Book Review: Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen

This summer I tried my hand at some raw "uncooking." I got of copy of Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen and dug right in.

The "Save the Chicks" Pâte..very tasty..I enjoyed this in a lettuce wrap.

Buckwheat Crispies which are simply soaked sprouted buckwheat dehydrated in my toaster oven which conveniently came with a dehydrate setting. Serving here as cereal w/raw almond milk and some red plums.

Raw lemon coconut date bars. Really easy to make and yummy. This recipe finally convinced me to buy a citrus zest. My life is changed! How did I ever live without a zester? A grater just doesn't do the job! Anyway, I made this recipe several times.

A raw chocolate milk made with dates, cacao nibs, almonds, vanilla and water..delicious cold on a hot day! Ignore those chocolate chips on the side..that was for some non-raw recipe! Long since eaten, long since forgotten.

And finally, my favorite raw foodists..having their daily dried unsweetened cranberry.

I enjoyed these recipes, however, a few pounds later and after a lot of advance preparation, I gotta say, the raw food diet is not for me. I definitely will try to incorporate more raw into my diet but my schedule just doesn't allow for this kind of time for preparation and the high amount of fat included in many of the recipes was shocking to mine eyes! A cup of olive oil, a 1/2 cup of nuts..it all adds up. However, I really liked that Ani's recipes are much simpler than a typical raw food cookbook so if you are going to try raw, check out Ani's books. Even if only for those raw lemon bars! Yum..