Raw Energy: 124 Raw Food Recipes for Energy Bars, Smoothies, and Other Snacks to Supercharge Your Body
by Stephanie Tourles

$ 16.95 US

Paperback
Pages: 272
Size: 6 1/2 x 7 1/2
Color: Full-color; Photographs throughout
ISBN: 978-1-60342-467-7

We don’t actually eat raw.  We do, however, believe that everyone can benefit from eating some raw food, and we can certainly use more fruits and vegetables in our diet.  For these reasons, I find it beneficial to peruse raw foods “cook”books.  Raw Energy is a great resource for this purpose, because of its focus — snacks.

Although the author came across, in my opinion, as very dogmatic about raw eating, she does understand that making the switch can be difficult.  This is a completely different approach to food.  What we know may all need to be thrown out!  But snacks are an easy baby step; integrating raw snacks into one’s diet does not require a complete change of menu or the subtraction of all one’s favorite foods.  So, for those looking to switch to an all-raw (or mostly-raw) diet, snacks are a great first step.  For the rest of us, they’re just a great set of healthy options.

The first three chapters offer basic information.  They describe ingredients common in raw food preparation, describe “uncooking,” and talk about some kitchen tools that are necessary and/or useful for this type of food preparation.  Honestly, I felt that this part dragged a bit.  There is some really good information here — especially for those who may be relatively new to the whole foods world in general — but these three chapters comprise about a third of the book.

The remainder of the book consists of the recipes themselves.  There’s a wide variety here, from nut milks and smoothies to trail mixes to cold soups.  The instructions are clear and simple, and there are often several options offered in the ingredients list.  My one complaint about this section is the photographs.  The whole book is in full-color, with — technically — a lot of photographs.  But most of these photographs are images of the ingredients, and are used as page borders.  There are almost no pictures of the completed recipes, which I would have found very helpful in a book about foods that are so different from what I’m accustomed to.  With many of these recipes, I’m not at all sure what end result I’m supposed to be aiming for.

Still, the options offered, the simple instructions, and the sheer fact that these are snack recipes makes the whole idea of “raw” far less overwhelming than it otherwise might be.  The ingredients used are, for the most part, readily available, and not too “weird.”

Bottom line?  I found this book to be very accessible, and good for a raw food beginner.

Full Disclosure: The book for this review was provided by Storey Publishing and MamaBzz.