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Salad Love: Review of a Must Have Book for Salad Lovers!

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Salad Love

Salad Love

As you know, I have an obsession with salads. I’m a self-confessed salad addict and hope to never be cured. If only all of my food fixations were as healthy.

Yeah, I’m looking at you chocolate sundaes.

The book pictured here, as you’d imagine, is a dream come true for all of us who love salads like most people love cookies. Salad Love: Crunchy, Savory, and Filling Meals You Can Make Every Day is, in a word, perfect. It’s beautiful, has gorgeous photographs throughout, and is packed with unique, delicious, and easy to pull together salads and salad dressings.

From the Inside Cover:

Determined to eat more vegetables for lunch, David Bez embarked on a personal challenge to create one new salad every day using seasonal, healthy ingredients. In Salad Love, he shares his favorite recipes from his yearlong experience. Crunchy, savory, and incredibly satisfying, these salads go beyond your typical combination of lettuce, protein, and toppings to create vibrant, plant-based meals that offer something for every palate. In summer, try Oak-Smoked Cheddar, Peaches, and Blueberries; for fall, savor hearty Roast Chicken, Quinoa, Red Pepper, and Peanuts; in winter, fuel up with Ham, Roasted Potatoes, Carrots, and Dried Cranberries; and in spring, enjoy Egg, Asparagus, Croutons, and Pecorino.

Complemented by 280 full-color photographs, Salad Love invites to you explore inspired salads any day of the year.

I love the fact that Salad Love is divided into four seasons. This allows you to find perfect salads for whatever time of year it is. Naturally, you can make any salad in the book any darn time you want to – but the freshness of the ingredients will change with the seasons.

In addition to the 260 Salad Meals (again, beautifully photographed with easy to follow details), Salad Love also includes nutritional information, tips, and “salad tools” the author utilizes to make his salads the best they can be. You’ll probably already have all of these on hand.

There are 24 easy to make dressings also included in Salad Love. A few of these include:

  • French Mustard
  • Toasted Sesame
  • Classic Italian
  • Wasabi and Soy Sauce
  • Nut and Lemon
  • Raw Green Pesto
  • Citrus
  • Lemon Zest
  • Plus a lot more!

The salads in this book are unique in that each stands on its own. There is no need for extra food – each salad can, in fact, be your meal. That’s one of the things I love most about salads – they’re filling, nutritious, and absolutely perfect any time of the day.

Review continued below the picture…

Salad Love

About the Author

DAVID BEZ is the author of Salad Pride, a blog that chronicles his personal challenge to make one new salad a day for an entire year. A home cook, David created the blog after his coworkers expressed interest in his daily lunches. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.
“I love salads and it hurts me when they are treated just as a sad and unsexy side dish. Salads can be creative and balanced, healthy and tasty, a fulfilling meal.” –David Bez

If, like me, salads are something of an obsession, you’ll want to click through and grab a copy of Salad Love (Amazon link)  pronto, if not sooner.

If, very unlike me, you’re just “meh” about salads, you’ll also want a copy! As I was looking through the book earlier, it occurred to me, if someone wasn’t “turned on by” salads, this book would flip their switch!

This beautiful (seriously, it really is a knock out) book is a must have for anyone and everyone. It would also make a wonderful gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, or birthdays. How can you beat giving a beautiful, useful gift that’ll could also make your loved one eat healthier?!

See Salad Love (Amazon link) for more information.

Note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The opinions are entirely my own.

 

A Healthy Cookbook You’re Going to Love: My Crazy Sexy Kitchen Review

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This is not a “gluten free” cookbook but the recipes can be easily altered with simple substitutions to make the recipes gluten-free. I do it all the time!

Crazy Sexy Kitchen Cookbook Review

A while back my husband ordered me a few cookbooks off of Amazon – just because he’s cool like that. One of these cookbooks was the one you see pictured above, Crazy Sexy Kitchen: 150 Plant-Empowered Recipes to Ignite a Mouthwatering Revolution (Amazon link).

As I’ve mentioned (as in over and over and over..) on the food blog, I’m a firm believer that we should all try to feed our families, and ourselves, the healthiest meals possible.  Author Kris Carr has a great quote on page 28 of Crazy Sexy Kitchen, “… some foods have the power to heal, while others have the power to harm.”  I love that so much, I’m trying to think of an artsy way to put these very words in our kitchen. Near the refrigerator.  But, you know, something short of red markers on a poster board.

I do have a little class, after all.

There are a great number of “Raw Food,” “Vegan,” “Green Smoothie,” “Cruelty-Free Eating,” etc cookbooks on the market.  I’ve even reviewed a few excellent ones right here. It’s a great sign that there’s a proliferation of these cookbooks – it shows that all of us finally GET that we have to break the chain of unhealthy eating. As diabetes and obesity rates soar, we realize that if we’re going to protect ourselves and the ones we love, we have to wage our battle in the kitchen.

Crazy Sexy Kitchen (Amazon link) is one of the best Plans of Attack I’ve come across.  Not only are the recipes outstanding (what would you expect when chefs are in charge of recipes?), the sound advice and wonderfully written health information could stand on their own even if there weren’t 150 recipes tagging along.

Book Description

The woman who made prevention hot is now making it delicious! Crazy Sexy Kitchen, the follow-up to Kris Carr’s New York Times bestseller Crazy Sexy Diet, is a

Veggie Manifesto for plant-empowered gourmands and novices alike, and it’s filled with inspiration, education, cooking tips, and over 150 nourishing, nosh-worthy recipes. Infused with her signature humor, style, and personal stories, Crazy Sexy Kitchen redefines the kitchen as headquarters for America’s wellness revolution. The goodness born in the Crazy Sexy Kitchen will reach deep into the rest of your life—enriching your health, your home, your heart, and the planet.

Crazy Sexy Kitchen gives readers all the tools and know-how needed to adopt a joyful and vibrant Crazy Sexy Diet and Lifestyle. What is the Crazy Sexy Diet and Lifestyle, you ask? A nutrient-dense, plant-happy approach to eating and living that harmonizes your beautiful body at the cellular level. It’s a celebratory way of life that’s deeply connected, healthy, awake and engaged. Now that’s SEXY!

Like a long, luxurious meal, Crazy Sexy Kitchen is laid out in courses. You’ll start with a detailed review of the Crazy Sexy Diet. Next you’ll learn how to stock your culinary arsenal. Kris will show you how to find the best kitchen tools and equipment, and prep you with basic culinary skills and lingo. Handy symbols like, gluten-free, soy-free, kid-friendly—and for the time pressed—Crazy Sexy Quickies, help you to easily identify the recipes that are perfect for your dietary needs. Not sure how to put a whole meal together? No problem. Crazy Sexy Kitchen covers that, too—with a hearty dose of menu plans and recipes to inspire and delight.

Joined by Whole Foods chef, Chad Sarno, Crazy Sexy Kitchen offers over 150 delicious, nutrient-dense recipes designed to nourish the mind, body, and soul. From juicing to planning a three-course meal, Crazy Sexy Kitchen has all the essentials to fill your kitchen (and life!) with health, happiness, family, friends, and good times.

While I love the information (including fascinating FAQs with a dietician) and am as excited by the recipes as any foodie would be –  a few of my favorite things about this book are the beautiful photographs and the personal history Kris Carr shares with her readers. Pictures of her lovely grandmother and her stories of growing up in her grandmother’s restaurant are extra special.  I could have read an entire book about the author’s grandmother!

Why Should You Listen to Kris Carr When it Comes to Healthy and Healing Foods?

One look at the cover, and you can tell that the author is a beauty.  Slender, radiant, and sporting a smile that could light up a room. At the risk of judging a book by its cover (see what I did there?), I’d have taken her foodie advice without knowing a thing about her.  However, when I read about the strong woman behind the smile, I was even more committed to hanging on her every word.  In 2003 (ten years ago, if we’re keeping count), Kris was handed the news that she had a “rare and incurable stage IV sarcoma.”

The big C.

Her cancer diagnosis was the worst kind possible – the one that came with a warranty.  Kris wasn’t given long to live, but apparently that arrangement didn’t set well with her.

I knew in my gut that I needed to fully participate in my well-being. That’s when I went back to my roots – food. I discovered I loved being an artist in the kitchen, just like Grandma. Except I added a revolutionary twist to her culinary foundation: cooking consciously and compassionately for the health and happiness of my body and the world around me.

Since that time I’ve not only been surviving, I’ve been thriving – with cancer. In fact, thanks in part to a healthy and active lifestyle, I actually feel better with the disease than I did without it.  If I can feel healthy and happy while living with a life-threatening condition, just imagine how great you can feel! – Kris Carr, Page 15, Crazy Sexy Kitchen

Ten years – way past the “shelf life” her doctors gave her. Now just try and tell me it doesn’t matter what we put into our bodies!

As Kris Carr points out in the book, you don’t have to dive in to the deep end with the changes you make in your diet. You don’t have to swear off all red meat and there’s no need to pinkie swear to drink only green smoothies for breakfast for the rest of your life.  Just make healthy steps in the right direction – the more the better.  I couldn’t possibly recommend Crazy Sexy Kitchen (Amazon link) any more than I do. On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s so past 10 it can’t even see it in its rear view mirror.

Some of the recipes in Crazy Sexy Kitchen:

  • Juices such as Iron Machine, The Sicilian, and Morning Glorious…
  • Smoothies that include Crazy Sexy Goddess Smoothie, Chai Latte, and Vanilla Mystic…
  • Tofu Country Scramble
  • French Toast with Amaretto Creme
  • Cornmeal Banana Walnut Pancakes
  • Chickpea Crepe with Mushrooms and Artichokes
  • Mediterranean Wrap with Cashew Cream Cheese
  • Fruit and Almond Sandwiches
  • Hummus Pinwheels
  • Crazy Sexy Veggie Quesadilla
  • Pita Pizzas
  • Crazy Sexy Kale
  • Tomatoes and Herbs
  • Chile Rellenos with Red and Green Sauces
  • Garlicky Mushrooms
  • Sage Polenta with Nana’s Marinara
  • Dijon Vinaigrette
  • Tomato Relish
  • Fiery Pistachios
  • Sea Salt and Pepper Almonds
  • Raw Apple Spiced-Rum Shortcake with Maple Vanilla Glaze
  • Plus MANY, MANY more healthy, creative, and beautiful recipes!

These recipes will allow you to feel really good about the food you’re feeding your family (as well as yourself). They’ll also allow you to show off with great looking and delicious dishes that’ll probably earn you standing ovations.

Seriously, don’t wait another minute. Order Crazy Sexy Kitchen (Amazon link) today.