I love to cook, and I love to collect cookbooks. I must have a hundred vegan cookbooks in my collection. The Herbivore Clothing Company’s Michelle Schwegmann and Josh Hooten just put out a new vegan cookbook, Eat Like You Give a Damn, and I needed to add it to my collection.

The book starts out with a moving story written by an anonymous former undercover investigator for Mercy for Animals. This is followed by a story about the birth of Herbivore and another piece explaining why Michelle and Josh went vegan. I loved reading about their adventures in opening their store and their journey to veganism. There is even a page that discusses raising vegan kids. There is so much interesting and fun information in the beginning of the book that it took me a while to get to the recipes.

First, I have to say that I love the title! It says it all to an ethical vegan such as me. Second, I love the gorgeous colored pictures throughout the book. And lastly, I love the recipes. They are healthy, creative, fun, and colorful.

I knew that the first recipe I wanted to try was the Only-Kale-Can-Save-Us-Now Salad because my husband, David, is an avid gardener, and we always have kale growing somewhere in the garden. Total yum! This salad can convert those who don’t like kale and bring joy to those of us who already love it. The tahini-lemon dressing is the secret ingredient, taking this from a plain salad to an awesome salad.

Polenta is one of my favorite comfort foods of all time. The “Cheesy” Polenta with Mushrooms, Swiss Chard, and Pinto Beans was the next recipe I tried, and it was super-delish and easy to make. I have made a lot of polenta dishes, but this one topped them all. It’s going to be my go-to fall and winter recipe this year for sure.

I also made the Lentils with Sun-Dried Tomatoes. It’s different from your usual lentil recipe, and again, it’s the dressing that takes this dish over the top. By the way, I love pumpkin seeds—as you can see, I put them on every dish!

The Apple and Peanut Butter Smoothie will surprise you. It did me. Think healthy dessert for breakfast!

This book is littered with bookmarks for all the recipes that I want to try. From breakfast to dessert, and everything in between, this cookbook is a winner and a must-have for vegans and nonvegans alike. Speaking of winners, Eat Like You Give a Damn was voted the 2015 Cookbook of the Year in VegNews Magazine!

And don’t forget, Herbivore has many more fun items for sale at its fabulous Portland store and online at HerbivoreClothing.com.