Review: The Beauty Detox Foods by Kimberly Snyder

Title: The Beauty Detox Foods

Author: Kimberly Snyder

Publisher: MIRA

Pub date: 3/26/2013

Source: NetGalley









Summary from Amazon:

In her bestselling book, The Beauty Detox Solution, Kimberly Snyder—one of Hollywood's top celebrity nutritionists and beauty experts—shared the groundbreaking program that keeps her A-list clientele in red-carpet shape. Now you can get the star treatment with this guide to the top 50 beauty foods that will make you more beautiful from the inside out. Stop wasting your money on fancy, expensive beauty products and get real results, while spending less at your neighborhood grocery.
– Enjoy avocados and sweet potatoes for youthful, glowing skin
– Snack on pumpkin seeds for lustrous hair
– Eat bananas and celery to diminish under-eye circles
With over 85 recipes that taste as good as they make you look, you can finally take charge of your health and beauty—one delicious bite at a time.

My thoughts/review:

This book is a more in depth look into the first book The Beauty Detox Solution. She tells you all about the fifty beauty detox foods. Kimberly tells which vitamins and minerals that are in the beauty foods. She explains how the foods work in your body and how they can help in making you even more beautiful than you already are. I eat a lot of these foods already. Some of my favorite beauty foods are: bananas, garlic, kale, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocados, and blueberries. One thing I like about the book are the vibrant pictures. I still haven't tried a glowing green smoothie, yet, but its on my list of recipes to try from this book. I recommend this book to people who want to try a new way of eating or if you want to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Also, have you seen Ms Kimberly? I mean, she is gorgeous. I also follow Kimberly on her blog:  http://kimberlysnyder.net/blog/.

Book Review: The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe

Title: The Color of Tea

Author: Hannah Tunnicliffe

Publisher: Scribner

Pub date: 6/5/2012

Source: The Library








Goodreads summary:

Macau: the bulbous nose of China, a peninsula and two islands strung together like a three-bead necklace. It was time to find a life for myself. To make something out of nothing. The end of hope and the beginning of it too. After moving with her husband to the tiny, bustling island of Macau, Grace Miller finds herself a stranger in a foreign land—a lone redhead towering above the crowd on the busy Chinese streets. As she is forced to confront the devastating news of her infertility, Grace’s marriage is fraying and her dreams of family have been shattered. She resolves to do something bold, something her impetuous mother would do, and she turns to what she loves: baking and the pleasure of afternoon tea.

Grace opens a cafÉ where she serves tea, coffee, and macarons—the delectable, delicate French cookies colored like precious stones—to the women of Macau. There, among fellow expatriates and locals alike, Grace carves out a new definition of home and family. But when her marriage reaches a crisis, secrets Grace thought she had buried long ago rise to the surface. Grace realizes it’s now or never to lay old ghosts to rest and to begin to trust herself. With each mug of coffee brewed, each cup of tea steeped and macaron baked, Grace comes to learn that strength can be gleaned from the unlikeliest of places.

A delicious, melt-in-your-mouth novel featuring the sweet pleasures of French pastries and the exotic scents and sights of China, The Color of Tea is a scrumptious story of love, friendship and renewal.

My review/thoughts:

Grace Miller and her husband, Pete, are living in Macau, China for Pete's work. After they find out they can't have children, Grace opens a cafe called Lillian's where she makes macarons and serves tea. Grace makes friends with people she wouldn't have otherwise known after she opens Lillian's. We meet Marjory, Rilla, and Gigi just to name a few women that Grace becomes close to. Gigi is a feisty character that I liked reading about and was very memorable. This is the first time I've read about China so that was cool since I've never been there. Grace has a lot of issues but she works through them in the book. Overall, this was a light and fast read. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It was a fabulous read. As soon as I finished, I wanted a macaron.

Review: Breaking the Rules by Cat Lavoie

 Title: Breaking the Rules

Author: Cat Lavoie

Publisher: Marching Ink, LLC

Pub date: 8/8/2012

Source: Marching Ink, LLC








 My review:

Roxy Rule is a chef at heart but she works as a personal assistant at a PR firm. She and Ollie have been best friends basically since birth, but it all changes after Ollie kisses her right before he leaves for London for a job promotion. Roxy’s sister Steffi comes to her pregnant with no place to go. Roxy’s friends Tali, Emma, and Andy are there to lend a listening ear or bottle of wine or both for Roxy. This book was bananas. It read like a soap opera meets Maury Povich with cooking in between. My first thought of Roxy was I want to go to her house and eat. I could just taste her cupcakes. This book had family, friendship, love quadrangles, and food. What more could you ask for in a book? This book is a fabulous and entertaining read.

Review: Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food by Christine Avanti

Title: Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food: Lose the Fake Food and Kickstart Your Weight Loss
Author: Christine Avanti, CN
Publisher: Rodale Books
Publish Date: December 20, 2011
Source: NetGalley











Summary from Goodreads:

Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salads author Christine Avanti explains how women and men can
control their appetites and lose weight by avoiding the fake and processed foods that are
actually making them fatter.
 Many women think that products labeled “fat-free,” “sugar-free,” or “lite” are the key to easy weight
loss. The truth is that these so-called healthy packaged foods are filled with processed ingredients and
chemicals that actually contribute to weight gain by causing us to overeat.
In The Real Food Diet, nutritionist Christine Avanti explains why a diet rich in all-natural produce, whole grains, and lean protein packed with the nutrients responsible for maintaining stable blood sugar levels and speeding up metabolism is by far the more effective option. Avanti draws on the latest research to provide guidelines for what and how often readers should eat to ensure that pounds are dropped—and offers specific meal plans, grocery lists, and a collection of flavorful recipes filled with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
 A guide to eating real food in a factory-food world, a weight loss plan, and a real-food cookbook in one, The Real Food Diet will instruct and inspire readers to steer clear of fake food and eat the balanced, all-natural way we were designed to eat.

 My thoughts: This book was very informative on how to eat real food. By real food, she means food that comes from the ground. She tells you which foods to eat for vitamins, minerals and fiber. She even has a list in the back of the book of real food you can find in the grocery stores like Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's. I also liked how she had a blog roll of some of the food blogs I actually read like Kath Eats Real Food. This is a book everybody can learn something from. If you are really serious about eating real food, you should read this book because it has some valuable information.

Review: Eat Vegan on $4 a Day by Ellen Jaffe Jones

Eat Vegan on $4 a Day by Ellen Jaffe Jones explains that you can eat healthy without breaking the bank. I found this book to be very informative and easy to read. I like a book that teaches me how I can save my money and eat quality food because I like to think of myself as a "frugalista". I don't see the point in spending loads of money that I don't have in order to eat good. I'm not vegan, but I do like to read about how to be healthy and getting in more fruits, veggies and grains into my diet. After reading this book, I listened to a few podcasts interviewing the author and learned that the book is written in a way that you can go to Wal-mart to find the foods in the book which is pretty helpful. It also has a bunch of recipes for different types of dishes for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. This book is good for anyone who wants to learn how to eat healthy without going broke in order to do so.