Book Review: The Bump Pregancy Planner and Journal

I was really excited to get The Bump's Pregancy Planner and Journal in the mail yesterday!! It's absolutely adorable and a wonderful keepsake for your child. I really wish I had had this with my first child. It is well organized by month/week of the pregnancy. A few things I find extra helpful are the sections with questions we should be asking the OB, our HR regarding maternity leave, and the Questions for the Hospital. Many times as a mom-to-be, you don't know what you should be asking. This book does a great job laying out the questions you need to be able to answer.

For each month, it lays out "What I did this month", "What I'm Feeling", and a couple other questions to help journal thoughts during pregnancy. I also like the spots available for baby bump pictures each trimester has a folder for keepsakes.

I definitely plan to use this with my next pregnancy! I highly recommend this book for all moms-to-be. What a great gift to your child and to yourself!

Book Review: Salsas and Moles

I am totally addicted to hot sauce... I literally put hot sauce on EVERYTHING... including eggs, soups, chili, pasta, pizza, rice, meats! I am obsessed. I couldn't wait to receive the Salsas and Moles by Deborah Schneider in the mail! My mouth literally watered as I flipped through this book! 

I've never really cooked with chilies or made authentic Mexican food from scratch, so this cook feels slightly overwhelming. However, "The Essential Guide to Chiles" section is comprehensive, including the types of fresh chilies and dried chilies (including pictures), and how to work with the chilies (choosing, cleaning, toasting, soaking, pureeing, and frying). This cookbook ranges from really easy recipes to very complex salsas and sauces. I don't think I'll be working with the hotter chilies to create hot sauces, but, I definitely plan to use the recipes for the classic table salsas! Yum!!!

I would definitely recommend this cookbook to anyone who loves cooking Mexican food, or those friends who enjoy making their own hot sauces!!

Book Review: The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon

I selected The Sprouted Kitchen Bowl+Spoon by Sara Forte because my family absolutely loves BOWL food. Unfortunately, the bowl foods in this recipe book wasn't exactly what I was thinking of in terms of BOWL food. For example, roasted carrots are not something we would eat using a spoon or eat from a bowl.

I love the size of the book, the hard cover, the beautiful pictures of all of the dishes! The recipes seem fairly easy to make. However, the recipes use lots of ingredients and I should have known the type of cooking based on "whole foods" written on the cover. I do like that the recipes incorporates a lots of vegetables, but I would have preferred more recipes for soups/stews/etc. This would be a great cookbook for vegetarians.