means it's the only dip that you can make with chickpeas. They go well with fresh herbs, good olive oil, and a little salt, and that's exactly what I used to make my dip.

Chickpea-Parsley Dip

I found a recipe online for a version of chickpea-parsley dip but decided to tweak it a little by reducing the amount of parsley and upping the amount of salt. This dip isn't as light or as smooth as hummus because it doesn't contain as much liquid, so be prepared for something a little more filling.

Enjoy!