Customer Reviews

Rawsome Recipes: Mostly Raw With Some Cooked...Whole Foods For Vital Nutrition!

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I met Robyn Boyd at the International Festival of Raw Foods in Portland, OR last summer (2004) and was impressed by her immediately. She gave me a copy of her book to review and stressed her daughter's help in assisting to develop the recipes. That caught me right there! Any cookbook author whose child has a major say in the recipe tasting and selection gets points in my book. You may wonder why I didn't say "un-cookbook" or "recipe book" ... that's because Boyd advocates eating "simply, purely, wholly, and 75-80% raw." Whether or not you're into raw foods doesn't matter; this book is for all families wanting to transition to a healthier eating. That's why she calls it RawSome Recipes - 75 percent are raw recipes, while 93 percent are vegan.

First, her recipes are fabulous! My family and I tried many of them, some cooked, some not, and they were all easy to prepare and delicious. The ones especially endorsed by Boyd's daughter Molly and her friends aged 4-14 are marked "RawSome Kid Recipe!" There is also lots of information for families in this book. She includes sections called "RawSome Kids," "Great After-School Snacks and Grazing Food for Play Dates," "Tips for Healthy Traveling," and "What to Pack in the School Lunch Box." For entertaining I was happy to see "Fit for Company...Four All-Raw Dinner Menus" and a "RawSome Holiday Menu," from which I will plan my Thanksgiving and Christmas menus.

Another thing I really like about this book is that it is full of beautiful color photos, a selection of which you can see here. And some of the more complicated recipes (not that any of them are truly complicated) include not only a photo of the finished product but pictures of steps along the way. In addition, Boyd includes a wealth of information on various aspects of a healthy lifestyle, including some basic nutrition information, for example, the value of sea vegetables and a list of recommended whole food supplements, like barley grass and spirulina.

While most of her recipes include readily recognizable food items, for those of you wondering just what the heck kombu is exactly, or why some of her recipes call for coconut oil, you can flip to the glossary in the back. This list of resources for buying many of these items, if you can't find them in your local health food store or Whole Foods, will also come in handy. In this book I found the answer to integrating my family's cooked vegan diet and my raw vegan diet. It's absolutely the best one I've come across for those desiring to incorporate more raw and vegan foods into their families' diets but aren't sure about going all vegan or all raw - or just plain don't want to.

Boyd writes from a Christian perspective, but you mustn't think her book is exclusively for Christians. While she includes interesting and thought-provoking sections entitled "Whole Foods the Way God Intended" and "Eating Vegetables Worked for Daniel" (Daniel 1:3-20, a story which is great to share with children!), there is an abundance of nutritional information and resources that anyone will appreciate. I very highly recommend this book!

This book by Robin Boyd is a great gota- have book if you are breaking into raw food. The recipies are beautifly pictured with easy to follow instructions for some of the best tasting, easy to prepare raw food and transitional to raw food recipies that Ive found. A very helpful Beautiful book.
Linda Bucci

This book is FABULOUS!!!!!!! Robyn Boyd has done an excellent job in pulling together vital information for HEALTH!!!!!! Absolutely everybody should own this book!!!

This book is an important tool in my fight overcoming Cancer!

God Bless you Robyn!