Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo was actually my first Raw Foods Cookbook purchase and I happen to love this book! This book really did inspire me to want to learn more and start eating healthy! Some folks are put off by the many pictures of her in the book, but honestly that didn't bother me at all, in fact the whole reason I was initially drawn to this way of eating was because I went to the doctors office and the nurse that took care of me happened to look very young. I thought she couldn't possibly be old enough to know what she was talking about, and as we talked I found out she was almost 50 years old with 6 kids, and I thought she was in her early 20s. Well, was I ever wrong, she told me she had been on a Vegan Diet for years, at that point I realized that the food you eat makes a huge difference in your skin, and overall appearance, so when I saw the pictures of Ani, it reminded me of the nurse I talked to and how I was drawn to this way of life because of the way someone looked. So I looked at the healthy and happy pictures of Ani in the book and thought, I want to look and feel good too! I think if there is something about a book that inspires you to do better, then where is the harm in that? I also love making nut milks, I have lots of books that have recipes for them, and they are all a little different, well I am drawn to Ani's nut milk recipes mainly because she blends all the ingredients up and doesn't extract the "pulp" from the nut milk using nut milk bags like most people do, she leaves the nut pulp in there which I like because I feel like I'm getting the full health benefits of the ingredients originally added. Hers is the only book I have seen where the nut pulp is left in the milk. We drink ours like that all the time! I think her book does tend to appeal to those just starting out, it's very helpful and easy to use. My favorite section in this book is of course the nut milk section which includes: Vanilla Mylk, Chocolate Mylk, Cinnamon Banana Buttermylk, Yum Yum Mylk, Made in Mexico Mylk, Chocolate-Hazelnut Mylk, Beautifying Pumpkin Mylk, Cashew Banana Mylk, and Praline Mylk. She also has a Green Machine Juice. She has many other drinks for radiance such as her Smoothie recipes like Very Blueberry, Mango Lassi, Carob Strawberry Bliss, Pina Colada, Pear Frosty, Black Sesame Jewel, then drinks such as Brazilian Carob Shake, Vanilla Coconut Shake, Strawberry Coconut Shake, Cherry Malt, Peachy Kream, Fuzzy Navel, Carob Almond Decadence, Almond Nog, & Blue-Green Power. She has a cereal section with Buckwheat Crispies, Goji Berry Sunshine Cereal, Good Morning Muesli, Almond Cinnamon Oatmeal, Banana Raisin Oatmeal. Then Puddings, such as Carob Pudding, Cacao Pudding, Cashew Coconut Pudding, Luscious Lemon Pudding, Fruit Parfait, Crepe Kream Stack. Coconut Breakfast Cakes, Berry-Licious Syrup, Orange Vanilla Syrup, Vanilla Syrup. Then recipes such as Olive Butter, Coconut Butter, Garden Scramble, Spanish Scramble, Asian Scramble, then lots of fresh salads and simple desserts, soups and sauces, accompaniments and sides, Pates, Wraps and Rolls, Better Than Pastas, Many more Main Dishes, Pies and Cobblers, Cakes, Icey Kreams and Sweet Sauces. Even recipes for dog treats and biscuits in the back. There are 256 pages in this truly inspiring Raw Foods Book! There are so many more recipes that I could have mentioned, but this is a good start on giving you an idea of what you will find in this scrumptious Raw Foods Cookbook. This book sells for a very reasonable price and is worth every penny. I would highly recommend it for yourself or even for a gift.

This was a very good cook-book. What I like most about it is that each recipe starts with a basic "base" that you can experiment with to develop your own recipies. For example, I learned how to make completely vegan milk-shakes that taste almost as good (I think better) than the real thing off a base of dates, nuts, and water. Then you just add whatever flavour fruits, chocholate, vanilla, etc. to the base and voila, you invented your own drink!There are lots of great recipies for sauces, soups, main courses, breakfast dishes, and of course dessert. The one thing is that, I feel, Ani reccomends too much oil in her recipies; but just use your discretion when using her recipies. Enjoy!If you don't know about the benefits of Raw cooking, they are many and great! 1. When you digest food, you need to use water. If the water is in your food (because it is raw) then you don't need to take water out of your body to digest the food. 2. When you cook food, you "de-nature" the molecules of the food. All this means is when you heat the food, the molecules of the food change shape; this should be obvious because food looks and tastes differenlty after it is cooked. As a species, human beings have been digesting raw foods WAY longer than we've been cooking foods, as such our systems react better to food molecules when they are in their natural state. When you eat raw foods, both of these aspects combine to give you AMAZING amounts of energy that I know for a fact you don't even realise that you are missing until you try eating a raw diet. I know this for a fact because I used to eat cooked food and after one day, ONE-day, of eating nothing but raw food (including raw mana-bread, which is better than it sounds) the change in my system was instantanious and undeniable.

This truly is a beautiful raw foods book - in more ways than one. It's beautiful to look at, it's colorful, has lots of beautiful pictures of Ani and her friends, and most importantly - contains some amazing raw foods recipes. Every page is filled with Ani's little tidbits, useful information, and her thoughts and beliefs on doing all we can to make this world a better place to live in. I tried 4 of Ani's recipes, and all I can say is that if the rest of the recipes are anything like the ones I tried, then it's money well spent.So why did I give it only 4 stars ?? Well, for starters, Ani repeats a lot of stuff in her book. Here are some examples : Reasons to shop at farmers markets, to eat organically, not to put something into your body just because the item is cheap or free, etc etc. Ani says these same things in several different chapters. She probably just wanted to get the message across loud & clear.Don't get me wrong, I still think this book is a GREAT BUY, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in raw foods, or in eating healthfully. I would also recommend it to anyone interested in "treading lightly" on our planet. If you can only read one book, and want to get information on "living green", eating organically, healthfully, learning about raw foods and enjoying your meals, then buy this book!One more comment: I thought that it was strange that Ani's book was not printed on recycled paper (I looked 3 times to find some information on that in the book, but couldn't find it anywhere). Consdering all the information she's provided on living as responsibly as possible, I was disappointed to think that she didn't insist that the book be printed on recycled paper, or at least to state somewhere that it's printed on recycled paper - if it is.

This is a great book with an uplifting writing style. The recipes include ingredients that are accessible and the cooking methods tend to be very simple. There are recipes that require a dehydrator or spiruliza but these are few and far between and the author offers helpful alternatives in most places if it's not possible to buy the products. What's unique about this book is there is a section (small) about raw foods for dogs and the story of Ani's dog, and when she first came in to her home, really cements the importance and power of good quality food. The real benefit of this book is the variety of foods Ani reveals, which include sauces, salads, smoothies, juices, soups, main meals, desserts. Like other reviews have mentioned, I have bought some 'natural and healthy recipe books' before and found that most of the recipes are merely soups and sauces, which just doesn't cut the mustard (pun absolutely intended). The only constructive criticism is that more pictures attached to the actual recipes would have been more helpful. The photographs are wonderful, but for a newb like myself, I benefit from visual guidance. Overall though, fabulous book.

A good read, lots of lifestyle tips as well as interesting recipes. I don't have a food processor, so most recipes were a bit of a chopping mission. The desserts are amazing, but I found that many of the other recipes were a bit out of scale to my taste (I don't really need a whole cup of olive oil in a soup). It can definitely be a good resource for ideas and you can tone the recipes down a bit to your taste. My partner loved everything I made out of this book, but I didn't really like the main dishes at all. I gave it 4 stars because I really like the lifestyle sections. It is a nice book and even though some recipes are not that good, many of them are amazing. It's worth a read I think.

Maybe it's just me. I'm just getting into Raw foods, and Ani's recipes look so Yummy! I bought this book with high hopes. But all the recipes I have made have been composted. This book IS a wealth of information though! Awesome stuff in here to read. The recipes have been either over flavored, under flavored, too oily, too yuck, or just plain gross. If a page hadn't fallen out, I would try to return it. Pass on this one and get yourself a really good one that you LOVE! Giving this book a 3 star for the information alone!

Giving as a gift and since I'm not vegan, nor particularly into the idea of raw food, I can't review much of the content! It's quite thick though, looks like it's packed with recipes and advice. Hopefully the recipient will like it!

I like this book a lot, its friendly & helpful & full of ideas & hints for delving into natural food. She comes across as a very sweet focused person.