5 out of 5 stars
I bought this product with my own money, I am not being paid to make this review, nor will I be reimbursed for my work. I’m just trying to give an open and honest review on a cookbook created to raise awareness as well as money for the Luke Batty Foundation.
This cook book had me hooked from the first recipe. Due to the food allergies and intolerances in my family, it can be hard to find a cook book I can just click with… this one did it before I was even out of the breakfast section!
The gorgeous colour pictures, the easy to follow recipes and the fact these are meals I can pretty much JUST COOK without having to substitute this or skip that – loved it. Normally with a cook book, I can use and make only about 60% of the recipes due to our ‘food issues’. Not with ‘From our kitchen to yours’. I can honestly say that we could easily make (without skipping or substituting) about 85%… maybe even up to 90% of the recipes shown. Pretty sure that’s a new record and makes it a very rare, and most welcomed, book in my house. 🙂
Okay, so I may have had some concern in buying it initially because of the price… and the fact it is an eBook. Call me stingy, but I RARELY spend more than $5 on an eBook, no matter what it is or who wrote it. I will freely admit I purchased ‘From our kitchen to yours’ for $19.95 – way over my usual eBook budget, right? So why did I spend that much?
Well, let’s look at where all that money goes… as it says right on the front cover of the book:
‘All funds raised support the Luke Batty Foundation’.
That says enough for me really! Yes you might not normally spend almost $20 on an eBook… but would you donate that same amount to a foundation created to help end domestic violence and support women and children affected by domestic violence?
I would!
And I did. I put my money where my mouth is and stopped looking at it as a ‘$20 eBook’ and looked at it as a small donation to a worthwhile cause that just happened to give you the bonus of now owning an AMAZINGLY good cook book.
I am a cook book diva, I read (and own) MANY – as followers of this blog can attest. This cook book, from everything I’ve just told you, was indeed money well spent and definitely well DONATED for a fantastic cause.
Me being me, I do have to now get to the part of my review where I give some constructive criticism. Please note this is meant in good intention, not to be negative.
The first thing is that, as much as I loved and clicked with this book, I felt it might come across as a little daunting to those new to the wholefood world. This is because there was no ingredients glossary at the beginning of the book introducing the reader to things like banana flour, dulce flakes, coconut sugar and so on. I know what they are, I know where to buy them from… but if this book truly wants to introduce a wider audience to better living through healthier foods – it might want to consider such a glossary in its 2nd edition.
From my experience at reviewing cook books, an introductory glossary to key ingredients is very common. By having it at the front of the book it gives the reader the opportunity to know all about these “odd” ingredients before they get into the meat of the book so to speak. The book works as it is for me and I totally know how to follow it… but for the ‘newb’ it might come across as a little out of their depth.
The only other (very minor) thing I noticed was that the layout/ spacing format of the recipes wasn’t the same for every recipe. Yes the font type and size were all uniform, but the actual formatting of the recipe’s layout did tend to differ, depending on the author.
I honestly feel most people aren’t even going to notice this and it’s really me having one of my diva moments! I only picked this up as checking for uniformity within the text is what I’ve done for a living for so long as a technical document writer. That and I spend far too much of my spare time reviewing cook books so tend to pick up on these things… and I will add I have picked up other cook books for similar minor issues. I freely admit to probably being overly pedantic on this one.
Finally, I will admit to wanting the blurb about the author WITH their recipe as I like being introduced to the person who’s food I’m about to make. But once I discovered all the bios at the back, I was okay with them not being WITH the recipe and it was fine. Diva moment again!
Would I recommend this book to others?
Yes I would. A very big yes indeed. If you are trying to find some budget friendly and easy to follow wholefood recipes to feed your family – this book is indeed for you. And don’t let the price stop you! Think of it as a donation to a good cause where you then get a great cook book as a door prize!
Would I buy this book for myself?
As mentioned, I have already bought it and don’t regret it for a moment. Love it, can’t wait to get a chance to try some of the recipes out and it will be pride of place on my new ‘cooking tablet’ when I get it for my birthday in April. 😉 I can see it becoming a regularly used and referred to tome in my massive cook book collection.
In summary: I seriously loved this book. There are very few cook books that I can use due to our food allergies and intolerances. This one, I can pick it up, flip to a page and pretty much go from there. I don’t need to skip ingredients, substitute ingredients (for most of the recipes) and, better yet, I have all the ingredients in my pantry already! Score!
It is a beautiful gift to those generous enough to donate the money to such a good cause.
Until next time,
Janis.
Janis's Journal 