The Vegan Lunch Box Giveaway

Some good books to give away today--get ready!

First you don't have to be a vegan to appreciate the great stuff in The Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann. Myself? I'm not opposed to the occasional bologna sandwich (with mustard and pickles of course) but McCann's book has creative ideas for meatless menus every day of the week. Some are built around ethnic themes (Greek, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, etc.) and some around holiday themes (Halloween spiders, Valentine's Day Peanut Butter and Jelly Pop Hearts) but all are healthy and interesting--and oh so cute packed in their little bento boxes.

Some of the recipes are pretty involved for a school lunch but if you were to use them as a dinner then save some for the next day's lunch it makes everything much more doable. Many of the recipes use strange things as meat substitutes (how on earth would one find non-meat deli slices for example? I'm not sure the colors and preservatives it would take to turn soy beans into salami aren't on the FDAs watch list in their own right) but with school lunches typically packed full of trans fats and refined, processed foods this seems to be a great handbook for bringing healthier foods into your children's diets (and maybe your diet too!)

Next there's the Rookie Moms' Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without) Your Baby by Whitney Moss and Heather Flett which I found to be a great little book full of ways to keep your head above water once you're home from the hospital with that little bundle of joy. Short, descriptive paragraphs give you great ideas for making your way through motherhood, sanity intact--everything from rolling your own sushi to setting up a kid sized car wash.

Besides this book (which I'd highly recommend) there are great ideas on the Rookie Moms' website. Give it a peek!

First Meals Food Diary by Annabel Karmel, published by DK Publishing, is a handbook for helping you plan healthy meals for your baby's first year and gives easy ways to a start your baby into solid foods. Fun recipes for pureed baby food and cute little finger foods if you've got a new little one at home this will be a helpful addition to your child-rearing library.

Finally, if you're thinking about decorating a child's room Paint Can! Children's Rooms: Patterns & Projects for Colorful, Creative Spaces by Sunny Goode is a must buy. Really, you've got to get this for all the beautiful ideas and instructions it gives on how to paint rooms.

With this book you could recreate a fairy tale room with beautiful princess pictures or a hoe down heaven with cowboy boots stenciled around the border. Stenciling, texturing, striping or checkering and even painting pictures by hand--it's all covered in easy to understand and easy to duplicate formats.

Anyway, these are four wonderful books that seem to be great resources for parents and you lucky readers get your shot at owning them for yourself.

I have a copy of The Vegan Lunch Box, First Meals Food Diary and Paint Can! Children's Rooms to give away (I'm sorry the Rookie Moms Handbook isn't in the list as I gave that away to a friend, I thought it was that good). Follow the directions below and cross your fingers--good luck!

Here's how to win:

Before 12 am Monday go to the giveaway entry form on this page and enter your name and email. I will pick one of the names at random, contact the winner via their email and publish the winner's first name and home town in next Tuesday's post. See the bottom of the entry form for more details.

This giveaway is open to readers with a U.S. address.

Technorati tags: product reviews, giveaways, books, children