Complete Family Nutrition

Complete Family Nutrition
By Jane Clarke
Published at DK Canada

About the book

For busy parents looking for new ways to provide the best possible nutrition for their family, Complete Family Nutrition is a one-stop visual guide to delicious, nourishing food that everyone will love.

• Makes healthy food choices easy, for every stage in life – from babies and children to teenagers, adults, and the elderly.
• Shows the power of food to ensure optimal growth and development and to help tackle common health issues.
• Features 50 classic recipes made healthy, inspiring you to boost your family’s well-being at every meal.

My Thoughts

I am so glad I have received this book as I regularly gleaned information from it in order to have a better nutrition – not only for me but for my family as well.   In this book, which is packed with information on how to improve your nutrition, you will learn made this that can become part of your daily routine when it comes to eating.

The book covers everything you need to know about taking care of your body and how to be healthier.  The table of contents is pretty well organized.

Chapter 1:  What you body needs – dealing with food groups, energy=delivering carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, proteins to growth, protein from plants, fiber, fats, dairy foods, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, eating the rainbow, probiotics and prebiotics, water, how much to eat, and count to 5.

Chapter 2: What you and your family need – baby and you, formula feeding, starting solids, toddlers needs, tips for tasty first foods, what do schoolchildren needs, packed lunches, what do teenagers need, food for mood swings, what do I need, eating well during pregnancy, body-boosters for new moms, women at 50 plus, men at 50 plus, eating at seventy and over.

Chapter 3: Simple steps to a healthier you – keeping food at its best, making the most of your freezer, shopping tips, organic option, buzzwords to look out for, sugar: time to cut back, eating less salt, smoothies and juices, coffee and tea, watch your alcohol, children’s weight, helping an overweight child, teenage weight gain, is your child too thin, weight issues in adults, carrying too much weight in later years, daily exercises.

Chapter 4: Different needs, different diets – feeding vegetarians, young vegetarians and vegans, eating fish, cutting out red meat, food allergies and intolerances, cow’s milk allergy or lactose intolerance, egg allergy, wheat intolerance, understanding gluten and celiac disease, peanuts and other common allergies.

Chapter 5: Foods that revive and heal – Why do I feel tired all the time, boosting your child’s energy, eat wisely, sleep well, relieving stress, migraine-type headaches, fighting off coughs and colds, easing indigestion, tackling digestive troubles, food for period pain, boosting fertility, stronger bones, arthritis: easing the pain, eating to ease angry skin, anti-aging foods for your skin, feast for your eyes,  healthy eating for healthy hair, alleviating asthma, dealing with diabetes, eating for your heart, cancer and food, food-boosts for recovery, dementia.

Chapter 6: Classic recipes made healthy – recipes for life, breakfast, fish, meat, vegetarian, sides and starters, desserts, baking.

As you can see the book is packed with helpful information for everyone in your family. 

As I explored this book, I have learned how certain food can help your teenager to be less moody and how to boost their levels of endorphins by simply making breakfast a vital part of their day, encouraging them to reduce the sugar intake and choose fruits over quick sugar snacks.    There was also a special section about arthritis which is something that I am slowly dealing with as I get older.   And you will also find fun recipes to try out as a family.    Improving your nutrition is a step-by-step process for every single people throughout the planet.   This book will offer guidance and suggestion on how you can improve your own meals and how to deal with special needs in your family.

For more ideas on how you can start fresh in 2015 go to the DK Canada Start Fresh boutique.  There you will discover titles that will challenge you to cook more, to eat better, to boost your brain, to develop new skills, to plan your wedding, to grow vegetables in thigh spaces, to be more in shape and to spend more time with your little one.

Complete Family Nutrition is available at your favourire bookstore, even on amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned book for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Emissary

Emissary
By Thomas Locke
Published at Revell

About the book

With his twenty-first birthday, Hyam begins a journey that will lead him to his destiny--or his doom.

Hyam has always shown a remarkable ability to master languages, even those left unspoken for a thousand years. But now the shadow of suspicion that was cast upon him as a child prodigy at Long Hall is lengthening, and he must keep his identity hidden--or face annihilation.

As Hyam's mother slips toward death, she implores him to return to Long Hall before he settles down to farm his land. This journey born from duty becomes an impassioned quest for the truth. War is coming swiftly, and Hyam must rely upon his newfound powers and the friends he meets along the way in order to unravel the puzzling past and ensure that he--and the realm--will have a future.

In a world where magic has been outlawed for centuries, one young man discovers that he possesses powers beyond his wildest dreams.

But he does not realize how pivotal this gift will be in the days to come.

Except for the healing arts, magicking is a punishable offense in the realm. The only places it is still practiced are the Long Halls scattered throughout the land--isolated haunts of wizards called mages and their long-suffering students.

But hidden rivers of power course deep beneath the earth, and not everyone has obeyed the edict banning magic. Vixens lie in wait on the Galwyn road. A mysterious race of telepaths comes and goes invisibly. It is even rumored that Elves still hide among the wizened trees. And somewhere beyond the badlands, a growing menace threatens the hard-won peace of the realm.

This young man could stem the ominous tide . . . but only by turning away from everyone and everything he has ever known. And facing dangers he cannot fathom.

Who is Thomas Locke?

Thomas Locke is a pseudonym for Davis Bunn, the award-winning novelist with total worldwide sales of seven million copies. His work has been published in twenty languages, and critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. He divides his time between Oxford and Florida and holds a lifelong passion for speculative stories. Davis's screenplay adaptation ofEmissary is currently under development as a feature film with a British production company. Learn more at www.tlocke.com.

My Thoughts

Here’s a fantasy novel that I think your kids will enjoy as much as you would if this is a genre that you like to read.    The story will grab your attention as you advance in the book and will keep your attention throughout the pages.   Suspense and adventure awaits you at the turn of each chapter in this book.   At the beginning of the book, you will go back and forth between two main characters up to the point where their lives converge.  

I am usually picky with the books I review and I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised with this one.   I enjoyed reading it and discover one book from Thomas Locke aka Davis Bunn that I liked.    I have tried other titles from him in the past and just didn’t click with them.  The fantasy genre that he explored with this novel is definitively something that I expect he will write more of in the future.  However,  I question the fact that he is using a pseudonym as his writing pen name.   Why now use his real name?   Is it because of the different kind of genre he wrote in the past and he doesn’t want to mix the two genres under one pen name?  

If you like fantasy novels and want to find a novel that will be a delight to read, I think Emissary would allow you to travel to a different world from the comfort of your own home.   It could also be a wonderful book to include in your child reading list as well.   

See a map of the realm which can be found in the book. 

This book is the first one in a series titled Legends of the Realm.  The second installment is schedule to be published in spring 2016.   Apparently, the screenplay adaption of Emissary is under development as a feature film with a British production company.

Emissary is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: The book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

The Daniel Plan

The Daniel Plan
Written by Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen & Dr. Mark Hyman
Published at Zondervan

About the book

Revolutionize Your Health … Once and for All

During an afternoon of baptizing over 800 people, Pastor Rick Warren realized it was time for change. He told his congregation he needed to lose weight and asked if anyone wanted to join him. He thought maybe 200 people would sign up, instead he witnessed a movement unfold as 15,000 people lost over 260,000 pounds in the first year. With assistance from medical and fitness experts, Pastor Rick and thousands of people began a journey to transform their lives.

Welcome to The Daniel Plan.

Here’s the secret sauce: The Daniel Plan is designed to be done in a supportive community relying on God’s instruction for living.

When it comes to getting healthy, two are always better than one. Our research has revealed that people getting healthy together lose twice as much weight as those who do it alone. God never meant for you to go through life alone and that includes the journey to health.

Unlike the thousands of other books on the market, this book is not about a new diet, guilt-driven gym sessions, or shame-driven fasts. The Daniel Plan shows you how the powerful combination of faith, fitness, food, focus, and friends will change your health forever, transforming you in the most head-turning way imaginably---from the inside out.

My Thoughts

I hesitated before requesting this title.   I wasn’t sure what it was all about.  So I searched it more.   Looked at the table of content and read the excerpt on Christianbook.com because I wanted to see more what it was all about.    I read and liked it enough to request the ebook.    All this happened at the same time when I got a free app to train me to do situps (which I highly disliked growing up).    So the reading and the training started about the same week…  

The training went well and I like the approach so much that I decided to purchase the Squats app and the PushUps one as well.    Besides these three apps (I still have to start the PushUps one) and the new-to-us elliptical machine we now own, I am exercising more regularly in the past month or so.  But I knew that in order to lose weight on an healthy way, I needed guidance.   That’s mostly why I decided to  read The Daniel Plan.

The Daniel Plan is based on five essentials:   faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends.    Pastor Warren dives you into the spiritual health aspect of the plan.  Dr. Hyman will tell you everything you need to know about the power of food to affect the mind and body.   Exercise physiologist Sean Foy will help you to remove the roadblocks that keep you from exercising.  Dr. Amen will show you how to boost the physical health, renew your mind, and fulfill your purpose.  The synergy of the plan is obtained because of the support of friends who come alongside you on your journey.

But as much as I would like to

I have seen “New Age” thoughts in it – things like

Faith is visualizing the future in advance.   It is seeing the future in the present.  Every great achievement began when somebody saw it in advance.  …   The same is true when it comes to getting healthy.  You look in the mirror and believe that, with God’s help, you’ll get healthy even though the person staring back at you is exhausted, stressed, out of shape, or overweight.

Yes I am overweight and out of shape.  And I do think that God desire me to be healthier.  But honestly looking at myself in the mirror and believing isn’t enough.  You need to have a switch in your thinking and start cutting down on sugar and junk food.  You need to exercise more.

Bottom line is that I am not a super fan of all this positive thinking mumbo jumbo that Christians are doing left, right and centre.   Consequently, I would stay away from this book.   You can achieve the same thing by establishing a good routine and incorporating more exercises in your own life.   When you make a decision of taking your health seriously it is easy to make life changes and wise choices when it comes to food.

The book is available to bookstores everywhere, even on amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to Zondervan for sending me the above mentioned product in ebook format for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

I LOVE DK

 

It has been a few years since I received my first DK book to review and since them I have received numerous gem that are precious in our homeschool as well as in our day to day life.    Today, I find myself pondering on which book I should present to you, my readers, from all the titles I have received so far.    There are so many choices that it is a bit difficult for me to pick only one.    So I am presenting you three of the books I really like from DK Canada.

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When it comes to baby and toddler meals, I am a huge fan of First Meals by Annabel Karmel.

When my oldest son was a baby we purchased an older edition of this book.   It was a marvelous book to own for us as we made purée at home.    The taste of these were so authentic to real food that when the transition time came around, our kids were not as fussy as other children we have observed through the years.   My husband was so amazed by the quality of the food we made for our babies that he often said that we needed to keep the book just in case one day he can’t eat regular food.    We still have our old copy of the book which I hope will be a blessing for my grand-kids.   This newer edition of the book contains over 200 tasty and healthy recipes that offer a balanced diet for babies and toddlers.    The recipes will help your little ones to develop the taste buds they will need in order to not become the fussy person in their adult life.    From the creamy vegetable purée to the sticky mango chicken you will find a humongous variety of ideas to introduce new flavors and textures in the mouth of your kids.

Let me tell you that my kids are not fussy eaters and they each love to try new food in their plates.    And kids do grow fast!   Now they are used to have healthy food in their plates and don’t hesitate to go for seconds when they can.

As babies	Today

So if you want to have kids who enjoy good meals and love to try new flavors in their mouth in order to develop a love for food, I strongly recommend the book First Meals from Annabel Karmel.   This book makes also a perfect gift for a baby shower for a future mom and dad.

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But kids grow up and one day you have to make a decision on how you will educate them.    In Ontario, you have numerous choices offered to parents – you can send them to public school (French or English), to Catholic school (French or English), to Christian school, to private school (French or English), and you can decide to homeschool.  We have chosen to go toward homeschooling after our oldest spent two years in the French Catholic board in JK and SK.    So having the opportunity to review books is a huge blessings for us.   Two books I have received from DK Canada allows us to expand our taste buds based on meals from different countries.

The first book I really enjoy with my family is Around the World Cookbook by Abigail Johnson Dodge.   This cookbook contains more than 50 international recipes for children ages 8 to 13 to make.   Yes this book has been written with kids in mind and will allow them to develop skills that will be essential as they grow up – cooking a meal.  

http://canadianladybugreviews.blogspot.ca/2011/07/around-world-cookbook.html

This adorable cookbook will allow you to experiment with your kids and discover meals from countries from around the world.   While cooking the meals, the kids will also learn more about the countries where the meals come from whether it is from Asia, India, Indonesia, Australasia, the Middle East, Africa, the Mediterranean, Russia, Northern Europe, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, US and Canada. 

We have two recipes that have become part of our menu – the Pavlova and the Jamaican Jerk Chicken with the Mango Salsa  .  These two recipes are marked with sticky notes for quick access to the instructions to make them.   As my kids grow up, they use this book to discover techniques and skills for the kitchen as well as wonderful recipes.   They slowly build their own repertoire of recipes and I wouldn’t be surprise that they will cook the meals that have become a favorite in our home for their future spouses one day.

If you want your kids to become more versatile in the kitchen and surprise you with delicious and mouth-watering meals for supper, get them Around the World Cookbook.  You will be surprise with the meals they can prepare with simply instructions.   Each recipe is accompanied with a list of equipment needed and photo of the end result.   

Another cookbook that we have used in our homeschool would be the Jewish Holidays Cookbook.  No we are not Jewish but as part of our daily life we study the Bible – the kids are involved in Awana and memorize Scripture each week.    This cookbook will offer  recipes based on the Jewish Holidays.    It can be a great book to help a child raised in the Jewish faith to learn more about the Jewish history and heritage or for families interested in learning more about it.

My oldest son has a special assignment for a gold level in his Awana book a few years ago.  Thanks to the Jewish Holidays Cookbook, he decided to make Challah bread which is traditionally served at the beginning of the Shabbat dinner.   A prayer is said over the freshly baked bread before dinner is served.   It was surprisingly very easy to do.  More recently, our second son decided to tackle the same challenge and decided to make hamantaschen which are reminders of when Persian Jews were saved from Haman’s cruelty in the time of Queen Esther.

 

The Jewish Holidays cookbook contains festive meals for celebrating the year.   As homeschoolers and Christians, I find it important that my kids understand the history of Christianity and the fact that Jewish meals were important during Bible time.    We also have a special curriculum explaining the various Jewish holidays which I intend to use with this special cookbook!  Each holiday presented in this cookbook has between three to six recipes.  In a way you could plan a whole meal for a specific holiday based on the Jewish calendar.  

The holidays covered in this book are Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Tu B’Shevat, Purim, Pesach, Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Lag B’Omer and Shavuot.  What I particularly like about this book is that it gives a little introduction on the holiday covered with the recipes.    It is unique and very creative I find.   Having included a Rabbi as well as a co-author was a marvelous idea.

This cookbook has also become a favourite in our household.    It allows the kids to expand their taste and try food of Jewish origins.  

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DK Canada would love to encourage you to review some of DK booksthat you love.   All you have to do is to send us a short review or shout out (one or two sentences) about your favourite DK book of all time and why you love it.  This could be done on a blog or using social media with a special hashtag.

On Valentine's Day DK Canada will select one of the reviews as a "winner" and that reviewer wins a $250 DK shopping spree where they get to choose $250 worth DK books of their choice.  Also as part of the promotion, 20 of the submitted reviews will be selected and DK Canada will create a boutique out of them for Valentine’s Day.  So don’t wait any longer,  post your own I Love DK review on Twitter with the hashtag #ILoveDK as well as on DK Canada facebook page between January 19 and February 4th.

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The books presented above are available at your favorite bookstore, even on amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

  

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for the opportunity to participate to the I Love DK Promo. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.