Breakfast Green Smoothies by Terry Hatfield BOOK REVIEW

Breakfast Green Smoothies 40 Easy Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes for by Terry Hatfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Breakfast Green Smoothies is written by Terry Hatfield. Terry is a culinary trained chef, who has worked in a number of upscale restaurants, and has been focused on healthy eating for the past 15 years. He is currently a personal chef and has two other healthy eating books published.

The first major plus of this book is that Chef Terry explains why we all need to eat more green, leafy vegetables. Not just the plain bullet points you hear on the news, but explains the different vitamins and nutrients that we get from them, and why they are important. For instance, the fact that our body can not make or absorb the vitamins from any other source. It is a great start to the book, and focuses on why this is important, which is better than any book out there I have seen.

The second major plus is that Chef Terry explains the different leafy greens to you, what you get from them, and differences in tastes. I really loved this part because I am not familiar with some of the greens, and this really helped me to know which to start with and which to save for later. He also explains about starting slow, with things you are used to eating and then branching out. This is good advice, too many people jump into the smoothie revolution with both feet and find it hard to swallow. Taking small steps makes it a lifestyle change for good.

The recipes and pictures were great. The pictures done well, making you want to try them. In fact there are a couple I think I might be able to sneak in on the kids tomorrow. Although the title says breakfast smoothies, these can be drunk at anytime of the day. There is an apple pie one that would make a great desert after a meal.

This is the first smoothie book that has made me want to try them, and since I have kids, this is something that is important to me. Getting a better, more healthy diet into my children. Couple that with the fact that it was written by a real chef, and this is just an overall winner in my book.

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Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy (White House Chef Mystery, #5)

Affairs of Steak by Julie Hyzy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Affairs of Steak is the fifth book in the White House Chef Mystery Series by Julie Hyzy.  She is another of my very favorite authors and I love reading her books.

This book finds Ollie being teamed with Peter Sargeant, you remember the guy who hates her, in helping the First Lady plan a birthday party for theSecretary of State of the President.  They are looking at locations for the event, off-site, not at the White House and they have visited four places. As they are walking to the last location they run into Peter's nephew, although Peter is none to happy about it, and once they make the final location, they find that the assistant that was suppose to met them is nowhere to be found. As they are looking through the venue and the kitchen, Peter notices something that looks like blood, and Ollie opens a hugh tilt-skillet only to find the missing assistant, dead. They call the police and as they are showing the police the body, they hear talking which turns out to be a cell phone, upon opening the second tilt-skillet they find the President's Chief of Staff, also dead.

As we follow along the story, we learn more about Ollie and her relationship with Gav is explored and the reality of weather they are going to be able to have a relationship or not, or are they only going to be good friends because of their respective jobs.  Also, the tension between Ollie and the first-family's personal chef, Virgil that started in the last book when a new first-family was installed in the White House, continues. Even so far that Virgil leaks information to a newspaper that puts Ollie and Peter's lives in danger!

So many things occur in this book, and this series, we learn about the workings of the White House and the Secret Service, I am sure not the true workings, but so many things that are wonderfully written and explained, like the changing pins that each Secret Service Agent wears on his lapel, that can be changed each day, or if on Presidential detail as often as each hour, to keep outsiders out, even comes into play in this story.

I love the story. I love Ollie and Gav. originally, in the first book Ollie was dating a Secret Service Agent, Tom, but he just could not understand or back her knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and her ability to figure out what was going on long before the secret service or other police agencies did.  I could never understand why Tom was so put off by this, or why he couldn't understand her, but I am glad that she was introduced to Special Agent in Charge Leonard Gavin, or Gav as she comes to call him. He is able to understand her, and to even appreciate her abilities, so much so that he teaches her and encourages her, which I find attractive.

I am looking so forward to more books in this series and to the relationship with Gavin. I love the series. Another awesome author. I actually have two books in another series by this author in my to-read pile.


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