I was really excited when I learned that the Blogging For Books Community would be
expanding their horizons, and extending their listed book choices to many new
genres, including cookbooks.
Tess Masters’ cookbook The Blender Girl had actually been on my Amazon wish list since I
learned of its existence through the foodie blogging community. Needless to say, I was
really happy when I saw that this book was up-for-grabs on the newly designed Blogging For Books website for review.
The Blender Girl is a collection of 100 gluten-free and vegan recipes,
by the blogging blender-maven sensation Tess Masters herself. This book was on
my top list of cookbooks to try because I myself am living a
gluten-free lifestyle. And it isn’t always easy for me to find great-tasting , made-from-scratch recipes, that choose to use
wholesome naturally GF ingredients to create easy blender-friendly culinary masterpieces
that taste just as good as they sound in recipe form.
Let me break down the loves, and the likes, for you
about this particular blended-cookbook . . .
On Book
Design: The photography (by Anson Smart) in The Blender Girl cookbook is airy and divine and flawless. I
nearly drooled when I cracked open the book’s cover and flipped through its
gorgeous food-filled pages for the very first time. Every page and recipe in TBG is well thought out and well laid out, clean, and has an artistic precision and
flair about it that makes this book healthful eye-candy to its ready-to-blend reader.
On The
Layout: Tess Masters’ doesn't just give you recipes here.
Tess shares with us, in her section of The Blender Girl called “The Lowdown,” her large wealthy knowledge base of blender tips
(pg. 9), the health benefits of adding in certain raw foods to your diet (pg.
15), and extra tidbits about grains and such for soaking and sprouting purposes,
and how to make your own nut milks from scratch that I never would’ve thought to make at home (pg. 24), etc. Assuredly all of these extra bits of info will quantify the
health benefits of the recipes you pursue in your blending adventures. So,
really, you aren’t alone to make culinary blunders with your blender. Tess
has you, and your blender, too.
On The
Recipes Themselves: My favorite recipe (so far) is the Dark Chocolate Pudding on page 164. I
mean . . . It’s avocados and cacao powder and maple syrup for crying out loud! And
it’s kind of my new favorite pudding recipe. Even my non-vegetable-or-fruit-eating
husband loved this recipe for dark chocolate pudding, and yes, I told him what
was in this recipe before he took his first bite, and he still gobbled it up.
I’m really looking forward to cooking my way through
some of the more savory (think dinner-time) recipes in the near future.
* Overall I’d give The Blender Girl 4 out of 5 stars, for its ease in
readability, its vast knowledge-imparting base (in chapters 1 and 2), its
healthful and well balanced gluten-free and vegan recipes, and the overall
design and layout of the cookbook itself. Well done Tess Masters and 10 Speed
Press.
For More Information on The Blender Girl by Tess Masters, please check out this page on her website.
About Tess Masters:
Australian-born Tess Masters is a cook, writer, actor, and voiceover artist. She shares super easy recipes on theblendergirl.com.
Tess's easygoing approach has made her a go-to personality for discerning eaters looking for healthy fast food that is easy, delicious, and fun.
As a presenter and recipe developer, Tess collaborates with leading food, culinary, and lifestyle brands. She has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Vegetarian Times, Glamour.com, Chow, Epicurious, and AllRecipes, among other publications and websites.
Away from the blender, Tess enjoys a diverse performance career. She has toured internationally with stage productions, worked in film and television, and lent her voice to commercial campaigns, audiobooks, and popular videogame characters.
Tess and her partner, Scott Brick, live in L.A with their West Highland White Terrier (and blender-cuisine maven), Cookie.
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A great big thank you to Blogging For Books for providing me with a free copy of Tess Masters' The Blender Girl to review and cook my
way through – seriously, you guys, thank you
for expanding your book genre horizons. You guys rock!
And to Tess Masters: You
really are a Blender Maven/Healthy GF
Ninja if you got my husband to actually eat avocados and like them! Thank you for providing me with a
fantastic addition to my GF cookbook shelf!
Love it!
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