Not Part of the Blog Tour...

I'm not as cool as Caitlin, Averie, Kath, or Angela.

These super cool ladies (all favorite blogs of mine) got invited to "officially" review Mama Pea's new book as part of a "Blog Tour." They got swag to give away and everything.

Granted, they must get thousands of hits per day on their blogs...which can really help with the marketing of the book.  My max has been 24. (Woo Hoo!! I totally appreciate each and every one of my 24.)

Nonetheless, I'm a HUGE fan of Mama Pea.  (I admit, I kind of have a foodie crush.)

So, I thought I'd review the book myself.

Sorry, I don't have any freebies to give away. :(

I went a little Peas and Thank You crazy in the kitchen today.  (Tip: Go to that link and you can download 5 free recipes!)

For dinner, I made her Chickpea Strawberry Mango Salad.

As part of that, I made the Pumpkin Spice Roasted Chickpeas and Cinnamon Vinagrette (which didn't photograph well...it's a brown dressing. Haha...).

Then, I also made her My Kind of Bar - a knockoff of the "Kind" bars.  I've seen them at the Starbuck's checkout, but have never felt right spending another $2ish bucks (on top of the $4ish for the coffee) for a glorified granola bar.   

All was delicious, but I've made many of Mama Pea's recipes before and I wouldn't expect anything less.  I almost had a What About Bob? moment while eating the salad though. Mmmm...mmmm...Delicious!

The book is much like her blog.  She has lots of fun stories about her family and pics of the girls throughout the book.  Her whit and anecdotes make her seem like your favorite gal pal that's just sharing a story and some recipes with you. 

Every recipe has a picture to go with it.  I love being able to see what things look like before I make them!!  I remember reading on the blog about the crazy weekend Mama Pea had when they photographed most of the food for the book.  Well, the hard work and craziness paid off.  The pictures are beautiful!

I love the way the book is organized.  Her index in the back has things organized by ingredient.  So, for example, tonight's salad had mint in it.  Now, I have a bunch of leftover mint and was wondering what I could make with it.  I looked up "mint" in the index and her recipe for Falafel with Tsaziki is listed.  Perfect!

I'd highly recommend getting this book.  It's not one of those cookbooks that will acquire a permanent residence on your kitchen shelf.  This is one that will have a messed up cover and wrinkled pages with various food splatters. Meat eaters and non-meat eaters alike will love the stuff in here.