The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes

 I don't normally read cookbooks, at least from cover to cover (well, I admit, I didn't actually read all the details of the recipes in this one, either).  But I made an exception for Gemma Ogston's The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes because the book is only maybe half recipes.  The rest is all helpful hints and tips to help you feel better.  The book is kind of like a hug written from Ogston to you, helping you prioritize your own needs.  

The Self-Care Cookbook is organized into different sections, depending on what you need.  They cover the whole gamut of self-care topics, from restoring, reflecting, and rebalancing, all the way to TLC for when you just need help getting through the day.  The recipes are put into this same structure, with recipes that are good for say restoring your energy all in one place.  While I liked this organization in terms of the topics, I found it makes the cookbook a lot harder to flip through for recipe purposes, especially if you're just trying to find say an appetizer or a salad, because they're scattered throughout the book. I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to try the recipes, as I don't really remember what is where now.  It does have an index, but I didn't find that particularly helpful either because it covers all the topics of the book, and there really aren't a ton of recipes here.  Perhaps a separate recipe index would have been more helpful?

While I found that to be a shame, the rest of the book is honestly a delight.  Ogston has wonderful tips to help you, no matter how you're feeling.  Her writing style is also very engaging and welcoming, contributing to that feeling of this book being a hug to anyone who needs it.

The Self-Care Cookbook is a cute and helpful read for anyone who is looking for some self-care tips.  But if you're more interested in new recipes, you might want to look elsewhere.