Review and Giveaway of "Peace Love and Snacks" by Stan Starsky

Look and feel great deliciously....

 Would you like your family to eat more wholesome foods and get more vitamins, micro-nutrients, fiber and minerals while avoiding processed sugar, gluten without taking supplements?  Wouldn’t it be nice to find an exciting and interesting way to eat more healthy?

If you answered yes to the above then my promise to you is that eating healthy snacks can be interesting, fun and easy. I present to you the “Peace Love and Snacks” healthy snack cookbook. And this not just about sneaking in a few vegetables into a cookie recipe – which actually is a great strategy. This goes a little deeper than that.

All of the recipes are are gluten free and contain no processed sugar and no white flour. Sometimes honey is used as a sweetener, however, there is also a granola process that utilizes no honey at all – only fruit, oats and nuts and it has tested very well.

Imagine feeling great about what you have made, using wholesome ingredients. Time to take revenge against junk food and enjoy delicious easy to make snack food recipes. You will find some truly unique and new recipes that your family will enjoy.

My Review:

With several different health issues in my house, I am a health food cookbook junkie, and more so with snack cookbooks. I am always searching for recipes that are healthy and fit the varied dietary needs of my family. No easy task. So when I read about Peace Love and Snacks by Stan Starsky, I jumped at the chance to read it. I will admit right off, that the usual issue for me stood true, to no fault of Mr. Starsky – we have nut allergies in my house and nuts are in most everything deemed healthy these days.  Mr. Starsky’s recipes often called for walnuts or pecans, and seriously made my mouth waterjust from reading them. Luckily though, I did find a few I could try that were nut free - that is really all I can hope for.

First off, I made the Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas) Mediterranean. And boy was this a hit with my husband and I. It was so easy and so good, a great alternative to the pricey hummus we usually buy. We ate it warm on whole grain wheat crackers and cold as a spread inside a veggie wrap. It was very versatile.

Next, I made the Brown Rice Pudding Alternative. I cheated and used my pressure cooker as I always burn rice other wise. *blushes* I loved the taste of the coconut milk and banana with the brown rice. This could become a new breakfast favorite for me. I’m a huge coconut fan anyway, and need something to replace those Coconut M&M’s in my diet! I might just try adding some shaved pieces of dark chocolate to this next time. That should do the trick!!!

Last, I did try a Fun Sauce recipe. So much of the book seemed dedicated to them, so I just picked one and subbed pumpkin seeds for the walnuts. Now my substitution, not a suggestion by the author, and while it was good, and I may just try it without the seeds at all next time, I would guarantee it is fabulous made as written from what I tasted. I can only imagine the addition of the proper nut. I love making this though, looking into the food processor and seeing all the healthy ingredients made me happy before it was even done.

Overall, I loved the concept of this cookbook, the idea of healthy snacks. Second, I liked the additions to the recipes, the funny tone Mr. Starsky used in talking about his recipes. Third, I liked that they were simple and easy to prepare, simple recipes that let the taste of the ingredients stand out.

More About The Book and Author

Stan:

Many years ago, I wanted to own my own business. So I quit my job and I started a vending business . I sold pre-packaged, overly processed, excessively sugary, salty, artificially flavored and chemically induced junk food…And I was actually pretty good at it. I did this for about 5
years and I took on more and more locations.

The vending business is good exercise, it is actually a lot like P90x except you do it all over town and all the movements are very different, but you do build up a pretty good appetite.Now, the snack irony of the situation was that I really did not like the junk that I was pushing. I was surrounded by thousands of calories and yet I was still hungry.

So, I started to make my own healthy snacks. I began making my own granola bars and over time I got pretty good at making really delicious mouth water granola.

I then began experimenting with fruit, vegetables, nuts, brown rice and other wholesome ingredients. I would arrange these ingredients in a way that tasted really good. I got better and better at combining
different foods and I called these creations “food combinations”. Other people called them recipes.

Well, eventually I got out of the vending business. I took different day jobs like becoming an account representative for a large software company selling enterprise software to mid-size businesses but nights and weekends were often dedicated to making healthy snack food.

My co-workers became my test subjects and along the way I had a lot of flops but I kept a list of all the good recipes (food combinations – not giving up on this term just yet).

Have you ever been obsessed with something but don’t know why?…Well that is how I was when it came to inventing snack food recipes.

Maybe I was trying to make up for my dark snack past or just trying to rebalance my snack Karma. Whatever the reason, I missed countless episodes of TV shows and I worked for hours in the kitchen.

I think this hard work has paid off and I put together what I believe is the best snack recipe book around and you may have guessed the title “Peace Love and Snacks”.
 

Title: Peace Love and Snacks

Genre – Non-Fiction/Healthy Living/Weight Control
Publisher – Self-Published

Email – stan@peaceloveandsnacks.com
Website – www.peaceloveandsnacks.com

Purchase Link:

http://peaceloveandsnacks.com/buy/

http://www.virtualbooktourcafe.com/3/post/2012/04/peace-love-and-snacks-by-stan-starks.html 

Schedule:

April 26 - Introduction at VBT Cafe' Blog
April 30 - Interviewed at A Word Fitly Spoken
May 2 - Interviewed at BK Walker Books Etc.
May 4 - Interviewed by Margaret West
May 6 - Review & Giveaway at Books, Books, and More Books
May 7 - Interviewed at MK McClintock's Blog
May 9 - Review & Giveaway at Authors by Authors
May 11 - Guest Blogging at Mass Musings
May 12 - Guest Blogging at AZ Publishing Services
May 15 -Guest Blogging with Cindy Vine

GIVEAWAY:
Simply comment to enter a free copy of Peace Love and Snacks :)