Against All Grain: Delectable Paleo Recipes To Eat Well And Feel Great Paperback – July 30, 2013

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!

For the past year and a half now, I've been gradually remodeling my diet. I started by reducing the intake of refined carbs in most of what I cook, saving pasta and pizza crust for "special" meals out once a week or so, if that often. If grains are present, they are true, full grains with high satiety index and nutrients (eg, barley, quinoa). Any dairy is organic. Any meat is grass-fed. As many veggies (and meats) as possible are locally grown/harvested. Any "milks" are soy-free and unsweetened. Nuts are not my enemy, and oils are good. Maple syrup or honey, not refined sugar....sound familiar? The kicker was that I didn't really know I was slowly "going paleo" just by trying to make better choices - go figure.But...my husband wasn't on board with this level of change. He likes his bread, loves his peanut butter with sugar in it, and drinks milk, nearly every day. He did accept the switch to organic dairy, grass-fed meat, and locally grown veggies. To him the flavor is just better. That part was easy. But given my husband's increasing frequencies of arthritic flares and inflammation, I've resolved to nudge him over to a more paleo and specified carbohydrate-based dietary approach, knowing that it would only help him. The added bonus - I can go further with my dietary remodeling if we both eat the same foods and find recipes that are fun to make but transition us gently. Enter Against All Grain.AAG is a beautifully photographed and very approachable book. There are a good number of recipes present to help me start cooking in the paleo spirit, identify foods I already make that are paleo-friendly, and learn to convert other foods I make to paleo or SCD-compliant. Since I do cook a lot (the vast majority of all of our meals), it was really more about studying the substitutions and common tools in paleo cooking, and Danielle Walker does a great job of discussing this.Since we've bought this book, we've prepared one paleo meal and one "pantry clean out" meal per week, and any sweets I've made, I've tried to use AAG to make for us. We have found the confidence to make our own almond/cashew butter (delish with honey and a little coconut oil in it), and this weekend I want to make some crunchy nut mix according to Danielle's soak & oven-dry suggestion.We may not go all the way with this, since I see legumes as potentially good for us to use...but if my husband's flares subside after a month of dedicated paleo dining, I may be convinced to stay there.To me there is but one con - this book is bound. If you don't cook much, this may seem trivial...but I've had to break this book's spine in several places already to make it lay flat so I can follow the book while I chop, stir, and cook. A spiral bound version for practical kitchen use would be most welcome - it is the one suggestion I have.Otherwise, I think this book is very well-compiled, informative, and supportive. It helps folks like me, raised on traditional Western diet but willing to try some new things to improve my health, stay on a path that encourages better food choices. The recipes are tasty, leave room for further invention, and provide a template for converting other common foods to a healthier scheme.