The Culinary Cyclist Book Review (and GIVEAWAY!)

Two years ago The Culinary Cyclist landed in my lap, and immediately I felt a kindred spirit with writer and foodie Anna Brones. The book is now in it’s second printing, and we love it so much we want to give a copy to one lucky reader!

The Culinary Cyclist is an adorably illustrated guide to living well via good food and transport on two wheels. The book is written by Anna Brones and illustrated with the cutest drawings by Johanna Kindvall. The Culinary Cyclist might just be the perfect gift for the foodie and/or bicyclist on your list!

Part cookbook, part guide, and part biking love story, The Culinary Cyclist connects the dots between a love of local, lovingly prepared foods and the joy inspired by the bike riding. According to Brones, these two ideas are intimately connected and both are important on the road to the good life. Brones lays out some simple guidelines for us to follow:

“The rules for living well, if you can call them that, are simple and a pleasure to follow. Eat local and mostly plants. Ride your bike, even on rainy days. Say yes to dinner invitations. Always bring your signature desert. Invite people on picnics. Bike in the sunshine. Follow a morning ride with a strong French press. This might all sound like a utopian hipster dream, but the bicycle and food are two of the simplest things we have at our disposal [despite the fact that] committing to a healthy eating habits and a two-wheled lifestyle are often devalued in the face of speed and stress.”

The recipes in the book are simple and sweet. All gluten-free and mostly vegetarian, they are the types of recipes meant to become quick favorites; your new go-to dessert, quick breakfasts and easy salads for those bike-ride picnics.

Brones shares simple instructions for stocking a healthy pantry, choosing quality coffee, guides us through the bulk aisle, and shows us tips for packing all this food on two wheels. Everything about this book is just so terribly adorable.

Buy your books here… or read on to WIN a copy from Vibrant Wellness Journal and Microcosm Publishing.

And no doubt that Brones knows her way around good recipes – Brones is one of the founding members of Foodie Underground. Foodie Underground was created so that you can find “a space where food is simple yet conscious, where loving kale and quinoa doesn’t make you pretentious and where the conversation about food is open, honest, sometimes snarky and at all times inclusive.”

Like in the book, recipes on Foodie Underground are simple and straightforward. Some of the recipes and posts that caught my eye recently include:

• How to Make Homemade Ginger Beer: Ferment your way to a funky, super gingery drink.
• Simple No-Cook Blackberry Jam with Ground Flax Seeds
• White Bean and Kale Salad with Feta and Dill

… In addition to some really cool stories about food activism and politics:

• Nestlé and the Privatization of Water: Are You Boycotting Bottled Water Yet?
• Can Urban Beekeeping Projects Save the Bees and Our Food System?
• Do You Need a Health Coach to Tell You to Eat Real Food?

So here’s how to win a copy of The Culinary Cyclist: simply tell us in the comments your favorite bike-friendly meal!

Do you head to the local market for quick prepared foods and a bottle of champagne, or do you make your own snack bars and pack fresh fruit and iced tea for urban bike trekking? Whatever you do on two wheels, we want to know!

All comments will be assigned a number based on timestamp, and then a winner will be chosen via Random Number Generator. Contest runs from today (September 15) until September 25, 2015.

Thanks to Microcosm Publishing for support with this giveaway!