Blog Archives
Sassy Food
Enlighten yourself to the world of growing produce with Ja-ne de Abreu’s Sassy Food! With the 2020 pandemic threatening Abreu’s and her mother’s access to food, she opted to take matters into her own hands by growing her own produce. On her journey to being self-sustaining, she found friends with the same interest – that’s how the Sassy Food Farms collective was born. Abreu wants to share her knowledge with us in an effort to encourage people around the world to connect with The Earth and grow their own food. I must say, she did a fantastic job at convincing me!
I thoroughly enjoyed Abreu’s simplistic but upbeat writing style. It made taking in the mass amounts of information easier. The highly detailed section on microgreens and sprouts fascinated me. I never realized there were so many variations! She gave us the essential knowledge to begin our gardening journey with a hint of hippie-esque wisdom.
She further showed the importance of connecting with the earth during this tough time in the various photos strewn throughout the book. I appreciate the artistic approach to the subject matter. The cute graphic designs were also a fantastic touch. I feel that the visual representation drove home the message she was trying to convey excellently.
The final chapter, Food is Music, featured easy-to-make recipes that I can’t wait to try – especially the smashed potatoes and ice cream! It was the perfect conclusion to an already well-formatted and organized gardening book.
I also appreciated Abreu’s sentiment on learning about how different cultures consume the foods that you intend to grow. I guess you could call this another one of her many hippie-esque pearls of wisdom in the book.
I adored the clever chapter titles. A few of my favorites, besides Food is Music, include Playful Propagation, Cheerful Cultivation, and Thrilling Trees & Fantabouls Fruits. These titles show Abreu’s passion for the book’s subject matter.
Sassy Food is the epitome of a non-fiction instructional read that makes the seemingly mundane interesting. Despite being a beginner to intermediate level guide, Abreu still offers a plethora of information you may have not heard before. It’s a great book to have on the shelf to grab for quick referencing.
Pages: 170 | ASIN: 1736295411
Nature Gifts of the Soursop Leaves
Nature Gifts of the Soursop Leaves by David Soh Poh Huat is a compilation of testimonies that express the effectiveness of graviola leaves. The soursop leaves drink is meant to be beneficial to those not only with cancer but also to people who have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, eczema, backache, scalp problems, and more.
The author does a great job at explaining how to prepare the tea and what is needed to prepare the tea properly, which is also accompanied by pictures. With the combination of the testimonies and the explained benefits of the tea, which include: immunity boost, antioxidants, helps fight inflammation, etc., the tea is presented as an aid to daily life. One thing I found very important and responsible, on the part of the author, was that he didn’t shy from encouraging others from doing their own research on the tea leaves. I definitely think that, when it comes to home remedies, everyone should be doing their own research before they partake in it and this book is a fantastic resource and example of how to educate yourself.
Nature Gifts of the Soursop Leaves is an enlightening and informative book about a plant with many benefits. It provides everything a reader will need to understand this invaluable plant, prepare it properly, and enjoy its many benefits.
Pages: 41 | ASIN: B09BN7ZTBL
Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers
Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers is a unique cookbook that contains centuries-old recipes of the author’s grandmothers from the times of Crypto-Jews. In the book, there are recipes for chicken, meat, fish and side dishes, sauces, desserts and also beverages. But it is not just a simple collection of recipes! Each recipe begins with a backstory about how the recipe was discovered, passed along generations and improved in ways that work well with “new world” ingredients. And the best thing is that all of them follow old Jewish customs and meet kosher guidelines.
Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers by Genie Milgrom is a superb collection of recipes. I was amazed how much effort, love and time the author has put into creating this cookbook. I can feel how much she respects her family’s Jewish heritage. I found the story of Genie Milgrom’s family interesting, knowing the origin of these recipes gives each recipe in this book a personal touch. I have never read a cookbook which also tells stories and shows the Jewish traditions. I was able to cook a dish and share a story of the recipes history with my family; a great conversation starter.
The structure of the book and the recipes is logical and I liked that each recipe is built up the same way. However, I would have preferred if the recipes were not in alphabetical order but rather in the order of difficulty (starting with the easy recipes).
The instructions to prepare the meals are clear and easy to follow. I found it great that the recipes are tested and modified to fit in the modern gastronomy. Recipes suitable for Passover are also clearly marked.
Recipes of My 15 Grandmothers: Unique Recipes and Stories from the Times of the Crypto-Jews during the Spanish Inquisition is a wonderful book written with love that you can taste.
Pages: 193 | ISBN: 9652299693
For Good Health
Shantha Kumar Author Interview
The Vegetarian Diet Guru is a guide that provides strategies to design diets for specific nutritional needs. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Diet plays a central role in determining the structural and functional basis of our living and is basic to our sustenance and productivity. Modern medicine has relegated the role of nutrition in our well being, and I wrote this book mainly to bring its importance to the fore and also provide individuals with the knowledge and means to be in charge of their dietary planning. Nature has provided us with a bounty of options to fulfill our nutritional needs but it is up to us to make the right choices for good health. I wanted to outline recipes that use natural, time-tested ingredients and combinations that utilize the latest scientific principles that enhance the value of food, while providing flavor, nutritional balance and variety.
In normal body homeostasis, all parameters fall within normal ranges and the body is on autopilot mode, with the various systems working in unison to provide robust energy, growth and vitality. However, in disease conditions, the body is off balance and requires additional monitoring, medications and diet therapy to function effectively. While the recipes in this book are based on vegetarian selections, they can substitute or supplement non-vegetarian diets as well, as the nutrients and their actions are very similar.
This book has more than 150 recipes. My favorite recipe was the Green Chilies Curry. What is your favorite recipe from the book?
My favorite dish from this book is Masala Okra Curry. Okra is a valuable vegetable in vegetarian diets due to its multiple benefits. Okra is high in fiber, being a rich source of soluble pectins and gums that lower cholesterol, insoluble fibers that aid digestion, and mucilage containing polysaccharides and glycoproteins that lower blood sugar. Other carbohydrates include low glycemic neutral sugars galactose and rhamnose. Okra seeds have 20-40% essential unsaturated fats, and also, rare in vegetables, high amounts of protein, made up of amino acids lysine and tryptophan which are usually lacking in cereal-based vegetarian diets. Okra is also rich in polyphenols and catechins, which provide exogenous anti-oxidant defense against lipid peroxidation and increase endogenous glutathione peroxidase for stabilizing intracellular redox status. This powerhouse of nutrition in this recipe is combined with tomatoes, onions and spices which add to its value. This curry can be a side dish to accompany rice, rotis or complement other menus.
What is a common misconception you find people have about dieting and how they can overcome it?
The common misconception about diet is “one size fits all”; however, people are very unique with respect to their dietary needs, tastes, cultural preferences and health status. Thus, menus have to be customized taking individual factors into consideration. Often, it is difficult to find the right solution for dietary problems and information sources can be confusing or misleading, sometimes even dangerous. In addition, there are plentiful natural, prepared and commercial foods to tempt our palate. In these cases, it may be best to follow safe or tested alternatives that are proven to be effective.
Another common aspect of diets is their content and how the combination of foods affects their assimilation. That is why knowledge of nutrient values helps to precisely target the recipes and menus towards meeting the requirements as closely as possible. Often, with diets and nutritional health, a holistic approach works best rather than an isolated, symptom-based approach. The dieter should aim at harmonizing various body systems in the most optimal way, gearing towards maintaining equilibrium and normal function. Diet should be the first line of action in preventing disease and always have a supportive role in curing and ameliorating abnormal conditions.
Some diets can give results for a short time, but may not be practical for the long term, but here the diet plays a timely role to correct deficiencies or excesses and normalize after which, one can switch to a maintenance diet. Also, some degree of experimentation or trial and error can be allowed with diets and individuals can tailor their diets according to how their body reacts to foods. In the final analysis, a good diet is one that makes you feel happy, energetic and healthy.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
In this book, I have explained basic principles of Nutrition and Diet Planning in health and some abnormal conditions. In my next book, I would like to provide further details, better understanding and additional resources for healthy diet planning. Dietary practices are very personal and it takes time for people to commit to change. Diet should be habit forming and in tune with our lifestyle and modifying them according to our needs is a lifelong process. I would like to provide convincing arguments for food choices, simplified menu planning and food preparation strategies, dietary guidelines for other specific conditions and equip people with knowledge, freedom and practices to plan and use their diets optimally for the health and well-being of their family. As we delve deeper into our knowledge about what, how and why our body works, we realize that we have to reclassify foods and nutrients further into sub-categories that work in a coordinated manner. Although all this information may not fit in a book, I would like to popularize these ideas and publish at appropriate times to reach a larger audience.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Facebook
“The Vegetarian Diet Guru” is a nutrients-based menu planning guidebook that explains and provides strategies to design diets that meet nutritional specifications according to individual requirements. There are low-calorie recipes for weight loss; low-glycemic carbohydrates based recipes for blood sugar control in pre-diabetes and diabetes; rice, millets and oats-based recipes that can be used for individuals with wheat gluten hypersensitivity; high fiber vegan and vegetarian recipes for gastro-intestinal health; high protein dishes using lentil bean and dairy proteins to lower BMI (Body Mass Index) and increase muscle mass for vegetarians.
Available on Pothi.com
LITERARY TITAN 