Hey guys! Happy Fourth of July to all my US peeps! I hope you are all having a fantastic day and spending it with family, friends, and of course…good food!

A couple of months ago, Cierra from Vegacontacted me asking if I’d be interested in helping debut one of their newest books, Peggy Kotsopoulos’s Must Have Been Something I Ate.

“Peggy is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Health Educator, and a Culinary Consultant focused on teaching REAL health through lifestyle and dietary choices that are easy and delicious!”

Um, yeah, so that pretty much sums up my ENTIRE outlook on health and nutrition…sign me up!

When the book first arrived, I couldn’t wait to check out the inside. For easy reference, it’s divided into five sections each discussing the correlation between the food we put into our bodies and how it can benefit us:

• Food-Mood Connection
• Food-Weight Connection
• Food-Beauty Connection
• Food-Health Connection
• and Recipes

After the first couple of pages, I could not put this book down! Peggy’s writing is so fluid and relaxed! You almost feel as if the two of you are having a little “girl chat” over a cup of coffee. I was surprised, especially given my experience with food and nutrition/supplements from my years working at a supplement store, that I was able to discover even more about the things I use to fuel my body.

I loved the organization of this book too…very easy to flip back and forth from section to section (what, I know I’m not the only ADD book reader out there!)…and the scattered “tips & tricks” boxes were great references!

I’m sure you guys can guess what my favorite part of the book was…

Out of all the recipes included in Peggy’s book, one of the ones that interested me the most was her Lentil Soup. Makes sense right? Because it’s totally the season for warm hearty soups?! Yeah, well tell that to the AC unit at the hospital! I’m gonna be nice and warm during my lunch break all week with these leftovers! 😉

Lentil Soup

• 12 oz. or 1 3/4 cup dry brown or green lentils
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium tomatoes, crushed or 1/2 15 oz. can (3/4 cup) crushed tomatoes
• 1 small potato (Yukon gold or red potato), peeled and cut in quarters
• 1 tsp paprika
• 5 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Juice from 1 lemon

Rinse lentils thoroughly. Cover with 4 cups water in a small post and bring to a boil. Once boiled, rinse lentils again and add to a large pot filled with 8 cups of water. Add onion, green pepper, celery, carrots, garlic, tomato, potato, paprika, and bay leaves to the pot and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until lentils become soft (approximately 15-20 minutes). Remove potato from pot, cut into small cubes and add back to pot. Reduce to a simmer and add oregano, salt, and black pepper to taste. Before serving, remove bay leaves and stir in lemon juice.

Yields: Approximately 3 liters

After the soup finished cooking, I took my “taste test.” I thought it could still use a bit more in the flavor and spice department so I did a little rummaging through my cupboards and came up with the following additions:

• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 heaping tablespoons nutritional yeast (or you could just add some vegan/regular cheese to the bowl once it is served)

So howabout that giveaway, huh?

For a chance to win a copy of Must Have Been Something I Ate, leave a comment (mandatory) below telling me one food that you love to eat out of season.

For an additional entry, tweet this giveaway with:

Good luck! The giveaway will close Thursday night at 11:59pm (CST) and the winner will be announced on Friday!