A Harvest of Healing Foods: Recipes and Remedies for the Mind, Body and Soul

Rating:
Summary: Very nice selection of healthy dishes with ethnic touches
Review: This was given to me as a gift. It isn't the kind of cookbook I would normally grab off the shelf... But it is a quite beautiful cookbook in a quiet and gentle sort of way. The spicing to me seems to slant towards the asian in some recipes, the tex-mex in others and indian in others. So there is a nice balance. The beginning is an intro to heathy eating with a more holistic approach...not nutrition per se...but integrating your diets with relaxation, energy, diets of the world, etc. A nice change from rants about sodium intake.

The chapters are nicely titled. Breakfasts are called *gentle awakenings* Nice ambiance, if you ask me. The only place that this didnt work for me was with the vegetarian chapter... which was titled *kind cuisine*...I was put off by this. I like vegetarian cuisine. eat it alot...but I also eat meat and I'm guessing that is *un-kind cuisine*? That bothered me...I can see that slant working in an all vegan cook book but in a mixed-marriage cook book, it seemed out of place.

So far I have tried Sea vegetable, carrot. snow peas and rice noodles (gotta love that sea weed!) and a few things I rarely try...beverages. Lime flower tea (WOW!)...and hot cider vinegar with honey (dont know what possesed me, but i loved it). There are many color pictures in this book of prepared items and they are very attractive in a healthful looking, not food stylist sort of way. Very nice.

The book is more square than flat and is a paperback. The cover is wipe-able and the pages are more wipe-abel than the usual paperstock...more on the glossy side than not(BRAVO!). The font is a bit small and a bit light for my tastes... I think if they made it bolder of darker there would have been a read-thru problem to the next page... It lies flat (EXCELLENT!)
There are some tastful drawings and graphics through out this book. Nothing that detracts from the lovely photos, nothing garish. Thankfully, no cartoon tofu running from the happily confused house wife.....

Overall this is a very nicely constucted cookbook. Very classy, with some excellent recipes. Perhaps not for a *brand new* cook...but not over complex either... A nice mix of vegetarian (kind) cuisine and meat (un-kind) cuisine...