Wisdom Beyond their Years

books:


	• Fresh: The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook Sergei Boutenko, Valya Boutenko North Atlantic Books, 2008 - 204 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

WOW!!!!!!!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE, LOVE, LOVE WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK, FROM THE TOUCHING STORIES OF THE FAMILY'S HEALING EXPERIENCES TO THE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS RECIPES. I HEARTILY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE RAW WORLD, OR EVEN A SEASONED VETERAN, THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE.

Great way!

Srgie comes from a great famiy. It is interesting and inspiring to hear his message as a young person. His peers do not sound too different than those we hear each day. It is very good!

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Fabulous book

I have at least four other raw food cookbooks. The recipes in them always have a thousand ingredients and take forever to produce. I wind up not using them because of the exotic ingredients or the time it takes to make the food. Soaking, cutting, blending, juicing, dehydrating, all in one recipe usually!

This book uses simple, available ingredients and a minimum of time to prepare. I can usually prepare a dish from what's already in my house, which if you've used any other book, is usually impossible. Yes you might need to blend something and then dehydrate it, but you probably didn't have to soak it and juice it and hang it somewhere first.

The other thing I really like about the book is that if you use their recipes for salad dressings, for example, you are not just adding flavor, but you are also adding nutritional content. It's all very well thought-out. It's a lovely little book that I recommend to anyone who is interested in making simple, elegant raw food dishes that taste great.

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Fresh and Easy Ideas!

Great "cook" book with very simple yet delicious recipes. Uses everyday ingredients and gives great insight into fresh, raw foods.

Wisdom Beyond their Years

The precocious Boutenko duo is all grown up! Having co-authored Eating Without Heating: Favorite Recipes from Teens Who Love Raw Food during their teenage years, Sergei and Valya of the famous "Raw Family" now present wisdom from fifteen years of raw foodism.

Fresh includes "over 250 recipes from the Raw Family test-kitchen," both favorites from earlier Boutenko books, as well as new recipes using raw cacao, goji berries and wild edibles. They offer full color photographs of common "wild foods" like nettles, sheep sorrel, chickweed and purslane often belittled as "weeds" and show how such no-cost foods can supercharge salads and smoothies without breaking the bank. Readers who recall stories of the Boutenkos foraging for wild lettuce and berries on their Pacific Coast Trail hiking journey can now harvest some of nature's best superfoods at home. The book lists the twenty-three most toxic plants (excluding mushrooms) and encourages readers to be safe and learn how to identify them. Despite this warning, Fresh focuses on the abundance of nutritionally dense and beneficial plants available sometimes, quite literally, in our own backyard!

All recipes exclude meat, fish, eggs, and dairy, but some do contain honey. Vegans can easily substitute raw agave nectar or dates for the honey, though. In fact, Sergei writes an entire section on the importance of improvisation and customization. For those with gluten allergies, this book offers an almost gluten-free experience. A few recipes call for sprouted barley or rolled oats, but the vast majority are completely gluten-free, vegan and tasty!

Besides recipes, Fresh offers some of the best advice on how to thrive in mixed-diet relationships. Whether vegan, raw, vegetarian, carnivore or omnivore, you will find valuable tips on how to maintain your dietary preferences in a non-judging and non-threatening way. Valya, in particular, offers valuable insight into helping children choose and enjoy healthier foods. Given the epidemics of childhood obesity and childhood diabetes from which Sergei healed naturally this information provides hope and instruction to well-meaning parents dealing with "rebellious" eaters.

Because Sergei and Valya spent much of their childhood as raw foodists, they can offer insider advice from both angles that of instructors and that of children forced to embrace a new and unusual dietary regime. From them, we learn how they dealt with teasing, peer pressure and social services. With humor, gratitude, and wisdom beyond their years, they reveal a perspective that few, if any, others can share yet.

Chef Cherie Soria, founder and director of the Living Light Culinary Institute, where both Sergei and Valya have trained, provides a heartfelt forward. In Cherie's words,"Sergei and Valya shine as living examples of what is possible when we resolve to squeeze every drop of juice out of life." On a recent visit to Living Light, I repeatedly heard this idea validated by students, visitors and employees. The compassion, presence and creativity one finds in Fresh will touch the lives of anyone who reads it, just as Sergei and Valya's love, clarity and maturity continue to impress and inspire in person.

[This review, written by author Laura Bruno (If I Only Had a Brain Injury),first appeared on VegFamily's June 2008 Online Magazine.]

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reviews: page 1, 2

Cookbooks need not?indeed, should not?involve cooking, say the authors of this authoritative, beautifully illustrated book. And they should know. Sergei and Vayla Boutenko bring fifteen years? experience to this collection of scrumptious, sophisticated recipes and comprehensive guide to the raw life.

Fresh covers the whole range of recipes, including savory dishes, desserts, fermented foods, drinks, and wild foods. Techniques common to the recipes are introduced and clearly explained, including an inventory of uncommon fruits and how to handle and prepare them, as well as an immersion into the five basic flavors and the herbs, fruits, vegetables, and grains that help chefs bring out each flavor best. The authors introduce the three stages of adaptation to this lifestyle and provide a concise review of minimal equipment requirements and ideal appliance additions for the well-stocked raw kitchen.

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