A couple months ago I accepted some cookbooks to review. At the time they either perfectly complimented my diet or I was just curious to take a look. Now the ones that were perfect are less so, as I start my journey with paleo, and the one that I was simply curious about is not as much help as I would have hoped. The world is full of surprises I guess. I never imagined I would do a 180 on my diet but when you feel the urge to make the change you just have to trust that you have done your homework and take the leap. So far, so good. REALLY good.
Anyway the 3 cookbooks…
Another Fork in the Trail – Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for the Backcountry. I haven’t missed grains in the least since I abandoned them but the muffins on the cover of this book look heavenly, no denying that! As you can guess this is a recipe collection designed for the veggie based diets of outdoor enthusiasts… hikers, campers, backpackers, etc. When I got this book I was really excited to try some of these recipes in the spring. The quinoa berry muffins, hazelnut fig granola, and pumpkin breakfast bars were calling my name. Even after reviewing it with my grainless, primal eyes I still see tons of value in this book though. There are plenty of veggie based meals that do not include grains/beans and I love me some veggies. If you are eating vegetarian or vegan then this is an excellent cookbook to add to your library, one the best I have seen in a long while.
The Raw Truth: Recipes and Resources for the Living Foods Lifestyle – I think this is an excellent beginner book for anyone wanting to explore more raw foods. The recipes are simple and not daunting as many raw recipes can be and they look appetizing. I have dozens of raw food un-cookbooks and I hate it when they take a glamorous photo of something that looks like baby vomit and expect that we will actually want to make it. Recipes that caught my eye were the banana date pudding, Pesto Wraps (which I plan on making), and the Black Raspberry Prickly Pear, which I would also make if I still lived in a place where I could get cacti locally. I AM an Arizona girl living in the Midwest.
Most of these recipes, while I am sure they delicious, are not going to make their way to my plate anytime soon because they have lots of nuts and high glycemic fruit. Nuts are getting harder for me to digest the longer I stay away from grains (same with dairy) so I think my gut is likely healing from sensitivities I did not know I had and now it is objecting to other hard-to-digest foods. Fruit is perfectly okay but I am staying away from dried fruits and fruits high on the glycemic index like bananas and dates. Raw food recipes typically utilize metric tons of all of the above. Still want to make that prickly pear recipe though. Eating cacti is totally primal!
The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook – Since I don’t eat grains it goes to follow that a gluten free cookbook would be perfect right? Yeah, not so much. This book is full of recipes that incorporate gluten free flours not recipes that are grain free. It is actually kind of grain centric with lots of bread recipes, pasta, rice, and corn. That may be typical for gluten free cookbooks though. I never looked at one before. The Pan Seared Scallops with Bacon and Spinach and the Prosciutto Stuffed Pork Chops look good but overall there are not a lot of recipes I can use. When I flip through and see all those grains I don’t get a “cooking light” vibe. All that stuff would make me feel bloated and heavy. I would pass on this one.
Anyway, since the publishers were nice enough to send these books my way I wanted to give them a quick review. Even though I am not eating raw or vegetarian anymore I would still recommend the first 2 books for any who are. Off to write down some recipes from the primal books I got at the library. Be well!
