Green Books Campaign: Sweet Gratitude

Image credit to Susan Newman

Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.


A good recipe book offers its novice, intermediate or experienced chefs more than just recipes. It offers better cooking tips. It provides definitions of cooking styles, ingredients and the origins of the food used in the recipes of the book. A good recipe book will also provide its learning chefs easy step-by-step cooking instructions for each individual recipe and then it will point its learning chefs to a list of resources for additional cooking information at the end of the book. Sweet Gratitude: A New World of Raw Desserts by Matthew Rogers and Tiziana Alipos Tamborra did all this plus more and it was all done with love, patience, a smile, encouragement and wisdom.



“What we tell ourselves we are, we are,” pg 109.



The format of the book is built like a self-help book but with the comforts of food and though traditionally comforting oneself with food is problematic and unhealthy, doing so is the exact opposite in this book. Instead these sweet healthy treats can be enjoyed guilt-free and with power of choice.



“Food is the physical manifestation of the Earth’s love for us” pg 147.



With each chapter a new type of dessert is introduced (raw versions of today’s traditional desserts) and with each type of dessert comes wisdom and amazing recipes. For example, in chapter 2 the chapter of pies we learn to live in the present and in chapter 7 the chapter of Cacao (pronounced kuh-cow) we learn about love, but we also learn about the origins of cacao and its remarkable benefits to the human body when eaten raw. By the end of the book we learn to appreciate the benefits of cooking with raw food and we learn to appreciate our lives and how to make the best of what we have.



This is truly an inspirational and education book I enjoyed reading from cover to cover. I am not ashamed to say my mouth watered as I read through each chapter and it waters still just thinking of making these treats. Had it been in my budget to purchase a food processor, an ice cream maker or a dehydrator I would have done so and immediately began to give these recipes and creative cooking technique (ex. the swirl) a try.



How green is this book? The book is printed on recycled paper and the mailer it came in is made out of recycled material. In addition the ingredients called for in the book are vegan. There is absolutely no ingredient in this book derived from animal byproduct. Nuts and fruits are the main ingredients. I was slightly disappointed that I could not find some of these ingredients locally. Though I know I can find these ingredients online I am trying to make an effort recently to keep my ingredients local. Last but not least, the recipes made are made raw from raw ingredients so there is no baking involved. This is always a plus in my book. Four out of five is not bad.