Recipe books
SlimBride2Be
Posts: 315 Member
I love eating paleo/ low carb and wondered if anyone here can recommend any nice recipe books to inspire my cooking? Many thanks
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'Practical Paleo' and 'Yiddish Kitchen' are two that I own and enjoy, but mainly I do the Paleo version of the cooksmarts meal plans. They are great recipes, very balanced, but not always super low carb, as there is often sweet potato and peas, but those can always be left out to keep carbs lower.0
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NomnomPaleo's food for humans is awesome! She also has an iPad app.
Well fed and well fed 2 by Melissa Joulwan are also excellent0 -
I guess I should add neither Bookk is low carb, but both are paleo and it depends on your level of carb. They are definitely lowcarb compared to the standard American diet.0
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Well Fed and Well Fed 2 by Melissa Hartwig, awesome books!0
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shellylb52 wrote: »Well Fed and Well Fed 2 by Melissa Hartwig, awesome books!
I second the motion! I love the way she makes so many of her recipes adaptable to different tastes. She often uses spices that our family doesn't care for, but I can make one or more of the variations work for us.
Her cook-up, prep day, whatever it is she calls it, is inspired and was the first thing that made paleo work for me. Basically, you spend an hour of focused time in the kitchen, twice a week, chopping vegetables and pre-cooking (steam sauteeing veggies, cooking meat) and then you can easily throw a meal together and have it ready to eat in a short time, for the next three or four days. (See http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/paleo-101/ especially the link "The method behind my madness" for more on this, or do a web search on "paleo prep" or "paleo batch cooking" for more help).
Here's an example (this is two hours, or a little more, because that's how long the big organic free range chickens I buy take to roast):
Put one or two chickens in the oven to roast. (Two smaller chickens fit in my roasting pan.)
Start chopping veggies for roasting -- sweet potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, Brussels sprouts, carrot chunks, parsnips, beets, whole garlic cloves (peeled), any or all of the above. You want all the chunks basically the same size (for me, that's about the size of a Brussels sprout). Toss with olive oil or melted coconut oil, season and put in oven to roast at the same time as the chicken. They'll take a little longer at 325, my usual chicken-roasting temperature, than they would at the usual 400, but they'll still caramelize nicely.
Once the veggies are in the oven, stir-fry ground beef with chopped onions (and garlic, optional), just until done. Set aside to cool, then put in food storage containers.
You can steam-saute veggies and put them in containers for quick selection during the week -- but I don't mind sauteeing kale or other greens fresh every night while I'm getting dinner together.
Wash and prick sweet potatoes and set aside, ready to cook.
Hard-boil eggs. (Cool trick: put a spoonful of baking soda in the cooking water and it helps the shells to come off more easily, if your eggs are fresh.) Cool and refrigerate.
When the pan of roasted vegetables comes out of the oven (after 45 minutes to an hour), put the sweet potatoes in. They'll be done at the end of the second hour. Cool and put in fridge for quick re-heating later. If I'm serving roasted chicken right away, following this two-hour focused batch cooking session, I might bake the sweet potatoes first, and do the roasted veggies second, to serve with the chicken -- but this is "dangerous," because my family can eat an entire pan of roasted vegetables at one sitting, leaving none for my cooked-ahead meals.
Meanwhile, tear up your salad greens and pack them in canning jars in the fridge. They'll last 7-10 days! You can even prep your lunches if you want to. Look up "salad in a jar" ideas. Basically, protein and sturdy veggies at the bottom of the jar, with dressing (or dressing in separate container), more delicate ingredients layered on top (these are usually the greens).
At the end of this two-hour kitchen marathon (and it's not constant effort at all, so I have time to keep cleaning up after myself as I go along, meaning I'm not left with a huge mess at the end, but only a little more clean-up to finish), when the chicken's done, take it out and serve it for a meal, reserving the bones. Or if it's not mealtime, let it cool enough to remove the meat from the bones, cool the meat and put it in a food storage container.
I toss the bones and scrape the pan-drippings right into the crockpot with water and 1 TBS sea salt and 2 TBS apple cider vinegar, turn it on low and forget about it -- I'll have bone broth the next day or the day after.
The biggest obstacle I have found to paleo eating, is getting home at five and *then* thinking about making dinner. I have the most success when I have done my prep ahead of time. That hour of prep cooking once or twice a week saves me hours in the kitchen, in the evening when I'm tired, and keeps me from making fast-and-easy choices that I'll later regret.0 -
(p.s. if you are really keeping your carbs down, choose lower carb options for your roasted vegetables. Because I eat so little fruit, I can afford a cup or two of higher carb vegetables every day.)0
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Great ideas everyone, thank you! Bought 4 of the suggested books and can't wait to try!0
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I just got Primal Cravings and it's fantastic, although definately more for when you want a Primal "treat" but also some great staple recipes. My Paleo Patessierie is great for treats as well. Both Well Fed books are go to's. Just got the second one and the pan fried sardines are easy and a little touch of genious for a sometimes difficult food. I love NomNom Paleo, Practical Paleo but I think my favorite is Zenbelly. Worth it alone for the pizza crust and plantain tortillas!0
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Well fed and well fed 2 are written by Melissa Joulwan.shellylb52 wrote: »Well Fed and Well Fed 2 by Melissa Hartwig, awesome books!
It starts with Food and whole30 are written by Melissa Hartwig.
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^^^Oops!^^^0
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Have you made any recipes out of Paleo Patisserie? Were they complicated? Expensive ingredients? How did they turn out?
(I am not looking to reproduce paleo-ized treats on a regular basis, but it would be nice to have one or two recipes tucked away for an extra special occasion)0 -
My favorite are against all grains by Danielle walker and everyday Paleo.0
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homesweeths wrote: »Have you made any recipes out of Paleo Patisserie? Were they complicated? Expensive ingredients? How did they turn out?
(I am not looking to reproduce paleo-ized treats on a regular basis, but it would be nice to have one or two recipes tucked away for an extra special occasion)
Most of the recipes are not too complicated but there are many french pastry methods that I would reserve for a special occasion or if I feel like challenging myself in the kitchen. She's got chapters on cookies, marshmallows and ice cream that are pretty basic. Ingredients are pretty standard paleo like almond flour, coconut flour, etc. She uses lots of palm shortening which is fine but I always use butter for cookies...that's just my opinion and the sub is easy. I include raw cream so I would sub that for coconut milk but once again that's my own personal choice and if you are strict on dairy I think her recipes would still come out great. You may need some specific pans like for bundt cake and a candy thermometer for some things (the latter is inexpensive). Everything I've made has come out great. I have not tried the marshmallows yet but that's next on the list and the process looks pretty easy from the book.0 -
Cool. I have the book checked out of the library. Will have to try a recipe or two. I almost never buy a book without giving it a test drive, first.
What I'd *really* like are some ice cream/sorbet recipes I can make without an ice cream maker, and that don't use dairy or nut milks (coconut milk is okay). Most of the recipes I've seen have you mix up the ingredients and then throw them into an ice cream maker.0
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