Blogger friends’ books

Hey! How’s the morning going? Hope you’re having a great one so far <3 I just finished up a morning stretch, an awesome breakfast, and am ready to enjoy the day’s adventures.

I feel inspired with recipes lately. It’s certainly a mixture of a few things: the fall produce (gimme ALL THE SQUASHES), enjoying new dishes, and the fact that I’ve had a couple of awesome new cookbooks to enjoy. New cookbooks always help me to think outside of my usual habits, and they’re an enjoyable way to take down time when you’ve been working on creating your own recipes. It’s comforting to breeze through a recipe knowing that someone else has carefully tested it for you. My two latest faves are even better because they were written by very good friends.

The first one is this PTV: The Part-time Vegetarian Smoothies and Juices, which was written by Tina. 

I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with Tina quite a few times, and she’s become one of my closest blogging buddies. (I still haven’t met Murphy though, and am borderline obsessed with that pug cuteness.) Tina is also a new mama, a CrossFitter, and writes an awesome blog if you haven’t checked it out. 

To write this book, she had to create and test over 140 smoothie recipes in two months (!!!!). When I received my copy, I was amazed by how beautifully it came together. Not only are the recipes incredibly creative (so fresh and vibrant!), but the full-page color photos are gorgeous. There are so many awesome smoothie and juice combos in here, and it’s really encouraged me to step out of the usual rotation. I tend to make the same smoothies and juices over and over, and for the past few weeks, I’ve been using quite a few of Tina’s amazing recipes.

Blueberry-basil smoothie:

Another cookbook that I was particularly excited about: Seriously Delish by Jessica.

Ok, so I’ve never met Jess in real life (sad face), but we’ve been blog friends since the early days. I’m also convinced that she’s the Pilot’s dream wife. I read him some of the titles of her blog post recipes, and he walked to the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal with a trail of drool on the floor behind him. Needless to say, her recipes always go well in our household 😉 In pure Jess fashion, the cookbook pages are filled with beautiful photos and unique recipes. There’s a beautiful mix of indulgent and healthy options; I love that everything is made from scratch.

A huge hit: these chewy granola bars. They’re a medley of oats, pumpkin seeds, flax, sunflower seeds, chia, honey…

and for her first bar, Liv was walking around the house saying “Mmmmm. Mmmm! Mmm. Mmmm!”

Here’s the thing: the PR reps sent me copies of these cookbooks, and I had already ordered both on Amazon. So, I’d love to give them to one of you! Just leave a comment below with something that’s inspiring to you, or your favorite cookbook ever, and I’ll pick a winner this Thursday midnight EST. I’ll send both of these cookbooks to the winner, along with whatever goodies find their way into the box 😉

xoxo

Gina