Book Review Round Up For June

I have recently been sent a selection of  good food related books to review, so I have decided to combine them all in a round up post.

Complete Family Nutrition by Jane Clarke is a wonderful book for a Mum like myself to own. It is so informative and I have picked up so many useful and knowledgeable food facts concerning diet, health and general well being when it comes to how different foods can benefit us from a health and nutirional point of view.  The book is divided up into  6 sections so you can easily find the content which is relevant to you and / or your family.

The book also contains a selection of recipes towards the end, with photographs of some of the finished meals too, and each recipe contains a footnote describing its nutritional values and also information regarding what vitamins it includes and what food group it is part of. I have already made the banana ice cream (minus the nuts) for Jenson and cannot wait to try some of the other delicous looking and sounding recipes.

This book really is a family bible of food nutrition and I have found it a fascinating read so far an I know that it will prove to be very useful and something I will refer back to for years to come. Even my Mum wants to borrow now I have completed my review, because she found it very interesting and in particualr cannot wait to read in more detail the chpater on Migraine-type headaches as she has been suffering with them for years, and would love to discover if she could alleviate her symptons by avoiding certain foods, or adding more to her diet. So this is a book worth having I think.

The Salad Bar by Sara Lewis is packed full of recipes for natural and fresh salads – 80 in fact so there is sure to be one for eveyone! Full of so many appetising salads that are vivid in colour and full of nutritional benefits, and some unusual ideas that I have never thought about making before. As the author explains, salads have indeed come along way from the standard lettuce, cucumber and tomato that once made a ‘salad’!

The book is split into 6 sections to show the types of salad recipes that are available in the book

With its bright colours, eye catching salad photography and the useful information regarding the nutrition of each one and handy tips, The Salad Bar is a must for all healthy eaters.

Being a Mum to 2 boys I am very keen to ensure that they both enjoy and get involved in the preparing of our family meals as they grow up. At the moment this is just helping to bake cakes and make sandwiches, little steps, but my aim is to get them cooking meals in a few years. Therefore make them better husbands/boyfriends/life partners when they are grown up and left home, and self sufficient in the kitchen. I have a lot of recipes that I cook regularly, and obviosuly a lot of my cakes and bakes are posted on my blog, but it would be lovely to present each of them with a collection of family favourite recipes when they fly the nest and need to cook for themselves.

My Family Cookbook is such a wonderful idea. It is a blank cookbook ready to be filled with your own recipes to pass onto your child/children.

There is room for 80 recipes and enough room on each page for a photo of it too, and you can even add a star rating for each one! The book is a linen covered hardback book which arrives in a slipcase with ribbon marker and pocket at the back for loose papers. I really think this is a lovely idea and something I will endeavour to do over the years, because I would love to pass on my recipes for future generations of my family, AND besides, I have always fancied writing a cookbook of my own recipes – so here is my chance!

I was sent a copy of each of the books featured for the purpose of a review. All comments made about them are honest and my own.