Against All Grain: Delectable Paleo Recipes To Eat Well And Feel Great

This cookbook is stunning. Beautiful pictures and inspiring recipes that make you want to cook. And eat! The real test of any cookbook though is not how it looks but how the food tastes. The recipes I've made so far have all (except for one) been amazing.Being from HI finding a nice selection of Asian inspired recipes was a pleasant surprise. There are a lot of recipes for treats and baked goods, many more than I was expecting, but the main and side dishes all look so amazing and delicious the fact that half the book is taken up with recipes I will rarely make doesn't bother me.I eat a lower carb Paleo so honey and maple syrup are almost always out. I've had good luck substituting with non Paleo sweeteners like xylitol, erythritol, or stevia with coconut milk yogurt added to replace lost moisture on the rare occasions I make treats. Hopefully these recipes will work too. (I have no qualms about these particular sweeteners despite their non-paleo status. There is no convincing evidence they are harmful and my blood sugar doesn't care if honey and maple syrup are paleo or not. I do use honey judiciously in recipes I feel call for it.)*Sesame Orange Slow Cooker Chicken: Delicious and so simple to throw together. I did have to reduce the sauce for double the time stated but that is no biggie to me. I used a local raw wildflower honey but halved the amount called for. It came out just fine.*Coconut Lime Cauliflower "Rice": This side dish is A-Mazing!!! It is flavorful yet more neutral that I expected and so will go well with almost anything. I actually added a bit more lime than called for. And it's even better the next day. This is going to make me and mine eat a lot more cauliflower. It's really just a handful of ingredients put together in a "why didn't I think of that" way. Genius!*Cashew "Cheese": Very basic recipe that subs nicely for ricotta type cheeses. I had to add an extra tablespoon of water to keep it fluffy. And the recipe calls for one cup but 2 would have worked better in my 48oz Vitamix.*Green Papaya Salad: Sooo good. I've made it with green papaya and a jicama/zucchini combo. Both are delicious but I think I actually prefer the latter.*Mango Slaw: Yum! Toss on some grilled shrimp for a fast easy meal.*Ahi Mango Stack: OK so I didn't stack them. And I used thin sliced jicama in place of the sweet potato chips. This is still a new favorite that I will make as often as I can get my hands on super high quality Ahi.*Rosemary Raisin Crackers: I've never made a cracker before. This recipe was easy, fast, and delicious. I topped with cashew cheese and prosciutto. Scrumptious! There's also a similar recipe using almond pulp leftover from making almond milk on the author's blog. I made both at the same time. The pulp recipe tastes a little more "whole grainy" whereas this one is lighter and more refined tasting. Both are excellent.*Chorizo Quiche: The picture looked so pretty that I just had to make it. Loved it!!*Thai Iced Tea: Blew me away! So delicious! I subbed cinnamon for the star anise as I don't do any sort of licorice flavor. This is a nice alternative to my afternoon iced coffee with coconut milk. I like that it makes a tea concentrate and so subsequent glasses are made in a snap.*Coconut Milk Yogurt: I've been making coconut milk yogurt for a while now with an almost identical recipe I found on the web somewhere. I guess there really isn't a ton of ways to make fermented coconut milk thickened with gelatin and coconut milk yogurt is so amazing it deserved a place in this book. I always have a container in the fridge.*Sandwich Bread: I don't usually do Paleo Breads. This was a really delicious treat. It tastes very whole grainy with a slight hint of honey. I splurged on actual honey in this recipe and am glad I did. My non-Paleo boyfriend and brother devoured most of the loaf. I had to hide a few pieces for myself.*Chicken Club Wraps: Simple and amazing. Almost veering into non-recipe recipe territory but it was so good and another "why didn't I think of that" dish so I don't mind.Now for the nitpick. I wasn't crazy about the mint chip ice cream recipe. To be fair mint chip has been my absolute favorite ice cream flavor since childhood so I am probably very picky. It's not that this recipe wasn't good it's just that it came out tasting like a mint tea chocolate chip sorbet more than ice cream. The main reason for this, IMO, was that the mint leaves needed to steep longer and most should have been discarded rather than blended up in the ice cream mix. This would have given a nice mint flavor but less of an herbal tea note. I subbed xylitol for the honey and thought it tasted too sweet. That was probably my error though. Additionally I am just not a fan of almond milk and the flavor came through loud and clear here. I love almonds, almond flour, almond butter, even the almond pulp leftover from making the milk. Just not the almond milk itself. Next time I will use cashew or macadamia nut milk.One other nitpick is that macadamia nut oil, while delicious and amazing, is not a great choice for mayo. It's just too strong tasting in a similar way that while extra virgin olive oil is great for certain applications it makes terrible mayo.Mint Chip recipe notwithstanding this cookbook has quickly shot up to one of my top five favorites. It just makes me want to cook. And I love looking at the beautiful pictures. The recipes I have made have been winners. On the short list to make in the future are the Curried Short Ribs, Artichoke Chicken, Lemon Roasted Chicken, Chocolate Cream Pie, Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Meringue Icing, and the Waffles. Really every single recipe looks amazing. I will be working my way through this book for a long time!Update: I've made a few more dishes from this book so wanted to update.Curried Short Ribs: Nothing short of amazing. Hands down my favorite recipe for my favorite cut of beef. Ever. Strangely they don't taste like much like curry but have an amazing rich beefy umami depth that knocked my socks off. This recipe is probably now my favorite from the entire book. I used 6 pounds of short ribs and the same amount of sauce and it was just fine.Vanilla Frosting: Yum!! Super easy and healthful frosting recipe.Chocolate Cream Pie: This was a hit when I had company a few weeks ago. Two of my guest were literally eating the crumbs from the pan. I subbed erythritol/stevia in the crust and erythritol/stevia + coconut milk yogurt in the filling and it came out perfectly.Curried Chicken Salad: I used a premade curry powder and the 2T called for turned out to be too much. I cut it with coconut milk yogurt though (@1/3C) and it was just fine. I also doubled the grapes. 1/2C is too stingy for 2 lbs of chicken. Was really good though.Artichoke Chicken: Wow!! Soo good. I was tempted to use store bought marinated artichokes but went ahead and made the recipe from the book for them. They were amazing and seeing as how they are a huge flavor component of this dish it, of course, came out amazing as well.I am still thrilled with this cookbook, still eating tons of the mango slaw and green papaya salad. It seems every recipe I make just makes me like this book more!

I had picked up this book at the library on a whim because the title stuck out in my mind as one that friends had mentioned frequently in Facebook posts, so I wanted to know what the hype was about. At the time, I 100% thought it was a fad cookbook. Cutting out grain?! Yeah right. Silly followers. However, being stuck in a dinner rut for sometime and absolutely dreading making dinner each night, I figured why not make something from this new book. I was also tired of being tired and just not feeling right, of not having the energy I wanted, so I thought, why not try this change?First night, I made the sole and spinach (using tilapia because it's what I had on hand). Easy enough. During that dinner, something changed. Something clicked. It was simple. It was so flavorful. It was EASY. And it was so satisfying! A dinner without wheat?! Could I really be satisfied with only veg and protein? Apparently, YES! Each night I made another recipe. And each night I loved the book more and more. It's been about 2 months since I've had the book, and I think each night's dinner has been from this book, plus a few desserts.I am a believer! I thought that I was eating very healthy before. But this book made me rethink things. It re-framed what I think healthy eating is. This is the food I've been wanting to eat my whole life but I just couldn't put my finger on what it was I wanted! It's like, this girl gets me! I was always big on veg/fruit/fat, but didn't eat nearly as much protein as I do now, and I ate a fine amount of grain and drank a decent amount of cow's milk that was really making me feel yucky and sluggish. I look forward to making dinner now!!There are so many things I love about this book, this woman, and the way she cooks. First, she embraces fat. Good fat! Fat satiates. Love that. Second, she doesn't use xanthan gum, stevia, and other unnatural weird things that I don't like. She uses whole, healthy, satisfying ingredients. There are a lot of ingredients that were new to me, like coconut flour, almond flour, coconut sugar, coconut aminos. But once I tried them, I was hooked. Third, this book is about reclaiming her/your health. I love that she created the recipes as a way to improve her health. It's not about weight loss. I LOVE that. Fourth, the photos are amazing. I was thumbing through some other cookbooks at the library and passing on each one because honestly, what's a cookbook without photos?! These photos draw you in. Bright, colorful, and beautiful. They allow you to see and practically taste what the final product will look like. Fifth, she's awesome. She makes it so easy. I mean literally, the recipes are easy. But she also gives insight into what types of ingredients and gadgets to buy, and even put in meal planning (2 meal planning worksheets. You know, so you can cut out one and keep the other in the book. Because she's awesome like that.). Sixth, she has DESSERTS. Ah, my weakness. But delicious, healthy desserts that I actually feel good about eating.Anyway, I am just so in love with this cookbook (and her other one, and you'll bet I'll be ordering her newest one when it comes out!). I am so glad to have checked it out at the library that day. I am SO HAPPY that I found this book. I'm 100% certain that I'd still be dragging everyday, wondering why I'm still feeling sluggish and yucky, despite eating "healthy". Highly recommend!!

Excellent recipes...!!!

Receitas muito boas para deixar seu dia a dia mais saudável

I have been following the Against All Grain blog on Facebook for a while and have been deliberating which of the three Danielle Walker books to buy. I decided to buy the first book and I am not disappointed. The first recipe I have tried is for the chocolate brownies, which involves coconut flour. I have tried may other coconut flour recipes and all have turned out to be passable at best. However this recipe was fantastic. It actually tasted like regular chocolate cake!! Totally moist, light and fluffy and not at all like any of the other coconut flour recipes I found on line. It was actually more like a regular chocolate cake than a brownie, but that was completely fine with me. I am SO pleased I ordered this book and cannot wait to try many of the other recipes in the book!!! The bread, breakfast sausage and sugar free lemon curd being next on my ‘to make‘ list.One downside of this book for me is that I am British, living in Germany. So it is a bit annoying that the book uses the american ‘cups‘ measurements. However, there is a conversion chart at the back of the book, so as I work through the recipes I will simply write the weight measurements against each of the recipes. This is just my personal preference though as I don't like using the american measuring system and prefer to weigh my ingredients.Another downside of this book for me is that living in Germany I cannot get some of the ingredients here. But I am sure I can find suitable substitutes or order online (albeit they will be more expensive). For example with the chocolate brownie cake I cannot get palm shortening, so used butter instead, and it came out still perfect. (I can eat dairy - just not grains and sugar). This is no fault of the book though and is actually testament to the global impact that Danielle Walker has had :)One other minor irritation was the mention of thanks at the end of the book to "my creator". I have no idea why this would need to be mentioned in a cooking book. Anyway, perhaps that is just a cultural difference between Americans v British. But the book itself is fantastic so I can overlook this minor irritation!

Ce livre regorge de recettes qui me permettent de mieux gérer les repas de la famille tout en suivant mon régime SCD. Indispensable !

I've tried a few recipes in this book, unfortunatley loads of recipes call for ingredients not readily available at standard supermarkets, for example: coconut aminos. The pictures are great, but my results at home are sometimes "fails" (don't look like the pictures). I tried the banana bread and it is fantastic. The non-dairy creamer is too sweet for my taste, but that can easily be tweeked. Overall its a good book for someone trying to find interesting alternatives that mimic mainstream dishes....