Friday Product Roundup

I have several things to show you today: a couple of books, a  movie, a baking pan and some workout clothes.

Gluten-Free Entertaining by Olivia Dupin

If you eat a gluten free diet, you will absolutely LOVE this book. It has some really scrmptious recipes for just about any occasion. If the picture of the cake on the front cover is not enough to make you want to buy the book, just open it up and flip through it. There are loads more gorgeous photos of food you can eat, all naturally gluten free.

Gluten-Free Entertaining contains more than 100 easy-to-follow recipes, neatly arranged by occasion, but also appropriate for everyday.  Dupin eschews costly and unnatural gluten substitutes and instead focuses on nutritionally sound, whole foods that are naturally gluten free, creating satisfying meals that tempt even the most devoted wheat-lovers.  Dishes include:  Cornbread Bites with andouille sausage; Warm Ricotta Dip with sun-dried tomato crackers; Kale Caesar Salad with parmesan crisps; Braised Bacon Nachos with chipotle-peach chutney; Roasted Turkey Breast and Sage Gravy; Baked Salmon with roasted tomatoes and fennel; Roasted Beef Tenderloin with caramelized onion and fig jam; Mile-High Chocolate Cake with pumpkin custard; Cranberry Seven-Layer Bars; and Cinnamon Churros with chocolate sauce.

I think the first recipe I am going to try when the snow melts and I can get to the grocery store is the Roasted Brussells Sprouts with Chorizo.

If you would like to win a copy of this book, you can find the giveaway entry form on my Facebook fan page here.

Blessing The Hands That Feed Us: What Eating Closer to Home Can Teach Us About Food, Community and Our Place on Earth

I know that is a very long title for a book, but this book is by Vicki Robin, the bestselling author of Your Money or Your Life, which I read and it changed my life years ago. So, I was ready to jump in and read this one.

Vicki begins BLESSING THE HANDS THAT FEED US with stories of her prior life as a neurotic and sporadically virtuous eater and why she took up the 10-mile challenge. We follow her week by week as she grapples with limits and learns lessons and discovers how eating closer to home brought her whole life closer to home as well. It’s not a new right way; it’s a new relationship with what is all around us – all the time. Next she asks a bigger question: “What if everyone did it?” Can “local food” make a dent in big food issues of hunger, justice, nutrition, obesity and illness? Her conclusion is yes! Relational eating – connected to place – and complementary food systems – revitalizing regional agriculture – can work almost anywhere and profoundly contribute to a healthy food future.

The book is about eating close to home, the true nature of what the term locavore means. Fabgrandpa and I started out in baby steps last summer to eat as much of our diet as we could from locally sourced produce and meats. The closer to the farm you get your foods, the fresher  and more sustainable they are. We are planning to continure this way of living as much as we can this year, and can hardly wait for spring when new vegetables will be coming to market. The recipes in this book will be put to good use then.

Viking; On Sale January 7, 2014; $26.95; 978-0-670-02572-5 paperback

Despicable Me 2

This review was sponsored by Connect Your Home:

I must have watched Despicable Me a hundred times when I was taking care of my granddaughter in 2011. It was so cute, and it grabbed that child and held her like nothing else could. I was delighted when I received a copy of the Despicable Me 2 DVD to review. It is just a mesmerizing and cute as the original one. The story line for Despicable Me 2:

A secret laboratory near the Arctic Circle is stolen by a mysterious vehicle using a giant magnet. The Anti-Villain League (AVL) tries to recruit former super-villain Gru, now a devoted father to Margo, Edith and Agnes, to find out which evil person stole the lab, which contained a powerful mutagen known as PX-41 which can make indestructible and extremely aggressive monsters out of living organisms. They asked Gru because he, being an ex-villain, knows how villains work. But Gru refuses to help, saying he is a legitimate businessman now. Then Gru learns that Dr. Nefario, his friend and assistant, has decided to leave him for new employment, because he “missed being evil.” Gru reluctantly partners with undercover AVL agent Lucy Wilde, and together they search The Paradise Shopping Mall, where they are given a bakery called “Bake My Day” as their headquarters. Gru suspects Mexican restaurant owner Eduardo Perez of being a super-villain called “El Macho”, a bad guy who supposedly died after being TNT-laden, skysurfing a shark into the center of an active volcano.

You’ll just have to watch it yourself to see what happens. Available on DVD and Blu Ray at Amazon.com

Tommie Copper Compression Clothing

Their website says this about Tommie Copper

founded in 2010 as a natural solution for reaching peak performance, speeding muscle and joint recovery and finding relief from aches and pains. If one can use Tommie Copper and achieve a more active life, Tommie Copper hopes this positive change will spread to others throughout the world.

Their representative, bless her sweet heart, had read my posts about my abdominal pain, and thought that their compression clothing would help me heal. I only wish I was able to lose some weight so that I could wear the pants and tank top that she sent me. The feel of the copper infused fabric feels fantastic in my hands and the gentle compression that is built in would be great for the problem that I have. I am thinking of asking them to consider making a compression band, so that people like me, who must wear a wound binder or hernia belt on a daily basis would have something more comfortable with which to bind their abdomin.

If you have no problem such as the one I have, I do think these smart looking and comfortable compression garments would be fabulous for stretching, working out, and running. Take a look at their line of compression clothing, and read about the qualities that copper infused fabric will bring to the table for you.